Brown Sugar Pancakes

Yesterday I was hankering for some brown sugar. Weird, right? But the H makes these AMAZING chocolate chip cookies that require him to actually burn butter and that, combined with the brown sugar in these insanely good cookies, leaves a flavor that is simply fanfreakintastic. YUM. Well that's what I had a taste for so I came home and while the wee one was watching TV, I snuck online and searched for brown sugar pancakes because pancake are easier and less time consuming to make than cookies.

Behold ... Brown Sugar Pancakes

You'll need:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar (pref dark.)
• 3 tbsp butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups milk, any kind
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

You'll do:

1. In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt together brown sugar and butter. Stir well, then set aside to cool slightly.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking power and salt. 
3. Pour in eggs, milk and vanilla extract, along with brown sugar mixture and stir until well combined. No streaks of dry ingredients should remain.
4. Heat a skillet or griddle over medium-high heat, until a drop of water skitters around when dropped on the surface. 
5. Lightly grease with butter or oil, and drop pancake batter by 1/4-cup measures on the pan. 
6. Cook until pancake is slightly dry around the edges and small bubbles form in the batter (bottom will be browned). 
7. Flip and cook for another minute or so on other side, until bottom is browned.

I followed the recipe to a T and cooked them in butter which ended up browning a bit of course and the final taste? Fabulous! Just what I was wanting! Even the H liked them (as did the wee one).

And no syrup is really needed but the recipe does include another recipe for a brown sugar syrup.

This makes a LOT of pancakes. So much so that we're having them for breakfast tomorrow and Monday, too! 

Pistachio Cake

Yesterday was Mother's Day and while the plan was to take my mom, grandmother, and mother in law all out to eat, my grandmother wasn't really wanting to go out. Instead she invited us over for cake and coffee so I insisted that we bring the cake.

And because it was Mother's Day, I wanted something a little different and hopefully something new for my grandmother. I asked around and a friend suggested Pistachio Cake so I went for it.

Pistachio Cake

1 box of white cake mix

3 boxes of pistachio pudding
5 eggs
½ cup water
1 & ½ cup milk
½ cup oil
1 container cool whip

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Mix white cake mix, 2 pkgs of pudding, eggs, water, 1/2 cup milk and oil together.
• Pour into a greased & lightly floured bundt pan.
• Bake for 1 hour at 350.
• Let cool.
• Mix together 1 pkg pistachio pudding, 1 cup milk, 1 container of cool whip and frost cake when cool.

This really was all kinds of yummy. I was hesitant at first because I'm not the hugest Pistachio fan but this was really good. And sooooooo easy. Personally, I think the frosting was a bit much and this could've been served with some powdered sugar, but everyone really enjoyed it all as is.