Sunday Brunch with Katie

This past weekend my best friend Katie came and visited me and my husband. I was so thrilled that when she and her fiance rolled into the parking lot I started to cry and, of course, I didn't want to stop hugging her. It has been especially hard being away from someone that I have been near to since second grade! After a weekend of good eating, Farkle, and some fine microbrews from my favorite city, I wanted to send them off to Sonoma Valley with a good meal in their tummies. For Sunday brunch we shared ricotta pancakes topped with fried bananas and a fresh blackberry compote and a dollop of whipped cream. Here are the recipes from this weekend's brunch. I hope that this weekend or the next you can create some wonderful memories with the people that you love, perhaps over some fine fluffy pancakes, and a great cup of coffee.

Ricotta Pancakes

2 cups all purpose flour

1 T sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs, separated

2 cups of milk

1/2 cup ricotta

Mix all dry ingredients through a sifter onto a piece of wax paper or a plate. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. In a large bowl mix the egg yolks, milk, and ricotta until it is well blended. Add the flour mixture gently with a large spoon. Stir in a spoonful of whites into the batter to lighten it up, then fold the remaining mixture. At this point, be sure not to over mix, this will ensure that the pancakes will cook up light and fluffy. Cook on a pan (I prefer nonstick) over medium low heat until desired colored is achieved.

Fried Bananas

3 under ripe bananas cut into 1/2 inch pieces

4 T butter

A little whiskey if you like

In a large sauce pan melt the butter over medium heat. Once the butter is bubbling a little bit, gently place the bananas into the pan. I like to make sure that the bananas aren't too crowded- giving them a little bit of room allows them to brown evenly. When the bottoms are nice and brown, flip the slices over and fry the other side. If you are feeling especially celebratory, you can splash some whiskey into the pan when it is all said and done. These are truly buttery, sweet and surprisingly crunchy!

Blackberry Compote

6 oz fresh Blackberries

1 T sugar

1/8 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Heat over medium low heat until the berries juice themselves. Squish the berries against the side of the pan to achieve the desired consistency of the sauce.

The wonderful thing about being with someone that has known you since childhood is that funny memories come up in conversation. Over this meal, Katie reminded me about the time when we managed to catch pancakes on fire! We were about eight and of course at my house, where a bit more culinary freedom was permitted! I guess we got distracted and went off to watch cartoons. After our culinary mishap, we didn't try to recreate the scenario and decided to stick to Bill's famous mickey mouse pancakes instead. Luckily we didn't catch the house on fire, we didn't get grounded, and we both figured out how to make delicious pancakes after the fact.

Thank you again for visiting my blog. Until next time, Happy Eating food friends!