Fall Kick Off Breakfast: Apple Pancakes

I keep waiting to have a Fall kick-off dinner, but it's just too darn hot. If I walk outside at noon, it feels a lot more like July is coming and not October. I'm going to forget about sewing Halloween costumes and starting lighting fireworks instead if this keeps up. I've been checking the daily weather in Cairo, Egypt (getting ready for my trip in a few weeks), and it is cooler there than here. I mean it! I might have to host my Fall kick-off dinner in the Sahara desert since it is more pleasant than my corner of the southwest. Pumpkins and pyramids, anyone?

There is a saving grace to all this afternoon heat: the mornings are celestial. Breezy and cool, not a degree above seventy. Heaven must have the thermostat set at sixty-eight, don't you think? So this year, I've postponed my Fall kick-off dinner and we had an outdoor Fall kick-off breakfast instead. I served applesauce pancakes, with a hearty side of buttery cinnamon apples and some smoky bacon on the side. You'll think you've died and gone to heaven for breakfast. You might want to stay all day, since it's going to be a scorcher.

PS I'm going to the egg farm tomorrow morning. Really this time. I'll be back with lots of details.

Money Saving Tips:

Buy apples in bulk while they are cheap. Make your own applesauce by placing peeled apple slices in the slowcooker with some cinnamon and sugar. Bonus: Your house will smell amazing!

Apple Pancakes

Estimated Cost: $5.00 for 4-6 servings

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 and 1/2 taplespoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

4 tablespoons melted butter

1 and 1/2 cups applesauce

For Sauteed Apples

2 tablespoons butter

3 apples, peeled and sliced

2 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate medium bowl, combine eggs, milk, and butter. Pour wet ingredients over the dry and mix just until combined. Stir in applesauce. Cook pancakes on preheated gridle in melted butter. Serve with maple syrup. Meanwhile, prepare sauteed apples. Melt butter in medium skillet over medium heat. Add apple sauces. Cook for three minutes. Turn and cook an additional three minutes, or until apples are golden and softened. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and cook until syruppy, about two minutes longer. Serve with pancakes.
Next Up:

West's Easy Cheese Pizza

Zucchini Pancakes with Tomato-Onion Salad

We're leaving on vacation tomorrow. I'm grading term papers, packing suitcases, making phonecalls, running loads of laundry, supervising violin practices, and generally trying to wrap up a couple of week's worth of responsibilities in advance. I am still in my running clothes. I have not run, but I think I should get a little credit just for my hopefulness, don't you? Just putting on a sportsbra should be worth a couple of hundred calories.

My sister, in the middle of a move to California, rolled into to town last night. She'll be housesitting for us while her husband is househunting for her. It's a convenient arrangement, except for I don't feel like leaving when my sister is here. Across the street, at my parent's house, I have two other sisters and their families. Suddenly, staying home sounds very enticing. I don't want to miss out on any of the laughs. I'll bet there will be a few laughs where we're headed-more info on that to come.

I haven't done any grocery shopping this week, in anticipation of leaving. We're using up what we've got and living off pantry staples and our vegetable garden. These are ideal conditions for my very favorite zucchini recipe. This is it. I love the cakes, the cookies, the breads, the terrines, the gratines, the quesadillas-but this is my favorite.

Zucchini pancakes are a summer variation on potato latkes, really. There's just a hint of zucchini flavor, so even people like the Quiet Man, who really don't care for zucchini will clamor for seconds. On a summer night, with perfect salad of lemon, red onion and tomato, zucchini pancakes are just the ticket. And speaking of tickets, I'd better get packing for our trip.

Zucchini Pancakes

Estimated Cost: $3.00 for four servings with tomato salad-or almost free, if you've got a garden.

2 cups shredded zucchini

1/4 cup grated onion

1/2 cup flour, plus more if needed

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

pinch of cayenne, if desired

butter, for the fry pan

Combine all ingredients. Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Cook pancakes in melted butter until browned on each side, about 2-3 minutes per side. Serve with sour cream and tomato salad.

Tomato-Onion Salad

1 large red ripe tomato

2 tablespoons chopped red onion

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons olive oil

S and P, to taste

Combine all ingredients in medium bowl and serve with zucchini pancakes.

Next Up:

Banana Cake Lots of Ways

Banana Sour Cream Pancakes

Who wants a pancake, sweet and piping hot?

Good little Grace looks up and says, "I'll take the one off the top."

Who wants a pancake, hot off the griddle

Terrible Teresa grins and says, "I'll take the one in the middle."

