Breakfast For Dinner.

My favorite dinner menu growing up was the menu featuring breakfast items. The nights when parents just can't bring themselves to actually cook, so a breakfast is served to the children, much to everyone's satisfaction. Eaten at dinner time, breakfast foods take on an even sweeter place in my heart. Perhaps this is because I am a very finicky eater, or perhaps I just like to do things a little differently-you know, really throw caution to the wind, be adventurous. And for me, just about nothing beats pancakes-at any time of the day.

Real pancakes are, real good.

My kind neighbor picked some wild Maine blueberries (not to be confused with the large, tasteless variety often found in stores) for me- he owns his own stone work company, Green Island Stonework and makes the most beautiful stone walls, benches and patios. More on the stonework later...

What a treat, to have these little babies all picked and washed for you! The color of Maine blueberries is such a succulent blue, and I love that the juice stains your hands purple, not blue, when you are cooking with them. Ahh, Mother Nature, tricky, tricky!

I was having one of those days where I didn't know how I would survive until the baby's bedtime, much less through cooking dinner and cleaning up. The blueberries arrived just in time. My husband and our kind neighbor worked on a project while I dreamed about the perfect recipe for this precious gift. Blueberry cake? No, too much baking, it was too hot for that. Blueberry scones? No, too wintery. Blueberry muffins? Please, too everyday. Then it hit me. I wanted pancakes. For dinner. With blueberries. I jubilantly told my husband that we were having breakfast. For dinner. He was less than delighted.

Fine with me, I decided to go stag to dinner, make my own meal and he could make whatever his little heart desired for himself. In under 10 minutes I was at the table, gorging on some of the best blueberry pancakes I have ever had the pleasure of eating. If I do say so myself. I always add a bit of baking powder, sugar and vanilla to the batter, so they really are like cake.


Pancakes for dinner-how divine!


Surprisingly, my husband proved that he indeed can survive on his own, and doesn't actually require my cooking services. He whipped up a grilled salmon, spinach and tomato entree, all gussied up with great care taken to ensure the visual presentation. After 12 years of pretending he "doesn't know how" to cook, even after I have given him countless lessons, I now see the higher truth: It isn't that he doesn't know HOW, he just doesn't WANT to. There is a subtle difference I remind him. Though I truly believe he sprinkled the sunflower seeds on at the last minute, to really up the ante, I was quite impressed with his creation. And I didn't have to cook it-everyone was satisfied.

Pancakes or salmon for dinner? I'll take breakfast.