how to have homemade pancakes, even on a work morning—an homage to cousin "mmm mmm oscar"

here's a photo of sam this morning enjoying his pancakes. he's been eating a lot of pancakes lately (not that i can blame him, i mean, pancakes pretty much rock).

a couple of weeks ago i made sam a pancake breakfast feast, and even though he ate a ton (well, a ton for a rather small boy—so, like, probably four small pancakes), i still had quite a few left over. so, not being one to waste food (especially homemade pancakes! sacrilege!), i decided i'd just freeze them. i put layers of freshly made (but cooled off) pancakes between wax paper and stored them in a tupperware in the freezer. voila! hot pancakes are now on the menu on demand. just 25 seconds or so per side in ye old microwave, and we've got happy happy mornings!

the bonus: sam can eat pancakes all on his own. he rocks the fork like no one's business. (which means i can do other things while he munches away! woot!)

my recipe (from the essential vegetarian cookbook):

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons granulated or brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 large egg lightly beaten, or two large egg whites (or 1/4 cup egg beaters, which is what i use)

1 1/3 cups nonfat buttermilk or plain nonfat yogurt (i just use milk because i never have the other two on hand)

1/4 teaspoon salt (i added this)

i'm sure there are variations to be had, but i'm still in a "let's not mess with a good thing" place. we may get all creative with stuff later.

photo credit: mike took this photo with his new, fancy blackberry that he got for work. yes, i'm jealous.

quilt update

here's a couple of photos of the quilt in progress. i've been spending most of my downtime on it (when i'm not doing freelance, or laundry, or playing with sam, or cooking, or cleaning, or whatever). i'm really enjoying it because i can work on it without really doing much thinking, but when i'm sitting and watching a buckeye game (or standing on the train on the way to work), i feel like i'm accomplishing something. very satisfying.

i'm a little over 20 blocks in, so i've still got about 50 to go. unfortunately, i think i'm going to have to put the quilt on a bit of a hiatus while there's a halloween costume to whip up. i still haven't nailed down exactly what i'm making for sam (he doesn't really get halloween enough to choose his own costume yet), but we're thinking superhero.

stay tuned!

bigfoot sighted driving trolley car

it was rainy this morning, so instead of our normal walk/playground/library trip, i decided to take sam down to the outlet mall to get new shoes. it's a good thing i did, because he was squeezing size six feet into a pair of four-and-a-half shoes!

after we were done at the store (where he charmed the sales lady out of a few stickers), he tried out all the riding toys he could get to. we didn't even have to put money in, because he was having a ball as it was. i love having a boy who is so easily entertained. bonus: there was no crying when we had to leave the trolley car, zoo bus, firetruck, and helicopter and go home. sweet.

sam showing off his new shoes

?

i'm not exactly sure what the scenario was…

but somehow the sheep ended up in the tree with the monkey.

other amusing things sam has done this week:

when i told him we were walking to the grocery store yesterday, he immediately went to his toy basket and picked up his big plastic carrot. when i asked him if he wanted to bring elmo or the carrot with him, he chose the carrot.

he wanted to watch the movie cars, so he asked for "car baby". apparently he hasn't learned "movie". either that or we haven't been pronouncing it properly.

a tuesday adventure

sam wearing his "junior firefighter" badge.

this morning, as we were walking past the firehouse on our way to the library (as we do most mornings when i'm home), the firefighters invited sammy in to look at the fire trucks!

actually, what happened was that we walked past (sam was walking, not riding in the stroller—he usually walks to the library, then rides home after playing on the playground), and i pointed out the trucks to him (at which point the firemen were already smiling and waving hi to sam—he is, afterall, irresistible), and after we'd walked past sam did a u-turn and went right back so he could look some more. that's when one of the firemen came out, took his hand, and led him in to get an up-close-and-personal view of the fire trucks.

we got to see the lights flashing and see all of the different compartments and equipment, and sam was even offered a chance to sit inside—at which point he got VERY shy and didn't actually climb in (i thought for sure he would). he also got a badge (see photo) and a couple of activity books to bring home! super cool!