For the Love of Red, White and Blue

There are so many things that come to mind when I think of the 4th of July...

Freedom and Fireworks

Strength and Sacrifice

Flags and Family

Parades, Patriotism and Pancakes

Pancakes?! Well, yes... in our house, how could we expect any less? :)  Last night I suggested star shaped pancakes for breakfast, and Clayton's quick response was... "No, mom, you need to make American flag pancakes!" Ok, sure. Ha. I'm no Jim, but I have done my best from time to time to fill the many pancake requests that have come through our kitchen.

So, what was I to do? I got up this morning and, for the first time, mixed pancake batter in 3 different colors! For simplicity, I've managed to limit it to 1 color per day... today it just didn't seem right to stick to that rule. Thank you to Grammy for the pancake pens she bought me for Christmas this past year... they came in Very handy, as always! For the third color, I was back to the bowl and 1/3 cup measure that I used pre-pancake pen... Oh, how I love the pancake pen!

 One suggestion that I have taken from Jim, is that when you're making something complex, it is best to turn the heat down on your griddle. I'd say that I usually set my electric pancake griddle on about 325* to make pancakes, but today I dropped it down to about 250*.

The temperature change did a few things... 1. It gave me time to set the full design before the first bits were cooked through, thus cooking more evenly throughout.

Step 1: Draw the "stars" and stripes in white

And 2. The lower heat did not give the cakes the light brown color that you usually see when they're done. Instead they were light and maintained their color.

Step 2: Fill in the blue around the "stars"

Step 3: Fill in the red stripes between the white

And not shown here, Step 4: Flip Very Carefully! You may have to lift the edges slightly, all the way around, before lifting your flag to filp it completely.

With some of the remaining batter, I made stars... just for fun! :) 

My little guy got brave and grabbed the pen... 

to draw a happy face pancake for daddy... complete with eye brows!  

Happy 4th of July to you and your family!!

We hope you have fun tonight, and please, stay safe!

Now that the boys are getting a little bigger, I am always surprised at how much easier it is to take them new places, even when daddy has to work, and I'm on my own! So, after breakfast, we loaded up and headed downtown for the 4th of July Parade!