Pear Pancakes. an excuse to write something

I have been struggling in the midst of a home renovation and finding my place in the working world to find a recipe to share with you.  The honeymoon phase as the lunch room monitor is long since over and I am realizing what a mistake this was.  I took the job because I wanted to have an impact on how children eat, to try to make a more positive environment.  However I have learned that one adult with good intentions, in a room with 80 + children, can only do so much.  When one table gets too loud the children at the next table have to get louder so they can hear each other.  Soon the lunchroom is filled with yelling children and you have no idea where it got started.

I was convinced to apply for this job by friends who know about my passion for feeding children.  So instead of continuing to stand in a roomful of children desperately trying to keep things calm, I am going to work on feeding them.  Next week I will say good-bye to being a lunch room monitor and join Burlington Food Service at the High School.  There will be some minimal food prep to start and I know they are always looking for better ways to feed the students.  The head of food service here calls me, "Chocolate Milk" because I first met him at a meeting where I tried to convince him to take it off the menu.  We may disagree about chocolate milk, but we both believe in feeding kids.

Amid all this we are also having work done on our house.  I will save the details of that for another post.  So I have been struggling to find a creative enough recipe to share here, I also have been aware of explaining to the guys working on the house why I am outside leaning over a plate of food with my camera.  I have shared my pancake recipe here before, but I love the flavor of pear pancakes enough to give them their own post.  Plus, for new readers, this really is a great pancake recipe.  The pears become soft and tender in the batter, with the heat bringing out their sweetness.  I like them best with a little cinnamon added to the batter, topped with melted butter and pure Maple Syrup.  I have given the recipe as both the original size and 1 1/2 times the recipe, which is enough to feed the whole family when everyone is hungry and tastes better because of the increase in eggs

Pancake Ingredients (original batch size)

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

2 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk (you can use regular milk or buttermilk, the baking soda makes the recipe flexible)

1 large egg

2 Tbsp butter melted and slightly cooled

1 to 2 pears, sliced in quarters, core removed, and then thinly sliced.  Peers with thick skins should be peeled first.

Pancake Ingredients (one and a half batches: enough to satisfy all 4 people in my family)

3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

3/4 cups white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

3 Tbsp sugar

3 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 to 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

3/8 tsp baking soda (I often just use 1/2 tsp baking soda here)

1 1/2 cup milk (you can use regular milk or buttermilk, the baking soda makes the recipe flexible)

2 large eggs

3 Tbsp butter melted and slightly cooled

2 pears, sliced in quarters, core removed, and then thinly sliced.  Peers with thick skins should be peeled first.

Sift the dry ingredients together. Measure the milk and add the egg/eggs to the milk and whisk to combine and beat the egg/eggs (I use a large glass measuring cup and then whisk the 2 together by spinning the whisk between my hands. Both my boys can imitate this move perfectly with their toy whisk). Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, a few lumps are fine, overmixing is not. Add the butter while still mixing in the wet ingredients.

Use a small ladle or measuring cup to pour pancake batter onto a preheated hot griddle that has a light film of butter on it (I set my electric griddle to 350°).  Press slices of pears into the pancakes as they cook. Flip the pancakes when they appear to be dry around the edges and holes appear across the surface of the pancakes. If you are unsure if they are done lift a corner of a pancake with your spatula to check the color. Cook the second side until light brown and either keep warm in a 200° oven or serve immediately with butter and real maple syrup. 

The Posts I Cook From: 2010

I have been reading all sorts of round up posts over the last week as bloggers summarized their year in blogging.  Most were a list of the tops posts based on page views or number of comments.  Perhaps I am just more cynical then some but I don't fully trust my statistics or their significance.  I know that largely my most popular pages are the ones that are featured on Foodgawker and Tastespotting.  Comments seem like a more accurate method, although even then it could just be most controversial, heart wrenching, timely, or just the ones with the most visits, or the best photos.

So instead I decided to give you a list of the posts I actually refer when cooking.  As an added bonus this means I know the recipes work as written. These are the posts I actually pull out my computer and cook from, the ones where I have to refer to what I have written to get it right.  Originally I was going to include 2009 as well as I never thought to do this last year.  However the list complied form both years was far longer then I was expecting, so I will save that for a another post.

