Fun Friday {Mickey Mouse Pancakes}

Wow -- another crazy busy week.  I did no meal planning mostly due to the inability to plan because I wasn't sure if we would have hot water for a big part of the week.  In the process of putting in a sprinkler system, we learned that there were issues with our gas line that resulted in the decision to convert to electric for both hot water and heat in our home.  We finally got everything converted (additional electrical work had to be done) and I am back in business!  Meals were limited to what could be cooked with minimal dishes and we ate with paper goods all week.  And this all happened at the beginning of our "end of school madness" -- rehearsals, recitals, etc. 

What do you cook when you are in a pinch and need some good comfort food?  In our house it is "breakfast for dinner!"  The kids love this meal, especially when I make their favorite Mickey Mouse pancakes.  There is no recipe for this...but I wanted to share how I make them and what they look like.  The kids like to help in their preparation, and I almost always have the ingredients on hand. 

I start with a basic pancake mix, like Pioneer, or as of late, I have found a wonderful chocolate pancake mix at Wal-Mart.  The jury's still out on the chocolate mix (shown in this post), but the whole family likes a basic pancake mix, like Pioneer.  I mix it according to the package directions and add about 1/2 t. vanilla.  After ladling the batter onto the griddle, I sprinkle mini chocolate chips evenly across each pancake.  You could add the chips to the batter before ladling, but I find that they often sink to the bottom of the batter bowl and result in unevenly distributed chocolate chips, and we can't have that!

To make Mickey Mouse pancakes, I ladle enough batter to make a 4-5" diameter pancake (for the face) and two 1 1/2" diameter pancakes (for the ears), for each serving.  Once the pancakes are done, I arrange them on a plate like this and work in an assembly line: 

Now it's time to create a frame for Mickey's face.  I use canned whipped light cream and "pipe" two dots for the eyes, one dot for the nose, and a curved line for a smile.

Next, add regular size chocolate chips for the eyes and smile.  Don't worry, the nose will come soon!

Now the finishing touch:  a marachino cherry for the nose:

Four Mickeys in a row:

Now if you want to have a little more fun with this (and we always do!), once the plates are delivered to the table, we serve scrambled eggs and bacon family style.  Here is Mickey with some scrambled egg "hair":

And here he is with a bacon "bowtie":

Yum!  Mickey isn't looking so good at this point, so I think it is time to eat!

Plates:  French Countryside by Mikasa, Flatware:  Butler's Pantry by Lenox; Placemats:  Pimpernel.

At Christmas time, I like to improvise and make Santa pancakes like this:

This is a photo from my camera phone, so please excuse the poor quality!

Have a lovely Friday, and go make some Mickey Mouse pancakes -- they are sure to bring a smile!

Speaking of smiles, hop on over to Allison's blog and comment -- she's donating $1 to Operation Smile AND Smile Train for every comment to any of her posts between now and June 24.  You can read more here.