Oatmeal Surprise Pancakes

Mario and I were lying in bed this past Saturday morning at about 5am, sound asleep and dreaming about sleeping in, when all of the sudden, Claire and Marco were SCREAMING in our ears:

"MOOOOMMMMMYYY, DAADDDDDYYYY!!"
"Huh? Wha? What's wrong?"
"What do you want for breakfast?"
"Oh - pancakes", I grumble.
"OK!!!" and they run off.

Groggily I think, oh gosh, should I be concerned? Nah.. and I went back to sleep. A few minutes later (I think), more screaming....

"MOOOOOMMMMYYY, WAKE UP!!! What do you want for breakfast?"
"I already said, pancakes."
"Are you sure you don't want cereal??"
"Nope, pancakes."
"OKAAAAY, but we don't know how to use the stove."
"How about coffee, can you make coffee?"

They run off again, and I fall back asleep. The next time I am woken up, it is by the sound of banging and clanging coming from the kitchen, "Oh god, what are they doing?"

I get up and head downstairs. Claire was standing on a chair by the counter, mixing something up (she was using the bulb end of the turkey baster as a mixing tool - which I thought was an interesting choice of utensil). I peer into her bowl, "What is it?".... (Oh God, am I going to have to EAT that to qualify as a good Mother??)

"It's breakfast!!" (said with a great deal of PRIDE)
"Uh....it looks great! What did you put in it, Sweetie?"

"Shreddies, chocolate chips, and raisins". Claire had crushed up the shreddies with the turkey baster and then put it in the microwave to melt the chocolate.

"Gee, that looks delicious, but how were you planning to serve it? I was going to make pancakes..."

Silence..... then, "I know!! We can put this IN the pancakes!!".

And so Oatmeal Surprise Pancakes were born. They were pretty good, the Shreddies stayed a little crunchy and there was a hint of chocolate. I will give the recipe without Claire's surprise, but if anyone wants to make it her way, you just put about 1 cup Shreddies, 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, and 4 raisins into a bowl, mash it up with the end of a turkey baster, and then nuke it for about 30 seconds. Add to the pancake batter right at the end.

Oatmeal Pancakes
From Fanny Farmer Cookbook (Note: the recipe said makes 16 griddlecakes, I doubled it and got 9... go figure.)

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup quick-cooking oatmeal
2 tablespoons melted better
1 egg
2 tbsp flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

1. Heat the 1/2 cup milk, stir in 1/2 cup quick-cooking oatmeal and let stand for 10 minutes.

2. Separate the egg, and beat the egg white until soft peaks form.

3. Add egg yolk, and melted butter to oatmeal.

4. Mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt and add them all at once to the oatmeal mixture. Fold in egg white.

5. Lightly butter or grease a frying pan over moderate heat. Fry pancaked on the griddle until they are full of bubbles on the top and the undersides are lightly browned. Turn with a spatula and brown the other sides.

6. Place finished pancakes in a warm oven until finshed frying.