Spelt sourdough-like pancakes on Frederick's half-birthday

We started celebrating half birthdays in our family back when I was a little girl.  My sister and I were born 18 months apart and my parents tried to preempt birthday envy by celebrating my "half" birthday on Kimberly's birthday and her half birthday on mine.  The half-birthday girl would get a small gift and some recognition of her six-month milestone.

When I got married I carried on the tradition because you really cannot have enough birthdays.  Sander agreed and we celebrate his half birthday on January 4th.  On Frederick's first half birthday three years ago we celebrated with pumpkin cheesecake.  He was young enough to stick his finger right in the middle of the cheesecake, but also unseasoned enough that he did not realize he should lick his finger.  I quickly cleaned his finger off and he was none the wiser.

This morning we began a day of half birthday celebrations with pancakes from Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, a traditional foods cookbook.  The recipe calls for:

2 cups freshly ground spelt, kamut, or whole wheat flour

2 cups buttermilk, kefir, or yogurt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons melted butter

We opt for the spelt flour here and don't grind it fresh.  We eat so little grains that it hasn't made sense up to this point to buy a grain mill.  We also use our homemade kefir for the cultured milk product. 

You begin the night before by mixing the flour and kefir together and letting them sit in a bowl or jar covered with a clean dish  towel.  The batter will end up a bit sour because of the kefir.  When you are ready to make the pancakes you add the rest of the ingredients and thin with water to your desired consistency. 

I cook the pancakes in coconut oil from Tropical Traditions.  The pancakes are extremely light and crispy.  Halfway into gobbling them, Frederick reminded me that we had not sung the happy birthday song, so we came up for air to do so.  He was clearly very touched and then focused again on the important work of cleaning his plate.

On the docket for later today is a squash custard made with butternut squash, which is "much like a cake" we are telling Frederick.  You can't go wrong with squash, milk, eggs, cinnamon, and a bit of stevia to sweeten it.  He will likely eat a good bit just because of its association with the word "cake," regardless of whether that association is real or imagined.