Can I let you in on a little something?
I don’t live in the cool Los Angeles neighborhood that all my friends live in…
I have more matching spatulas than I do matching bath towels.
I still can’t seem to commit to buying myself a couch.
My bedroom bookcase seems to be made up of one part books and three parts dust.
I tell you all of this to let you in on the fact that I’ve been feeling domestically restless these days. The kind of restless that has had me daydreaming about moving into a downtown loft that I can’t afford. The kind of restless that has had me daydreaming about decorating a downtown loft that I can’t afford with expensive furniture that I also can’t afford.
Not being able to afford your daydreams? Torture and motivation. Together.
This weekend I decided… get this… that it’s all ok!
I took to my kitchen with my rubber gloves, bleach spray and a few rags and I scrubbed and organized like I’ve never done before. Yes, it’s just the kitchen. No, I couldn’t get to my whole apartment. But the scrubbing and organizing helped me remember that my humble little apartment, in the uncool part of town, is pretty darn sweet. I don’t need the fancy loft and the expensive furniture. I just need to make my little spot in the world a little brighter… with bleach.
And the pancakes this weekend helped too. Tremendous.
I can’t seem to leave well enough alone when it comes to pancakes.
Berries. Meyer lemon zest. Buttermilk. Sweetened Meyer lemon mascarpone. Delicious breakfast treat.
Berry Meyer Lemon Pancakes
8-10 pancakes, enough for two
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
zest of 1 Meyer lemon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 Tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup fresh blueberries or raspberries (thawed and drained berries work well too!)
oil or butter for cooking
In a small bowl rub the lemon zest into the granulated sugar until pale yellow and fragrant.
In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk and butter. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until just combined. The batter may be a bit lumpy. That’s better than overmixing the batter. Fold in the berries with a few strokes. Not much stirring necessary.
Heat a griddle pan or a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add a teaspoon of oil or a dab of butter and heat through. Add 2 heaping tablespoons of batter to the pan. Heat until bubbles form and start to pop. Carefully flip over and cook through. Place cooked pancakes on an oven proof plate and let rest in a 200 degree F oven while you fry the rest of the pancakes.
Top pancakes with maple syrup or mascarpone sweetened with a dash of powdered sugar and the juice of one Meyer lemon.
98 Responses
yum! a welcome change of pace from my usual sugared-up chocolate chip pancakes drowned in syrup! happy national pancake day….there’s nowhere else i would go for a recipe!
thanks for the reminder words of just making the best of what you have. I often concentrate on the greener grass elsewhere that I forget that I am blessed just simply to have a roof over my head. I just need to take care of what I have better. So, thanks. :)
I know I am a little late but I just made these this morning and the were WONDERFUL! Even my husband who doesn’t do breakfast will get out of bed for these. Thank you for posting so many wonderful recipes. I use them all the time!
So you have decided to move to the downtown loft you can’t afford? Good for you, everyone needs a change sometimes.
Tried these for brunch last Sunday (V-Day)…my boyfriend was bowing at my feet because they tasted so fantastic. So thank you for the recipe and deepening the love my man already has for me. HA, HA!
P.S. I live in Phoenix, which happens to be the most UN-HIP city. Wish I lived in L.A….
Hi Joy,
My cousin fwd’d me your blog and though I am no baker, your blog gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. Your blog just might inspire me to take one of your future proposed baking classes. Yes, I read up on your blogs and I don’t even like to bake. Oh, I mentioned that already. But, what I do find is the sincerity of your words and how sweet you come across on even a blog. So please add my email for your future “baking” classes, I’m very, very interested. And comment on the LA living situation: just wait a little time and that LA location will be a hip, happening place. I grew up in a gang infested Atwater Village and now, it’s such a cute little town! I’m with you, I like lofts!!!
You made me smile today. Thank you.
Hehe, as a student I keep thinking to myself: it’s ok, you will be moving out one day…but then who cares if my couches don’t match? This is the best time of my life! Plus, like you said, I like my kitchen stuff, and that makes it a home for me. Sad but true! Plus you have to admit you eat fabulously well! Also you have gorgeous cutlery and plates and food and bloggage! So yay. Keep smilin.
Love LovE LOVE pancakes!
Here in Texas, I can’t find Meyer Lemon…how do they compare to regular lemons? Should I add something to compensate?