Sesame Glazed Baby Bok Choy

My CSA has not grown bok choy for the entire time I have been a member (this summer will be our 12th season) so it is not one of the vegetables I am constantly looking for new preparation methods for.  Maybe if we had it more often we would grow tired of this recipe.  So far we all still love it (okay, I admit it, Julian as refused this dish every time I have made it.  So we all still feel the way we did the first time I made this).  The leaves have a concentrated umami, earthy flavor while the stalk is tender and almost melting and juicy.  If our CSA adds bok choy to the rotation I may need to search out other recipes, but for now we are happy.

French Crepes

These crepes have been a regular weekend breakfast for several years now.  Sebastian and Julian would much prefer they were served on the weekdays as well.  If my week day routine allowed for either Lewis or myself to spend the time at the stove making them everybody would be happy.  The recipe is for a true french crepe, taught to me by a lovely french women.  Most of the time we serve them with an array of jams, although I have been known to make chocolate ganache or warm up some Dark Chocolate Caramel Sauce to spread on them.  They also work beautifully with savory fillings.  On the rare occasion there are any left after breakfast I have created delicious dishes just by filling them with leftovers.

Sour Cream Banana Muffins

The more I make these muffins the more I appreciate them.  Which is a good thing, as they are on the menu for the preschoolers breakfast so I am making large quantities of them once a month.  I have started to use Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream and only 1/4 cup of white flour.  I plan on trying it with all white whole wheat next time.  The first time I made them at work I baked 12 extra for the staff to share.  However they had a little trouble sharing properly, with some people helping themselves to a second muffin before other folks even had one.  I received this e-mail about them recently:

Hi Robin,

I thought you'd be happy to know that this year, as holiday gifts . . . I baked banana bread using your recipe for banana bread muffins. Anna, Tavi and I had a loaf for brunch today and it was delicious. I consider that to be a testament to the recipe more than the chef as I am a strict instructions follower. In fact, I was terrified to see that the bread hadn't cooked through after twenty minutes. Tavi had to talk me down, reminding me that muffins bake through much faster and that I would probably have to wait an hour.

Best,

David

Banana Cocoa Pancakes

These have not usurped our regular pancakes in our normal breakfast rotation but they sneak in every now and then.  I just made them again yesterday morning and had the inspiration for this post as I pulled out my computer and used my own blog for reference.  They have a heartier taste then a standard pancake with a pronounced sweetness from the banana (or maybe that is the maple syrup I generously pour on top).  They also reheat really well for later enjoyment.  The flavor profile is mostly banana, I know one readers husband was disappointed that the cocoa was not more pronounced

Oatmeal Lace Cookies (can be gluten free)

Since I posted these they have quickly become my favorite cookie.  They have a subtle flavor with a pronounced vanilla flavor.  Crisp in a delicate shattering way.  Most of the time I prefer chewy cookies to crisp ones but they are still delicate and tender in their texture.  Plus they have a sweet nutty flavor from the oats that may even convince you they are health food.

Rhubarb Apricot Jam

When I first created this jam I had a moment of panic that we would never have enough to last the whole winter.  At the rate it was disappearing I was not even sure we would have enough for the summer months.  When friends who live by a Trader Joe's came to visit I requested the California apricots I needed to make more (okay, I may or may not have threatened denying one of my visitors, who is known to spread obscene quantities of jam in any breakfast item, a taste of the new jam if they did not bring some).  We now have a healthy stock pile and I feel confident we have enough to last until spring. However our love for it is still strong.

Tomato Orange Marmalade

Tomato Orange Marmalade became a kitchen responsibility the first time I made it.  A preserve my family suddenly needed to have around that could not be found in the store.  Happily it is also one of the canning projects I find the most satisfying.  It bubbles away on the stove for a long time looking nothing like a cohesive preserve.  Instead it looks like a pot full of liquid with random citrus peels floating in it.  Then there is a moment when everything comes together and looks like one thing.  All year long we happily spread it on toast, peanut butter sandwiches and crepes.  It does not taste like tomatoes, instead it has a mellow bright flavor without the usual bitterness of marmalade.  The taste is good enough that when I offered the Burlington Free Press photographer a taste when he was here for an article on canning he could not keep himself from double dipping.  I did think of killing him, but instead I gave him a jar.

Pumpkin Pie with a No Roll Crust

I have probably baked more of this recipe then any other I have mentioned here.  After preparing it with the preschoolers I taught folks how to make it in a cooking class.  The following week I added to my tally by baking over 25 of them for the Family Room's Family Supper.  Even when baking it in quantities that involved pouring several quarts of heavy cream and 36 eggs in a large vat some people said it was the best pumpkin pie they have ever had.  Then for Thanksgiving my boys and I baked it with a friend I used to babysit for when he was a baby.  It was his contribution to a pot luck Thanksgiving.  I have also used the crust, without the sugar and cinnamon, on quiche.

