Saturday was my husbands 32nd birthday. I cannot believe it’s
been a whole year since we celebrated his last one down in Florida with his
whole family, it was such a great trip. Friday we had a pre-birthday lunch with
him at The Cheesecake Factory (yum!), ordered from our favorite Chinese
restaurant for dinner and finally watched This is The End once Henry went down.
The group of actors in that movie are our favorites (especially Danny McBride)
and the movie was hysterical.
been a whole year since we celebrated his last one down in Florida with his
whole family, it was such a great trip. Friday we had a pre-birthday lunch with
him at The Cheesecake Factory (yum!), ordered from our favorite Chinese
restaurant for dinner and finally watched This is The End once Henry went down.
The group of actors in that movie are our favorites (especially Danny McBride)
and the movie was hysterical.
I like to celebrate birthdays in our house for a few days, if not a week. On Saturday, I woke up early to make some yummy Apple Pie Pancakes. I found a great recipe here and followed it pretty closely. I added a little bit more cinnamon and used two whole apples. I also like to make my pancake mix ahead of time and then leave it in the fridge to “set up” a bit so the batter is easier to work with and a bit thicker when making your pancakes. Here is my adapted version:
Apple Pie Pancakes
DRY INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Flour
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (original calls for freshly grated. I used ground nutmeg)
WET INGREDIENTS:
1 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
ADDITIONAL:
1 cup peeled and grated apple (I used 2 whole apples for this recipe and it was well over a cup. But hey, we like apples). PS: this is messy. I had no idea how juicy apples were. Do this on a cutting board!
Butter or vegetable oil, for the skillet (I used spray PAM)
Maple Syrup
Powdered Sugar (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Mix together all dry ingredients in a medium size bowl.
2. Whisk together the wet ingredients in a small bowl.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mix well using your hand mixer, then add in the grated apple. I used my hand mixer to combine all of these, instead of folding in the apple like the original recipe called for.
4. Put batter into fridge for 1-2 hours. (optional) I kept mine in there for 2 hours and it was much easier to work with.
5. Preheat your griddle to medium and brush with butter or oil. Using a 1/4 cup measure, scoop the batter onto the skillet. Cook 1 to 2 minutes until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancakes, and then flip. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook on the other side for about 1 minute, or until golden brown.
6. Transfer the cooked pancakes to a baking sheet and place in a pre-heated oven (200 degrees F.) to keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve pancakes with warmed maple syrup and a dust with powdered sugar.
{A little sloppy. I have never been a good pancake flipper and I have no idea how they make them so perfectly round at iHop.}
{the birthday boy}
{Henry loved them!}
After a birthday breakfast and opening cards/gifts, we headed up to Bert’s Pumpkin Patch! We went last year too and have decided to make this our “spot” for pumpkins and October traditions. Here is a picture from last year, Henry was only 3 1/2 months old!
And here are our pictures from this year
Sunday we had breakfast at Dutch Monkey Donuts, which is seriously like a gourmet donut shop. They might as well have been cupcakes. Jan’s favorite was the bacon wrapped glaze. We sat outside and ate, the weather was perfect. Afterwards we ran some errands, completed our front porch decorations, and had our best friends (and Henry’s Godparents) over for dinner. Henry’s Godfather’s birthday is 2 days after my husbands so it was a joint birthday dinner. Jan made his signature Shrimp Tortellini, we had drinks, played catch up, and enjoyed each other’s company.
I hope everyone has a greet week! Happy Monday!
Look at baby Henry and walker Henry – ahh! The aging process of these babies is killing me. These pictures are beautiful – I'm so glad you found your pumpkin spot and had such a special celebration (or series of celebrations rather!) for Jan!!