Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Disaster-ly Made Delicious Pancakes

I did something yesterday that I do not typically do. I made buttermilk pancakes (for the first time, I might add) all by myself!

Okay, it was a bit more like 97.837999999% by myself. . .
. . .my Mom did help a little bit.

It's not like this is a new recipe either, it is one my Mom has used for a long time to make the pancakes that we like. But as usual, something had to go wrong whenever I was chosen to make them. Seriously, it seems like something always has to happen whenever I try to make something. Live and learn. . . That's all I can say about my cooking experience.

At first it looked like yesterday would be an exception, but No no no! I couldn't get off the hook that easily!

First, I got out all of the ingredients. I made an especially huge effort to be specially careful about the amount I used of everything since I was doubling the recipe. 

2 cups of flour!
1/2 tsp of salt!
2 tbsp of sugar!

I even double-checked several-checked the amount of everything before I put it into the bowl! Though, of course, the first time I was making these pancakes, we had to be almost out of all-purpose flour. I know, it's not the healthiest. . . However, that forced me to use a cup of unbleached wheat flour, which is healthier, but it does slightly change the taste of the pancakes. . . Turns out, that was really nothing.

Next, I was again trying to be smarter than usual and I got out a 3 cup measuring glass so I could pour in the buttermilk, add the olive oil (I even looked it up to make sure Olive Oil qualified as "Cooking Oil" instead of asking, you know, so I was doing it by myself), and then the eggs. It seemed like the best way to measure and mix everything up without dirtying a measuring cup and another bowl. Buttermilk in. . . so far so good. . . Now the oil. . . still going strong! And now the eggs. . .

Okay, okay! I admit it, I am not the best at cracking eggs, I know that!
It's just not one of my skills, but I'm not too terrible at it.
So I made sure to be super careful.

The first egg went in great! No shells, no mess. The next one I cracked open was a little big more of a pain. A small piece of shell was sitting atop the yolk and before I could plan on how I was going to get it off. . . it slipped past me. 

And into the batter the little piece of eggshell went!

I've got this. No big deal, I will just keep an eye out for it and scoop it out when I can! No worries. . . So with half an eggshell in each hand, I went over to the trash can to throw them away. Somehow when I reached the garbage, I only had one half.

I have nooo idea what happened. I looked back on the counter. It wasn't there, so  I must not have set it down. I looked in the trashcan and there were like two other egg shells in there. Someone else had thus already had an egg or two this morning. Surely, I had already dropped it in the trashcan. This was ridiculous. I dropped the other egg shell in and went back to mixing all the wet ingredients together.

Things were looking up, they were mixing together just fine and everything looked right. I made a little well in my dry ingredients as my Mom had earlier instructed me to do. Then I gave it one last stir and pulled out the whisk. . .

What was that white stuff on it?

Oh no! No, no, no! It couldn't be! I touched it. . . it was hard. Maneuvering it out of the whisk, I was completely certain now of what it was. My missing half of the eggshell.

Still, it is completely beyond me how it got in there. Did I put it in there without thinking? Or managed to somehow drop it when I wasn't paying attention? Because there it was, and now my beautiful mixture of wet ingredients was filled with little bits of broken, white eggshell. . .

The pancakes were ruined. This was a disaster. Something always has to go wrong.

Wait, I could still save my pancakes without having to start from scratch! With a burst of inspiration, I fished out a strainer from one of our cabinets. Not one of those things with the big holes for pasta, but with the wire-y stuff where surely the liquid ingredients would slip through and my eggshell mishap would get left behind!

And. . . *drum roll* It worked! Sure, some of the thicker clear part of the egg just wouldn't go through the strainer and I wasn't about to pour it in this newly-dirtied bowl and risk having to strain them all out again. . . So I called in the Mom-squad! Just kidding, I called Mom in to get her advice on whether or not the batter was salvageable.

After this was the worry that they were too thick, even after Mom had added in some  more buttermilk. But to my surprise (and I will say, delight!) they turned out pretty good. Even with having to kind of squish them down a bit while cooking them to make sure they were cooked thoroughly. However, I survived.

Despite all the little mishaps and disasters I created along the way (and the mess), my pancakes were a delicious success.

How are you in the kitchen?
Are you a pro? (don't be afraid to admit it)
What's your favorite breakfast recipe or mishap story?
Tell me below!

DISCLAIMER: I would not recommend following my recipe or using my kitchen skills. . . as it is not a guarantee that you will end up with egg-celent pancakes.

3 comments:

  1. I don't cook, especially pancakes, I leave those to Don and he uses a mix-not as healthy maybe-but good. :)

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  2. The first time I made biscuits, they were so hard they could have been considered lethal weapons :-D

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  3. These look delicious! We are huge fans of any breakfast item. Thanks for sharing! Xo, M&K at brewedtogether.com

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