Annie's Salsa

This recipe is not one that I have tweaked or played with for several reasons.  The first one is safety, it is safe as written, so I change how spicy it is by swapping hot peppers for mild ones or vice versa, however the basic ratios and amounts all remain the same.  The other reason I don't play with it, putting my own personal flavor profile on its established framework, is it is perfect, as written.  My friend Annie put in all the work finding the right balance and then having it tested for safety.  Now I just receive the compliments.

Soy Braised Cabbage

I just prepared this again the other night using only soy sauce (no Bragg's) and green instead of red cabbage.  I asked Sebastian to take a taste from my plate and he screwed up his face in disgust and then obliged.  He chewed, thought for a minute and began making place on his plate.  "I'll have some of that." Pretty good from someone who does not like cabbage.  However this recipe does not have the bite of raw cabbage or the flavor of most cooked cabbage.  It is darkly rich and savory and one that most people would never think was cabbage.

Triple Chocolate Triple Layer Peppermint Bark

The only reason not to make this recipe is you have a New Year's resolution not to eat sweets.  I gave some to a neighbor when she was out walking her dog and she told me she ate all of it before she returned home.  I am not usually a fan of white chocolate but this one only serves to make the peppermint smoother and contrast with the other chocolates.  The holiday season may be over but this recipe still deserves to be enjoyed.  If you need an excuse, make it for Valentines day.  Although if you make it now you will need a new batch long before February.

Banana Cocoa Pancakes

Last week I took Sebastian to have 3 baby teeth removed to allow the 2 adult teeth that came in behind them like a row of shark teeth space to move forward. This is just the start of our orthodontic road, one that I should have envisioned when I fell in love with a Brit, that is if the stereotypes are to be believed. Although his crooked bottom teeth could also have been a tip off. Sebastian had a panoramic jaw x-ray that shows a future where space issues will not be so easy to solve.

In preparation for the removal He was given a sedative and as it began to take effect I found myself with very mixed feelings. After all he was honestly hilarious saying things like, "Whoaaaa, this chair is floating. How do I stay on?" After his teeth were removed he asked for a mirror to see the new him. After staring at his new smile in a kind of removed glazed way he held the mirror up to the dentist light. When I asked him what he was doing he replied, "I'm letting the light see itself." When he was going through the prize box he put on one of these bracelets and said, "Mommy look, it's like a slinky." Then he floated his arm through the air saying, "Wheeeeeeeee." The problem I have is with it is, now, thanks to an oral surgeon, I have seen what my 7 year old would be like stoned.

But in the end the whole morning was an opportunity to reconnect with Sebastian. As he gets older we are moving away from the relationship we had when he was a baby. He is still cuddly and affectionate, loving to hug and sometimes it seems wanting to be attached to me. But somehow it is still different, he is still 7 and independent, not needing me for all of his needs. Holding my hand to walk to school until a friend joins us and they want to run and climb trees When we left the office he was helpless and dependent again as I carried him to the car and drove him home. Like a toddler he sat in the back asking the same questions over and over.

Apparently the sedative they gave him affects memory, this way he will not have a memory of them actually removing his teeth. In the car on the way home it meant he had no memory of my telling him, five minutes ago, that his teeth were already removed and we were going home, so he kept asking. I am appreciative that he is growing up and our relationship is changing, but I still enjoyed the morning together that captured the best parts of our relationship when he was a baby, with out the unending work. It was a little like I imagine being a grandparent will be.

When it was time for him to eat something he ate an entire pint of home canned applesauce, and then he and I shared a stellar omelette. The omelette had cheddar, cilantro, smoked ham and avocado and had him rolling his eyes back with joy. Julian doesn't like omelettes so we don't have them as much as Sebastian would like. However I am not going to share an omelette recipe with you, instead I am going to share the banana cocoa pancake recipe we had the night before for dinner. The one Sebastian enjoyed enough that he happily ate dozens of them, which was helpful as he could not have breakfast before the procedure.

