Recently, my husband started the last remaining weeks of his paternity leave. Before our daughter was born, we decided that he wouldn’t take everything off at once, but instead broke it up over the course of her first year. It’s worked out really well for him to have times off during different stages of our baby girl’s growth. And really, there wasn’t much he could do when she was a newborn. All she wanted to do was nurse, which obviously only I could do, and sleep about 22 hours a day. What a life, right?

I’ve been counting down the days for his time off, and I’m so excited that it’s finally here! To celebrate, I decided to make a special breakfast for his first day home. We normally have oatmeal with granola the mornings that he’s not at work, but this was not the time for that. Definitely not. It was all about a fun, tasty beginning to much needed quality time as a family.

Lemon pancakes have a special place in my life, tucked into my memories back home of Sunday morning breakfast. On both my Korean and Caucasian sides of the family, the men don’t do any of the cooking. They barely even step foot in the kitchen. My mom and her Korean sisters in particular are all skilled cooks, with lots of experience from creating amazing meal after meal for their families. There was one meal, though, on Sunday mornings, that was Dad’s to make. And it most always consisted of a combination of soft scrambled eggs, hand-grated hash browns, or pancakes. I came to really look forward to Sunday breakfast, as you can imagine.

My Dad did a fair amount of experimenting, testing out different techniques to get the fluffiest eggs or the most perfectly crisped hash browns. One of these mornings, he discovered the secret to the most amazing pancakes I have ever tasted. Lemon. Just the zest and juice of one lemon completely transforms ordinary pancake batter. The hint of citrus brings out a brightness that complements many other breakfast flavors. Pair these pancakes with fresh strawberries and a side of eggs over easy, and you have yourself a winner.

My husband couldn’t keep from gushing after each bite about how tasty our special breakfast was. It definitely was the perfect way to start off some time off.

Lemon Pancakes with Strawberries, adapted from Allrecipes.com

3/4 cup milk (I used 1%)
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon zest

Strawberries

1 basket strawberries
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar

Combine milk with the vinegar and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Let sit for 10 minutes for the milk to curdle and become an easy buttermilk substitute. When it’s ready, whisk in the egg, butter, and vanilla extract.

In another bowl, stir together the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir together until most of the lumps are gone.

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat and coat with butter, oil, or cooking spray. Drop the batter by 1/4 cup fulls into the heated skillet. Cook for about 2-3 minutes on the first side, until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

For the strawberry topping, wash and hull the strawberries and slice into a bowl. Add the lemon juice and sugar and toss. Serve on top of the pancakes.