Chocolate Pancakes and Friday Faves

During the week we’re the quick breakfast kind of family. Usually eggs or oatmeal and toast. Smudge always has toast because she’s a dunker. I don’t get it, the girl dunks her toast in everything from cereal to orange juice. Ew.

But when we have time, mostly on the weekends, I like to cook something tasty, and a little more sweet for my little lover girl. And when chocolate is involved, pony up and order seconds.

The killer part of this recipe is making the master recipe of dry ingredients, doubling it, then storing the rest away for a later breakfast, or two. The result is a pancake breakfast I can whip up even on the weekdays.

You’ll find the master recipe for my Chocolate Pancakes here.  To make it up on an individual basis I’ll mix about a cup of dry pancake mix with ⅓ cup or so of milk. Then I’ll whisk the egg white of one egg, so it’s pretty fluffy, and add it to the mix. Boom! Weekend breakfast for a regular old school day. I feel like adding the chocolate is okay since  there’s a hit of chocolate in store.

I made these for Smudge’s Valentine breakfast, after I “failed” my Valentine’s Day post. A post that my husband ironically commented about.

Now my husband, or as I lovingly refer to him as G, reads every post I write. But he rarely talks about them. Probably because he is far too smart to offer an opinion to someone as bull-headed as myself. So when he does say something, it means a lot, and what he told me on Valentine’s night at the restaurant where we first met ‘lo those many years ago, sitting at the bar at 10 p.m. after dropping our daughter off for a weekend with her cousins at Grammy’s house, starving and tired and just needing to do something different. Or the same. It made me remember why I do what I do.

As we were chowing on chowder and salad, a glass of wine for me, a craft beer for him, he told me he really liked my “failed” post. What? Why would he like to see me admit that I failed?

“Because,” he said, “It was so…you. The real you.”

And that, I was reminded again, is what creativity is all about. Being yourself. Talking about the beauty—and the beast. Both of which come from within and both of which have a time and a place to remind us all that behind the smoke and mirrors, we’re all human, we all have something to share in addition to shiny rainbows and bouncy unicorns.

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Chocolate Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 1 /4 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

1. Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, mix wet ingredients together until combined. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Set mix aside to rest for 10 minutes.
2. Preheat a non-stick griddle to 325°F and cook pancakes in batches. Keep warm on a cookie sheet lined with a cooling rack in a 250°F oven until ready to serve.

Later that night as I was catching up on my Feedly blog feed, I saw Joy’s Real Talk Blog Tips post that pretty much reiterated the same sentiment. If you are a blogger, and like me were submerged in a rabbit hole four feet below and didn’t read her post, you should. As always, the girl’s mad writing skills bring every sentence to a personal and relatable anecdote, speaking directly to her readers. High praise and high fives to that lady. Fo’ sho’.

Whew, okay, okay… Ma’am, step down from the soapbox and bring us back to our regularly scheduled program. Which includes a list of this week’s Friday Faves. And if you have anything you’d like me to share for future posts, something funny, smart or a new food blog discovery, send me a shout out. I’d love to hear from you.

1. While trolling through my Pinterest inspiration makers , I came across UK food stylist Jennifer Joyce’s work, and while the photography is obviously stunning, the simplicity of her food styling is what really draws me in. See more here and on her blog.

2. I’m thrilled to have worked with Heather on her new e-cookbook, Paleo Recipes for Everyday, 70 Recipes for a Paleo Lifestyle. She is seriously one of the nicest clients I’ve had the pleasure to work with, and her passion is contagious. If you’re Paleo curious, this baby will get you on your way.  Plus a free download PDF of the Paleo Basics food list. Heather’s giving my readers a 25% discount on the purchase of her ebook, just enter FoodieCrush at checkout.

3. I love seeing when someone makes something they’ve seen on the blog, whether it’s a recipe of mine or of a favorite featured blogger. Check out these yummy treats and thanks for sharing your results, there’s nothing better than knowing people actually make the stuff we create. BTW, if you have a dish you’ve created from FC, tweet me, would love to share.

from Jessica @mommasoil:  “Meyer lemon fettuccine with lemon garlic chicken @foodiecrush instagr.am/p/Vh1YI6sg5O/”

from Wendie @BakingwBalance: “Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake thanks @foodiecrush for inspiration http://t.co/vIJSyAYU”

from Denise & @ChezUs: “I feel like a mom; knee deep in marshmallows and Rice Krispies thx to @foodiecrush ht.ly/1SdbzY”

from Alice @HipFoodieMom1: “Meyer Lemon Pappardelle w mushrooms. Recipe from @foodiecrush Absolutely delicious! Instagr.am/p/Vfv2zllex6/”

4. Video, video, video. I shot another video for a client last week (more on that soon), but having an iPhone, and an amped up Canon 5D Mark II, makes it so my old camcorder sits in the cupboard losing value hundreds of pixels a minute. So to keep my obsession with apps strong, I’m downloading Adobe Video Bite to see how I likey. Looks like a cross between my favorite Videolicious and Vine, which I’m still getting the hang of. Bonus: It’s free.

5. I’ve been a fan of Silly Grrl’s for a while, dropping by to check out how her high flying circus act is going and seeing what advice she has to share about blogging and design tricks. On my to-do list is to join in the nerd party and follow her tutorial on updating Facebook tabs. Her aerial arms workout tips might need to be added too. Seriously, check out those guns.

6. I’m constantly crushing on Naomi’s stunning photography and her always inspirational recipes. And this post, speaks the truth. If you’re a blogger, you know what she means.

7. I’m still aflutter about my scheduling and list-making apps. I went from online calendars (iCal, Google Cal, TeuxDeux, Wunderlist), to a paper calendar and old fashioned to-do list and now I’m back at being wooed to keeping track online again thanks to my obsessive friend who makes me look like an inadequate loon with her organized sticky notes and color coordinated calendars on her cute, compact laptop that syncs so simply with her phone. What do you use to keep organized? Please, I really, really want to know. And then I’ll be quiet about it.

8. I’m a sucker for packaging. This lip balm could put me over the edge. I mean it’s lip balm, but so much better.

9. Recipe Crush: Stephanie’s Ricotta and Scallion Scones are making me weak in the knees. Smoked Paprika. Yes.

10. Tweet of the week: from @AmbitiousKitch “Just following this conversation makes me want bourbon baked goods.”

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