You guys, the broccoli we talked about? It's not ready yet. It cooks a long time.*
In the meantime, let's talk about birthdays. In our house, the special day starts with a pancake layer cake. Ideally the number of pancakes in your layer cake corresponds to your age, but this morning when we made one for Grandma, we rounded down to three. In addition to the pancakes, you need something to hold them all together.
In Desmond's cake from last fall (seven layers!), peanut butter syrup holds together oatmeal chocolate chip pancakes. Excellent choice, son.
And last summer, Felix's pumpkin pancakes were held together by yogurt frosting (soy yogurt + raw cashews + maple syrup -> Blend until smooth.)
For Grandma, we made multigrain pancakes with layers of lightly sweetened yogurt and berries. She looked like a little girl on her birthday as the teetering tower of pancakes topped with a candle came her way.
To turn our basic pancake recipe multigrain, I used a cup of whole spelt flour, 1/4 cup of cornmeal, 1/2 cup of all purpose, and 1 cup of oats in place of the 2 cups of flour called for. Pancakes are the perfect place to use up whatever odds and ends you have. Leftover rice? Throw it in the pancakes. Overestimated how many pecans you needed to toast? You get it.
I love birthdays and pancakes and watching my boys snuggled up against their grandma at breakfast.
It's been a good day. Happy Birthday, Mom.
*(Also, I'm not 100% happy with the recipe yet. It's coming.)
