It Was My Birthday

When I was very young, my mother started a tradition in our family that my siblings and I have continued as we have gotten older and started our own families: for our birthdays, we have the privilege of choosing whatever we want to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In this way, we really celebrate the birthday girl's/guy's life and favorite things. It's a lot of fun!
So this year, I really wanted Cracker Barrel Pecan Pancakes, but knew that time and money would not really permit a breakfast "out." So I decided to look for the recipe online, and sure enough, there it was! My husband was sweet enough to make them for me and they were absolutely DELISH.
That kind of got me to thinking about how easy it is to find "copycats" of some of our favorite restaurant treats. One that we have used over and over again is a hot wing recipe from a particular restaurant that exploits and demeans women (I'll let you figure out which one that is exactly). It is SO worth it to learn how to make some of these things at home; in addition to significantly reducing the cost of a treat, we know precisely which ingredients are going into what we are about to eat, so we can closely monitor the quality of the food.
The next time you find yourself hankering for a particular menu item, look it up and see if you can't make it just as well (if not better!) at home. You might just surprise yourself.