Pancakes and anxiety
I used to make pancakes a lot. Really nice, homemade, fluffy ones — not even from a mix. Nope.
I’d whisk together flour and baking powder and salt. I’d make a little well in the middle and add the beaten eggs, milk, and oil. I used a super-smooth griddle and never, ever burned them.
They were delicious.
Of course, I always doubled or tripled the recipe so I could have lots of leftovers to freeze. The freezer always had huge ziplock baggies full of pancakes, lined up in careful rows.
It would take me a really long time to crank them all out, assembly-line style. But it meant that we always had pancakes! No worries about running out! Not here!
And then, I just … stopped.
I don’t know when or how, but suddenly it was too much work to make pancakes. It made me agitated.
I hated getting the recipe book down. I hated the way the flour got all over the counter and the floor. I hated getting out so many different ingredients. I couldn’t remember the recipe, even though I had used it so many times, because I was always doubling and tripling … and math is hard.
I toasted no-name Eggos instead. Sometimes my husband made pancakes. I did it every few months, maybe.
Our super-smooth griddle broke. It had been one of our favourite wedding presents. We bought a replacement and even though it was much larger, the surface was swirly and made the pancakes swirly, too. I hated that.
But over the past couple of weeks, I’ve started making pancakes again. Once or twice a week, even.
Just one batch, though. No doubling or tripling. There are plenty for all four of us, plus a few extras to freeze for another day. I’m not stuck standing at the counter for over an hour, flipping batch after batch. It doesn’t take very long. It’s nice.
I even know the recipe by heart now. In my head I call them “Two and a Quarter Pancakes” because everything is either two of something or a quarter of something.
Two cups of flour.
Two teaspoons of salt.
Two tablespoons of baking powder.
Two cups of milk.
Two eggs.
A quarter cup of oil.
I don’t have to dig out the recipe book. I’m getting used to the new griddle. It doesn’t take very long to get all of the circles to turn golden brown. And the kids … they go crazy for these pancakes, especially when I sprinkle in a few mini chocolate chips.
Not everything has to be a huge production.
Sometimes one batch of fresh pancakes is a lot better than two or three batches in the freezer.
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