I know I just shared a pancake recipe with you but in my opinion you can never have too many variations. Pancakes make a great quick dinner and in some houses are considered a special breakfast. Not to my spoiled children however, who think breakfast is not special if it took less then 30 minutes to make. If you want to make my two feel special you are expected to really work for it. This recipe is wholesome and different. It contains no sugar, relying instead on the super ripe banana for sweetness. The recipe contains both whole wheat flour (I upped the amount used when I made them) and wheat germ. As is often the case for a flavor rich dish you cannot taste the whole wheat in the final pancakes.

Banana Cocoa Pancakes

Adapted from Aimée at Simple Bites

1 cup plain full fat yogurt

1 banana (the riper the better, mine was brown)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk or sour milk (to make sour milk add 1 Tbsp white vinegar to 1 cup milk, stir and let stand for 10 minutes)

2 eggs

2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp wheat germ

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/4 cup butter melted

2 Tbsp coconut (optional, I did not use any)

Combine the yogurt and banana in a large bowl and puree using an immersion blender until smooth (you can also puree in a blender or food processor). Add the milk, eggs, vanilla, salt and cocoa powder to the yogurt banana mixture and blend.

Stir the baking soda, wheat germ and coconut if using into the wet mixture and stir well. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Add the melted butter and stir in until just incorporated.

Cook pancakes on a lightly greased griddle, non stick pan or cast iron pan. Serve warm with butter and maple syrup or nutella and banana slices if desired.

Gingerbread Pancakes and Community

I have been thinking a lot lately about food and community. Lewis is reading A Papa Like Everyone Else by Sydney Taylor to the boys, and I am reading it to myself. In one chapter Mama and her daughters, Szerena and Gisella go to make their Passover matzoh at the synagogue. They bring the flour that was specially ground for the purpose and a basket to carry home the finished matzo in. In the synagogue they work with the other women of the community to make all the matzo they will need for the 8 days of Passover. The scene is one of shared talk and work, a joyful gathering.

A modern Jewish family does not need to make their own matzo, they can just go to the store and buy as many boxes as they need. Somehow I cannot help feeling that we have lost something, not just a connection to our food, but also one to our neighbors. On my street we don't make matzo together or help tend the community cattle but we do share our food and lives more then I think is the norm.

We have one neighbor whose kitchen is like an extended pantry for us. Many times when I am preparing dinner and I realize I am out of one of the required ingredients and I call across the street to check if my neighbors have any. When I call to ask if they have some cumin, vinegar, garlic, carrots etc to share they often have a similar request. Growing up in Manhattan we never asked a neighbor for a cup of sugar or a quarter cup of rice wine vinegar. We just went to the grocery store and bought that one missing ingredient. I prefer the method I have now, which is often accompanied with a brief conversation about our children and either the fiendish things they are up to or a funny story.

My street is made up of small houses that are built almost on top of each other. In the summer this might be a problem for some of my neighbors as my boys keep up a constant chatter at them over the fence. Sunday I made Gingerbread Pancakes for breakfast and my boys shared the leftovers over the fence as barter. They gave our neighbor, Paul, a pancake and in return he let them shoot arrows in his yard and then fed us dinner. Our kitchen was unusable as Lewis was getting it ready for a new dishwasher coming today. Somehow that involved tearing out the counter and sink.

When Sebastian first tried the pancakes he said, "We should make these more often." Which means I just have to make them again, as this was the first time we have had them. He doesn't need to worry though, they will appear again. Besides their value as barter they were delicious for breakfast and made a fine snack later. Our poor chickens did not receive any of the leftovers as they all got eaten.

Gingerbread Pancakes

Adapted from The Pancake Handbook

Just in case you don't always read all the way through a recipe before proceeding, please notice that the batter needs to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before cooking the pancakes. Before resting the batter will be too thin.

2 cups white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour (even if you hate whole wheat the strong gingerbread flavors will make this healthy flour boost completely unnoticeable)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup hot, freshly brewed coffee

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs lightly beaten (I did not beat mine before adding to the hot coffee mixture and they seemed to cook slightly but still incorporated fine)

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cocoa powder and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl add the sugar to the hot coffee and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the milk, molasses, butter and eggs to the coffee sugar mixture and stir or whisk to combine. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just to blend without over mixing. Let the batter rest for 5 to 10 minutes so it can thicken. Before resting it should be thin and pourable.

