Overnight Yeasted Pancakes

I like to think of myself as a modern woman. I work full-time in a career chosen because of a personal passion and interest, travel as much as the bank account and schedule will allow, keep up-to-date on news and various happenings in the world, have cocktail time with girlfriends as well as dates with J (my husband) and am extremely self-reliant and independent. I mean, I may not have the shoe collection of Carrie Bradshaw or be a high powered attorney like Julia Braverman-Graham (Parenthood- just watch it, it is soooo good!), but I’d consider myself to be progressive and liberal woman.

I’m not sure if it is in spite of this or because of it that I also have a desire to be The Perfect Wife. Some of you may recognize or relate to this hypothetical scenario: wake up looking refreshed, have a hot breakfast prepared for you and hubby, have a productive and creatively rewarding day at work, return looking as dazzling as the moment you left the house and then cook a gourmet meal which you and the husband enjoy (with a nice bottle of wine) as the day winds down. Am I particularly proud to say I have this desire? Not really…it’s actually giving me an odd sense of guilt even typing this out, and you don’t even need to remind me that women with children- a group to which I do not belong- may struggle with the same wishes while juggling about a million times more responsibilities and pressures.

Of course, my reality is usually far from this nifty little fantasy. I wake up, oftentimes with bags under my eyes (pray tell is there a product out there that REALLY gets rid of these?!), spend frustrating days at work when I get into a creative rut and come home deciding that it’d be much easier toss a Kashi Frozen Pizza into the oven than roll up my sleeves and get cookin’. At least the wine appears in both versions.

Now before any of you get the wrong impression, let me clarify something.  I’d like to be a better version of this sometimes ragged, tired and lazy me. I’m not doing it just for my husband (who couldn’t be less demanding!) but for me. I want to be productive in every area of my life, whether I’m at work, home, in the kitchen, on vacation or cleaning out the cat box. Don’t we all want to be….better? Sure, Homeland or Pinterest or a gazillion other things can derail me from this mission but one can always keep trying and striving. And sometimes failing. Well, maybe more than sometimes!

Luckily, there are lots of things that make reaching this goal a little easier. Like these yeasted pancakes. How? Well, you just mix everything except the eggs into a bowl the night before and leave it in the fridge. The next morning, you quietly get out of bed, being careful not to wake the hubs, take the bowl out of the fridge, add the eggs, mix until combined and then cook up some fluffy pancakes. Call hubs to breakfast and present him with fresh, hot pancakes like you’re flippin’ Mrs. Cleaver. It’s genius, and ya didn’t even have to wake up early! Mission accomplished, at least for today.

Interested in making these seemingly labor-intensive-but-easy-as-Pop-Tarts pancakes? There are quite a few versions of this recipe online, but I used this one, cut in half. It made enough pancakes for two people, plus about 5 more (medium) which I Saran-wrapped and put in the freezer. The yeast in the batter makes the pancakes rise quite high; if you want thinner pancakes, just add more milk or buttermilk to the batter in the morning. You can also find Mark Bittman’s popular recipe for Overnight Waffles here.