Winter breakfast

Today, Saturday Aurora came to visit. I had a feeling she would ask for pancakes even though she would already have eaten breakfast.

So I decided to try one of the recipes from this weeks NYT column that was all about pancakes. Mark Bittman has the following. I tried, but didn't really make his recipe at all. As usual, I didn't read the recipe last night, so no cooked oatmeal, didn't have the apricots or the almonds. So in reality what I made was nothing like this.

I did use the cardamon and the regular uncooked oatmeal, and they smelled wonderful and actually were pretty light in texture. I would make these again, but I would let the batter sit longer than 15 min. and I would add the nuts for crunch.

This week I bought "blood oranges" from The Fresh Market, just as a treat. The juice is blood red, but they did not taste any different than regular oranges! Then I had leftover pork shoulder that I couldn't think of using, so I pulsed it in the Cuisinart, added pepper, salt, thyme, cayenne pepper, patted it into 4 small patties and fried it in the old iron skillet. Next time add some rosemary.

All in all it was a nice breakfast, actually quick to make. Don't tell Faithy, but Aurora likes to dip her pancakes in real maple syrup....just ask her! Then there is nothing better than building skyscrapers with Bumpa.

Cardamom-Scented Oatmeal Pancakes With Apricots and Almonds

Time: 30 minutes with cooked oatmeal

1/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup chopped almonds

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

2 cups cooked oatmeal

1/3 cup chopped dried apricots

Vegetable or olive oil, for frying

Honey, for serving.

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Combine the flours, oats, almonds, baking powder, cardamom and salt in a large bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and milk; stir in the cooked oatmeal and the apricots until just incorporated. Add the oatmeal mixture to the dry ingredients and stir gently; don’t overmix. The consistency should be that of thick pancake batter; add a little more milk or whole-wheat flour as needed.

3. Put a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. When a few drops of water dance on its surface, add a thin film of vegetable oil and let it become hot. Spoon out the batter, making any size pancakes you like. Cook until bubbles form on the top and pop, 2 to 3 minutes. Carefully flip the pancakes and cook until they’re browned on the other side, a couple of minutes more. You may have to rotate the cakes to cook them evenly, depending on the heat source and pan. As they finish, transfer them to a plate in the oven while you cook the remaining batter. Serve with honey.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.