Feather Pancakes- So Easy, So Good

Carrie here, to share some yumminess with you! 

Yesterday was Michael's birthday and in our home, we do special birthday breakfasts, which pretty much always feature Feather Pancakes! This is a recipe that I discovered about 2 years ago and has been a staple in our special breakfasts ever since. The recipe does not come from the internet, but from my old school Better Homes and Gardens, "New Cook Book." If you ask me, it is the only cook book you will ever need, but I digress, onto the actual food!

Best cook book ever written/compiled (?).

They start with a "Favorite Pancakes" recipe, which consists of the basics: All-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, an egg, milk, and salad oil (I use canola oil). There there are three variant options: Blueberry Pancakes, Buttermilk Pancakes, and our favorite, Feather Pancakes! 

Recipe directly from
"Better Homes and Gardens."

The Feather Pancakes call for more sugar and baking powder (thus the crazy fluffiness), and less flour. When I started making them this morning, I realized we only had Half & Half, no milk. I was a little worried it would turn our fluffy little treats into more dense pancakes, but good news! Using Half & Half gave the Feather Pancakes the same fluffy nature with a rich, creamier taste! 

When adding the ingredients, as shown on the right, I start with all of my liquids in the bottom of the mixing bowl. Give it a nice whisk to combine, then start heating my griddle (medium-high heat) so its nice and hot when the batter is finished. Then start adding my dry ingredients one at a time, whisking with each addition. The recipe says to "beat smooth," but I do this recipe entirely by hand. As an avid bread baker, I always worry about over working my product, so trust my hands a bit more than my 

mixer. When the batter is mostly smooth and free of clumps, 

you are ready to start cooking!

This started as Mickey, and turned
into a golden brown BB8!

Unfortunately, I started photographing after I cooked my batch off, but the keys that we have learned to really awesome pancakes are: 

• Size is not everything, a smaller pancake will taste just as good and usually turn out more consistent than one the size of your head.
• Heat is SUPER important, if your griddle isn't preheated your pancakes will not fluff and brown quickly and evenly.
• Trust the bubbles; when cooking off pancakes you will see top side start to bubble in the corners let it bubble near all sides before flipping! 

Super fluffy!

On to the actual cooking, as I mentioned before, medium-high (on the higher side) heat, get it nice and hot so you get a really nice consistent brown on each side. I typically make my pancakes about 4-5 inches across and get 5-6 per batch using this recipe. We have a small 10 inch griddle, so I do two pancakes at a time in the pan. I pour, then wait for bubbling on top, once it has worked its way around the outside of the surface, I know the bottom is cooked evenly and ready to flip! Flip, watch in amazement as it fluffs (on this batch a few of these about 3/4 of an inch tall once cooked), after about a minute flip and check for nice golden brown! 

Honey and butter. 'Nuff said.

I keep a plate and paper towel on the stove with me, then as I finish pancakes, I stack on the plate and cover with the paper towel to retain heat while I finish the batch! Then we move to the dining room table to eat, drink and be merry! We keep our pancakes really simple and dress with just butter and honey, but everything from syrup, to berries, to peanut butter (which we may need to share our recipe for soon!) to finish these fluffy breakfast treats! 

Breakfast essentials.

Along with them, we had our normal coconut water and juice mix, as well as a new Starbucks Reserve Coffee Roast, which we received as an engagement gift! Michael says the coffee has "hints of Ethopian people," but I think he was still in Zombie Dice mode...really it has a delightful balance of sweetness with peppery hints. Thanks to Brett for introducing us to it and explaining just enough for Michael to get REALLY excited about it! 

Well, friends, I must be getting back to birthday party preparations- I'm making enough pizza to feed 20 tonight, birthday boy's favorite! I'll share recipe details below as we prefer our Feather Pancakes! Give it a try and let us know what you think! Happy weekend!

Last fluffy, buttery bite.

Feather Pancakes

2 tbsp Canola Oil

1 Large Egg

1 Cup Half & Half

.5 tsp Salt

1 tbsp Sugar

2 tbsp Baking Powder

1 Cup All-Purpose Flour

Pour all liquids, including egg, into the bottom of a mixing bowl. 

Whisk until combined. 

Then add each dry ingredient individually and whisk after each addition, finishing with the flour. Once all ingredients have been added and batter is smooth, you are ready to cook on a medium-high pre-heated griddle! 

Zombie Dice!

Long time no post because:
Carrie opened a new restaurant location for her company, which is super successful and awesome.
The holidays happened and we all know how time consuming that is.
We visited Chicago- both for work, Carrie at a conference and Michael giving Astro talks.
Then some family time and we got engaged!

But we're back and as nerdy as ever!

Zombie Dice is an insanely simple, fun game that's quick to play and great with 2 or several people.

Zombie Dice, with bonus Banjo!

In this game, you are a zombie searching for brains and the dice are potential prey. The goal in each round is to gobble up as many brains as possible without getting shotgunned to death (er. . . re-death?). Your turn ends when you pass or you get shot three times.

Shotgun, BRAINSSS, Footprints!

To play, you place all 13 dice in the fancy zombie cup that comes with the game. Shake it around and pick three random dice to roll. Each basic die (I'll get to "hero" dice from the expansion in a second) has three symbols: footprints, a brain, and a shotgun blast. After you roll, place the brains to one side and the shotgun blasts to the other. Keep any footprints in front of you. The Brains represent victims (and points for you) and the shotgun blasts represent you getting shot in the face with a shotgun. The dice have colors that represent their difficulty: green, yellow, and red = easy, medium, and hard respectively. An "easy" dice is one with less shotguns and more brains.

Two shots and footsteps, not so bueno.

You might have a chance here...

Now that you've separated your dice, you can decide to re-roll. There is no limit to how many rolls you take and each roll has the chance of letting you accumulate more points in the form of brains. On the re-roll, take any footprints (i.e. escaped victims) and then pull more random dice from the cup so that you have three dice to roll. There is no limit to how many rolls you take and each roll has the chance of letting you accumulate more points in the form of brains.

Save that brain and roll those feet!

There are those rotten shots again!

However, each roll also risks more shotgun blasts. If you hit three blasts, your turn is over and you loose all your brains. Do you want to take the risk? When your turn is up (either through getting shot in the face or through passing) you tally up your brain-points and put all dice back in the cup for the next player. The game ends when a player surpasses 13 brains. When this happens, you finish the round and then the game is over. 

The one with the most brains wins.

This is Michael, he likes BRAINSSSSSS!

Along with the base game, we also got an expansion that includes three "hero" dice: The Hottie, The Hunk, and Santa Clause (the most seasoned of all zombie hunters). Think of these as special characters in the game represented by special dice colors (pink, white, and red/white respectively). With these new dice come some new effects and symbols. The Hunk has a double brain (double points!) as well as a double shotgun (double hits). Santa comes with presents! Instead of brains he can drop items that you keep in front of you as power ups: an energy drink (this lets you count each green footprints as a brain.... no running from the fast zombie!) and a football helmet (now you can take four shotgun hits before dying!).

Santa Double Brains!

"Special Santa Helmet"

Here come SANTA!

The Hottie and The Hunk some brains

There is one more twist with the heroes. They can save one another! If you roll a hero's brain (or have one in your brain pile) during your turn and you roll another hero's shotgun, that brain gets taken from you and the dice goes back into the cup. Oh, this doesn't count for santa's double brain item, since in his case this counts as a present!
HO HO HO!