I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but it’s been snowing a lot in Boston.  And it’s snowing as I write this post—not a(nother) blizzard, but several more inches are on their way—which makes me think of snowbound winter breakfasts.

Chip and I don’t overlap for breakfast very often.  A snow day is the perfect excuse for me to hint, broadly and shamelessly, that I’ve got a craving for his excellent, magnificent, fantastic protein pancakes.  The basic recipe looks like this:

1 cup lowfat cottage cheese
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
6 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla
Cinnamon to taste
Splenda to taste

Mix everything up in a blender, pour perfect circles into a nonstick skillet heated to medium high, and flip when bubbles form at the edges of the pancakes.

Last week, during the latest blizzard, Chip modified the recipe.  Instead of using oatmeal, he used mixed whole grains—and what had been always reliably delicious ramped up to sublime.  Add grilled Canadian bacon, berries, plain yogurt, and warmed-up maple syrup (grade B, which is dark and rich) and you’ve got a breakfast that warms the soul.

He served me first.  I’m a lucky woman.

On regular winter days, breakfast looks like this:

We’re berry fond of berries.  (I’m so sorry, I couldn’t help myself.)  The secret ingredient here is the yogurt, Siggi’s Icelandic style.  Thick, creamy, not too sweet—we go through a LOT of it each week.

See that spoon?  It belonged to my grandmother, Ella Bernhardt, and was brought over from Germany when she and my grandfather (and, eventually, my father) made their escape.