This recipe is for adventure seekers, for those bold in life and at the table. The Special Day Pancake is a thin, half-custard/half-crêpe alternative to the cakey, mile-high flapjack you may be familiar with. Around my mom’s house, these are made on Christmas morning (or any number of other special occasions), and served up with a big plate of crispy bacon, fresh-cut cantaloupe, and, just... mimosas for days.

Growing up, I never understood what made my mom’s pancakes different than everyone else’s. I’m not talking she added, like, a pinch of nutmeg, or a handful of raspberries or anything like that. I mean that her pancakes were from another realm; they were a mysterious offering that, far as I was concerned, had been handed down to humans by a shiny, ageless being living on a mountain somewhere.

Don’t mishear me: I’m not saying these are better than any pancakes your parents ever made. I’m saying that these Special Day Pancakes are just another path to breakfast enlightenment.

When I was old enough to understand this concept that her ‘cakes were fundamentally a separate category than, say, my dad’s Sunday morning Bisquick batch, I asked her what was the deal. She told me it was a recipe her mother used to make for their family, and that the main ingredient was cottage cheese.

You can imagine my confusion. I had been scrumped! Cottage cheese in a pancake? Who does that?!*

When I got older still, old enough to begin cultivating a sense of food-culture-heritage, I called my mom up one morning to ask for the recipe. (I was a young and independent adult living on my own in the world and by god, I wanted to make my mommy’s pancakes!) To my great delight, she said the recipe called for only 4 ingredients﹘cottage cheese, oil, eggs, flour﹘and that it was easy to memorize … JUST COUNT TO FOUR.

*recipe for success: cottage cheese, oil, flour, eggs.*

So, without further adieu, I, Jessica Zerbe, hereby pass along one of my most nostalgic childhood recipes to you, fair Reader. I hope that when you taste it, you say to yourself,

"Hmmmm. Wait ... what?"

just as I did in my youth, lo so many years ago.

Recipe Hack: "Just Count to Four"

cottage cheese
vegetable oil
eggs
flour

Okay … ingredients assembled. Recipe hacked. Let’s cook!

This recipe makes about 9 medium sized pancakes.

You will need:

1 cup cottage cheese - (large or small curd. ain’t no matter.)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil - (or something similarly neutral-tasting.)
3 eggs (large... or whatever.)
4 tablespoons flour (ap is good. no need to get fancy.)
butter or cooking spray - enough
champagne - a lot
orange juice - a splish
a blender
a skillet

Instructions:

Make a mimosa. Throw ingredients 1 through 4 in a blender and hit it until smooth. Drink mimosa. Meanwhile, get a frying pan or electric griddle warmed up (med-hi or approx 350 degrees). Refill 'mosa. Lay down some butter (or cooking spray) and pour the mixture out into silky little puddles of morning glory. Bottoms up/refill. Fry until golden on one side and flip. Repeat until done.

EAT THESE PIPING HOT OFF THE SKILLET. I joked about it earlier, but berries do well in this recipe, if you are so inclined. Also, don’t forget the syrup.

Bon appétit!