Remember this silly Shel Silverstein poem with an illustration of a sky high pancake tower? Well, I wish I had a mountainous stack of these sour cream banana pancakes, dripping with maple syrup, slices of banana, a sprinkling of crunchy pecans and a dollop or fluffy whipped cream. (I'd want the one in the middle too, since it would have stayed nice and warm.) These pancakes will make you do a backflip and a somersault! I wouldn't normally go around craving banana pancakes, but now I know what I've been missing. They are fantastic! Count on Ina Garten to create a perfectly not-too-sweet, rich-but-light griddle cake. There is no butter or oil in the batter, just a bit of sour cream, and reduced fat worked just fine, plus I put in half whole wheat to boost the nutrition. Chopped bananas are added to the pancakes as they cook, so it's easy to leave them out for any of your banana-lambasters, like my sister Leslie. The next time I make pancakes, this will be THE recipe. And I'd be happy to eat one off the side, bottom or middle. Wish I had one right now.

Money Saving Tips: A half batch is perfect for a family of four. Use yogurt, sour cream or even buttermilk, depending on what you have on hand. We only used one banana, since half of our group preferred plain, so plan according to your family's tastes. Either way, you'll be saving a stack of cash over a pancake's house prices.

Estimated Cost for a 1/2 batch: $2.50

Link to the Barefoot Contessa's Recipe

Blueberry Buttermilk Cornmeal Pancakes

At 4 AM this morning, my five year old cowboy stood by bedside and poked me in the shoulder. "Mom....Mom.....Mom, I'm really tired." At 4 AM.
It just isn't necessary to express every thought. Some things go without saying. Like the fact that you're really really tired at 4AM.
Or these pancakes, for instance. I could poke you in the shoulder and tell you how delicious they are, that they taste like something to eat in a beach house in Maine in the early morning hours, with a little crunch of Midwest sensibility from the cornmeal. I could tell you all that. But it really isn't necessary. You already know. I sure as heck won't wake you up at 4 AM to tell you all this, but when you do wake up, you're going to want these for breakfast.
Money Saving Tips: If you don't have buttermilk on hand, make some by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to a 1-cup measuring cup and pouring milk to the top. Let stand for five minutes. Frozen blueberries work marvelously well if you don't have fresh. Raspberries, dried cranberries, or even kernels of corn would also be lovely here.
Blueberry Buttermilk Cornmeal Pancakes-adapted from the old Joy of Cooking
Estimated Cost: $4.00
Notes: I almost never make pancakes with butter in the batter, because frankly I want the most bang by putting butter on the top.
1 cup flour (I used half whole wheat)
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1 and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons oil or melted butter
2 eggs
zest of one lemon
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (not thawed)
butter and maple syrup, for serving
In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, powder, soda, and salt. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, eggs, and zest. Pour over dry ingredients and mix very briefly, until just combined. Do not over mix. Gently mix in blueberries. Cook about 1/3 cup on lightly buttered griddle. Flip pancakes when bubbles form on raw side. Serve with butter and maple syrup.
UP NEXT:
Tomato, Zucchini and Summer Squash Gratin with Parmesan and Garlic

Buttermilk Pancakes with Strawberry Maple Syrup

Another mouthwatering use for your homemade Strawberry Jam....I know. I promised you peanut butter and jam bars today. (Coming tomorrow instead.) I hope you'll forgive me. This morning I felt inspired to make a more obvious use of the strawberry jam by pouring it over piping hot buttermilk pancakes, surrounded by fresh berries. The syrup, one part maple and three parts strawberry, tastes like spring and fall, like Vermont and California, like the old west and back east, like elementary school and graduate school. My husband, a man of very few words, hence the nickname "The Quiet Man," was practically verbose in lauding this syrup. Practically. "This is so much better than anything you could ever get at a restaurant." I wish I could add an exlamation point, but that really isn't his style.

I had to give you this recipe in time to make Sunday breakfast. Or lunch. Or dinner. Or midnight snack. It's really that good. Exclamation point!
Buttermilk Pancakes with Strawberry Maple Syrup for Four

Estimated Cost: $3.50

Notes: I usually make my pancakes with oil, simply because I'm too lazy to melt butter and I'd rather slather it on top of my pancakes where I get the full benefit of its flavor.

3/4 cup strawberry jam

1/4 to 1/2 cup maple syrup (Grade B works best here)

1 cup flour (I use half whole wheat)

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1-2 tablespoons canola oil or melted butter

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium microwaveable bowl, combine strawberry jam and syrup. Heat until just simmering. Keep warm until serving time.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, powder, soda and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together buttemilk, oil, egg and vanilla. Pour into flour mixture and stir GENTLY until just combined. (You'll have some lumps-it's OK.) Grease a no-stick skillet and cook pancakes on medium low for about 90 seconds per side. Serve with lots of butter and syrup.