Feed the Gardener

Gardening is hard work. The payoff is good food. After a morning in the garden I am always hungry. Today I came in from the garden with a taste for pancakes. I always make mine from scratch since they are so easy. I use a recipe for buttermilk pancakes but instead of buttermilk I use organic yogurt with fruit in it, or soy yogurt. I add a little water to thin it if the batter is too thick. The yogurt makes the pancakes moist and flavorful. To top them off I use my step-dad's homemade faux maple syrup. It is easy and foolproof. Maple syrup is very expensive and store bought pancake syrup is full of high fructose corn syrup.
My homemade has lots of sugar but since I only use syrup once or twice a month I think it's okay to splurge.

Here's the recipe:

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup corn syrup (I use Karo brand lite corn syrup with vanilla. It contains corn syrup, salt and vanilla. Other corn syrups contain high fructose. Check your labels!)
1/2 tsp. Mapeleine or maple extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. butter extract

Add sugars, water and corn syrup in a pan. Heat till boil, then boil for 7 minutes. Remove from heat and add extracts. Stir well. Let cool and pour into syrup container. Enjoy!