pancakes and pesto

So this is not my recipe for the week (because that would be weak) but I've never made pesto before and had a wilting living basil plant that I didn't want to try to transplant out of its water and into a pot. I am taking off for Arizona and didn't want to waste the basil, so in less than 15 minutes I whipped up a batch of pesto. It was AWESOME. It's probably a good thing I didn't know pesto was this easy to make, because it can't be good to regularly consume entire cups of olive oil. It turned out a really bright green, not unlike the best pesto I have ever had in my entire life, in Florence, Italy, which we even documented, that's how good it was:



Remember how I said I started writing about my cooking adventures to keep me honest, to inspire me to make beef bourguignon instead of cheaping out and making pancakes? WELL. That really got me thinking about pancakes. I'm an eggs and bacon kind of girl, not a french toast and waffles girl. I always have been. And honestly, I've never made pancakes in my entire life.

I think this stems from growing up within a family that equated consuming white flour with heathen behavior. I grew up eating sandwiches made of sprouted whole grain wheat bread. It's probably a good thing I was homeschooled because I would have been tortured at lunch in kindergarten. Everyone else would be eating skippy on white bread with the crusts cut off. I had to beg my mother just to cut my sandwiches diagonally. I remember once my mom pulled away from the grocery store with the wrong bags loaded into the trunk. As he unloaded the groceries, my dad pulled out a bag of Wonderbread. THE HORROR. I distinctly remember him taking out a slice and mushing it up into a golf ball. He held it squarely in front of my young eyeballs and said "you see this? This is what it turns into in your stomach. And it never leaves. EVER! That's why we don't eat white bread in this family!"

While all the other kids ate chocolate chip pancakes that were truly reminiscent of cake, I grew up eating pancakes made from buckwheat flour. A step up from sprouted whole grain wheat bread...but as a kid...not really. As a result, I just never really got into it. Eggs and sausage taste the same, no matter how you make it! But pancakes you can really make kid-unfriendly by gooping it up with healthy stuff. Like buckwheat flour.

Anyway, as many of you know, I have actually turned into my father over the years. Somewhere along the way I too have become repulsed by Wonderbread. So as I started thinking about pancakes the other day, I decided to try out a recipe that harkened back to my youth: buckwheat pancakes. Only with a lemon blueberry twist.

Lemon Blueberry Buckwheat Pankcakes

1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar (more if you like your pancakes on the sweet side, or if your berries are super tart)
1 tsp salt
1/2 stick cold, unsalted butter (1/4 cup) cut into small pieces
1 cup buttermilk (you can fake the buttermilk but adding 1 tsp lemon juice to 1 cup milk)
2 eggs
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2 cups blueberries
oil or butter for the pan

Mix the flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt, either in a bowl or in the bowl of a food processor and cut the butter into the mix—by pulsing the food processor or by using a pastry cutter or knife and fork—until the mixture resembles fine meal.

In a large bowl, mix the buttermilk and the eggs until smooth. Add the dry ingredient mixture and stir until incorporated. Add the lemon zest. Let sit five minutes before adding the blueberries. The batter will be thick.

Grease a fry pan or griddle and heat on medium high. Once the pan is hot enough so that a drop of water “dances” on the grease, pour the batter on in 1/2 cup scoops with a ladle. Don’t flip the pancakes until a generous amount of bubbles have appeared towards the center of the pancake. Adjust heat as needed.


I had some extra walnuts and pecans and so I thew them in too. Delish.