Pancake recipe

There have been requests for my pancake "recipe". (The reason for the quotes will become apparent shortly. My mother-in-law did note that these pancakes 'taste different each time')

Damp ingredients:

• oatmeal - start with 3/4 cup or so
• cornmeal - less than the oatmeal (1/4 cup or so)
• buckwheat flour
• brown sugar
• applesauce
• milk (or substitute, such as almond milk) - just enough to get the whole thing wet

Mix the damp ingredients.

Dry ingredients

• sorghum flour
• flax
• 1 tsp baking powder (more if you like fluffier pancakes and aren't watching sodium. Seriously, read the label)
• random flours as desired (millet flour, etc)
• xanthan gum (small amount)

Mix dry ingredients

Wet ingredients

• two eggs (if following some other pancake recipe, add one more egg that called for - makes for yummier pancakes)
• some oil
• vanilla
• lemon juice (in theory to react more strongly with the baking soda. Haven't tested this very strongly)
• milk (or milk substitute)

Mix wet ingredients.

Now mix the dry, damp, and wet ingredients together, adding more milk (or milk substitute) until the desired consistency is reached.

Grill 'em up.

The flours tend to absorb moisture, so I have to add more liquid after grilling the first round, otherwise the mixture is too thick.

Feed the children that have been screaming for 15 minutes anxiously awaiting pancakes.

Eat yummy pancakes.

U don't wanna touch this

All of these were sprayed with round-up shortly after the photo shoot.

Sayonara Sweetgum

The sweetgum tree was on Sue's tree hit list, and it was only a matter of time until it had to go (it was too close to the house, and it dropped little mace-like balls on the yard). We're getting the windows in the house replaced, so we decided to cut the tree down now (so if it fell the wrong way and broke a house window, it would break one of the old windows).

The thrill (or at least the adrenaline release) was heightened by the fact that it was windy that day, and the chainsaw stopped halfway through. After about 10 minute the saw started again, and the tree fell nicely away from the house, so it all ended well. (We did have a rope on the tree and Sue was pulling on it to guide the fall of the tree). I need a new chainsaw before cutting down any more larger trees.

After cutting the tree up, Maria helped pick up the pieces

Opening presents

Opening some presents from Aunt Sandy and the Hello Kitty cake for Maria's birthday party.

Pictures of the young'ins

My mother informed me that I had not updated the blog in a while with pictures of the kids. Detecting a hint, here's some pictures from the last couple of months.

Donovan

Born May 27, 2009 at 5:30 PM.

Weighs 8 lbs 8 oz. - made for a tough labor for Mommy.

Length - about yea long. I think it's about 21.5 inches.

Has good lungs.

Got meconium all over daddy within the first hour. Not sure if this is a portent of things to come ...

Feeding the cat

Maria's latest favorite activity - feeding Leo. Her understanding of the activity does not seem to extend to stopping feeding the cat, though (Leo doesn't seem to mind).