Saturday Pancakes

Pancakes.

Warm.

Crisp edges.

Warm Maple Syrup flowing.

Butter melting.

Is  your mouth watering yet?

Top em with apples and I’m SOLD!

Comforting, satisfying and oh-so-delicious…I’ve been on a pancake craze ever since I found this new recipe that gives me the pancake goodness without the need for eggs! (Eggs are Kryptonite for my little man of steel so we keep them out of the house.)

Since I’ve managed to make these several times now without messing them up, this is my go-to recipe so I thought I’d share –

I call these “Saturday Pancakes” because

1. I usually crave them on Saturday mornings and

2. By Saturday, my groceries are practically depleted but I can usually scrounge up the ingredients for this recipe in my pantry. Not counting water, it only has only 8 ingredients, of which only 6 are really necessary.

SATURDAY PANCAKES

Ingredients:

2 C All-purpose flour

4 t Baking powder

1/2 t Salt

2 T Sugar

1/4 t Cinnamon (OPTIONAL)

1 C Water

*1 C Milk

1/2 t Vanilla Extract

**1/2 C Apple sauce

*If you don’t have milk, just stick with water so that you have a total of 2 C of water in your batter. Pancakes will come out a bit more dense though.

**I use a Motts snack cup but I’ve also chopped, boiled and blended a fresh apple with a splash of water, sugar and cinnamon for a homemade applesauce when I ran out of snack cups.)

Steps:

1. Whisk together the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

2. Add the remaining ingredients and beat together with your whisk just until the ingredients are combined. Be careful not to overmix!

3. Butter your skillet after warming it on a medium/medium-low heat and pour in batter as needed for your desired pancake size.

4. Cook the pancakes for 2 to 3 minutes per side. Flip it when the top center of the pancakes begins to bubble.

(Repeat steps 3 and 4 until your batter is finished.)

5. Enjoy!

My pancake apple topping is still being perfected so I’ll get back to you on that recipe. I will tell you this much – In a medium saucepan,  I throw in two chopped apples, about a 1/2  cup of pure maple syrup, 1 Tablespoon of raw cane sugar, a dash of cinnamon, vanilla extract and a splash of water. I cook it on a low heat while I’m making my pancakes. When it’s nearly done, I throw in some cornstarch that’s been dissolved in a little bit of water to thicken the sauce and let it cook for a few more minutes. I’ll post the recipe for that at some point in the future but feel free to just take a shot at it because it’s pretty hard to mess up!

Summer Wreath

Now that I find myself inexplicably drawn to the warmth and sunshine of the summer season , I decided it was time to see what I could craft while enjoying the outdoors. I do have a good bit of sewing projects to do and I do have an outdoor outlet. However, something tells me that my neighbors wouldn’t be too thrilled with me sitting on my porch with Bessy, stomping away at her presser foot, while she belts out her sewing machine “song” (zzzzzZZZ…CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CH). Bessy’s no old lady but she’s still not exactly a sewing machine built for stealth.

So the next thing on my To-Do list, aside from sewing, was to make a summer wreath using items I had around the house. Being the crafty lady that I am, I actually happened to have a metal wreath-form laying about. I wrapped that with some twine.

Word to the wise: Don’t wrap too tightly or the metal form will bend and you will have to undo your work. (Confession: I wrapped that thing tighter than Spanx on a burly man my first go-around.) Wrap the twine firmly and closely, but not too taut.

Once I had the wreath form wrapped in twine, it was time to “pretty” it up. Luckily I had spare faux flowers in the house!

I had originally bought bunches of these flowers from the dollar store for functional party decor. I had cut each flower from their bunches and attached them to Sharpie markers with floral tape to create a writing “arrangement” for a birthday card signing-station.

That was 3 years ago so the markers are dry and the flowers, ready to use for Project: Summer Wreath!

(For all of the Super Sleuths out there, that IS painters tape along the bottom of the window sill. We’re finally getting geared up to paint my craft room! I’m excited.)

I poked the stems of the flowers through the twine in a design that I liked. Then I used hot glue to keep them in place. I used a wire cutter to trim the excess stem that protruded from the back of the wreath.

Overall, this wreath is pretty easy and fast to make! I hot glued a wooden letter S to the bottom to add a monogram-personalized touch.

I love the colors of this wreath and I think they’d compliment the new wall color going up in my craft room. (Can you guess what color I’m painting the room??)  So I may end up hanging this on the door to that room!

Happy summer days, everyone!