Whole Hippy Pancakes (with peach rosemary sauce)

I've come to the conclusion that at every age in your life, you need the occasional weekend hot stack. When you're a kid and you go to IHOP, a pile of chocolate chip mickey mouse pancakes cures any case of the Sunday morning blues (derived from lack of cartoons and hours in church.) When you're a teenager, you're hungry all the time so... enough said. When you're in college, a healthy dose of buttermilk can take the edge off a hangover (usually), and bring enough people to the table to piece together last nights' adventures. After that, well, they're just caloric monsters for your ailing metabolism, but they make you forget about work so whatever. And I'll bet if you're 80 and eating pancakes, it'll probably be at a restaurant with your lifetime partner. And going out to breakfast may very well be the event of your day.... so here's to pancakes!

I use to make pancakes all the time, but hadn't in a while. So without further rambling, I give you Whole Hippy Pancakes with Rosemary Peach Sauce. They were modified from the original king of dank pancakes, the Harvest Grain and Nut IHOP imitation cake. Otherwise known as 'the heaviest pancake ever'.

I took out the nuts, kept the grain (whole wheat flour and oats), added some peach sauce, fresh whipped cream, and pure maple syrup. Not particularly unusual suspects, I'll admit. Topped it with slices of fresh peach, and washed it down with creamy local chocolate milk. Soapbox sentence: I bought the peaches, heavy cream, and milk from a farm market down the street, and they were all locally made. The egg came from my hens. Without the usual rant, the bottom line is that everything had a lot of flavor, and I supported my neighbor.

This is what the hen does when it's hot sometimes. Why it sits on the stone, I'll never understand. Anyway, it's an ingredient maker:

If you want to bring Whole Hippy Pancakes to your weekend breakfast table, here's how:

Order of Business #1: The Flapjacks

• 3/4 c. rolled oats
• 3/4 c wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 c buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c sugar (I used brown)

1. Grind oats in blender/processor until fine
2. Combine wet ingredients, mix well
   
3. Combine dry ingredients in different bowl
4. Combine wet and dry and stir
5. Use a healthy of dose of non-stick something to cover griddle or pan, because I omitted the oil from the recipe for a lighter cake.
6. Just in case you're a bad flapjack flipper: put the batter on the griddle, wait until the edges look firm and the middle isn't so wet looking, flip let sit for a minute or so, remove. Be careful to try and drain any oil that's browned, because it will burn subsequent pancakes.

OoB #2: Peach sauce

• two peaches
• rosemary
• honey

1. puree a peach and a half
2. add a girthy drizzle of honey
3. a heavy pinch of rosemary (if you can grind it, I think that would work better)
4. heat in a saucepan on medium low stirring occasionally
5. mixture should congeal a little bit
6. keep warm until pancakes are ready

OoB #3: Whip Your Own Cream

1. Pour a cup of heavy cream into an electric mixer
2. Whip on high until cream starts forming
3. Stop the mixer, sprinkle on a light layer of confectioners sugar
4. Continue whipping on high until cream gets stiff... you know, whipped.

Mix and match all your sides, or eat it plain, or drown it in maple syrup even if there's only a little bit left and everyone else still needs some.... it's fine, you can't help it sometimes.

P.S. Have you ever noticed how ridiculously small the 'handle' is on the maple syrup bottle? It's just silly.

Peach Granita

What is granita? It's an Italian dessert and it's wonderful and that pretty much sums it up. If you must know the details, it's like sorbet, except made with only very fresh ingredients and without any ice cream maker machine. (This is one thing that frustrates me about summer desert... you can only read ice cream and sorbet recipes if you're in the 'I own a really expensive ice cream machine' club. Which I'm not in, which is why I love granita.)

Being that it's early summer, there's an abundance of fresh fruit around. One thing I've come to really appreciate is seasonal eating. Supermarkets have made it seem like all varieties of fruit grow at all times in convenient locations. Like magic, there are strawberries in January, apples in April, and bananas all year round. It sickens me a little, actually. The problem with eating produce out of season is that you loose so much flavor and nutrition, and you probably pay out the waahoo for it. "Sure, I'll buy this styrofoam strawberry in December, because well, it's here!"

The other great thing about eating seasonally is that after going much of the winter without these exotic fruits, the spring and summertime harvest are that much more exciting. The first bite of a ripe peach is like ...... I don't know what. I could get dangerously cheese here, so I'll refrain.

So here it is, a seasonal dessert that I absolutely love. Peach granita. It's really simple, and beats Rita's waterice and bomb pops any day. (Remember bomb pops? Side note: every time I see an ice cream truck drive by, I WANT to want the ice cream truck but now just can't get past how creepy the whole deal is...)

All you need is:

• 2.5 cups chopped peaches (about 4-5 peaches) Please use regional peaches that are ripe, and are NOT the 'white peaches'
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 cup water
• a pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla (or more if you want a a heavier vanilla taste)

In this desert, your final product is a direct reflection of your ingredients. So use good ones!

• In a food processor or blender, process all the ingredients till the mixture is pretty smooth
• Pour into a clean glass dish. It should be fairly big and flat so your mixture will freeze quickly
• Rake the outside edges to the middle every 20-30 minutes until the whole thing is frozen and 'granulated'
• Serve immediately plain or with fresh whipped cream and honey
• If you want to save it, just cover it, and give it a chance to soften up a little before serving again

You can make this with many different fruits. I've made a pretty awesome mango granita, and I think I'll try peach blueberry granita soon.

Note: I have been taking all my pictures with a google phone, which used to take surprisingly good pictures for a phone. Now with the updated software, the camera function has regressed, and my pictures look way worse. One of those instances where change does not always mean progress. This is a rant for another time.