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Mark Bittman’s Everyday Pancakes

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We all agree that the weeks after the long weekends are the hardest, right? 

Because I believe this to be a truth, I’m feeling like THIS weekend should be the special one. We’re celebrating making it through a gob-ton of rain and FOUR WHOLE DAYS OF WORK. We’ve earned this. 

I’ve made these pancakes three or four times now, after maybe a year of trying different recipes for things labeled “regular pancakes” or similar. There are gazillions of recipes like this on the internet, but this is the first one that I’ve been consistently impressed with. It doesn’t have random ingredients, the measurements are simple (lots of 2-of-x), and the quantity isn’t so massive that you need to have your entire extended family over to enjoy these. Or may be we eat large portions. The original recipe is by Mark Bittman, but I found it on Tracy’s site and her pictures made me feel like these were the pancakes of my weekend dreams, for sure. 

These pancakes are, in a sense, regular, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. I’m all about jazzed up things, but a plain waffle? pancake? burger? Some classics are, to me, perfect as they are and I’d much prefer to have a basic version over and over than be constantly reinventing something that’s already great. This is particularly true for me re: breakfast foods because we don’t make them a ton, so when we do I’m all about ease and nostalgia. 

Beck has taken to “helping” make these pancakes, and loves them plain, although waiting for them to cool down is so.hard. “I DON’T WANT THESE PANCAKES TO BE HOT!!!” and somehow the act of taking a bit longer to make breakfast makes her think that she can walk around while eating, which we’ve become entirely too permissive with on mornings where we’d like to drink coffee without rushing around to fetch things and deliver them to the high chair. Beck loves these so much, in fact, that yesterday morning she had a full on meltdown because the last one of this particular batch had gotten moldy after we’d told her it was hers for breakfast. ~baby wailing~ “but I want to eat that last pancake I don’t want it to be in the trashcannnnnn….!” Don’t worry, we fixed that one with a leftover chocolate chip bagel like the stellar parents we are. 

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Yogurt Pesto Dip with Burrata + Roasted Tomatoes

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So now that we’re officially past the unofficial first weekend of summer we can definitely start eating foods like this every day for dinner and all weekend drenched in rose, right? 

You get me. 

Did you have any fun at all this weekend? It poured here all day yesterday and we spent Saturday and Sunday doing house project after house project because our addition is almost-basically-will-never-be-fully DONE, but done enough that we’re in it and frankly if the contractor never does his final few items then he never gets his final million dollars and that’s fiiiiiiine with us, you know? So we’re in the new space, it’s bright and fresh and clean and we are SO happy with it, and with that came a gazillion small and large organizing tasks, moving things around, hanging things on walls, all of the things. It’s far from done, but we did a ton of work on it this weekend and then tons of TV watching yesterday with Beck including her first experience with Moana, which was super special and fun. I’m not sure she grasped much of the story, but every time Moana made any kind of a sad face, Beck was certain “she just misses her Mama!” 

So! Now that we used a holiday weekend to do chores, we are READY for summer. We’re kicking off our June with a baby sprinkle on Saturday for my bff Heather, and this is going to feature prominently on a very-massive cheese board that I have planned. I’ve made this a few times already in the spring, and have never had any leftovers, which is how I gauge the success of a new dish. The summer flavors scream at you in the best possible way: a quick pesto yogurt dip, creamy burrata torn over top, roasted cherry tomatoes for tang and to round out the caprese feel of the dish. Olive oil, salt and pepper top the dish AND the bread that I highly recommend grilling – grilling all of the things all summer is the name of our game. 

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Elective Surgery Sounds like a Breast Lift, and This Was Not That.

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I think the lead-up to surgery has to be one of the most torturous things in the entire world. Not trauma surgery, necessarily, for people in tons of pain the getting-a-long-nap-and-tons-of-drugs aspect of the process is a huge relief. 

But elective surgery lead-up is the worst. 

Last week Jay “elected” to have a rod and two screws taken out of his leg from when he broke it three years ago when I was pregnant with Beck. I use this word almost jokingly because, yes, he made the choice to have the surgery, but made it because he was in lots of pain and having strange lumpy swelling around the area where the screws stuck out. Elective surgery sounds like a breast lift, and this was not that. 

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Spring Veggie and Farro Soup

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Because apparently we are a sick house and I only want to eat broth-based things ever. 

Our week of healing is going well, thanks to incredible amounts of support from our friends and family and narcotics for Jay. I, on the other hand, have gotten some kind of cold-on-top-of-a-cold and can’t stop craving salty brothy things to make my throat feel better and my nose unclog slightly. Doing a surgery recovery with a toddler while sick and doing regular work has been a struggle; we feel like we.just.can’t.quite. catch up on sleep and housework, but we’re getting there, one day at a time. 

The good news is that the Porta Potty was picked up from our FRONT YARD where it has been for nearly 6 months, so small victories, you know? 

So this soup is part three in the “let’s eat green stuff” accidental spring series – we had a salad, then pasta, and now this soup! I adore farro for the texture, it’s so chewy and holds up well in soups; I buy the quick cooking kind at Trader Joe’s. With that, this entire soup comes together in less than half an hour, and fresh herbs and lemon spritzes all over the place wake up the entire bowl for the warm weather. As a bonus, this recipe is vegan if you use veggie stock and dairy free + probably gluten free and paleo and Whole30 friendly if you check labels carefully, which I don’t. 

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