Pancakes with blackberry syrup

PANCAKES WITH BLACKBERRY SYRUP AND BACON

Making a flavored syrup is easier than people think - it's nothing more than adding fruit juice to a syrup and mixing.

I bought some blackberries the other day and decided I wanted a blackberry syrup with pancakes.

I cooked down the blackberries in a mixture of 1/2 cup of water and 1/8 cup of sugar. I then ran the blackberry compote through a strainer and added the juice to some real maple syrup.

Not only did it add a fantastic tartness to the syrup it also gave it a really nice color!

For the pancakes, I used a dry mix and added 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and about 1/4 teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg then cooked them on a griddle one at a time.

I cooked the bacon on a wire rack inside a sheet pan in the oven - I've become quite a fan of cooking bacon in the oven - less grease and FAR less mess than frying.

See the color of the syrup?

Brownie Love

There's not much to say about this except that, well, EVERYBODY loves a brownie. I found these at Trader Joe's and decided to indulge my sweet tooth.

Of course we all know of my love affair with anything Trader Joe's so I figured I just couldn't go wrong with a boxed baked goodie, right? RIGHT! NOTHING wrong about it!

And it couldn't have been simpler - a couple of eggs, some water and presto - moist goodness with a richness that was surprising from a boxed mix (although I did add just a light shake of ground Peet's French Roast to the mix).

I think it took all of about five minutes to polish this sucker off - I still have maybe six or seven from the batch and I'm looking forward to maybe a late night brownie later on ...