I love making breakfast...well, eating it too. And no, not a typical Japanese breakfast of fish, rice and Natto (fermented soy beans- healthy, but smelly!). My favorite splurge in the States is going for Swedish pancakes to IHOP, complete with a side of bacon. I think Japanese bacon tastes like Canadian bacon, but we salt it and fry it up in a little butter to make it more crispy. I've tried to make Swedish pancakes, but they haven't turned out too well. Does anyone have a good recipe to share?
The next best thing is Crepes, especially with warm, drippy mixed berry sauce. This was actually a jar of my easy homemade jam that didn't solidify too well. Maybe I'll purposefully not boil it enough next time to make this yummy mistake-jam again. It's great drizzled on pancakes.
I love this Crepe recipe from my old missionary friend. She was the queen of the kitchen and used cooking classes to share with Japanese women the spiritual food that Jesus offers. I worked with Ralph and Stella Cox about 23 years ago when I came to Japan as a summer worker in college. I still use her published cookbook (half in English and half in Japanese) and enjoy trying out her do-able recipes.I too, have taught many cooking classes as well but found them to be stressful and tiring. Writing the recipe in Japanese (along with metric and weight measurements, Japanese weigh most ingredients instead of using cups) and making extra food ahead of time to "display" and for everyone to taste is time and energy consuming. It's also hard to find recipes that use only ingredients that you can buy here, as well as things that Japanese would like to make (often they don't have an oven).
Recipe Note: I found that if I heat the milk up slightly before I mix it in, then I don't have to "let it stand for 30 minutes" since I am always in a hurry to feed my hungry family...and me too. We usually double this recipe for the 5 of us.
