The Secret Ingredient

The FFB featured an article and video on safety in the kitchen last week that I found interesting, helpful, and somewhat funny.  I hadn’t really given a lot of thought to safety in the kitchen from an RP standpoint, but it’s something that I’d like to be more conscious of going forward.  I am pretty comfortable in the kitchen, but I have learned that getting too comfortable in any area of life is often the time that RP sneaks up and yells “surprise!” in the form of something like a bruised leg (coffee table – 2 days ago).

I spend a fair amount of time in the kitchen, especially when we have weekend visitors.  My husband and I have an unofficial “bed & breakfast” for friends and family because we live in a popular tourist town up in the Cascade mountains.  Earlier this summer, I was on this “blueberry ricotta pancakes” kick.  I was getting rave reviews about these pancakes, so they became a regular part of my breakfast menu.  But, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, RP often has a way of making my normal activities into awkward moments.  And cooking is no exception.

I’ll set the stage for you – the aroma of bacon wafting through the air, two noisy toddlers running around anxious to eat, some slightly hungover guests shuffling towards the breakfast table.  The meal was finally ready and our hungry friends sat down to enjoy themselves.  I was happily preparing myself for the typical responses I had been getting from guests about the pancakes – how delicious and fluffy they are – something along those lines.  I was not expecting our friend Marcus to look up and say, “This was in my pancake” while holding up a rubberband.

I felt my face flush with embarrassment as I realized that the rubberband from the bag of frozen berries must have fallen into the batter when I was adding the blueberries.  My husband promptly took a picture of the incident, and posted it on facebook – thanks babe.  We laughted for quite awhile, and then Marcus played numerous “what is this in my food” jokes on me the rest of the weekend.  Well, thanks for the good laugh RP.  (please note – I no longer use rubberbands to secure bags of berries)

I promise this blog is not morphing from an RP blog into a cooking blog – there are plenty of fabulous food blogs out there already.  And I doubt that after reading this post anyone wants to take cooking tips from me anyways.  But I do want to share the recipe that goes along with this story because they are truly delicious pancakes.  And if you want some extra flavor, just add a rubberband.

Ricotta and Blueberry Pancakes
1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 teaspons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries
a bit of butter
Wisk dry ingredients together.  In a separate bowl, whisk all wet ingredients together along with the berries (including the maple syrup)  Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients.  Add a bit more milk if batter is too thick. Cook over medium heat on griddle or skillet.  Enjoy!