Recipes: Pancakes! Pancakes!

If you've never read Pancakes! Pancakes! by Eric Carle with your kids, you're missing out. It's one of our favorites, and always inspires us to make pancakes the next morning. Or sometimes for dinner.

I make a lot of pancakes around here. It took me a while to get a hold of a really good pancake recipe; one that would be flavorful without a Lake Huron sized puddle of syrup on top, and that would freeze well. I make a huge batch of pancakes all at once then freeze them in small(er) packages for easy re-heating later, like on those days when I've been up too late watching back episodes of The Office on YouTube previewing curriculum, and don't feel like rolling out of bed and cooking.

It also can only use one bowl, because I don't like dishes.

These are fabulous - light and flavorful and not too thick. Enjoy!

5 cups flour (I told you I make a lot)
5 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
5 eggs
5 cups milk
1/2 cup oil (I use either canola or vegetable oil)
2 tbsp vanilla

Add some cinnamon if you'd like.

Combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix well. I know people say your pancake batter should be lumpy, but I don't like lumps, so I beat them out. Do what feels good.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Too hot and they'll burn, too cool and they'll stick when you try to flip them. I don't use oil or butter in my pan because I've got non-stick pans that work pretty well.

Fill a 1/3 cup measure with batter and pour it in. Wait until it has lots of bubbles in the batter, then flip. You can use a spatula, or if you're really talented and want to impress your friends kids, just grab the pan and flip it in the air. One of these days I'm going to put a video of myself doing that on here.

This recipe makes 30 pancakes and cost me about $2. I just checked online and 12 frozen pancakes are going for $3.90 at my local grocery store. Delicious and cost effective. Gotta love it.