I am one of those moms that hates when the kids go back to school but loves when summer break begins. I love having the kids home with me. I have always been like that since they were little. I like my breaks from them now and then but they very rarely were ever away from us for more than one day. We now have one week left until school is over! Two full days of school and three half days of school until they are home for the summer.

As we sat at the dinner table last night I noticed everyone was done eating but we were all still sitting there talking. No one was in a rush to leave the table. We were talking about their music education and how we are finding gaps in the things they have learned or that we have exposed them to.

I was shocked to find out my son had no idea what Motown meant. My daughter said something about how she received a U-2 album in her iTunes account but wasn’t going to listen to it because it wasn’t her thing. Wow. We have failed. We have exposed them to all the classic pieces and artists that we thought in conjunction with their school music education would give them a good broad-based musical knowledge. They have been exposed to Beethoven’s V and IX symphonies, Greig’s “Hall of the Mountain King,” to the Beach Boys, Beatles, Billy Joel and lots of musicals.

I guess it is now time to go back and fill in the gaps. I see lots of summer concerts in our future and checking out some diverse music at the library for our summer listening enjoyment.

But, our dinner the other night was actually breakfast. I love pancakes and have been craving them forever.

Verdict:

These were delicious. Usually my kids aren’t big fans of nuts in food. Once I toasted the pecans though I couldn’t keep them from picking them out of the bowl and eating them. I was glad I made extra for the tops of the pancakes.

The brown butter in these adds a great flavor with just a hint of cinnamon and the toasted pecans being a strong backup.

I served these with a small fresh fruit salad side, butter, pure maple syrup and extra pecans for topping.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 3/4 cups of milk
• 3 tsp white vinegar
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup + 1 TBSP butter

Directions:

1. Toast the pecans in a medium sauce pan with medium heat with the 1 TBSP of butter. Be careful not to burn the nuts but remove them from the heat when the room begins to smell toasty.
2. Place the pecans in a bowl to the side.
3. Add the 1/2 cup of butter to the skillet you just used. Do not wipe it out but let the little pieces of nuts get mixed in with the butter.
4. Place pan back on medium heat. The butter will melt and then start to develop a foam on top as it heats. Stir it occasionally but allow the butter to turn a brown caramel color. Be careful not to burn the butter as it goes from brown to burnt quickly.
5. Once the butter is browned remove the pan from the heat. Allow the butter to cool.
6. While you are waiting for the butter to cool combine your flour, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon baking powder, and baking soda.
7. Once the butter has cooled a separate bowl, mix together milk, vinegar, eggs, vanilla and browned butter.
8. Stir mixture well while slowly adding in dry ingredients. Gently fold in 2/3 cup of pecans.
9. Drop spoonfuls of batter onto a greased griddle or pan over medium-high heat and cook until bubbly, then flip and finish cooking the other side.
10. Top with a pat of butter, the additional pecans and maple syrup for serving if desired.