Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

Hi Rach-

Inspired by Joy The Baker's sharing a 10-year ago card from her sister, I dug into my yahoo email archives to see what type of correspondence I was having with my siblings a decadish ago. I had some good laughs while reading old emails; I won't reprint my favourite - you debating the pros and cons of entering into a relationship with your bud Caleb.. There seem to be some extreme email personalities- Carmen and I were all pumped about email as a new medium for silliness, Brent's emails were almost always responses to mine, and I love the polite sense of response obligation that he brought to the task. Here's a few copy and pastes-

From:	carmen reems ... View Contact
To:	haleyree@yahoo.com

---

you are the butter icing on my cupcake, the moon rays that guide me through dark and stormy nights. How i could ever live without you, i just cannot fathom the notion. i think of you, my princess, labouring endlessly over your paper,and my thoughts rest with you, as i pray that peace and serenity will come to you. SERENITY NOW, my haley rebecca, SERENITY NOW



From: haley reems <haleyree@yahoo.com>
> > > > Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 14:21:58 -0800 (PST)
> > > >
To: Rachel Reems <sach@japan.com>
> > > > Subject: Re: hey there hot stuff..
> > > >
> > > > > hey rach. just so you know for future
> > reference,
> > > > mom
> > > > > does not peel cucumbers.

		yahooooooooo ... From: Rachel Reems ... View Contact To: haleyree@yahoo.com have a great thanksgiving Mooch, my turkey beats steadily for you and you alone. Re: to my dear brother.. ... From: Brent Reems ... View Contact To: haley reems thanks for the message mooch. Things are pretty good here, been playing a lot of frisbee, mostly ultimate. Its alright, not my favorite, but something that everyone - to some extent - can do together. Anyway, I will see you soon enough, Love Brent

Ah, good times. In 10 years from now I'll post Reems Eats highlights.

I've always been someone who needs to eat breakfast - none of this 'I'll have a coffee and grab something mid-morning.' No, I wake up and say good morning to my stomach. When Finn was around one-year, I traded in my morning granola for porridge - oatmeal with blueberries, sliced banana and honey is our daily fuel. However, there are days when Finn and I wake up and we both know that this needs to be a pancake morning. Sometimes this is because we are both feeling awesome - the sun is shining, Squirrel Birrel is running along the back fence, and life is good. Sometimes this is because I have a grumpy almost-3 year old who needs to be brought back to life with some good ol' Mommy lovin'. And nothing says Mommy loves you like a banana, oatmeal, whole wheat pancake with blueberry sauce (seriously - these actually taste good- stop rolling your eyes!).

However, on a Saturday morning I don't even consider dishing up a bowl of oatmeal. No, Saturdays, in time-honoured Joan Reems tradition, are always pancake mornings. Because Mike is a part of Saturday morning breakfasts I usually scale down on the whole grains and definitely need to forget about slipping any mashed yams, bananas, or sweet potatoes into the batter. No these are all about enjoyment. This past weekend I had a cup of ricotta leftover in the fridge but no white flour. Instead of using half all purpose and half whole wheat I used all whole wheat pastry flour. The results tasted delicious, and I hereby declare that I will never put white flour into pancakes again.

Ricotta Lemon Pancakes - Makes a good sized batch
Combine-
1 cup ricotta cheese (I use the lowest fat one - I think it's 7%)
2 eggs
3 T maple syrup
2 T lemon juice (fresh or from a bottle - if you use a fresh lemon add 1 tsp of zest)
11/2 cup milk

Then add the dry ingredients:
21/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 T baking powder
pinch salt

Mix and then drop ladles onto a greased hot skillet. Flip when bubbles form on the surface of your pancake.

Serve with blueberry sauce, maple syrup, and if you really want to be in pancake nirvana make up some cream cheese syrup. I take about a third of a cup soft cream cheese, cream in a third cup maple or other breakfast syrup, and then add some milk until I have my desired thickness. Yum.