We ate a lot of pancakes when I was growing up. For many years, we topped them with pure maple syrup processed from our own trees. There was a shanty back in our woods where the sap was boiled down. A few years ago, the shanty was rebuilt, and my sister’s family started making maple syrup again. Four generations have tapped the trees and boiled sap in that woods.

When my kids were growing up, I didn’t make pancakes often but sometimes I made them special. When my nephews spent the weekends at our house playing video games, I made chocolate chip pancakes for them. Those were just regular pancake batter with chocolate chips added. There were a few times when I made blueberry pancakes for my daughter.

Today, pancakes are a treat for me as I seldom cook them for myself. While my favorite way to eat them is with the pure maple syrup that my family makes, I also like to mix it up and make them a couple of different ways.

The following are two ways I like to dress them up.

Cheesy pancakes:

Ingredients:

1 batch pancake batter

1/2 cup shredded cheese

Stir cheese into batter, pour onto griddle to form pancakes. After you flip them, make sure they are completely done before removing. The melted cheese sometimes looks like raw pancake batter and the pancakes take longer than normal to cook.

Topping:

Sour cream

Salsa

Trust me, they are good that way.

Crepe-style pancakes:

Ingredients:

1 batch batter, made into pancakes

Topping:

Raspberry or strawberry jam

Whipped cream

It’s like having dessert for breakfast!

The best way to enjoy pancakes, for me, anyway, is to make them plain and add that pure maple syrup to them. But no matter what way I eat them, pancakes bring back warm memories from my own childhood and the years when my kids were all still at home.