Buckwheat Pancakes

Nutty and funky, buckwheat adds extra flavor to your morning pancakes

Ready for some pancakes (aka griddlecakes)? Now’s the perfect season. Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) is next week – and pancakes traditionally are on the menu.

These buckwheat beauties take pancakes up a notch. Because we like to buck the trend.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Top with butter and maple syrup for a breakfast blowout

Looking to feed a breakfast crowd on Thanksgiving morning? Or maybe the day after? We’ve got you covered.

Canned pumpkin purée provides the base flavor for these Pumpkin Pancakes. Then we add pumpkin-pie spices for extra zest. It all makes for an exceptionally tasty treat.

So maybe prepare an extra big batch? Because these will go like, well, hotcakes.

Cranberry Walnut Bread

An easy breakfast, dessert, or snack option

‘Tis the season for baking. Cue that sugar high.

Or not. Our version of Cranberry Walnut Bread is sweet, but not overmuch. So you can eat it without fear of bouncing off the walls.

Of course, you may want that bounce, especially during the holiday season. In which case, have seconds. But don’t forget your crash helmet.

Cornmeal Pancakes

These updated “johnnycakes” are festive breakfast fare

Who doesn’t like pancakes for breakfast? Or lunch or dinner? They’re wonderful anytime.

And they seem particularly suited to festive occasions. Such as Thanksgiving morning (or the morning after).

Cornmeal makes an especially succulent pancake, as colonial Americans discovered. Early European settlers practically lived on a version of cornmeal pancakes called “johnnycakes.”

So what could be more appropriate at Thanksgiving time? Bet you never knew that history could be so tasty.

Beer Bread

Perfect when you need a tasty loaf in a hurry

Baking bread doesn’t get much easier (or more fun) than this. No messing with yeast, no kneading, no rising time. 

And you get to use beer in it! So this bread smells delightful when baking—and tastes deeply delicious when you bite into it.

Even people who don’t like beer love Beer Bread. Best of all, this bread is equally tasty for breakfast toast or a mid-day sandwich.

Really, can life get any better?

Quick and Easy Pancakes

Great for Shrove Tuesday, or Any Time 

Next week is Shrove Tuesday – the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. It’s also known as Mardi Gras, which is French for “Fat Tuesday.”

Traditionally,it’s the day when families use up all the fat, sugar, and other rich foods in their larders in preparation for the Lenten fast (hence, “Fat Tuesday”).  Some cultures turn all that richness into doughnuts.  But when I was growing up, pancakes were the Shrove Tuesday feast food of choice.

Although I rarely eat pancakes for breakfast (too much food too early in the day), they’re fine dinner fare.  And with this recipe, you can walk through the front door and be sitting down to pancakes in about 20 minutes.  Best of all, they’re made with ingredients you probably have on hand already.

So now you know what you’ll be serving for dinner next Tuesday.