Happy President's Day Pancakes

In honor of George Washington and the cherry tree and President's Day and all that sort of thing. I don't make these often enough, because I never seem to have dried cherries and almonds in my cupboard at the same time, but they really are worth it. I love the flavors of almonds and cherries together!!

(Sorry for the horrid photo, some days just are NOT picture-taking days around here...)

You can make a cherry-syrup with canned, dark cherries if you want, My kids prefer a little powdered sugar. I don't always make heart-shaped pancakes, I have little luck with them (as you can see from my picture), but since it was a lazy, happy, sleep-in vacation day and just past Valentine's I decided to attempt some creativity and indulge my kids.

Cherry-Almond Pancakes

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup blended silken tofu

1 1/4 cups soy milk

1 Tbsp. melted margarine

2 cups all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour or a mixture that you like

4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup raw almonds, ground to a paste with 2 tablespoon sugar in food processor

Chop dried cherries coarsely. Pour enough hot (almost boiling) water over them to just cover. Add almond extract and stir well. Let sit 10 min. while mixing rest of ingredients.

Mix liquid ingredients (tofu, milk, margarine) in one bowl and the dry ingredients (flour, soda, salt, almonds) in another.

Gradually add liquids to dry until well mixed. Add more soymilk if batter is too thick, more flour if batter is too thin. Drain cherries very well (I actually squeeze them with my hand a bit) and add to pancake batter.

Heat griddle or large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot; oil griddle.

Ladle batter by scant 1/4 cupfuls onto griddle, spreading to 4-inch rounds. Cook 2 1/2 minutes or until bubbles break surface of pancakes. Turn; cook 2 minutes or until golden brown. Place in oven to keep warm while cooking remaining pancakes

Winter Storms and Simple Vegan Pancakes

So this is our third day with no power. The excitement has worn off for The Sprouts. But the downed trees (see pic!!) have been removed from the nearby roads, so we ventured out to the local Tully's Coffee which actually has power - AND free Internet (as well as the best coffee in the WORLD in my opinion) but I digress...

So we're sitting here with our laptops crackling, our cellphones charging (borrowing yet another outlet from the kind Tully's folk) and soy Peppermint Mochas (cocoa for Little Sprout of course) warming us.

We're also lucky in so many other ways - no trees fell on our house, (that's a big thing, since I'm surrounded by huge evergreens - see above pic) and since we use gas for cooking and hot water, even with no lights or heat, we can still cook and bathe - I figure with warm meals and showers we can weather just about anything a little longer.

Nothing clever as far as recipes today. Here's the pancakes I made for breakfast - sorry the picture isn't at all glamorous. Probably the simplest vegan pancake recipe out there and pretty much fool-proof. I'm posting it here (with permission) just as it's written by my friend, Froggy, from my fave website Veggieboards.com .

Easy Basic Vegan Pancakes

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white
1 tablespoon baking powder (aluminum-free recommended)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Liquids:
3/4 cup milk (rice or soy milk should work just fine -- almond milk works well)
1/4 cup applesauce

Instructions:
Combine dry ingredients well in a bowl. In another container, combine the applesauce and milk. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and combine till all the flour is a very moist btter consistancy but still a little lumpy.
Heat up a pan -- I recommend an iron skillet with some spray oil on it -- and get it good and hot. Have a plate ready to catch completed pancakes.

Take a 1/4 cup measure (like the one you used for the applesauce) and scoop up some batter and pour into the pan. You should hear it sizzle. (Don't pour any more in!) Wait until the pancake becomes bubbly and the bubbles look like they might want to stay, then turn the pancake over. Cook the other side for 30-45 seconds.

Put the completed pancake onto the plate and repeat the great batter pouring process until you run out of batter.