Sunday-De-Stress

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast? said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
"It's the same thing," he said. 

 The Tao of Pooh

Why did mom put this quote on the blog today?  It is because she needs to De-Stress and Winnie the Pooh is a great source for information de-stressing (plus mom agrees with Pooh on a good breakfast being all the excitement you need, particularly on a Sunday).

Now Weasley looks all calm and sweet and de-stressful in the above picture but  he caused some major excitement (not the good kind) and stress Sunday morning.  Mom and Dad had us all suited up in our harnesses for our morning walk and presto Weasley managed to slip right out of his and was standing naked on the sidewalk in front of our  house which is not far from a busy street.  Now mom was totally flipping out, Dad was calmer thank goodness.  Even in her fear though mom remembered what to do she sat down on the ground and called Weasley to her calmly (never ever chase a loose dog) and then she turned around and walked  into the house.  Weasley followed and by the time we got to the door he got close enough for Dad to pick him up.  Mom was shaking like a leaf.

The culprit seemed to be Weasley's harness

which had loosened a bit from being put over a sweater.  Dad tightened it and mom and dad tested it multiple times to make sure it couldn't slide over a pug head and then we went on our walk.

After all that stressful excitement, mom needed a nice calming breakfast.  Delicious simple buttermilk pancakes (and she even slipped some to us).

Plain and Simple Buttermilk Pancakes form Food 52

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups well shaken buttermilk (you can make your own buttermilk by adding 2 tbsp of white vinegar to the plain whole milk if you don't have any buttermilk and letting the mixture sit for five minutes).

2 eggs 

2 tbsp melted butter (plus more for frying the pancakes)

Its really important to let all the wet ingredients come to room temperature for this recipe so when you get up in the morning take out the eggs and the buttermilk and let them sit out on the counter (you can do this while you walk your dogs, just try to prevent any stressful leash malfunctions).   

Measure the dry ingredients into a large bowl and stir well with a fork.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.

In a smaller bowl beat the wet ingredients together until well combined.   Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients by pouring them into the center well in the dry ingredients.  Mix well with a wooden spoon.  Let the batter sit, covered, for half an hour.

Put a large pot with 4 inches of water in it on to simmer and cover with a plate.  You will use this to keep your cook pancakes warm.

Heat a griddle skillet over medium high heat until a drop of water sizzles nicely.  Add a tsp of butter and coat the pan well.  Ladle the batter in by 1/4 cup amounts.  Cook the pancake until bubbles are forming in the middle (it should be bubbling quite a bit) flip the pancake and cook 1-2 minutes until nicely browned.  As you finish pancakes put them on the plate over the simmering water to keep warm.  This works better then warming pancakes in the oven which will dry them out.

Serve with maple syrup and maybe some bacon, you'll feel much better.