Pancakes to make you smile

I don't often make pancakes, not for me or my husband, but when I recently had a house full of company, I decided to treat everyone to pancakes -- I think especially for my five year old grandson. I usually like to make blueberry pancakes but in a desire to make the breakfast more enjoyable, I turned my blueberry pancake into smiley-face pancakes.

It could be that everyone who is reading this makes these all the time. It is certainly easy to do. I do think a smile is contagious so why not make your pancakes smile at you so you can see a friendly face.

Just make your favorite batch of pancake batter (I include mine below) and add fresh or frozen blueberries in a smiley face pattern, cook and turn over to cook the other side. I think fresh blueberries are a little easier but frozen ones work really well, though they cook a little more slowly.

Above, the perfect breakfast smile. I always use pure maple syrup to make them even more yummy. Maple syrup is a natural sweetener. I am not saying it is "good" for you, but it doesn't have artificial sweetener. I think that no more often than I cook them, the pure maple syrup adds to the treat of having pancakes. I also use the maple syrup as a replacement for sugar while cooking.

Here is my recipe.

1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup self-rising flour
1 tablespoon sugar or maple syrup (optional)
Blueberries (I use fresh sometimes and frozen sometimes. I like both. I like to put so many blueberries in the batter that I can barely stir it. I don't know if my blueberry pancakes are "batter with blueberries" or "blueberries with batter." You would think they wouldn't cook very well with so many blueberries, but they certainly do.

Heat a non-stick pan with a small amount of butter -- around 1/2 teaspoon. Heat on high and when the butter sizzles, pour 1/4 cup of the batter into the hot pan. Cook until bubbles form on the top of the pancake and turn it over. Cook until firm all the way through. You may have to turn the burner down. Cook all pancakes and store leftover in the refrigerator or freeze them. They thaw well in the microwave and are very good warmed over.