This one turned out nice. I think less baking powder would be a good idea, just a touch less cause it was nice to have fluffy pancakes, but I did taste the baking powder in the batter. Also, I melted the butter in the pan and then poured it into the batter for the recipe. But, it gave me a perfectly greased pan to cook them in without having to add any other oil to the pan.

Fluffy Pancakes Recipe

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• cooking spray

Directions Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

Today is Y on the A- Z Blogging Challenge. A lot of words begin with Y. But for some reason I thought of 'yowl'. That sound a cat makes when it wants to get noticed.

What other words can you think of for sounds cats make? Skip the easy ones like meow and purring. If you were going to write a story with an animal as a sidekick what animal would it be? How would the animal communicate or would it just be like an ornament, sort of moved around like a dead weight?

The buttermilk syrup caught my attention. I've never thought of anything but maple syrup, traditional for Canadians. But, buttermilk is one of my favourite things. This is something I'd like to try. No flour on hand at the moment, I used it up making buttermilk pancakes.

German Pancakes with Buttermilk Syrup

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

BUTTERMILK SYRUP:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• confectioners' sugar

Directions

Place the eggs, milk, flour and salt in a blender; cover and process until smooth. Pour the butter into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish; add the batter. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine the first five syrup ingredients; bring to a boil. Boil for 7 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Dust pancake with confectioners' sugar; serve immediately with the syrup.

People don’t always know what I mean when I talk about pencil crayons. I thought that was a pretty universal term for them. Someone assumed I was talking about regular crayons, wax crayons. But, pencil crayons are coloured pencils, not made out of wax.

I’ve had pencil crayons since I was a kid. We did arts and crafts and drawing and at times I illustrated my diary. (Not too often as I thought my drawings were pretty sad, even at the amateur level).

I always had a set of at least 12 colours which went to school with me. We made crafts for holidays at home and the pencil crayons would come out along with the scissors and glue, an arts and crafts staple, always in supply. I would keep mine in a pretty pencil case to keep them from being broken or having the points chipped. I also kept my handy pencil sharpener there cause you had to be ready for the odd broken tip. Sometimes I got especially creative and used the side of a pencil, so it needed extra sharpening to get it long to cover more space.

There are endless crafts and memories created with pencil crayons. I still have them around. I use them to make illustrations even now. I still don’t think highly of my drawing skills but I like trying, learning more as I go.

What do you remember about family and holidays, arts and crafts when you see a set of pencil crayons? When did you last use coloured pencils? Maybe you should treat yourself to a new set, explore some shapes, lines and colours and have fun like a kid again.

Victoria Day weekend here in Ontario today. I made pancakes for breakfast for the group. This is the recipe I went with, standard and basic and simple. Of course, I changed it to suit myself. Half the sugar, added a touch of real vanilla and I added some white vinegar to the milk and let it sit a few minutes to turn it into buttermilk. I cooked them in a hot pan with butter melting all over the bottom to give it a nice stick-free coating. I could have added blueberries, but I really don't like fruit added to anything, except when it is dipped in chocolate.

Happy long weekend if you have one. Make the most of your day off.

Pancakes

• 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 2 - 3 tablespoons oil

Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the milk, oil and eggs. Mix well and try to get some of the lumps out of the batter. Don't worry about making it perfectly smooth. It will be fine.

Heat a skillet on medium heat. When heated, scoop the pancake batter recipe into the frying pan with a large spoon to make individual pancakes. The pan will probably only take 1 or two pancakes at a time. Cook on one side until the top begins to bubble, then flip over and cook on the other side.

Omit the sugar for a sugar free pancake recipe. It will obviously be less sweet but it still tastes great. You can also replace the sugar with your favorite sugar alternative.

Once the pancake batter is in the pan, dot the surface of the pancake with blueberries, raspberries or thin slices of banana. Everyone will love it and it is a great way to get more fruit in your diet.

A tasty tip, especially for diabetics. Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to our easy pancake recipe. It adds wonderful taste and the bonus for diabetics is that cinnamon helps control blood sugar a bit.

You can omit the oil, but it adds a nice richness to the batter. If you leave it out you will probably need a bit of oil in your pan when you fry them.