Chicago is Rocking my World.

Monday morning.

I'm in Chicago for the moment! Spending some time with Dev+Patrick, working a bit, and even managed to squeeze in a road trip to Michigan through Indiana. More on the road trip later. In the meantime, I'm becoming increasingly successful at stationing myself on Devon's patio and decreasing any sense of productivity.

"What did you do today, Leslie?"
"oh...watered devon's plants on the balcony."
"And then, what did you do?"
"oh....sat and looked at devon's plants on the balcony"
"Anything else?"
"Hmmmm...contemplated watering them again, but realized that would eliminate the one thing on my list of things to do for tomorrow."

Tuesday morning.

Cute cloud. V.cute cloud.

This is my first time in Chicago when it's warm enough to not pack the Uggs and I have to say, this place kinda kicks ass. Had the opportunity yesterday to hijack Devon's beach cruiser and peruse the neighborhood stores/coffees/parks/homes/etc.

I was having a ridiculously good time.

It would have taken three truckloads of those Mr.CleanMagicErasers to wipe the stupid grin off my face as I meandered and swerved through rush-hour traffic...too dangerous to take pics of myself, but trust me....just know that it was definite happiness making. I kept wondering why the heck I haven't taken my own bike out and around SF, but then remembered that we live in one of the hilliest cities outside of the freaking Alps AND that it's usually too cold and windy.

Tuesday breakfast.

More to come. But for now, I must return to my balcony.

Breakfast of Champions

My ideal breakfast:
red velvet cupcake, hot/hot coffee (straw!), and email.

Um...what do you "normal" people have for breakfast during the week?

p.s. look who snuck into the upper left-hand corner of the picture.

Sleeping Bandit.

Gonna sleep in tomorrow. And make some more pancakes from scratch. Mmmmm.

Pancake-Paloozaa Weekend Extravaganza.

Researching and combining recipes.
Beating some egg whites to fold into the batter, per holly+scott's advice.
Warm Maple Cream, inspired by Clinton Street Bakery.
Melt some butter in a small sauce pan.
Add maple syrup, heat, drizzle half&half.
HOLY DELICIOUS.
Jamie dropped sliced ripe bananas which caramelized beautifully.
They were fluffy and delish!!
Once we drizzled the maple cream, there was no pausing for more pictures.
SUCCESS!

Modified two online recipes to create:

Ingredients

1 cup sifted all-purpose, pastry, or cake flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 egg yolks
3/4 cups half&half, more or less
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 egg whites
1/2 tablespoon sugar

1. Sift the dry ingredients together.
2. In another bowl, mix the yolks, most of the milk, and the melted butter together until smooth.
3. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the mixed wet ingredients all at once. Stir until just combined. (Over-mixing will make for a tough pancake.)
4. Beat the egg whites until light and fluffy and soft peaks appear as for meringue. Add the sugar toward the end of the beating. Fold the egg whites gently into the batter with a spatula. Add milk as necessary to get the right consistency.
5. Cook as you would other pancakes.

Gave me the confidence to try these Dutch Baby Pancakes the very next morning. We don't have a cast iron pan, but this pot seemed to do the trick. I added in a couple of extra eggs which led to an issue of too much batter for the size of the pan. Hmmm...left a thicker eggy bottom...we gobbled it up just fine. Highest carb weekend!! I'd like to think that we're just set up for a successful week with these sorts of meals under our belts.

So, what's your fave weekend breakfast recipes? I need more inspiration.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes - Bust.

Bobby Flay's Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Always looking for another way to use Trader Joe's Lemon Curd.

Mix the dry ingredients together.

Stir wet ingredients into dry.

Make pancakes!

Drizzle with melted lemon curd + fresh berries.

Yum??

Nope.  Not yum.  At all.  Edible, but not yum!  What went wrong?  I'm sort of confused.  I read and reread the recipe, but it wasn't light nor fluffy like the ones @ Norma's I had a couple of weeks ago in Palm Springs.  And gosh darn it, I'm not ready to give up.  Any suggestions?? Help.