Friday Musings

Gala Darling always has interesting links (lots and lots of interesting links-- she's prolific!) in her end of the week Carousel feature, and today this one made me laugh out loud.  500 Days of Summer re-cut as a thriller.



I made these "Batty Cakes" for breakfast this morning (cornmeal pancakes).  I had a bunch of sage, rosemary and garlic chives in the frig that needed to be used, so I added them and served along side an egg.  The recipe made about a dozen pancakes, so those leftover from breakfast were stuffed with goat cheese, arugula, and avocado at lunch time.  Great with chipotle salsa and iced mint tea.  (Isn't that table cloth the cutest?  It belonged to my grandma).

The cookbook was given to my mom for Christmas one year, probably right around that 1967 publishing date.  I've now made two of the pancakes from it, and they've both been among the best pancakes that I've ever made.  So, the recipe for "batty cakes" verbatim:

Batty Cakes


No flour in these.  They taste plenty good by themselves or along with fried chicken at the dinner table.


1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp honey
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1 egg, well-beaten


Mix 1 cup yellow cornmeal, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt thoroughly.  Add 1 well-beaten egg, 1 1/3 cups buttermilk, and 1 tsp honey.  Mix only until uniform.

In another recipe they say that if you don't have buttermilk, you can use milk that you sour with lemon juice or white vinegar.  Four tsp lemon juice to the one and a third cups of milk.  Let it sit at least five minutes before adding.


From Uncle Jim's Book of Pancakes by James E. Banks; Filter Press, Palmer Lake, CO, 1967.