Comfort Me With Pancakes (and Why Sundays Are Sacred)

By: Leah Lizarondo Shannon

I write this on a Sunday, on a plane ride back home from a business trip that overtook my weekend. A Sunday I begrudgingly gave to “work.”

Sunday is usually family day at home. When I was growing up, the same was true. On Sundays – after a late breakfast, we would dress in “Sunday” clothes and go to church in the late morning. After church, we would often eat out at a place with some swank – where my brothers and I would proceed to eat ’til our bellies ached – then spend the afternoon walking the shops, grocery shopping or seeing our cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents. I would always be a little sad when the sun would start to set. I look back on this Sunday ritual very fondly, in that faraway pastoral lens that we see some of our memories through. I want the same thing for my kids. I want my kids to remember rituals as anchors of their childhood. I think it’s important that they know that while life ebbs and flows and waves carry us in many different directions, there are traditions and rituals that bring us back to shore – where we can pause for a moment, impervious to the waves.

That’s why on Sundays, my kids have come to expect our Sunday pancakes. On Sundays, my kids expect “family day”. It is an expectation I am happy that they have and an expectation I want to consistently deliver on. It is our Sunday ritual. So on Sunday mornings, our house is usually filled with the smell of pancakes on the griddle. I make a double batch so it takes a while and when it’s ready, we all sit at the table, passing the maple syrup, basking in the love, enjoying the same moment repeated from Sundays past and we know will be repeated in Sundays to come…

Blue Cornmeal Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes

This is a redo of a recipe I previously posted. I like this recipe better because it consistently results in crunchy edged, fluffy center pancakes and has more accessible ingredients. I try to break away from this recipe sometimes and I usually have a morning mutiny in my hands when I do.

*NOTE: This is a double batch that feeds a crowd or feeds a family of four with some leftovers to pack for school lunch (I usually pack it as a peanut butter “sandwich”)

1 1/4 c buckwheat flour
1 1/4 c blue cornmeal (you can use yellow cornmeal, of course)
3 t baking powder
1 T cinnamon
1/2 c. applesauce
1 T Ener-G egg replacer whisked together with 3 T warm water (or use 1 egg)
4 c. almond, rice or soy milk
1 T vanilla
2 c blueberries (I prefer wild blueberries because they are smaller)
Coconut oil for cooking the pancakes

Put your oven setting to “warm” or the very lowest setting and place a tray on the top rack. Mix the egg replacer with water. Set aside. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and mix it with a dry whisk. Add the milk, applesauce, vanilla and egg replacer mixture or egg. Mix thoroughly. Heat a cast iron skillet (or a few if you want to finish more quickly) then add a small amount of oil to coat. Pour in about 1/4 cup of batter, cook until the bottom is lightly brown then flip. Cook the other side. Place cooked pancakes in the oven to keep warm as you cook the rest.

Serve. Enjoy.

* That title is an homage to Ruth Reichl, goddess food writer.

Leah Shannon, The Brazen Kitchen, is Chief Veghacker at The Brazen Kitchen where she blogs about food and food policy. She also holds wildly healthy cooking classes at Wild Red’s Farm in Stanton Heights. Her blog is at The Brazen Kitchen and you can follow her on Twitter @brazenkitchen.