How to make breakfast

Now you don't need me to tell you how to make simple blueberry pancakes, and anyway I don't care for the whole knee-jerk, holiday-cooking-and-celebrating-requirements thing, a la "it's Mother's Day and therefore you must (a) do something special like (b) have brunch and, better yet (c) have brunch AND make mimosas." A few days ago, judging by consumer purchase patterns, the command seemed to be "It's cinco de Mayo and therefore you SHALL drink margaritas." Traditions are fine and special festive foods and drinks are fine, but somehow, when that imperative tone sneaks in, I get disgruntled. Traditions are naturally going to be much the same for everyone, and so the ritual yammering on about them in newspapers, magazines, blogs, and cable cooking shows is going to quickly pall. As for all those brunches and consumer purchase patterns, well, who am I to complain? -- but are we really having a good time, or are we trying too hard? Don't margaritas taste good at other times of the year, too? The puzzlement of the uniform holiday ....



Still. If you happen to have blueberries on hand, and you feel like making pancakes and you also have some bacon to fry, some real maple syrup, and some chocolate-flavored specialty coffee, by all means crack open your favorite go-to cookbook and make breakfast. It's Mother's D-- I mean, it's all so tasty.

Blueberry pancakes (adapted from Marion Cunningham's Fannie Farmer Cookbook, 1986)

1 cup milk
1 egg
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Beat the milk, butter, and egg in a small bowl (or use a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup, so you can pour the batter from there if you like big pancakes). Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a separate small bowl, and add all at once to the milk mixture. Stir to blend, and fold in the blueberries.

Lightly grease a heavy frying pan, and pour on spoonfuls of the batter when the pan is hot. Bake (strangely enough, pancakes really do bake on the stovetop) until little bubbles show through the batter, then turn and bake the other side.