Sharon Collins - Pancakes Make People Happy: Over 75 Recipes

W elcome to our pancake book. Since the beginning of time, when cavemen poured mashed grains on hot stones, pancakes have been a go to for filling up bellies and getting energy for the day. In the eons since, it has been customary to leave pitchers of batter next to stoves in kitchens of all walks of life, just waiting for a hungry bunch to awaken. The essence of this anticipation brings joy, and pancakes fuel the happiness. In this day and age, with no-carb and low-carb diets, pancakes get a bad rap. We hope to convince our audience that pancakes can be healthy and nourishing; that they lend themselves well to any diet restrictions; and most of all. that pancakes can find a home at any time, with any meal! As we say, Move over charcuterie!, plan your next event around a pancake board!

Two of my favorite cooks helped to get this book into print: Charlotte Collins and Courtney Wade. Charlottes passion is health and fitness and she has contributed her knowledge of healthier ingredients, diet recommendations, and an eclectic, highly nutritious way of eating throughout the day. Courtney, who has previously published a cookbook, lends expertise in combining flavors to suit anyones tastes, and has a talent for food styling and photography. And given that they are both decades younger than me, youre sure to find a lot of fresh ideas to make you happy! Their enthusiasm has been absolutely infectious; we especially enjoyed sampling all the many kinds of pancakes during our test sessions.

I grew up with an old, black, cast iron, wood fired, cook stove. No, Im not really that old, but I did grow up on a dairy farm and, as my parents enjoyed country life, they made a point of protecting tradition. I experimented with making bread, pizza, and meat loaf in it as I learned to cook, but the food that was the easiest, most consistent and most appreciated were pancakes. Right from the get-go, it was clear to me that pancakes make people happy.

I babysat my neighbors three children from the start of her 6am nursing shift until it was time for the school bus. They would help me with my morning chores of feeding calves and then we would get breakfast. There was no store-bought cereal in our house: breakfast of champions was, you guessed it, pancakes. Boy, did those kids love a hot breakfast! They loved me for it, and still talk about it to this day.

As the years went on, I took over the family farm, and started concentrating on our maple syrup. Theres only one thing Ive found that makes pancakes taste better than sharing them with small children... and thats maple syrup! We trucked our syrup all over New York and peddled our products at the Union Square Greenmarket in NYC. In 1995, we began serving pancakes at the farm on weekends to showcase our pure maple syrup and the pancake mixes marketed under our own name. Even as farms struggled economically, and the picturesque landscape of open space and red barns began to disappear, it became clear to us the only thing people wanted more than pancakes was a farm experience. We started serving farm-to-table breakfasts, never losing sight of two things: we are a farm producing wholesome food, and its our responsibility to share it with the public.

At our farm, coffee is served in mugs we have collected from thrift stores or been given as gifts. Our favorites are usually promotional ones from organizations or businesses from all over the map. For Christmas a few years back, my sister gave me a nice, hefty, ivory colored mug to add to our collection. The design on the front was a stack of pancakes, and the lettering read Pancakes Make People Happy. One of our favorite customers, who just so happens to be the publisher of this book, really took a liking to this mug...and the rest is history!

Even though my days are very full working on the farm, when asked if I would like to write a pancake cookbook how could I say no? Thats when I enlisted Charlotte and Courtney to do the heavy lifting. One with a degree in Direct & Interactive Marketing and the other in Graphic Design, they have done outstanding work in the test kitchen and the photos are as delicious as the recipes!

Sharon Collins, Buck Hill Farm