Been sick with a virus. Maybe this will be breakfast tomorrow – celebrate feeling better again. :)
THANX!
Mmm, mascarpone. That sounds delicious on a pancake, and cleaning my kitchen top to bottom is something I desperately need to make time for and do. This weekend the kitchen will meet bleach. Thanks for the inspiration in both regards.
Bleach and pancakes – two of my favourite things! Really.
the pancakes look amazing.. and i love that the recipe isn’t to difficult.. congrats on the cleaning…
Hi there Joy! I can’t figure out how else to get a note to you, so here it goes…
My kids absolutely love those Lofthouse cookies from the grocery store bakery. We are a family that believes homemade is always better and it kills me to buy them occasionally for the kids. I can’t seem to find a recipe that will come close. I’m not sure if it’s the soft cookie or the frosting or just the combo! Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Melissa
Heaven. Happiness. Yumminess….all wrapped up in ONE with this delicious recipe Joy! I made it this a.m. and I don’t want to eat anything else today so that I can savor the taste of those amazing pancakes!!! OMYumminess……delish! I can’t wait to make them again! Thank you, thank you, thank you for this recipe!!!! <3
It’s funny reading this and seeing how rich-beyond-lofts you are in your words and in your spirit. This is why we love you! And I’m so glad you share your world with us.
I am however, very ready to buy my first Joy the Baker cookbook. Surely, there is a book deal in the works?? And if not, shame on the publishers out there. Self-publish! Can you imagine how many of these you could ship out in one week? And then, you can put a copy on your oh-so-clean shelf in your new spankin hip loft. And we’ll all be even richer by your sharing.
Joy you’re the pancake woman, you’re allowed to experiment. They look really lovely.
congrats on the cleaning! i HATE scrubbing the stovetop, and finally did that this weekend too. and the pancakes? mmmm…… you do whip up some damn good lookin’ pancakes!
perfect serving size for me! enough for morning and night :)
Good for you… It’s great to be content with what you have, but now I want a bite of that awesome looking pancake! Lezlee
oh I love your blog….I find myself wanting pancakes at 3 in the afternoon!
and ps. I think matching bath towels are far too overrated:)
for the love of God, Joy will you please tell me the name of this plate?
The great thing about LA is that if you live in an iffy neighborhood, you can describe it as “up and coming” or “edgy”. Plus the grocery stores in the “good parts” are always way too crowded. Have a great LA day!
Oh god, you had me at mascarpone! Seriously, I’ve often topped pancakes with cream cheese… why did I never think of mascarpone?
What an amazing looking breakfast. Never leave well enough alone if you are going to be doing this sort of stuff to it.
Joy, how I wish you wrote a book! With all these thoughts. I just love them all!
If I had a loft with expensive furniture, I’d invite you! But I think the real home and love is where Joy lives. With dusted books and a sink full of springforms.
oh no, not bleach!
think of the trees, and ocean!
you can use vinegar instead, or water and baking soda.
or even a ‘cleaning product’, with less harsh chemicals.
also im sure your pancakes are marvelous.
sorry for the rant.
Fabulous divulgences…makes me feel a lot better and hooray for spring cleaning! I’m doing my whole house at the moment (slowly).
Also, those pancakes look amazing. I’m always trying to find more wonderful ways I can use meyer lemons while they are with us and pancakes are a very big hit at our house.
I agree about being happy where you are – and it always helps when the kitchen is clean : )
I’ll have to try these pancakes too, yummers!
Mmm these look so good, its pancake day here soon, may have to try making these for it yummy!!
Bleach is my friend. In fact, my husband has labeled a spray bottle of bleach, “Ble-och” — it makes me smile every time I use it!
These pancakes look spectacular!
Hi Joy
What if you can’t get meyer lemons in my area.
Those lemons are beautiful and must taste wonderful in the pancakes! House cleaning is certainly not my favorite thing to do, but I feel so much better when everything is shining and organized.
inspiring!! great post! you can brighten the kitchen with bleach and brighten your pancakes with citrus and berries!
Yum!!! I see that Trader Joe’s syrup!!! I miss Trader Joe’s!
