Pancakes

When I was a little girl, my mom worked as a nurse on the 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift. My dad, being a minister with a bit more flexibility in his hours, was responsible for getting my two brothers and I up and off to school. Every morning, he had breakfast ready for us, and most mornings, it was a hot breakfast. We took turns picking what would be for breakfast, and my personal favorite was pancakes.

My dad is the kind of guy who doesn't just do something to get it done. If he's going to be doing anything, then he's going to make sure that it's not just right, but fun. Pancake mornings were no exception.

The morning he found all my mom's cooking flavors was a true "Randy" moment. He divvied up the batter into many small bowls and we had samplings of pancakes flavored with vanilla, maple, coconut, peppermint and even anise.

If we wanted a topping for our pancakes, he allowed it. Powdered sugar, maple syrup, peanut butter, canned fruit or even chocolate chips were many of the several options we tried.

Where he got really creative was the delivery. I remember sitting at our dining room table, and being able to call out exactly how I wanted my pancake shaped.

"Make me an 'S' one, daddy!" or "I want a Mickey Mouse. No, a pig! NO, a star! Can you make me a star, dad?" and he would just laugh and pour and flip and within a few minutes I would have a star shaped pancake hot and ready on my plate.

Indeed, pancake mornings are atop my list of awesome childhood memories.

So it's with great fondness and nostalgia that I whip out my mother's old griddle and fire it up for a version of "pancake morning" in our house.

I must admit, with great humility, how much harder it is to be the maker of the awesome pancakes. This morning, I managed a batch of plain round pancakes with a touch of maple syrup on top, and that plants me firmly in the "novice pancaker" group. Madigan isn't even old enough to care what flavor they are and she definitely only gets simple toppings and I feel overwhelmed at the mixing, flipping and serving!! I can't imagine what it will be like when she's calling out shapes for me to make her.

However, when it was all said and done, watching her polish off her tiny little silver dollar pancakes and hold her plate up to me to ask "Mo?" (more) was all I needed to be inspired to continue a pancake tradition with her in hopes of honing my own skills of pancakery panache.

Maybe, if we're lucky, we can get Papa Randy to come visit and give me a few tips to help me on my way to fantastic pancake memories for Madigan.

If nothing else, maybe I can talk him into making a batch of the maple pancakes for me, and serving it up shaped like a star....