A hole in one

Stylish

Hurrah for pancake day and having a fantastic chef for a mother.  Retrospectively of course, since most of the 'run up' to this day of indulgence seemed to pass me by and I awoke in a state of sugary, lemony, pancake battery obliviousness. [Apologies for overly long and possibly invented words that already there seems to be a plethora of tonight - am feeling wordy.] So, due to my unforgivable ignorance, and shame on Heart FM's Sam and Amy for failing to mention pancake day during the 10 opportune minutes while I was driving to work, I had to make a desperate dash to Morrisons after work armed 5p short of the parking ticket fee and already running late for the gym. Nightmare. My mother and I thought we were home and dry as we began the pancake making process, somewhat arrogantly assuming our television cooking knowledge would put us alongside chef superlatives like Michel Roux and Raymond Blanc and that our meek and mild looking batter would somehow yield to us not just pancakes, but Crèpes, not just with lemon and sugar, but with Cointreau, and set alight. 

I will somberly admit now to you all that this time around, I was no Nigella and my mother was no fairy godmother. Perhaps Gilmore Girls has finally produced some dialogue worth noting (alright, I'm not ashamed, I think the dialogue on GG is awesome... I dare anyone to mock me.)  Perhaps Rory's advice about the infamous 'first pancake' should actually become common and relied upon knowledge:

RORY: [...] you are forgetting about the first-pancake phenomenon.
LORELAI: Eh?
RORY: Yes the first pancake – you know you always throw it out. [...]
LORELAI: Why do you throw out the first pancake?
RORY: Well the griddle's too hot. It gets burned.
LORELAI: Oh, my god. Next year, no excuses. We are making you that audition tape for "Top Chef."
RORY: This is pretty basic stuff.
LORELAI: Do you do it with hamburgers and waffles, too?
RORY: No, it's pancake-specific. 

(http://www.tvloop.com/gilmore-girls/show/quotes/rory-gilmore-rory-are-you-sure-we-got-enough-plain-165390)

Ma, moments before...

If Rory, the girl who grew up living on take-out and microwave food knows rules about pancakes that I don't know... It is certainly to the detriment of any of our endeavours.  Our first pancake was under par. In fact it was so far under par that it was practically a hole in one, and that is NOT a good thing. Slightly slimy, undercooked and a little too enthusiastic with the lemon juice makes for a pancake worthy of an Exhibit A. Round 2 showed improvement, although not a lot in the flipping department.  The pan, admittedly was on the heavier side of a cement truck (although I doubt it says that on the packaging,) and so flipping the pancake resulted in merely 'folding' it in half as the weak little thing just didn't have the energy to make the full turn.  Round 3 was almost a success as we had discovered the key lay in cooking it for longer - then it didn't stick to the pan quite so much. It tasted pretty good too. Round 4 was supposed to be our demonstration pancake; the one that we showed off now that we'd honed our skills and could whip up something that looked alright; it was the one we would take photos of and show the family. So we photographed it in the pan and it looked fab. We even photographed me flipping it and after 3 attempts got both my face and the pancake in view. Then it went to Mum for one final and memorable flip. The photo was perfect. When I looked up, the pancake was on the floor. Spreadeagled and mangled. I looked forlorn. Mum had hysterics and the cats turned their noses up at our wonderful, and now sadly ruined creation. 

The tragic accident