Pancakes: In all their golden scrumptiousness

In the land of random writings, I'd say we're in store for the randomest. I'm sort of in a holding pattern regarding my regular writing stuff and I was, oddly enough, inspired by my pancakes today.

Pancakes for dinner, one of my favorite meals. I love making pancakes; I definitely love eating them, but most of all I love the memories that wash over me - from pulling out the recipe to pouring the batter onto the griddle.

Memories

The pancake recipe I use has been in my family for years and comes from the kitchen of my dad's mom. This recipe has spoiled all other pancakes for me. It was always a treat, the mornings we'd have pancakes, and even better when my mom would bust out the occasional breakfast for dinner.

Possibly the memories that stand out the most in my mind are those as I was becoming a teenager and all the midnight makings of pancakes with my best friend and introducing the awesomeness of this tradition to my cousin when she was visiting from Minnesota. There was a period where this friend and I went wild with experimenting with our pancakes - shapes, putting fruit in the batter, and it was here where I discovered the tummy teasing addition of cinnamon to the perfection that are these pancakes. Now there's a trick to the cinnamon, you've got to stir it in, you can't just sprinkle it on top and expect the same palate pleaser, no, stirring is where it's at.

But the memories that warm my heart the most? As I stand over the cooking pancakes watching the bubbles form and slowly pop, I think of my mom teaching me the fine art of making these heavenly creations. Reminding me to have patience, waiting for the last bubble to pop before flipping that golden circle. Last night in particular I was overcome by this as I shared these same words of wisdom for the first time with Abby. At three she will most likely not really remember this first lesson, nor is she old enough to be the flipper, but one day she will be, and she'll remember what I've taught her as she makes her first batch of pancakes.

What's to love?

• I love how things of the kitchen have the ability to link generations. At my mom's house I can pull out the original recipe in my grandmother's handwriting, somewhere is my recipe card from the first time I copied it, and in my house is the card I made when I got married.
• I love how if you aren't patient and wait for all the bubbles to pop, when you flip it, you'll see the results of your impatience as the golden brown will not have spread to that part of the pancake.
• I love making our own syrup to go along with all that yummy goodness - yet another thing that has been passed down and shared throughout our family over the years.

The recipe

Plain Pancakes
from the kitchen of Joan
2 eggs                                2 cups flour
2 cups milk                        6 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup oil                         1/4 cup sugar

*Heat your griddle to 250/300
*Using a whisk, mix together your liquid ingredients, then add your dry ingredients, mixing after each addition.
*If you want to add cinnamon as I do, using a measuring cup to pour your batter on the griddle, tap cinnamon into the batter and stir in. (I do it this way rather than adding to the batter so others can have plain pancakes if they prefer).