easter sunday

When I was about 8 years old I drew a picture of a small house with a little fence surrounding it. The fence was covered with tomato vines with tomatoes bursting through. In the distance was the ocean. I drew this picture because of a homework assignment. When I turned it in, the teacher, Mrs. Dorey, asked what this had to do with the assignment (what I was going to be when I grew up.) I replied, "This is my house, inside the house is me and my boyfriend. We are having breakfast and coffee reading the newspaper at the table. We are going to go surf later." She then asked, "What does this have to do with your homework, 'Your Future Occupation?' Are you going to be a housewife?" I looked her and said, "I am going to be a teacher," and then pointed towards the tomatoes vining through the fence, "see this, it's a tomato, it's Summer break." I remember being so annoyed at her. I never respected Mrs. Dorey after that, to me as an 8 year old, I felt that if she didn't understand the obvious she wasn't fit to run a science club. (She was also the sponsor of the science club.)

Anyway, here I am living in a loft with my husband. I am not a teacher, I have no tomatoes, and I can't surf. But I did make pancakes and we did drink tea and we are reading. Jersey is reading BUST Magazine, cause Bret and Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords are on the cover. I am reading Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami.

I was thinking about those pancakes we made a couple of weeks ago and I figured out a way to make them more scrumptious. Here's my version of Rum Chocolate Pancakes:

1 cup of organic flour
1/4 cup of organic pastry flour
1 1/2 tbs of sugar
1tbs of baking powder
tsp of sea salt
2 eggs
1 cup of heavy cream
4 tbs of melted butter
1 tsp of vanilla extract
2 tbs of dark rum
1 square block of the Scharffen Berger 62% chopped up coarsely

In one bowl sift the flours and baking powder together, add sugar and salt and whisk.

In another bowl beat eggs until frothy, add butter, cream, rum, vanilla extract and mix well. Dump this into the dry bowl and mix well.



In order to get that nice crunch on the surface of your pancake, while the pan is heating add some butter to the surface. Drop pancake batter on the pan whatever size you like. I prefer my pancakes on the smaller size. Cook on one side until you see bubbles at the surface and see the sides become stiffer, flip and cook on the other side for another minute or so.



If you have extra batter you can leave it in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and keep in the fridge for 3 days.

I really like the Marco Polo black tea from Mariage Freres with these pancakes.



I don't know if I will ever be a teacher, but I hope one to day to have a home near the beach with my tomatoes. For now, we'll just be listening to the Descendents on our record player this Easter.