We love gingerbread - the yummy mix of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg - and don’t want to think of the December holiday season as the only time to eat it. Any morning that you have a little extra time is a yummy morning for gingerbread pancakes!

Ingredients

· 1 cup skim milk mixed with 1 TB lemon juice (or 1 c buttermilk)

· 1 cup whole-wheat flour

· 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

· 1½ teaspoons ground ginger

· 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

· 2 shakes of nutmeg

· 1 teaspoon baking powder

· ½ teaspoon baking soda

· 1 large egg

· ¼ c brown sugar

· 1 tsp vanilla

· ½ tsp pure maple syrup

· 1 ½ tsp unsweetened applesauce

Instructions

1. Mix milk and lemon juice and set aside to sit (to create a buttermilk of sorts)

2. Mix flours, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda in a large bowl.

3. Whisk remaining ingredients in a second bowl.

4. Grease and heat skillet to medium heat. (We add a pat of unsalted butter here.) My great-grandma always says that of the most important parts of making pancakes, blintzes or crepes is having a very HOT griddle or pan. Start heating it now so it is hot by the time you pour your batter on it.

5. Make a well in the dry ingredients; add wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. (Don’t forget your buttermilk…)

6. Spoon about ¼ cup batter for each pancake onto the prepared pan and cook until bottoms are golden and small bubbles start to form on top, 3 to 4 minutes.

7. Flip and cook until the other side is browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Lightly oil/butter pan between batches if needed. Adjust heat as necessary for even browning – we had to turn the heat down after the first 2 rounds of pancakes were made. Serve hot.

8. Alice tops these with pure maple syrup. Wendy and mom like them plain.

NOTE: Once, they looked runny so I left out the applesauce, and then they were stretchy and shiny instead of fluffy. So even though you might want to play around with no baking powder, no baking soda or no maple syrup - don’t leave out the applesauce!

Banana alternative: Once I split the batter and made half with the spices and ½ the amount of applesauce - and the other half of the batter with no spices, no applesauce - but one mashed overripe banana. That was yummy!

Recently, Alice volunteered to bake a dessert for a party. She made Hershey’s Celebration Chocolate Cake. We made the 3 tiers of the cake using 3 different sized round pans & stacked them, almost like a small chocolate wedding cake. It took a long time and was a pain to make. We frosted it with a store bought milk chocolate frosting, and swore we’d never go through the long process to make this cake again.

BUT THEN we brought the cake to the party and people said it was the best cake they ever ate. The hostess even sent Alice a thank you note for bringing such a wonderful dessert. The next time you are looking to really indulge (and have your whole afternoon free) try it for yourself.

Looking for reasons to go green in the kitchen?

Here is a quick list of why we have increased our organic intake and limited our non-organic intake:

• Taste - Over time, foods with lots of artificial ingredients numb your taste buds to the great flavors of natural foods. Stay away from corn syrup for a couple weeks and see how much better fresh fruit tastes!
• Food safety - Chemical sprays, fertilizers, waxing foods… Yuck! Food additives linked to asthma and heart disease are among those banned under organic standards.
• The environment - Organic farming is friendlier to the environment.
• Animal welfare - Organic farming is more animal friendly. Animals are kept in more natural conditions with fewer hormonal additives and a more natural diet.

We agree with much of this “top 10 reasons to go organic” article.