YUM! Nothing like a good meal (especially breakfast) to make everything seem OK, right? These look delicious :)
Five years in the same apartment with 2 cats and wall-to-wall carpeting often gets me in a “I-want-to-live-in-a-downtown-loft-with-gleaming-hardwood-floors-and-a-huge-kitchen-with-a-Viking-stove” kind of lust. Cleaning does wonders and so does taking in the inventory of the mismatched stuff that’s loaded with history. If it was all new and matchy-matchy you wouldn’t have much of a story to tell.
And you get awesome pancakes.
I love pancakes! These look so delicious!
i just made a meyer lemon tart but this looks like a much easier way to enjoy this great lemon! im on a lemony kick right now and may have to make these next weekend :)
Perfect timing – I was just offered some Meyer lemons from my brother’s tree. This sounds like an awesome pancake recipe!
Also, you’re not alone; I also cannot commit to buying a couch (although I desperately want to get rid of our disgusting hand me down), dream of living somewhere nicer (someday, right?) and went to town deep cleaning the kitchen this weekend (it was way overdue). Great minds think alike, right?
OH MY WORD!!! Absolutely incredible. These are a dream come true.
Joy, the “cool part of town” is all relative. What’s important is loving your little space. I love mine, and it sounds like you love yours. That’s all that matters. And damn, those pancakes look so delish. I think I’ll have to make them. I have a bit of a weakness for pancakes… xo.
YUM!! My babes are going to love these… thanx for sharing!
You wonderfully brave girl! I love this. :-) I’ve started doing the same thing and oh, what a jolt of delight it is to my heart! :-) Keep going!! :-)
Sounds reminiscent of BLD’s blueberry ricotta pancakes…light, fluffy, addictive.
Ah yes, I have those daydreams I can’t afford all the time. But then I go bake cookies or make pancakes and settle for being happy with delicious baked goods.
I love folding blueberries into my pancake batter, but I never thought about adding the lemon zest! That sounds lovely.
Hi! I’m from Brazil and it’s my first time here. As I was reading your post I said to myself: “This is me?” ;-)
Anyway, loved your blog and I will be coming here every chance I get. Kisses from Brasília(capital of Brazil, where I live)
Hi Joy. Just wanted to send a little shout out and “amen” to you regarding the bookcase scenario. I too have about a 3:1 ratio of dust to books. At least I think I have books on my bookcase. I can’t be sure anymore. My question is, who has invented something to dust a bookcase without taking everything off (books, pictures, candles, etc.)?
Good for you — our kitchen needs a serious scrub, and my in-laws are coming soon! We live in a decidedly uncool city neighborhood but it’s SO much more a neighborhood than the trendy parts of the Loop where our friends live. We have neighbors with dogs and kids and strollers and minivans….. it feels like real life and we love it. Stand strong!
… and continue making amazing pancakes….
Hey Joy,
you know what? Someone told me that we are so worried to spend money we probably don’t have to look better to people we probably don’t like! So don’t worry about nice neighbourhood or expensive furniture, just remember the joy is not in having things but in dreaming of it and make it possible with the people you love.
Enjoy your sparkly clean beautiful kitchen
Martina
What time is breakfast? These look awesome.
oh wow, these pancakes look so good! I love the flavor of lemon in anything, really. Will have to try it.
Don’t pancakes make everything better? Especially gorgeous pancakes like these ones. Mmm :D
Aww, Joy ;] I’m a regular reader and I kinda know what you mean about matching spatulas vs. bath towels. Thing is though, I don’t have friends that live in the ‘cool’ area of town, my friends are cool like me. Thus, I have reached your conclusion as well, pfft, who needs bath towels when you have 5 perfectly good mismatched one, the wonderful friendships, and the bleach to make everything shiny?
P.S. Good food.
I know just how you feel. Only I’m not interested into moving into a hip apartment. I want a house with a yard. Having three kids in a two bedroom apartment will do that to a gal… Sigh. A little reorganizing of physical things always helps me to reorganize mentally and emotionally, too. There is great therapy to be found in using your elbow grease from time to time.
I had to laugh about this post. I haven’t been able to commit to buying a couch, either. It borders on sane and sad at the same time. Don’t ask me how, it just does.
Your pancakes look awesome. I love anything with zest and or mascarpone in it!
YUM! Two of my favorite things… meyer lemons and marscapone chese! I want to go home and make these pancakes.. for dinner!
