Easy Homemade Pancakes

I wasn't planning on posting a recipe this week with Thanksgiving a week away, but Husband and I found ourselves wanting pancakes today, and we didn't have any pancake mix. So I went to my trusty internets and found this recipe. How hard could it be, right? Spoiler alert: not hard at all. It's your basic dry ingredients, add the wet, and mix. The recipe said to make a well in the dry before adding the wet, but I didn't see the point of that as after I added the milk everything spread out.

These pancakes cooked like any others, nothing special there. I still struggle with flipping pancakes, but I did get them to turn a gorgeous golden brown-I don't like my pancakes super dark.

Overall I'd say these were good and solved the problem of wanting pancakes but not having any mix. They were lighter and fluffier than what you get from pancake mix, but I wouldn't say they were anything special or extraordinary. But now I know what to do when this situation arises again. I'll be on the lookout for a killer pancake recipe until then. 3 stars.

Crockpot Mashed Potatoes

I know I missed a week, my apologies. As evidenced by my lackluster skillet mac and cheese post, I was in a rough patch. But I'm back!

Somehow Husband and I convinced my family to come to our place for Thanksgiving this year. So, I'm hosting my first Thanksgiving dinner and as such, needed to find recipes for your standard turkey day spread. This is the only recipe I'm giving an actual test run before the big day. Why? Because I've always been skeptical of crockpot mashed potato recipes, but it would be awesome if it worked because that's one less thing to worry about. And I'm feeling fairly confident about the other ones-they're all pretty simple. I'll probably post my results after the big day.

But for now, potatoes!

Again, I halved the recipe since there's only two of us. I also peeled my potatoes because I had the time and prefer peeled potatoes. But, you certainly don't have to.

(I wasn't lying when I said our cat likes to watch me cook.)

After they're chopped (and peeled if you so desire), just dump the potatoes into the crockpot. No water, milk, or any kind of liquid.

Then you go play Fallout 4 while the potatoes cook. (I blame Husband for that one.) Or whatever else you'd like to do to pass the time. The recipe says to cook 2-3 hours on high or 5-6 hours on low. I did mine on high, and since I halved the recipe, they were definitely done when I checked on them at about 1 1/2 hours. In fact, I think they may have been just a tad over cooked. Once they're cooked, add the rest of the ingredients and mash.

The original blogger uses a hand mixer for her potatoes. I just used a regular old potato masher because 1) I don't have a hand mixer (I really don't see the need since I have a stand mixer) and 2) using a hand mixer increases your risk of over mashing, resulting in gummy or gluey potatoes. Ick. But, do what you'd like.

So, in answer to the question of if you can really make mashed potatoes in the crockpot, my answer is yes! Hallelujah! Like I mentioned earlier, I think my potatoes ended up being a tad overcooked, but I'm not worried about that as I'll make the full recipe for Thanksgiving. And they were a bit too heavy on the salt and pepper for our liking. I'd probably cut those amounts in half next time. But these were still really tasty and easy. I'll be making them again! 4 stars from both of us.