Easy Oven Pancake

Phil and I have a Saturday morning routine. If any part of this routine gets disrupted, it ruins my Saturday. Okay, maybe that is a little dramatic. I promise I don't have OCD, I just really like routines. Part of this routine includes him making me the breakfast of my choice, usually chocolate chip pancakes. I know, my husband is wonderful and I am spoiled. This past Saturday I decided to be a nice wife and make him breakfast so I turned to my favorite cookbook ever: Colorado Collage.  This is a super easy recipe and it is yummy, my favorite kind.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

2 1/2 tablespoons butter

1 1/4 cups milt

3/4 cup flour

3 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place butter in 9-inch glass pie pan and melt in the oven. In a blender combine the milk, flour, eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla. Pour into the pie pan with the melted butter. Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 and bake 10 minutes longer. Invert onto serving platter and sprinkle with powdered sugar and berries. This would be better with fresh berries, but we only had frozen at the time. Serve with warm maple syrup.

Random fact about me: I like the fake maple syrup better than the real stuff. The real stuff is just runny and so sweet. Does that make me a weirdo? Oh well, they are both terrible for you, even if only one has high fructose corn syrup. Whatever.

This is what it looks like out of the oven, don't worry if the sides get tall.

A Day in Santa Cruz

A few weekends ago, Phillip's brother came to visit us for the weekend. He is more outdoorsy than his other brothers so we decided to take him to Santa Cruz for the day and go kayaking. I'm not so sure he had a good time kayaking, but Phil and I sure did. Not only did we see the usual sea lions and otters. But we saw the little harbor seals as well. Those are the smaller seals that are lighter in color and have spots on them. The sea lions can be a little scary when you are out in the ocean, they are huge, and loud and so mean to each other, but the harbor seals are just plain cute! The otters are adorable too. We saw a little pair just hanging out together and cracking their mussels on their belly. I want to snuggle an otter. The best part though was seeing dolphins while we were out. Not just 1-2 either. No, we saw a whole pod of them. We were watching the pod to our right as they traveled surfacing every so often and we glanced to our left and a dolphin surfaced about 10 feet from us. It startled Phil, especially since he is Mister Safety and always follows the rules. You are really not supposed to get close to the wildlife, but we weren't seeking them out, sometimes you just can't help what comes close to you when you are out there. 

Phil's brother fell in. I felt bad, that water was cold. We were wearing wetsuits, but it takes awhile for those to warm up. It took him so long to get back up that the lifeguard hopped on his surfboard and paddled out to make sure he was okay. After that, he wanted to go back, so we did. I don't think he felt very comfortable about there and had a hard time keeping up with Phil and me. We were in a double kayak so we had twice the power, in spite of the fact that Phil says I never paddle, which isn't true. I am a girl for goodness sakes, I don't have the muscle capacity that he does right?

Are you jealous of my wetsuit worthy body? :-)

After kayaking we had lunch on the beach by the canal. It was a gorgeous day, and it is never a gorgeous day in Santa Cruz. Phil and I have been very blessed with the weather on our day trips lately. 

Looks like Phil should have brought some sunglasses. Or not, shortly after this was taken Phil's brother lost the Ray Bans he is wearing. Oopsie.

I love this guy.

 Mandatory feet in the sand shot. 

Phil's brother decided to go swimming. This time on purpose. 

He looks like he is freezing, clearly the water was cold at the shore too.