ReadyMade: Instructions for everyday life

I’m a shopping-addicted writer and I’ve challenged myself to survive a whole week on just $5 a day. Read more about why I’m doing this here.

Sunday morning dawned nice and sunny here in Beacon, but when I rolled out of bed around 9 AM things were not looking so hot. As I mentioned in my last post, Dan and I have a weekly Sunday breakfast ritual. (It is also a Saturday breakfast ritual. And if we didn’t work Monday-to-Friday or care about the risk for future heart disease, it would be an every day ritual.) The location of this breakfast has changed over the years. It started at our neighborhood coffee shop in Harlem (or, depending how hungover we were from the night before, the corner bodega). Now, after careful taste-testing of every breakfast sandwich in the Hudson Valley, we head to our local diner, the Yankee Clipper, or, in the summer, a deli down in Cold Spring, so we can then go eat on a beach by the Hudson River.

But the menu is constant: two bacon, egg & cheese sandwiches on toasted croissants, with lots of hot sauce. And lots of coffee.

It is the most delicious breakfast you can possibly imagine.

Plus there’s all that nice together time, where we talk about people and read the paper and stuff. So I was Very Sad Indeed when I remembered that it was Day 1 of my Week Without Spending. Breakfast sandwiches at the Yankee Clipper run us $16 and even the $7 deli version seemed out of the question when I knew I also had to grocery shop.

I seriously considered cheating right then and there. Dan can tell you. Relapse (if you can relapse before you actually get sober) was imminent.

But, I am pleased to report that instead I turned to page 645 of my trusty copy of The Gourmet Cookbook and realized that I had everything on hand I needed to make Ruth’s Pancakes from scratch. Even maple syrup (thank you, recent weekend in Vermont!). And a package of bacon tucked away in the freezer!

The above photo shows the lovely breakfast we consumed on our deck, in the sunshine, for $0. While we talked about people and read the paper and stuff. I even tucked half the cooked bacon into a Ziploc bag so I can use it for something else later this week.

I know you’re getting jealous now, so below is the pancake recipe. I am not kidding when I say that these are the best pancakes you will ever eat in your whole life. (I don’t even want to hear about your mother’s recipe; these are better. Trust me.)

But I will admit that it IS kind of a lot work to make pancakes and fry bacon at 9 AM on a Sunday when you would so rather just have the nice people at the Yankee Clipper bring you your breakfast sandwiches and do the dishes afterwards too.

Still, the virtue! And the buttery goodness! And $21.90 still to go.

RUTH’S PANCAKES
From pp. 645-646 of The Gourmet Cookbook, edited by Ruth Reichl (Houghton Mifflin, 2004).

Makes about 8 pancakes. (Actually, I got at least 12 out of this, by making them a bit smaller.)
Active Time: 30 Minutes
Start To Finish: 30 Minutes

1 cup milk (They call for whole, but I use skim when that’s what’s in the fridge.)
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons plus ½ teaspoon vegetable oil
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
4 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Whisk together milk, eggs and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a medium bowl, then whisk in butter. Stir together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in another medium bowl. Whisk in egg mixture until just combined.

Heat ½ teaspoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking. Working in batches of 3 and adding ½ teaspoon more oil between batches, pour 1/3-cup measures of batter into skillet and cook until bubbles have formed on top and broken, about 2 minutes. Flip pancakes with a spatula and cook until undersides are golden, about 1 minute more. (Lower heat if pancakes brown too quickly.) Serve with maple syrup.