Hurray for Paula Deen, y'all!

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the fact that our food sources aren't reliably safe anymore. I hadn't had anything terrible happen to me with food, I was just appalled by what was being talked about on the news about sick cows. What is scary is that many times it isn't necessarily meat that is the problem; it can be anything.

Take, for example, what happened at our house last night.

Mike was gone around dinner time which means that we did what we often do when he's not here and had something he doesn't really care to eat for dinner--pancakes and bacon.

I grabbed my box of pancake mix out of the cabinet and I vaguely remembered hearing that there was a recall on Aunt Jemima pancake mix. I had two of these boxes in the cabinet (must've been on sale at some point) and so just on a whim, I decided to check online to see if I had any of the tainted mix. Well, sure enough, I had not only ONE salmonella tainted box, but TWO salmonella tainted boxes of pancake mix. What is this world coming to? Salmonella in our pancakes now?

Anyway, I trashed the boxes, and listened to the boys moan because they couldn't have pancakes. Then, I remembered that I could probably GASP! MAKE THEM FROM SCRATCH.

Having never done this before, I sought out my favorite television cook, Paula Deen. Her recipe for pancakes was online and let me tell you they were DELICIOUS! So, here's a challenge for actually making pancakes from scratch. You can do this. Here's the recipe. I slightly modified to with adding more milk because I like my batter a little more runny. And, I also added the vanilla--her recipe didn't include it, everything tastes better with vanilla, don't you think?

Paula Deen's Chocolate Chip Pancakes:
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups milk
2 large eggs separated (this is easy to do, just crack the egg over a bowl and pass the insides from one shell to the other until the white falls into the bowl)
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl. In a small bowl, combine milk, egg yolks, and melted butter. Gradually add to the flour mix and stir until smooth.

Beat egg whites in a small bowl with an electric mixer until they are fluffy and they form peaks when you dab at them with the mixer. Fold beaten whites into the other mixture. Fold in chocolate chips.

Use about 1/4 c. of batter for each pancake on a very hot, buttered pan or griddle. Cook about 1-2 minutes on each side or until they look done.


Prepare to eat the most delicious, fluffy, non-salmonella infected pancakes you've ever had.

My boys each ate seven a piece! I won't tell you how many I ate. It was less than seven, but let's just say I was very full.