Beach Brunch for the Fam

So I mentioned that my best breakfast ever was the one the Beer Guy and I had our first morning at The Farmhouse Inn during our Wine Country 10th Anniversary Trip last year.  It was this Oat Griddle Cakes topped with strawberries, homemade whipped cream, candied walnuts, maple syrup, and the best bacon I’ve ever had.

Well, maple syrup was available, but the griddle cakes were so yummy and flavorful with all the other toppings that I just never got around to adding the syrup.

About 3 weeks after our return the Beer Guy’s brother and his wife made the trek from Memphis to Charlotte for a visit with us.  I decided to try and recreate it for our guests.  Through diligent internet searching I found this Rachel Ray recipe for Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes.  You’ll notice that the recipe calls for raisins, which makes perfect sense if you are aiming for pancakes that taste like oatmeal cookies.  I like raisins, but since my original breakfast did not have raisins and I was aiming for a recreation, I just didn’t add those into the batter.

Now, please do not fool yourselves into thinking that I attempted homemade whipped cream to top this deliciousness like The Farmhouse.  I am secure enough to admit that I did not and Cool Whip worked just fine.  I did, however, sort of whip up my own recipe for candied walnuts.  I didn’t really measure things out. Basically, I melted a couple tablespoons of butter, stirred in about a tablespoon of brown sugar, added cinnamon until it looked right, poured that over about a cup of walnuts, stirred to coat, spread them out in a single layer on a baking sheet, then popped them in the toaster oven for a couple minutes.

Not half bad for a makeshift candied walnuts on the fly.

Breakfast was so well received by our guests, that I decided to make it for my own family last year while on our annual beach vacation.  We were there over Father’s Day and I thought it would be a nice way to treat the dad’s in our family.  So I garnered a little help for my, then 3 yo, niece…

and whipped it up again.  (Please excuse the “bed head” on each of us.)

Once again, it got rave reviews.  So, I’m not sure, then, why I was surprised that when planning for this year’s trip my sister posted this comment on my Facebook wall – “I know you are planning to make those banana waffle things again this year.”  (In case you haven’t checked out the recipe, there are mashed bananas in the batter.)

Um, well.  I hadn’t planned on it, but I guess I am now… So I gathered the ingredients, packed my handy dandy Cuisinart Griddler (love this thing, but that’s another post), and whipped it up yet again.  This time I enlisted the BG’s services as the official griddle cake flipper.

Have griddle, will travel.

Not a bad recreation, huh?

Cheers!