Pancakes .. Helen Corbitt's plus

Start bacon or fresh trout with chopped onion .. better taste.

3/4 cups each of reg. flour and soft white spring hand ground.

3/4 tsp salt .. 1 tsp baking powder (3,800 feet) .. scant sugar for browning .. pour of oil .. dollop of sour cream same as butter milk .. pour of vanilla about 1 tsp .. warm one cup milk and mix .. cook .. eat wife's bacon if she doesn't come when called.

If you're adding sour cream or buttermilk, you can substitute 1/4 tsp baking soda for 1 tsp baking powder. The acidifying chemicals in the baking powder aren't necessary, what with the acids available from fermented dairy.

Same goes if you were to use sourdough starter or sourdough hooch in the batter.

Thanks Joel,

I have quit trying to make sour dough as my starter .. San Fran B. .. gets taken over by "something on the trail." As in Oregon. Do you grind your own grain?

Why on earth are you in Oakland and what part. My wife and I had an apartment on lake Merritt and then we moved to Salvo Island Naval Housing in Berkeley when she became pregnant.  We were there during the tear gas years at the U.

DustyTrails wrote:Do you grind your own grain?

Why on earth are you in Oakland and what part.

Not really...a few handsful in the coffee grinder when some wheat volunteered, and again later when I wanted to try toasted barley tea. I probably should do more of that eventually, but a greater priority now is to grow more of my calories. I'm going to see how much I can get from a small area that's mostly potatoes and another that's mostly alliums, this Winter.

I'm a city person! I grew up in the countryside, and all but the worst parts of Oakland are safer than my tiny hometown. In general, I find people here less vicious (both senses: less fierce, and less corrupted by vice). I'm in Temescal...the food and coffee are excellent, and the content of the conversation can be almost as good as this forum. I also rationalize it in terms of the energy I save living in a mild climate with needs available within walking distance and a local electric grid driven to such a great extent by wind and hydroelectric power.