trash to treasure bag and pancakes

I've been working on a little treasure bag for Jacob. When we go out walking, we inevitably collect all sorts of "treasures". I'm all about this but I'm not always a huge fan of putting dirt-covered rocks, pokey sticks and sticky pine cones in my jacket pockets. 

  I started out with some old fabric that I wouldn't care about if it got dirty. That turned out to be an old "skiing" jacket of Fraser's. It brought back great memories for him and now, it gets an extended life. 

 I put the old pocket of the coat on the outside of the bag flap for a quick little pocket. I lined the inside of the bag and wrote (or tried to, at least) on one of the outside "patches" that Jacob picked out. I used a pattern from The Rhythm of Family. Now, we just need a little bit of dry weather so we can go collecting!

This weekend I also happened upon the best recipe yet for pancakes. Jacob asks for pancakes a lot and we had been using the recipe from The Joy of Cooking. It was a good one. But we happened to have some buttermilk on hand that needed to be used so I switched to the buttermilk recipe from the same book. I'm also using white whole wheat flour instead of unbleached white. Holy yumminess! The buttermilk adds so much more flavour (as I'm sure all you buttermilk lovers out there already know... I'm thinking of my father and father-in-law). The cakes looked a little thicker than usual but plumped up really well when cooking. No raw spots in the middle which I've had before. So tasty! Another plus: my three year old can (almost) make them by himself, they're so easy. And believe me, he tries. Just in case you don't have this cookbook, here's the recipe:

Basic Buttermilk Pancakes

In a large bowl, whisk together:
1 1/2 c. flour (I use white whole wheat flour and think it adds flavour and texture.. oh, and nutrients)
3 Tbs. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

In another bowl, whisk:
1 1/2 c. buttermilk
3 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Pour wet ingredients into dry, gently whisk together until just combined. We added blueberries to ours, but you can add anything that sounds good to you or nothing at all.
Spoon onto hot griddle or pan. I cooked these until the edges looked firm, not until the usual bubbles formed on top. That would have been too long for these. Flip and cook shortly on other side. Eat 'em up with or without syrup!