Gotta get a griddle!

I have never claimed to be very good at cooking.  (How's that for an opening disclaimer.)  I think that is mostly because I never had to do it.  When I was a kid, my Mom took care of that, and she is a phenominal cook.  (That's not just my take; Angie rave's over my Mom's cooking.)

I got married at a very young age, and my (now) ex was a good cook also.  She did things different from Mom, as anyone would expect, but it was still good.  The bottom line is that I never had to cook, so I never developed any proficiency at it.  Since becoming an ex, that has had to change.  I won't claim for a second that I'm good; I'd say I'm adequate.

Breakfast, however, has always remained somewhat blah in the creativity department.  Who has time in the mornings to try a new recipe?  Certainly not me.  On the mornings after I've kept Veronica, the morning breakfast selections have been Pop Tarts, cereal (whatever variety I have on hand), frozen waffles, or (and this is the only one that involves any actual cooking) scrambled eggs and toast.

So earlier in the week I was shuffling around in my pantry.  I didn't realize it beforehand, but when Mom  & Dad came to stay with me during my shoulder surgery, they brought a ton of stuff to stock my pantry.  I jokingly asked them "so, did you leave any food in Arkansas for the other people?"  I appreciated it, but it was a bit overwhelming.  (This pic shows what only two shelves of the pantry look like AFTER we've whittled it down since then.

I made a discovery...Mom had brought and left with me - pancake mix.  Mom makes AWESOME pancakes, but it's not a completely-from-scratch recipe; she simply uses pre-made pancake mix.  So, on Friday morning I decided to throw Veronica a curve and make pancakes for her.  I mean, the mix instructions simply said "add water".  How hard could it be?

Along about this time is when I discovered (or perhaps 'realized' is a better word) that I don't own a griddle.  No sweat, I have a 10" fry pan that would do quite nicely.  From the most simplistic standpoint of "can it get hot and cook the pancakes", that was accurate.  There is one slight hitch, however.  A griddle has no "sides" or "walls", making it relatively easy to get the spatula under the pancake for the all-important flip.  The fry pan...well it does have sides, so the spatula-flip maneuver would take some deft hand-work.

I poured up and cooked Veronica's pancake with only moderate difficulty.  She sat down to eat breakfast while I cooked breakfast while I started on mine.  Since I had never done this before, and since I was pretty much eye-balling the measurements on making the batter, I made a little more batter than we needed.  I discovered this when I poured the batter in for my pancake and discovered that I a little more batter than I needed, but not enough for much of another pancake.  So I just  poured the rest of it in to make one bigger pancake...

...a pancake that almost covered the entirety of the bottom of the fry pan.  See where this is going?  How in the world was I going to do the whole spatula-flip now?!  When the time came, I improvised.  I schooched the edges (and underneath a little bit) of the pancake with the spatula, just to make sure it didn't stick.  Then, with my left hand (right arm is still in the sling), I did the "flip the food in mid-air" maneuver.  You know the one...you sorta shake the pan back and forth a little bit to make sure the food is on-the-move.  Then you flip your wrist upwards, launching the food out of the pan...and flipping.  The goal is to have the food flip completely over only once, and land directly back in the pan.  Not half-way in the pan and half-way out.

I am proud to say that, miraculously, my jumbo pancake did just as I had hoped it would - landing almost perfectly in the bottom of the fry pan.  I DID IT!!!  WOO-HOO!!!

Granted, I slightly burned the first side of my pancake while I weighed the "do I try it or don't I" question before flipping it.  But it was still the non-intentionally largest pancake I can remember, so minus the part that was overdone, it was still more than enough for my breakfast.  And it tasted GREAT!  (...if I do say so myself.)

I can say that I did it, but I'm not willing to declare myself some sort of savant with the pancakes; I know better than to tempt fate in that manner.  And to prove it...I'm headed out to by a griddle right away.