saturday morning TRADITION

At the request of my third child we have started the tradition of always having a big breakfast on Saturday mornings. YES he actually said "mom can we have a Saturday morning tradition of always having a big breakfast?", I said "um yes son, that sounds like a grand idea!". And from that day forward we have done our darnedest to have a "big breakfast" on Saturday mornings.

Sometimes that can get tricky with soccer games, and softball, and just life in general. But we do our best to not let a Saturday morning pass with out a "big breakfast". Which means nothing out of a box, and ALWAYS having bacon! Sometimes the bacon is accompanied by eggs, and breakfast taters, or Swedish Pancake, or my Buttermilk Pancakes, Challah French Toast.

My youngest Cece calls pancakes, "panahcakes". And eggs are "iggs". I hope she never grows up. I need her to stay 7 forever!

In case you were in need of a tradition that includes bacon OR if you just need a good breakfast recipe or two, or three.....WELL then you are in luck my friend! I have all of the above for you below.

BAKED BACON

1LB thick cut bacon
2 cookie sheets
tin foil
preheat oven to 425 degrees.

1.Cover cookie sheets with tin foil, you can skip this step if you want BUT it will save you time scrubbing your pans.

2.Lay bacon out on pans.

3.Baked 15 minutes. Less if you like limp, wiggly bacon, more if you like crispy charred bacon.

Yes, your oven will get splattered with bacon grease, and eventually after years of baking bacon, your oven will not look new and shiny again no matter how hard you try. And yes your house will smell like bacon! (I happen to know some people who will not cook bacon because it smells up their house. (Hmmmm, not quite sure what I think of the never cooking bacon philosophy.) My motto is "WHO THE HECK needs a clean oven and a lemony fresh smelling house?!".

In fact IF by chance you are in need of a new perfume, just dab a bit of bacon grease on your wrist and rub together....ooooh smell that maply, salty smell. Just watch out for your dog, you may get licked to death.

BUTTERMILK PANCAKES

printable recipe

makes 10 medium sized cakes

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 stick of butter melted
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk ( or you can use 1 cup regular milk, 1cup buttermilk)
** if you don't have buttermilk on hand you can add 1 tablespoon of distilled white vinegar to just under 1 cup of milk....you want the vinegar and the milk to add up to one cup.

1. preheat griddle (300degrees is what I put my griddle at) or frying pan

2. mix dry ingredients together

3. in a large measuring cup measure out milk, crack eggs into the mixture and mix together with a fork

4. add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients

5. add butter and mix until just combined

Batter will be very thick and lumpy. If you want to thin it out with a little milk that's fine, but don't go crazy.
Plop your batter down on the griddle, you can spread it out a little if you need to with your spatula. Now wait...wait..wait do you see little bubbles starting to form on the top of the pancake, do the edges look dryish? FLIP IT!




We always add mini chocolate chips in our pancakes. I sprinkle them on after I plop the batter on the griddle, then kinda poke them in a little bit with your spatula, so they don't sit on top and then when you flip them you will have burnt chocolate on one side of your pancake...not delicious.

This would be the "Pour syrup all over the stack Party".

This would be the more conservative "Syrup around the edge Party".

OK. Now for the BIG question.

Which side are you on?

I would tell you which side I am on but then I would have to kill you.

Not really...that's just what my son would say.

I will tell you later......

SWEDISH PANCAKES

I am not Swedish. My heritage is German and Irish. But my boys LOVE Swedish pancakes....so I do my best. I found this recipe in a church cookbook. Thanks Nancy Tournell for sharing your recipe with the world...my boys are forever indebted to you!

serves our family perfectly 2 adults and 4 hungry kiddos

3 eggs

2 1/2 cups milk

1 cup flour 1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons melted butter

Beat eggs, milk, and butter together. Gradually add sugar and flour, using a wire whisk. Heat a large frying pan to medium and lightly grease for the 1st pancake only. *** I actually use a crepe pan. Put 1/3 of a cup batter in pan to make 1 pancake. When the edges look brown give it a flip and cook a minute more. I make several ahead of time and keep them warm in a cake pan in a warm oven. If you have any leftovers they warm up nicely the next day in the microwave.

birds eye view of me making Swedish "panahcakes".

you can eye ball the 1/3 cup thing

There ya go that looks perfect, give it a flip!

Then when it's done fold it up, like so. They love it when you do this....

Ahhh so warm and cozy.

We enjoy our Swedish pancakes with many condiments. I ESPECIALLY like mine with Nutella!

When I lived in Germany, I could not pass up a crepe' vendor with out getting me a Nutella crepe. The most heavenly thing on this earth...is to eat a Nutella Crepe while walking the streets of Flensburg, Germany.

OOPS WE DON'T HAVE ANY SYRUP....SYRUP RECIPE
This recipe was born one Saturday morning when my oldest son had a passel of friends spend the night and they were all lined up at the counter forks in hand, when I realized much to my TERROR that I had seven kids licking there chops and NO syrup!

After a million scenarios went through my head...none of which were pretty. I took a deep breath, said a prayer, and VOILA! Owdhas syrup was invented.

1 cup of corn syrup
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon maple flavoring (if you don't have this then....I am so sorry for you)

1. melt the butter in a 2 cup glass measuring cup
2. add 1 cup corn syrup
3. whisk in the maple flavoring
4. heat on high for 15 to 30 seconds, whisk again making sure that the ingredients are combined well
There you have it Ooops We Don't Have Any Syrup syrup!

(oops I forgot to get a picture....go figure.)

CHALLAH FRENCH TOAST

I buy my Challah bread from a very yummy little eatery in Grand Rapids, called Marie Catrib. If you have never had Challah, it is sweetened with honey so it has a mild sweetness to it, and it is a very heavy, dense bread. It is lovely for French Toast. But if you can't get your paws on this type of bread, then a thick cut of white bread or Texas toast will do. (However, Marie does sell online....so you could get the very same bread as me...YIPPEE!)

8 thick slices of Challah

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup half-n-half

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

Whisk ingredients together well....dip your slices of bread in the egg mixture and fry it up in a lightly buttered fry pan or griddle. Let it get good and brown before flipping. When browned on both sides cut into cute little triangles and dust with powdered sugar...unless you are in the "NO powdered sugar Party".

In that case........I will forgive you.

And this goes without saying......I love me some java Joe.

Have a great morning,

Yoohoo down here....

In case you wondered I am in the "Syrup around the edge Party". I hope we can all be friends and accepting of one anothers choices.

Thank you.