it was a pancakes-and-the-beach kind of weekend
March 10th, 2009
We tried a new pancake recipe this weekend, once again courtesy of Catherine Newman. The pancakes themselves were pretty good. They were thinner than our usual thick fluffy cakes, almost like crepes or blini, and quite tasty.
What was really fun was how we made the pancakes. I took Catherine’s excellent suggestion of pouring the pancake batter into a squeeze bottle. This led to all kinds of possibilities. Letter pancakes! Swirl pancakes! Heart and star and butterfly pancakes! Annalie even figured out a way to make a smiley-face pancake (Do the circle outline and eyes and mouth first and let them cook for a half-minute or so, then carefully fill in the rest of the circle. You can still see the face when you flip it!)
That was the best thing about the squeezy bottle, that Annalie could help a lot more with making the pancakes. The drawback is that despite our frequent reminders to be careful, Annalie did get too close to the hot griddle a couple of times and had to run various body parts under cold water. But as Jessica said the other day, accidents happen whether your kids are helping in the kitchen or not. If a child gets burned or cut, you wash the injury, slap a band-aid on, and let it be a lesson. I think it’s better for Annalie to be cooking with us and learning kitchen safety now than for her to be totally inept in the kitchen later in life because we always shooed her out of the way.
In the end, there were no serious injuries, Annalie had fun cooking with her daddy, and we all enjoyed the eating part. Then we went to the beach!
The beach part actually came the next day. We were out in town running errands, and happened to be near the beach. My mom (who loves the ocean) didn’t say anything but I asked her, “Does it drive you crazy that we live just a few miles away from the ocean and are this close to it but don’t go see it?”
She laughed. “Yeah, it drives me a little crazy,” she admitted. “But I don’t want to nag you about it!”
“Well, we don’t have anything else to do today,” Troy said. “Debbie, would you like to go to the beach?”
Annalie drowned out my mom’s reply by yelling, “Woohoo! Yeah, the BEACH!” My mom repeated that yes, she’d love that. Troy turned onto the freeway and headed west. A second later Annalie said in an annoyed tone, “Snap! I forgot my sand toys!” Gramaw came to the rescue, offering Annalie her styrofoam drink cup as a substitute for a bucket.
To see these photos, go to my beach days photoset on Flickr.
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Fully agree about letting the kids cook with you. Learning with supervision from a young age is what made me a good cook once I moved out on my own, while my 1st year university roommates were burning Sidekicks, making purple rice, and eating TV dinners.
Small owwies are a natural part of life. Better that Annalie has good life skills for when she grows up. You’re doing her justice. :)
I’m jealous of your beach trip. Life is still at the frozen point here.
So jealous that you are that close to a beach! I have to drive at least 5 hours to get to water, and even then it’s not that pretty. Sigh. ;)
I live about 5 minutes away from a beach too (on the opposite coast from you though) and so I often forget that some people don’t get to see the beach that often or have never seen it in their life. It’s always funny to hear people talking about going on summer vacations to the beach. I just walk 15 minutes and there I am. A year-round vacation!
I completely agree with Annalie learning cooking skills early and learning how to deal with various minor injuries. My mom, at 52, still burns herself occasionally. So do I. It’s just life. I do have a terrible story about my cousin though. When he was very young, around a year old or so, my aunt was pulling something out of the oven. He came scooting into the kitchen and used the open oven door to pull himself up to stand. It took some plastic surgery and alot of crying but he’s fine now. It served as a lesson for the whole family. We close oven doors now no matter if something is going right back in or not. Whether there’s a toddler around or not. It was not good.
I don’t know if you’ve ever tried it before but I use vanilla and almond extract in my pancakes. The almond makes them so delicious! Looks like you guys had a great time this weekend!
I saw the very first picture and was all prepared to say, “Do you always put pancake batter in a squeeze bottle? That’s brilliant!” But then I read a little further and saw that it was a suggestion from elsewhere, but it’s still brilliant!
“Snap, I forgot my sand toys” – That’s hilarious, I missed your tweet on that, so I’m glad I got to see it here.
Hee hee! Snap! My kids have been saying that too recently.
Love love love the squirt bottle idea.
My kids help me constantly in the kitchen. I usually try to keep the burners on med low or less, and just let them stir, or whatever. If I need to put the burner higher than that I just stand right next to them the whole time. Otherwise I work around them, and let them stir, or whatever. I totally agree with you on that.
I love the ‘snap’ from Annalie!!
Your pancakes give me a great idea to try the squeeze bottle, I have never done this before.
And yes, it would drive me crazy to live that close to the beach and not go see it as much as I could. Even when I have had my vacation ruined by a hurricane, I still went to the beach or at the very least the boardwalk where I could see the beach and listen to all its glory.
We make pancakes a lot, but have never thouht of the bottle!
Oh, how I miss the beach…
Oh I LOVE the squeeze bottle idea, is it one you re-used or did you buy it especially? I think I could reuse the honey bottle for this but I’m impatient and want to make squeezy pancakes TOMORROW! (er.. today, seeing how I’m up at almost 1am.)
Looks like a STELLAR weekend! Also makes me want to move to San Diego. This -40C we have here is SO not as cool as the beach.
CUMPLEANOS FELIZ! CUMPLEANOS FELIZ!
TE DESEO TODO!
CUMPLEANOS FELIZ!
Tenga las llaves..uh I mean.. un buen dia!
Happy Birthday, Bethany!
Those pancakes look awesome…so yummy and crispy!
I can’t wait to include Thomas in cooking…it’s definitely a gift to give your children, the ability to cook. I wish my mom would have given more responsibility when I was a teenager. He sees both his daddy and I cooking together – last night I had Beaux walk me through one of his specialities, a sorta homemade lo mein – and I can’t wait to have him stirring some cake batter and that sort of thing! As for now, we are overly careful about oven doors and stovetops – especially since he can reach the countertops!
The whole “snap” thing cracks me up. I love the pancakes from a squeeze tube too, what a neat idea!
Happy birthday!
xoxo
I know I’ve said this before, but I cannot get enough of her beautiful blonde hair! =)
The pancake batter in a squeeze bottle is a really good idea. I think I’ll have to convince my nieces to try it out with me this weekend!
Happy Birthday!
i tried that with a squeeze bottle, but it wasn’t squeezy enough. i couldn’t find one like what you used, and the one i got instead just didn’t cut it.