It has been the best long weekend.

On Saturday, Dave and I headed out to an adventure in wine country, visiting the Eola-Amity Hills AVA which is just west of Salem. I’ll be detailing our adventure there soon in another post. But we had a great time driving around together, meeting the families that make great Oregon wine, and enjoying each other’s company. We’ve basically decided to retire and become winemakers. I assume the gorgeous estate is easy to come by, yes?

Then on Sunday we toured Bull Run Distilling, makers of one of my favorite bourbons, with our friends Bee and Kevin. And we spent the evening at their house having a delicious dinner and all kinds of fun.

And finally, Sunday we played soccer in the park. We barbecued. We made tons of good food – including a chocolate cream pie, because OBVIOUSLY. Even though I’ve gotten 9-10 hours of sleep every night this weekend, I am exhausted.

Also, we bought and consumed a ton of booze and ate all the best foods.

I loved these oat pancakes because Dave put steel cut oats in them – This made them a little chewy, which I loved. I added a few roasted figs – the last of a carton that I already am feeling the urge to replace.

And we topped it with a drizzle of local honey and a pinch of coarse salt.

Adding some roasted produce will improve almost anything.

Here’s what you need.

For the pancakes:
1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 cup steel cut oats*
1 Tbsp. white sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup buttermilk (sub 1 tsp. white vinegar, fill the rest of the 3/4 cup up with regular milk)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 egg

*This will give you a little extra chewy texture in the pancake that is pretty pronounced. If that doesn’t sound good to you, use quick oats. If you want somewhere in the middle, use old fashioned.

For the toppings:
1 cup fresh figs, quartered
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Sprinkle of best quality coarse salt
Best quality honey for drizzling

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, or just use a toaster oven (much easier in this case!) Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Allow to rest while you begin to roast the figs.

Toss the fits in olive oil and a little salt. Roast on a pan lined with foil until they puff up a little – about ten minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Heat a pan on medium-high heat. Melt 1 Tbsp. butter and cook pancakes in 1/4 cup increments. They are ready to flip when you can see bubbles start to populate on the uncooked side. The seconds side will only take a couple of minutes to finish cooking. You may wish to keep them warm in a low oven while you continue making the rest.

When ready to serve, top with roasted figs and drizzle liberally with honey.