Pancakes

Mom often told how, when she was a kid out in western Kansas during the "Dirty '30's," she and her younger brother would have "contests" to see who could eat the most pancakes. Grandma would usually fix either pancakes or biscuits for breakfast, so I can only imagine how proficient they got with their pancake-eating. The thing was, the pancakes started out normal, but then got progressively smaller. Down to silver dollar-size, then finally just dribbles across the pan leaving teeny-tiny dots, each one of them being considered a "pancake."


"I ate ten pancakes!"


"I ate thirty pancakes!"


"I ate FIFTY PANCAKES!"


When I was growing up, Mom would fix pancakes once in awhile as well. I was a problem child when it came to breakfast, especially on a school morning. It was ... DIFFICULT ... getting me out of bed! Mom would holler and holler, and I was so sleepy yet. She'd finally turn my light on, which usually worked, and I'd finally drag my lazy behind out of bed.


Well, by this time, after getting dressed, and almost time to leave for school, she and Dad had eaten already, and whatever she had fixed, a serving would be at my place. This was a bad situation if it happened to be cream-of-wheat. Ever eat cream-of-wheat after it's set in the bowl awhile?


BUT, if it was pancakes, I'd usually get up somehow in time to actually eat along with my folks. Often Mom made her own syrup, just simply brown sugar and some water boiled in a saucepan. That, and/or some Karo pancake syrup, which was plenty thick. Needless to say, the mornings at school after eating pancakes, I hit the water fountain a LOT!


Now for my own family (and myself!) I still make pancakes pretty often. They're cheap, easy to make, and filling. And you can serve along with them some sausage or eggs to be a little more substantial. Or, like one friend brought up and I like it too - peanut butter. Sometimes my Hubby will just take a pancake and spread butter and/or peanut butter on it, fold it, and eat it like that. Such a simple thing, but so good! Any way you fix them. Even if they're just a "dot" of batter in the skillet!