Oh my these sound so lovely and refreshing! Im thinking spring!
I go through phases like that too. It’s weird how cleaning can sometimes help, especially with the addition of pancakes! They look delicious!
Those look amazing, especially with the mascarpone!
Thoroughly enjoyed your blog today. Great lesson in patience and appreciation of what we already have. That is what truly leads to “More” in life, more joy, more abundance, more contentment. Thanks for sharing this amazing life lesson…and enjoy those pancakes..you deserve to experience one delicious life! Blessings, L.T. Schulte (AKA: Serial Room Arranger) Cincinnati, Ohio
Mmm, these sound fantastic and remind me of summer, which is needed with this weather!
amazing how cleaning/organizing always does the trick. i did the same yesterday. actually took all the silverware out of the drawer and washed the organizer!? how do so many crumbs get in there? i never bought buttermilk before i visited your blog. now your milk choc buttermilk pancakes are a staple on the weekends. will have to try this one to get us in a spring mood. living in the northeast, i just wish i could have my own lemon tree. sigh…
YES! That is true. I have been day-dreaming about winning the lottery and moving, and decorating. Who knew all I needed was bleach? Thanks for the reminder!
The “cool” part of town is usually over-rated and over-crowded! ~Mary
it’s better living in the uncool parts of town. i live in soho in nyc, which is ‘cool’ i suppose, but everyone here is too cool for their own good–it makes me nervous! heck, i’d go outta my way to a very uncool neighborhood if i was promised pancakes like those!
These pancakes will certainly cheer me up anytime!
Love this, yes although my abode is a bit smaller than most of my friends as well it’s filled with lots of love and furry friends to greet. it’s amazing what a little house cleaning can do for the soul. I can’t wait to try these pancakes!
Gina
I totally agree with you! We don’t need all that fancy shmancy stuff! Just a little spot to make us happy :)
Delicious looking pancakes!!!
Thanks for sharing. These look so good. I wish I had time during the week to whip-up pancakes before work. I’ll have to wait for the weekend to try these babies.
Doesn’t bleach make it all better?
These pancakes sound amazing and I love that you love them!
Wow, these look amazing! I know what you mean too, some things just get a little dull but a little clean up and some delicious pancakes defiantly do the trick!
Hey, that’s cool that you can stay so optimistic about it! I have never had either Meyer lemons or mascarpone, but those pancakes look good!
home is where the heart is joy :)
Mascarpone on pancakes. Delicious!
I had no choice but to reorganize the kitchen, as we are renovating. As for the couch? Who cares? If you are making delisciousness like that, I could forgive you for not having a couch!
I reorganized, clean and ‘decorate’ when I’m restless too! Sometimes just getting things in a different position, changing out pictures and moving my pretty canisters to a different spot helps so much.
Just bought a Delongi toaster/convection oven online…looking forward to reorganizing when it comes in the mail. A fresh vantage point for things makes me feel…fresh. Ah!
LOVE pancakes! Love your blog! :)
I absolutely agree… sometimes your own scrubbed counter and organized spice shelf is just the best place in the world, even if it’s not in the fancy neighborhood. And especially if there’s meyer lemon mascarpone sitting on it. oh..my…god.
looks so delicious!! beautiful recipe!
i have had lemon ricotta blueberry pancakes at a place in Manhattan called sarabeth’s kitchen…they were amazing :]
xx
Eliza
I know what you’re saying about all that! My couch is a hand me down with and it’s wearing a cover that’s always everywhere else. Wrinkle city.
These look absolutely amazing though! I need some meyer lemons in my life, but mostly in my pancakes.
Love your positive attitude Joy! Now I can’t let my hubby see this because then he may expect me to clean…
I love meyer lemons – bet these are fabulous!
I’ve only been in my new apartment 3 weeks but I’ve already cleaned the kitchen more times than I can count on my fingers. Who needs sleeping tablets when you can go to bed knowing you have a pretty kitchen?
I don’t know what a meyer lemon or marscapone is but I’m still sitting here trying to work these pretty little things into my life, like, my tomorrow life.
Good idea, I should reorganize my kitchen too, I always buy new tools and now there is no space anymore… but maybe I should wait and bake something nice instead!
XXX