A little pick me up...

Posted by Bonita

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

These are a few of my favorite things

-- "My Favourite Things," The Sound of Music

It's that time of year again, the time when I'm moody, slightly pissy, really tired, perhaps even crazy and reevaluating my life and why I decided to be an English major. Yes, ladies and gents, it is essay season once again. It's been a tough week this past week, trying to churn out papers at a break-neck speed. Not surprising, I ended up getting stuck on one of my papers all week, which left me very frustrated and kind of down. However, I finally handed it in this morning (**sigh of relief**); one down, four more to go.

With my first paper done and out of the way, I decided to reward myself with a little pick me up. Everyone has that one comfort food they can count on. No matter how bad our day was, or our week, it'll never cease to bring a smile for those 20 minutes or so. The ultimate comfort food for me is pancakes. There's nothing in the world that's better than a stack of pancakes drizzled with real maple syrup with a side of something savoury like bacon, sausage or ham.

So yes, I took a break from the hectic paper writing to make myself some pancakes for lunch today. I make a slew of different kinds when I'm at home: banana, blueberry, apple & cinnamon, spiced, etc. However, my favourite remains to be banana. I normally would just add a mashed banana to our family recipe, but I had such a craving for buttermilk pancakes that I made Banana-Pecan Buttermilk Pancakes instead. I based the recipe off of this one, and just made a few changes here and there. Obviously, I added in a handful of chopped toasted pecans and the crucial vanilla. I also added a bit more baking powder. Pancakes were delicious and satisfied my craving, especially with a side of ham. What's great is that I had plenty of leftovers to throw into the freezer to satisfy my pancake-cravings instantly in the near future. And best of all, it brought a smile to my face, and made all the work I have to do this weekend a little more bearable.



Banana-Pecan Buttermilk Pancakes
Adapted from Everyday Food Magazine
Makes about 8

• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp light-brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large very ripe banana, mashed
• 1/2 cup pecan halves, toasted and finely chopped (set aside a bit, to serve)

1. Preheat oven to 200°F. In a bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pecans.
2. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the egg, oil, vanilla and banana until combined. Gradually whisk in the buttermilk. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently mix until just incorporated.
3. In a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, swirl some oil to coat bottom of pan. Working in batches, add batter in 1/4-cup portions; cook until golden brown and tiny air bubbles form evenly on top, 2 to 5 minutes.
4. Flip pancakes, and continue cooking until slightly puffed, 2 to 5 minutes (reduce heat if browning too quickly). Transfer to a baking sheet; keep warm in oven while you cook remaining pancakes.
5. Serve pancakes with maple syrup and the remaining pecans, if desired.