upside down

This evening, we hosted WS Random for dinner. Thinking that we'd done the formal meals to their logical end, I made pancakes and we had cooked apples on them and drank mimosas.

For pancakes:

1 1/4 self rising flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbls sugar (I use turbinado or "sugar in the raw")
3 tbls butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
1 cup buttermilk (plus)

Mix the flour, soda, sugar.

melt butter. Beat egg, add in buttermilk, then add in melted butter. mix buttermilk mixture with flour mixture.

You can use the batter as is and make waffles with it -- or, I add a tablespoon or two more butter milk and use it for pancake batter. Making the batter in a single batch is perfect for just me and the phenom and the dog usually gets a couple left over. When we have company, I generally double the recipe -- and the dog still gets some. However, the Phenom does prefer pancakes on the smaller side.

For the apples, I did what the old woman fears most, I just made something up. For some reason the old woman doesn't trust my monkey cooking instincts and is convinced that if I don't follow a recipe/directions, I'll poison someone, be caught, sent to prison and found out.

The Apples: peel, core, and slice several apples (depending on how much you want) I got about 12 slices of apple from each one. Drop the apple slices in water with a bit of lemon juice in it.

melt 1/2 stick butter over med. heat (I use cast iron skillet) and add 1/2 cup brown sugar - cook/melt. Add apple slices, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp cinnamon, pinch of salt. Cook for several minutes to soften the apples - but don't let them get mushy. Add a tablespoon of rum to the apples. If it is too thick, add a bit of the lemon/water.

I was thinking that if I made the apples less syrupy, I could top the mixture with cake batter, bake, and make an caramel apple upside down cake.