Heat a skillet or griddle over medium high heat (an electric griddle should be set to 375°) and grease lightly (I used butter and rubbed it around with a paper towel to provide only the thinest surface to the griddle). Ladle 1/4 cup portions of batter on to the hot griddle or skillet leaving space between them. A skillet is hot enough to use when a drop of water dances and evaporates right away on it's surface. The recipe calls for cooking them for 3 to 4 minutes on the first side until the top side is covered with bubbles and the underside is brown. My pancakes needed 6 minutes on the first side. Flip over the pancakes and cook for 2 minutes on the second side, until the second side is browned and set.

Dust the pancakes with confectioners sugar and serve with a dollop of whipped cream. Leftovers make a fine snack just served plain and eaten out of hand. You might even be able to barter with your neighbors using them as payment.

Pancakes

Pancakes are a standard breakfast around here. At this point I have changed the original recipe so much that the one we use is completely my own. We make them enough that both Lewis and I have the recipe memorized. This means it is much faster to prepare a batch as there is no referring back to a recipe to slow you down. Because of this these even get served on crazy school mornings. It also means I can tell you what happens when almost all of the ingredients get left out, cooking before having coffee is always a dangerous activity if you were hoping for consistency.

My boys love this recipe and at this same time they often take them for granted. If they appear too frequently they have been known to whine and ask why we can't have popovers, crepes or something else equally time consuming. I wonder if the two of them will ever realize just how spoiled they are at the table?

On the way back from vacation in Cape Cod we stayed with my brother and his family. Before going away I made up a triple batch of the dry ingredients for pancakes so we could make breakfast for both families. My brothers says his two daughters are both horribly picky eaters, vegetarians who pick the tofu out of things and discard it. When we made these pancakes for breakfast my brother had to insist that his oldest daughter, Vina, try one. She grudgingly took one bite and then happily devoured three pancakes.

While she was eating them Vina declared our pancakes "better then daddies", daddies pancakes had already been declared "better then mommies". About a minute later she asked if she had hurt daddies feelings. The answer was no, he was just ecstatic to have something she wanted to eat. When everyone was done with breakfast he quickly followed our instructions for freezing the pancakes to have another day. I don't think I have ever seen him listen to something I have to say quite so closely.

We had a lot of fun at my brothers house, even with my nieces telling Sebastian and Julian that they don't like playing with boys. Most of Julian's best friends are girls and Sebastian has several girls he play with as well, they were both mystified. There was also a small problem with our food joking clashing with the girls fear of meat. Years ago we went through the drive through at the bank and my children were both given teal blue lollipops. Both boys asked what flavor they were. Honestly what food in nature is teal blue? So I told them they were liver flavor. Ever since then teal blue lollipops are liver flavor, sometimes my boys even request liver flavor now. Well at one point all four cousins were sitting around the table and Sebastian told them the lollipops we had for the car ride were liver flavored. As an exacting vegetarian Vina freaked and ran from the table. We convinced her it was not liver, and order was restored. Its a good thing we did not try to serve liver flavored pancakes.

When making pancakes for my family it takes one and a half of the original recipe to satisfy everyones hunger. For 1 and a half times the original recipe we add another whole egg rather then try to divide an egg. I feel the recipe is better with the slightly higher amount of egg that this results in. I have listed the recipe 2 ways below, the original quantities and one and a half times the recipe, this way if you want a larger batch you won't need to do math before having coffee.

Pancake Ingredients (original batch size)

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

2 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk (you can use regular milk or buttermilk, the baking soda makes the recipe flexible)

1 large egg

2 Tbsp butter melted and slightly cooled

Pancake Ingredients (one and a half batches: enough to satisfy all 4 people in my family)

3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

3/4 cups white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

3 Tbsp sugar

3 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

3/8 tsp baking soda (I often just use 1/2 tsp baking soda here)

1 1/2 cup milk (you can use regular milk or buttermilk, the baking soda makes the recipe flexible)

2 large eggs

3 Tbsp butter melted and slightly cooled

Sift the dry ingredients together. Measure the milk and add the egg/eggs to the milk and whisk to combine and beat the egg/eggs (I use a large glass measuring cup and then whisk the 2 together by spinning the whisk between my hands. Both my boys can imitate this move perfectly with their toy whisk). Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, a few lumps are fine, overmixing is not. Add the butter while still mixing in the wet ingredients.

