Oatmeal Pancakes w/ PB Maple Sauce and Chocolate Butter

January 30, 2012

We are nearing the end of a month spent in Austin, TX. I have loved it, though working in someone else’s kitchen has definitely been an experiment. My kitchen at home is almost as small as you can get- but it is fully stocked with just about every kitchen gadget as well as a pretty full pantry. I both feared and looked forward to leaving it behind.

When we arrived in our temporary apartment (acquired on airbnb.com), we quickly headed over to inspect the kitchen. There were about 4 spices: curry powder, red pepper flake, cumin and cinnamon (some of my faves) and some pretty sad looking pans. There was a collection of wooden spoons and a spatula, but no whisk and no hand mixer.

No need to panic - I’ll just have bitchin’ forearms from all the manual mixing by the end of this trip, right? Perhaps I’ll realize my new career as an arm-wrestling champ. Yes!

Or maybe I’ll just eat some real tasty pancakes… that’d be swell too.

Aside from the oven smoking the first time we used it (clearly it’s not a frequently used device), we’ve done pretty well. There’s no toaster oven or microwave but there is a blessed dishwasher - something I don’t have at home. The only things we cracked and purchased were a coffee grinder, a milk frother (hey, I love my latte’s), a good chef’s knife and a knife sharpener. We’ve cooked anywhere between 1 and 3 meals a day, making everything from casseroles to soups to cookies to potatoes au gratin. It was interesting to learn what I could and couldn’t live without. It was also interesting to learn that one of said sad looking pans cooks pancakes perfectly- something that I always have trouble with using my nice shiny new pans at home. Is it the electric burners they have here providing a more even heat? The heavy weight of the pan? Whatever the case, I was happy.

Another plus to cooking in Austin is that it’s the home of the world’s first Whole Foods, which means of course that the one here is a food nerd’s dream. At the start of the month we stocked up with lots of organic supplies - something I don’t always treat myself to. To my surprise, we went through the flour really slowly. I quickly made up for it by making a few batches of pancakes.

The first time I served these oatmeal pancakes, I topped them with stewed apples because the pancakes are thick, filling and beg for a fun topping. Wanting to switch it up the second time around, I made a peanut butter maple sauce and chocolate butter, and topped them with chopped bananas.

This trip has also been a lesson in how to make a variety of stuff with a limited pantry, which translates to: how many different ways can I use the same peanut butter and chocolate hazelnut sauce I brought with me? The answer: many! And all of them delicious.

But now that the trip is almost over, the real question is: can this much peanut butter sustain us for 2 1/2 days?

Eep.