I know… when the temps start rising, I start complaining! But I’m pretty certain it wasn’t still March when I began my rant last year! Look at those temperatures! That is crazy talk – nearly 100 degrees tomorrow – on April 1st! Maybe the forecasters are just playing an April Fools joke on us and it will actually be a lovely 78 degrees. Fingers crossed!  Just in case, I’ve got the perfect spring breakfast or brunch dish for you. I’m going to consider making this again for Easter…. as long as we’re not tipping over the century mark by then. If that is the sad and sorry case, I plan on serving only ice cream, sorbet, and a nice light, but heavily chilled, Rosé!

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I’ve been either on the go or sick for weeks now without a break!  But today – today there is not a single thing written on my calendar – a FREE day!  A lazy day – a perfect Friday! So keeping with the feel of the day, this will be a lazy and easy post.

Marissa is home this morning, not having to go to work until 5:00 tonight.  I’ve been up since 7:00 AM, she got up at 9:00 when I woke her up (accidentally) to look at something online.  An hour later she said, “I want pancakes.”  Oooh, pancakes, that sounds good. So we made “Pancakes ala Marissa”, which means the mix was from a box, but there are always awesome mix-ins.  This time, the embellishments are toasted pecans and slices of ripe banana… yummers!  Then I added a little special touch of my own, cooking them in a mixture of butter AND Queen Creek Olive Mill Vanilla Bean Olive Oil – so good!

Another great thing about this particular Friday; Connor comes home for the week of Spring Break! He’ll be jealous about these pancakes, but luckily for him, there is some batter waiting for him in the fridge…

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It may be too cold outside to have an actual Creamsicle, but it’s always the right time for an orangesicle smoothie! And as you can see by the picture below, I’m utilizing my frozen cubes of orange juice and orange zest.

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You know that saying, right? It means you measure any wood you are working with twice to make absolutely sure that your measurement is correct because you only get one chance to cut it right. That is how I feel about greasing a pan when baking. I am not a huge fan of baking or making desserts. Too many things can go wrong, at least for me they seem to.

So the one thing I try to get right is to get the dessert out of the pan in one piece.  Easier than it sounds unless you use parchment paper. Whenever I make a cake or quick bread, I always (even when I forget to put it down on a recipe) grease the pan, line the bottom of the pan with parchment, and then grease the parchment. Works every time, as you’ll see in the pictures below.

I’ll be on Channel 12 NBC Valley Dish live today at 3:30, making a wonderful winter salad, in case you want to watch. I’ll post a link to the taped show along with the salad recipe tomorrow. AND… a very happy birthday to my sweet Jennifer! I adore you! xoxo

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As usual, there are overripe bananas sitting on my counter. That indicates two problems, first that people ask for bananas and then don’t use them, Marissa and Dave, I’m talking to you! And secondly, now I must make banana-something, again!  OK, that’s not truly a problem, just a reality.

The real problem is that I didn’t follow my own advice while preparing to make this coffee cake. I neglected to set up my mise en place (the French phrase meaning “everything in place”) beforehand. So even though this is called blueberry-banana coffee cake… there are no blueberries in mine. We had them on the side. Dang, it! Be sure to get out your blueberries, and everything else needed before you begin.

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I bought these pretty peaches at my pretty daughter’s request… 4 days ago. Since she hasn’t eaten even one peach yet, time to do something with them, at least a couple anyhow. Turns out Marissa has a good excuse though, she hasn’t been home much, because she has a new job. Not the big “career” job she’s still searching for, but a paying job, all the same. 

So, if you go the California Pizza Kitchen near Scottsdale and Shea, ask to be seated at her table, I’m sure she’ll take good care of you!

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Who would think that with four people living here, we wouldn’t be able to get rid of a box of blueberries in a week? I used a portion of the 2-pound box (from Costco, of course) for blueberry muffins, and another portion for blueberry pancakes, and was thinking the family would devour the rest. Well, they haven’t, now the sweet little gems are about to go south, so I have to bake again… this finally finished them off!

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After making the Banana-Blueberry Muffins yesterday, I still had some of the streusel topping leftovers, so I sprinkled a little over the pancakes as they were cooking. Hey, one can never have too much streusel in their life! See yesterday’s post to get the ingredients if you don’t have any streusel mix laying around but wish to do the same. Just cut the quantities down to about a fourth of the original amounts. This is one of the Optimum wellness foods. Full of nutrients and great for the body.

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Now that Marissa is living back at home, the house is always filled with a boatload of friends. Her boyfriend, Albert, and three other friends from Tucson drove up yesterday and stayed overnight. Luckily, I picked up a 2-pound box of blueberries at Costco yesterday and I happily found 3 overripe bananas in the fridge. Thus they shall have these muffins plus blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Actually, by the time they roll out of bed, it’ll probably be more like brunch. The pancake recipe will be up tomorrow.

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Along with yesterday’s cherry crumble post, we made this fall-inspired “pancake” for Monday’s breakfast-inspired cooking class menu. Cherries may remind us of summer and apples more of autumn, but luckily apples are around all year long. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I placed this on the menu (way back in March when I sent out the registrations-schedules) for the summer classes. I have a very similar recipe I call the Magic Pancake Basket which uses a strawberry topping after the pancake comes out of the oven… that would have been more summer-like. Oh well, apples or strawberries – this morning treat is a winner every single time.

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