Good Old Fashioned Pancakes

Growing up, my house had a tradition of making pancakes every Saturday morning. This has not happened for my family, largely due to my husband's odd work schedule -- we never knew which days he'd be off in a week, so we just kind of made them whenever.

Z had today off, so I made some pancakes this morning. We are at the "clean out the freezer, have really weird meal combinations" phase, so it was a nice (normal) break to use up some of the blueberries in the pancakes this morning. I also made a nice blueberry compote to go with it, yum!

I have a confession to make: as much as I cook from scratch, I was raised as a Bisquick girl. My mother and grandmother used it, so I did too...until money got tight and it was too expensive to buy. The other brands just don't taste as good to me, so I started hunting for a good "from scratch" pancake recipe. I found several that were....okay...they turned out really thin and rubbery, though. My cooking bible that I use as a reference for just about everything, The Joy of Cooking, also didn't supply quite what I was looking for. I'll make a recipe as directed the first time, and then make adjustments as needed if I make it again. (I am an artist after all, I can't just duplicate something -- I have to make it mine) -- but this had me stymied.

I didn't ask for much: I wanted fluff, I wanted a particular texture, and I didn't want a bad baking soda taste. I finally found one that my husband and I both like on allrecipes.com, that beats the Bisquick ones hand down. Even if I have Bisquick in the house, I'll still use this recipe. I even make it exactly like it says, I don't change a thing -- although I will occasionally add a smidge of vanilla.

My kids inhale these every time I make them, and since the toddler/preschool set have some of the most discriminating, picky palates out there, I consider these to be a hit. Num num. Now if I could just find a good scratch biscuit recipe....I do still use the Bisquick for those.