Want Some Cheese with Those Pancakes?

I've had a few tough weeks recently when it comes to my SSSS, plus it is Valentine's Day so the pressure was really on this morning.  I decided I had to scale back a little bit, go back to basics.  Unfortunately, I've screwed up the basics pretty good too.

Since it is Valentine's Day I had to do something a) chocolaty, and b) showy.  To accomplish the former while still staying basic, I went with chocolate chip pancakes.  I used the Joy of Cooking pancake recipe Brutus Buckeye sent me.  But I did 2 parts whole wheat flour to 1 part white flour to make it a little more healthful and added in the chips.

And checking off the latter objective was all about the presentation.  Check out those strawberries - how incredibly cheesy, huh?  But isn't that what Valentine's Day is all about: extravagant, unnecessary displays of emotion?  It was supposed to be even more ridiculous - on this pancake I tried to place the chips in the batter by hand in the shape of a heart and was going to do the whipped cream in the shape of an arrow.  But the chip design didn't work out and I learned that placing them into the batter when it's already on the skillet will burn the chocolate.  Oh well, it still looked pretty darn good in my opinion and the rest of the cakes had the chips mixed in beforehand.  The pancakes get 4.5 stars, and the presentation gets a cameo on the Lifetime channel.

The pancakes were only intended to be the showy appetizer.  I wanted to add some protein, so I made up a simple sandwich.  I buttered and then grilled some sourdough bread, fried some eggs and dropped maple ham and swiss cheese on top.  Although simple, it was pretty delicious - 4 stars, mainly because the bread was fantastic.


I hope everyone out there in ITWOP Nation has a very happy Valentine's Day.