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Greek Yogurt Pancakes with Raspberry Lemon Sauce

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks for us.  Between the holidays, the break-in, and Rolo's illness, we're feeling a little beaten down.  We've entertained two weekends in a row, now, and while I love love love it, I think we could use a quiet weekend at home.

Unfortunately, there are no quiet weekends at home in sight for a while, so I woke up on Sunday morning determined to make sure we had (at the very least) a nice, quiet Sunday at home.  Even though the last thing I wanted to do when I woke up was make breakfast, I really wanted to try this new recipe and I dragged myself into the kitchen to find that the coffee was ready and the dishes from our dinner party the night before were washed. I love my wife.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine had posted on Facebook about making yogurt pancakes for breakfast.  I picked up a container of non-fat plain greek yogurt at the store after that and figured I'd give it a shot.  I googled until I found this recipe by Picklee.  Many of the recipes out there called for flavored yogurt, but that wasn't what I wanted.  This recipe is nice and simple and gives you a plain pancake.  I did tweak it a bit by adding 2 tsp of sugar and eliminating the cinnamon.  I used egg whites only as she instructs in the recipe, and let me just say--I LOVE THESE PANCAKES.  They are better than any of the mixes that come from a box.  They cooked beautifully, and I loved the slightly dense texture much better than the dry airiniess you get from the boxed mixes.   

Our lemon tree is in season, so we are swimming in meyer lemons.  We also had a container of raspberries in the fridge.  I decided to make a raspberry lemon sauce to go with the pancakes.  I'm adding the recipe for the raspberry sauce below--it turned out great for something I threw together first thing in the morning while I was half asleep.  I'm definitely adding it to my arsenal.

In the end, we had:

Raspberry Lemon Sauce

(Serves 2)

Ingredients:

• Raspberries - one 6 oz container
• Grated zest of one meyer lemon (although a regular lemon will bejust fine)
• 1 tbsp meyer lemon juice (you may want to decrease this a bit if substituting a regular lemon)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tsp cornstarch

Add the raspberries, lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar to a small saucepan and add just enough of the water to moisten the mixture.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, then reduce to simmering.  Keep stirring, mashing up the raspberries a bit with a spoon as you stir.  When the raspberries are mush, remove from heat and pour into a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds and lemon zest.  You'll be left with a beautiful raspberry liquid.  Put it back in the saucepan and whisk in the 2 teaspoons of cornstarch one at a time over low heat.  Simmer until thickened.

A (not-so) Vintage Cake

For Christmas, I asked for the book, "Vintage Cakes" by Julie Richardson.  

I couldn't wait to try out some of the recipes, but since our Meyer lemon tree is abundantly covered in ripe lemons right now, the two lemon cakes were calling to me immediately.  Since we were having a dinner party on Saturday night, I got to try making the Lemon & Almond Streamliner cake.

The cake itself is made with buttermilk and almond paste, and the result is moist and dense with the most lovely almond flavor.  It's topped with a deliciously tart home made lemon curd in place of icing.  I added some fresh raspberries for color, and they were a lovely compliment to lemon and almond.  

This cake was worth every single minute I spent in the kitchen on Saturday morning.  

This weekend, I'm going to try the Lemon Queen Cakes.  I'll let you know how it goes.  

Coffee

It's one of those mornings where coffee isn't so much a desire as it is a necessity.

I used to drink it black, but now I use 2 tbsp of organic half & half (organic lasts longer in the fridge!) and about a quarter packet of splenda.

How do you like your coffee?

Side note: I can't wait to cut up that watermelon!