Use a small ladle or measuring cup to pour pancake batter onto a preheated hot griddle that has a light film of butter on it (I set my electric griddle to 350°). If adding fruit evenly press it in to the batter on the griddle, if using frozen blueberries you do no need to defrost them first. Flip the pancakes when they appear to be dry around the edges and holes appear across the surface of the pancakes. If you are unsure if they are done lift a corner of a pancake with your spatula to check the color. Cook the second side until light brown and either keep warm in a 200° oven or serve immediately with butter and real maple syrup. Sometimes I serve them with a fruit sauce like apple or plum.

Butternut Squash Sour Milk Waffles

Julian turned 4 on Sunday. I try to make birthdays special for my children from the time they wake up in the morning to when they go to bed at night. Special does not mean a pile of presents, they are doing far too well with being materialistic without that. Obviously food is a large part of what I think makes a special day. Breakfast can be hard, we regularly have waffles, pancakes, crepes, homemade scones, french toast... So what would make this breakfast special? First I bought a whole mess of out of season fruit, watermelon, cantaloupe, raspberries and blackberries. I think that alone would have done the trick. Both boys fell on the platter of fruit with glee, eating until it was gone.

The other thing I did to make it special was make a new waffle recipe. To be completely honest I have been itching to try this recipe all week. I found it while skimming through Marion Cunningham's Breakfast Book looking for muffin inspiration. This recipe is for sour milk waffles or pancakes but it was the waffle idea that I really wanted to try. This recipe calls for separating eggs, whipping egg whites, etc so it needed to wait until a Sunday, and a slower pace.

I made a few changes to the recipe to suit our tastes and we all loved the results. One of the changes I made was adding some butternut squash puree. Before my CSA I used to add canned pumpkin puree to waffles. They make them moister and if you don't use pumpkin pie spice they even appeal to avowed pumpkin haters (like my husband). You can use either here. The waffles were light and flavorful, a little crispy on the outside with a soft and tender inside. The sour milk added a really mild background tang that was delicious and hard to place. I highly recommend them. The fresh fruit was a really nice complement, as of course was the butter and real maple syrup we poured on top.

While we were eating breakfast there was snow falling outside. My boys tried to order mother nature to stop snowing, shortly after it began to snow harder. Lewis and I told the boys they insulted mother nature. By the afternoon the snow stopped and we went to Shelburne Farms to check out the maple sugaring and visit the animals. The day was warm enough for sugaring (close to 40°) but it was windy and felt cold. Already my body is getting used to warmer temperatures and I cannot handle the cold in the same way. The sap was running, but slowly and we got to pour some in to a collection bucket and really explore the process. Then we went and saw the chickens and the new baby lambs. It was a beautiful visit, one I think the boys will remember for a long time.

This is the farm barn at Shelburne farms in the distance with a maple tree and a sap bucket in the foreground.

Stand of maple trees and sap buckets. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.

Another view of the farm barn at Shelburne farms, this time you can see Sebastian on the left and Julian on the right running of to visit the animals.

The rooster and a chicken coming down the ramp to free range. We are planning on getting some hens this spring so we were all very interested in the chickens. I even picked one up, which was a big step for someone originally from New York City.

This is one of the lambs that is being bottle fed because it's mother abandoned it. Julian was enthralled with how soft they are.

Butternut Squash Sour Milk Pancakes or Waffles

Sour the milk by adding 1 Tbsp white vinegar to every cup of milk, stirring and then letting it stand for 10 minutes. To make butternut squash puree I cut them in half, scoop out the seeds and strings and then brush the cut halves with olive oil. I then roast them cut side down at 350°, or whatever temperature I have the oven at for another dish, until the squash is tender and soft. Next I either scoop out the pulp or peel of the skin and puree with an immersion blender (a food processor or regular blender would also work well). I then like to return the puree to the oven to cook off some of the liquid. This usually takes about 15 minutes to half and hour. I freeze any excess in 2/3 cup portions for waffles, and other baked goods.

3 eggs, separated (medium or large)

2 cups sour milk (directions above)

2/3 of a cup pumpkin or butternut squash puree

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup unbleached al purpose flour

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Beat the egg yolks well in a mixing bowl. Mix in the sour milk, squash puree and vanilla extract. Add the sugar, salt and baking soda to the egg yolk and milk mixture and mix well. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry and set aside.

Add the flours to the yolk mixture and beat until smooth. Add the melted butter and mix until well blended. gently fold the egg whites in to the batter.

To cook as waffles add batter to a hot greased waffle iron, I used a belgium waffle iron. After adding the batter gently spread it in the waffle iron so it is even.

To make pancakes cook on a hot greased griddle or skillet.