Improvising Tina Style

I call it 'improvise cooking Tina style' and it is usually how meals are created around here.

We very rarely have all the correct ingredients that a recipe calls for.

I am getting very good at knowing how to fudge with some recipes.

Yesterday it was pancakes frugal style!

Feeds 17 people

6 cups of flour
3 tablespoons of baking powder
1/2 tablespoon of salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup melted butter
6 eggs
6 cups of water
1/3 cup white vinegar

Mix the dry ingredients together then add the water,eggs, and melted butter. Mix well.
add the vinegar and stir well. Let the batter set for a bit before cooking on a hot griddle that has a nice coating of melted shortening on it.

What makes this a frugal pancake recipe?

See no need for any milk. If you actually had milk, which we usually do not,just exchange the milk for the water. Maybe you have powdered milk? Add about 1/3 cup powdered milk with the dry ingredients for every cup of water you add.

If you do not have vinegar just leave it out.

Only 5 eggs? Then just use what you have adding more water or milk to make the batter the thickness you desire.

Only have a half of a cup of butter or none at all? Use melted shortening or a combo of shortening, butter,and oil but probably just not all oil.

Add more or less white sugar or a combo of white sugar and brown sugar. You really can not fail.

We did not even have syrup so we used powdered sugar instead. At times I have made syrup by heating to a boil brown sugar or white sugar with water. I have even boiled jelly and some water for a bit for a treat. We have even used straight corn syrup.

They might not be your Perkins variety or like the ones your mother made,or even 'politacly correct' health wise but they are frugal, tasty, and when cooking for a large family, perfect.

P.S. Our church passed on to us a ton of little cute pre-packed butter dabs which we really appreciate!

They made our pancakes look fancy.

A side note: If,say,we ended up not having any butter to mix up our pancake batter I would have just opened up a lot of the pre-packed butter dabs and used them. See 'improvise cooking Tina style' is not a hard thing once you get used to it.

But then again, company usually does not happen to drop by during meal times...


Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy