It's a Beautiful Day to Love One Another!

...yelled  the mountain biker, to the world in general, while out running this morning. 

Photo (and run) somewhere in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Pink Champagne + Beef = Bliss

Pink champagne in the afternoon on grandma and grandpa's deck while my sweet boy ('I grandpa's sweet boy! Thank you very much!') is running this way and that trying to catch a bee. ('I going to catch it, that beef!', he informs us.)

The Best Pancake Recipe

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
3 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Maple syrup
Fresh raspberries or blackberries or whatever

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add eggs, buttermilk, and butter.  Stir just until combined.  Heat a griddle.  Once hot, cover with butter, and then scoop batter into however many pancakes will fit on your griddle at one time.  Once they begin to bubble, flip, and cook another minute or so.

Exceptions that work/don't work:
I always cut the recipe in half.
Swapping whole wheat flour makes for fairly flat and depressing pancakes.
Swapping spelt flour is even worse.
If you are out of buttermilk and do not feel like making your own (squeeze of lemon in regular milk, let sit 10 minutes), then use a little less milk. Otherwise you will be back to flat and depressing.
If you are out of buttermilk, kefir is a good, albeit expensive, replacement.
Fresh berries are divine, but sometimes I use frozen.  Once the batter is on the griddle, sprinkle with frozen berries, or banana slices, let sit a bit, and flip.
Left over pancakes freeze perfectly.

(Recipe from: Tom Douglas, Seattle Kitchen, 2001, Morrow Press.)