Pancakes

 Let's recap the day, so you can truly appreciate the madness behind deciding to make pancakes this morning.  (I blame it on the lack of sleep.)

Let's start at 12:45 am.  Andrew, my youngest, comes into my room.  He has the audacity to not only climb into my bed with cold feet (poor baby), but he then proceeds to ask me for a glass of water.  I know he knows how cold it is outside the covers, because his feet and hands are like ice!  I was all set to cuddle with him and warm him up in my half asleep/half awake stupor, but no, he had to go and ask for water, and then place his very cold hands on my face, and shake me awake so I knew what he wanted.  Fast forward to 1:45 am, when Andrew is in my room trying to climb into my bed for the fifth time.  Thankfully this time I hadn't fallen back asleep yet.  I walk him back to his bed and make sure he knows I mean business about staying in his bed.  Did I mention I had my alarm set for 6 am?  Well, not for long.  I quickly changed that to 7 am, after I got back under my warm covers.

Break to 4:45 am.  Abby is beside my bed whinnying softly, "Ma-ha-me-he...I had...a bad...da-ha-ream."  (Poor baby.)  I am not quite sure what I told her, but I know she went back to her bed and went to sleep.  I am sure I told her I loved her, and she would be fine, at least, I hope I did that much.

Break to 6 am alarm....wait, I thought I changed that to 7.  Oops, well, now it says 7.  Fast forward to 7 am, where I barely pull myself out of bed.  I sneak down stairs, and open my Bible.  I am inspired and moved, beyond words.  Fast forward to 8 am, when my sweet kids start coming down stairs.  I quickly send them back upstairs to start their day right, by making their beds and getting dressed.  Aaron brings Andrew down fully dressed, with a clean cloth diaper in his hands.  And he matches to boot!  The day just keeps getting better and better.

And now you can truly appreciate why, when I looked around my kitchen, and saw we were out of cereal, the sweet thought came to mind to make pancakes.  Of course, I couldn't just make them.  First I had to throw together some more Artisan Gluten Free Flour Mix (from the cook book, Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Peter Bronski).  This is quite a process.  I am thankful for the flour mix, because it allows me to make yummy things like GF pancakes and muffins and what not, but it truly is a pain in the rear.  And, I also used a different measuring cup for each ingredient, because I am wondering if maybe Josh and Andrew are allergic to another type of grain I have been using.  So, take 6 ingredients, and multiply that by 1 and a half (because some times I needed a cup and a quarter of something), and you get at least 9 different measuring devices, all dirty and piled in the sink.  And then the bag I put the flour mix into sprung a leak.  I had to switch to a new bag.

Finally I am able to start making the pancakes.  Thank you, LORD, I have a kitchenaid!  It made the mixing so easy.  Then I read that I should "grease" the skillet.  I thought I knew better.  I just put 10 table spoons of butter in the mix!  Surely the skillet did not need to be greased on top of that!  (I had quintupled the recipe--that's 5 times for those who don't want to have to google it, like I did!)

Obviously, by the looks of my first pancake, I did need to grease the skillet.

I fixed that right away.  My next ones did much better.  I also ended up adding another 2 cups of milk to the batter because the pancakes came out SUPER thick.  I don't like mine that thick.  I made a few thick ones for Josh and the kids, and then thinned out the rest, and had lots left over to freeze!  Next time I am feeling so compassionately cheerful, after a night of little sleep, I will just pull out the pancakes from the freezer!

We ate them with maple syrup!  Yummy!  Well, they ate them with maple syrup, I ate them with zero calorie syrup that Josh found for me.  Which was nice, but then again, all of a sudden I didn't want as many pancakes, because they didn't sound as yummy as pancakes with maple syrup on them!

I would rate this recipe as follows:

*Difficulty: 3.5 out of 5 stars

     I found it very difficult to know when to flip the pancakes.  With gluten enriched pancakes, I never had that problem.  But for some reason I just had a hard time with it.  PLUS, I was cooking with an electric stove, so that made things a little more difficult.

*Time: 3.5 out of 5 stars

     Pancakes are just time consuming.  I couldn't cook them fast enough at first.  The kids ate them quicker than I could make them.  I am not sure if GF pancakes just take longer to cook, or what, but I spent a good hour getting everything ready to cook them, and then at least a half hour cooking them all up.

*Price per serving: 5 out of 5 stars

     $2.49 (not including salt) for twelve 3 inch pancakes.  I think that is pretty good.

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars

     I had all I needed.  I actually based how many times I doubled the recipe based upon how many eggs I had in the fridge.  

*Yum Factor: 5 out of 5 stars

     The texture was perfect.  The taste was delicious.  I couldn't really tell I was eating gluten free.

(I am omitting the calorie count because there was no way I was going to be able to count the calories, plus, I knew that I wouldn't be able to eat one if I counted the calories.)

*Over all rating:  4.6 out of 5 stars