Rainbows and Pancakes

Seems like a funny title for a post, huh? Let me explain....

It has been SO hot here in our area of NC. I'm talking high 90's and extreme humidity. When it does rain, it's intermittent and then only for a few minutes. During one of our short stints outside so that the kids could release some of their pent up energy, we could see it raining in the distance. What started out as very dark gray skies, turned quickly into rain and then just a few minutes later we saw this....

Mother Nature's art work sure is pretty sometimes, isn't it?

Now on to the pancakes....

I admit it, I hate to sweat and who in their right mind wants to go grocery shopping when it's like this? Not me.

(Feeling sorry for me yet?  Didn't think so. Moving on....)

It's days like this that I fall back on the tried and true "breakfast for dinner" plan. Since it was going to be just the kids and me eating dinner, I decided that it was a good time to make pancakes.

Should be easy since it only takes the basic staples to make pancakes, right? Nope, out of milk. What?!? Yep, no milk in the frig and no powdered milk as a back up.

I started thinking... can you make pancakes with water instead of milk? I remember a favorite recipe that I had long ago that called for bubbly water. I wish that I hadn't lost it. It was a great recipe. But can you use regular tap water? I sat down in front of my favorite box and started searching to find out. I found that you can indeed make pancakes with water.

Here's what I came up with....

Fluffy Pancakes

2 C. flour
2 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 TBSP baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
2 TBSP oil
2 TBSP vanilla
1 3/4 C water - more if thinner batter is desired

Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl. Whisk in egg, oil and vanilla, just until combined. Mix in 1 3/4 cups of water and stir until combined. If a thinner batter is desired, stir in one extra tablespoon of water at a time until you reach the desired consistency.

Pour 1/3 c. batter onto a hot griddle or lightly greased frying pan. Cook until bubbles have formed and covered the top of the pancake. Carefully flip and brown other side.

Keep warm in a 200* oven until the whole batch of pancakes have been cooked.

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We enjoyed our pancakes and then headed back outside just long enough to enjoy the sunset.

For a minute everything was perfect....not too hot....perfect. The sky was so beautiful.

Then the bugs started biting......  Ok, back into the A.C. for me!