Last Friday of the Month Recipe: Gingerbread Pancakes From Katya Armock and an Excerpt from Book 2 To Growl or Groan

 

 

From Kayta Armock.  I gotta tell you these pancakes sound delish, maybe for

New Year's Day?

The basis of the pancake recipe came from my great-great aunt. I adapted it to make the gingerbread version, which is a family favorite in winter.

Gingerbread Pancakes

1 to 2 cup(s) flour, depending on how thick you like your dough
1 scant teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup brown sugar
2 t. ginger
1 cup buttermilk (powdered buttermilk is a good option, if you don’t use buttermilk often)
½ cup sour cream
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 c. molasses

Mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and stir gently by hand until just mixed. Lumps are OK. Note that these are thin pancakes, so you won’t need much batter to make a nice-sized pancake, as the batter will spread on the griddle. If you want them to be thicker, add more flour.

Blurb:

To Growl or to Groan, Hidden Lines Book 2:

Her gift could save a missing girl…or destroy her relationship forever.

After receiving a troubling Tarot reading, Chloe just knows something big and bad is about to happen. Her ability to communicate with animals and shape-shifters is going awry, and her growing psychic abilities are beginning to scare her. Despite her unease, she won’t let anything interrupt her trip to Scotland to spend the holidays with her shape-shifter boyfriend’s family. Jorge is everything she’s always wanted, and the fire between Chloe and the passionate panther-shifter burns hot. But meeting his family has her nerves in knots.

When Jorge’s sister goes missing, Chloe’s psychic abilities might be the only thing that can help them find her. But things don’t go as planned, and with confusing psychic visions clouding her judgment, Chloe makes a mistake and an animal is injured. And Chloe fears she might hurt Jorge as well…


Excerpt:

“Break it up, you two lovebirds. I have rum popo.” Alice walks into the room carrying a tray of glasses filled with what looks like eggnog.

I jump back from our kiss, but Jorge keeps an arm around my waist. Alice hands us each a glass. I take a swig, and my eyes start to water.

Jorge laughs. “It’s heavy on the rum, not so much on the rest of the ingredients.”

“I just wasn’t expecting it to be so strong.” I take another much smaller sip, then turn to Alice, who is also laughing. “It’s actually quite good.”

Alice raises her glass to us. “Wouldn’t be a Christmas drink without a kick in the ass. It’s a tradition in Belize.”

“Do you normally require such strong drinks for Christmas? I usually associate heavy drinking with awkward dinners.”

She pulls me in for a raucous hug, dragging me away from Jorge and almost causing all three of us to spill our drinks. “Well now you’ll learn to associate strong drinks with fun afternoons, dinners, and parties. Speaking of which, we’ll be having an open house for the neighbors tomorrow and I need to finish decorating. Would you like to help, Chloe?” 

I look at Jorge, questions in my eyes. The place is already crammed full of decorations. 

He shrugs. “In Belize, the tradition at Christmas is to super clean your house and then decorate it to the nines. We had fake pine trees in Belize, although my grandparents always had the real ones in Ohio.”

“Any other traditions I need to know about?”

“Yeah. All the woman have to dress up as elves.”

“What?” 

Alice breaks into peals of laughter, and Jorge follows soon after. She hip bumps me, which reminds me I still don’t quite know how to handle Jorge’s family. “Ah, it’s so good to see my serious Jorge teasing you. It brings my heart joy.” She gives us a look very similar to the one she gave us our first day here when she talked of marriage and grandbabies. 

The room starts to close in on me a little, and I set my glass on an end table.

Buy links:
Etopia
Amazon
BN
AllRomance
Amazon UK
Amazon.ca

Author Bio:

I like books that are funny and fun to read (and hot!) but also make me think or look at the world in a new way.

These days you’ll find me writing, pet sitting, juggling a number of freelance gigs, and reigning as my home’s domestic goddess. I live in the Midwestern U.S. with my husband, dog and cats. Alas, I have, as of yet, been unable to teach my husband how to purr.