Hot time, summer in the city

In the words of Lovin Spoonful,

“Hot town, summer in the city, back of my neck getting burnt and gritty. Been down, isn’t it a pity; Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city. All around, people looking half dead; Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head”

It’s official, the first day of summer has arrived. Not only does it look like summer with all the sandals, sundresses and shorts/tank top combos parading the streets, but it feels like it. Today was the warmest day we’ve had in New York this year. Correction: using the word ‘warm’ is too misleading. It was a HOT day, one of those dog days of summer where the last thing you want to do is get dressed in your business casual garb and go to work.  By mid day, the temperature peaked at 97 degrees…it was hotter than Texas, if that tells you anything!

Today is one of those days you want three things: a bikini, a pool and a frozen margarita. The first two are too unrealistic when you’re living in a city like New York, so I’ll have to settle for the last one. At 6 o’clock on the dot, I headed out today to get the perfect happy hour margarita with my friend, Meredith. Out of all the places in New York, we went to Rodeo Bar for their $7 frozen margs and four hours of girl talk! It doesn’t get much better than that after a long day of work! Seriously though, if you’re in Manhattan, try this place out. It’s got a laid-back, country vibe with live music every night, happy hour every day from 4-9pm and peanuts to munch on. Bottom line, it reminds me of home.

So, here’s to summer. May it be not too stiffling, full of fun, laughter and good times.

Pancakes make Mondays better

Monday is always the longest day of the week and what better way to end Monday then with buttermilk pancakes for dinner (plus, I had 2/3 of a carton of buttermilk expiring in 3 days that I didn’t want to waste). I’ve said this a million times to y’all, but it’s true; breakfast is my favorite meal, especially breakfast for dinner. I can’t help it! Seriously, blame my parents. We had breakfast for dinner quite often growing up. We even went through a stage in our house where we had pancakes at least once a week for what seemed like an eternity as a kid. When I got into high school I actually went more than 5 years without eating a single pancake because I was so sick of them! haha

Besides a few all-you-can-eat pancake meals over the course of college at Ihop, I can’t remember the last time I made or ate homemade pancakes. Since I don’t have a ‘favorite’ recipe for pancakes, I found a recipe on Food Network’s website and tweaked it to my tastes and what I had in my pantry. The original recipe was for Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes, which sound delicious, but I wasn’t in the mood for blueberries, so I nixed those little blue babies from the recipe. Also, I did not have any baking powder, nor did the closest supermarket – how a supermarket does not have baking powder, I do not know. Seriously, it’s a baking essential. Anyway, I didn’t have any cream of tartar either to make up for it, so I added just a little more baking soda to the recipe and it actually turned out fine. I also added a little vanilla to give my pancakes a little extra flavor. Seeing as I completely changed the leavening components of these pancakes and I believe I made them infinitely better tasting, I have decided that they should be renamed after me! Just kidding, well not really…

Julie’s Buttermilk Pancakes – serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup melted butter, plus some for frying
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

In a large bowl sift together the four, sugar, baking soda and salt, see note at bottom*

Beat the eggs with buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla. Combine the dry and the wet ingredients into a lumpy batter, being careful not to over mix.  Heat some butter in a skillet over medium heat. Spoon 1/3 cup of batter into the skillet. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

Serve with your favorite pancake toppings! I used fresh strawberries with a pinch of sugar 🙂

*Note: I did not have a sifter (actually my sifter is in Texas with a million other cooking tools I own) so, I did not sift my dry ingredients. My pancakes still turned out fluffy and light.

Three pancakes with strawberries

My pancakes turned out a perfect golden brown color. They were more oval-shaped than round, but that’s what I get for trying to squeeze three good-size pancakes into a 10 inch frying pan! I felt a little guilty about eating three of them, but considering I don’t like syrup on my pancakes (I know, I’m weird) I figured I could afford to eat an extra one!

After making these, I thought that they would taste really good with some coarsely chopped walnuts and sliced bananas mixed into the batter.  Or I could just add some cinnamon to them! All I know is that I’ve got some left over batter in the fridge, so I will be experimenting later this week with some specialty pancakes. Once you find a good pancake batter recipe there are endless possibilities as to what you can add into your pancakes.

Try these out and don’t be afraid to make them your own.