This Way To My Blog

This Way To My Blog

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Happy National Pan Cake Day

I don't know this for a fact but the weatherman said today is National Pan Cake Day. You know that started me to thinking of days in the past. Sometime when you marry into a family you learn they have traditions different from your own and you are kind of expected to follow suit. I soon learned Mel's family had this thing about what they called their family name and then pan cakes. You make a big stack each Sunday morning and have link sauage with them. The ingrediants are so few it is easy to remember how to make them. Flour, egg, salt, and milk. I think in slim days they even made them with water when they didn't have milk. You were expected to mix them in a large fruit can after peeling the label off and one edge was bent to make a spout. It lasted for years and was one of your important cooking utensils. Was I surprised many years later when I finally figured out the pan cakes I made or sometime Mel would make them were actually crepes. You've got to remember we were country people and not up on all of the ways of the world. I'm proud to say I was the only daughter-in-law that mastered that type pancake (crepe). You had to have a very hot grill and when we were ready to flip them you used a table knife to loosen the edges and then hold your mouth just right as you ran the knife under the pan cake and flipped it over. Then you put butter under each one as you stacked them. Each person hooked their fork into the edge of a pan cake on their turn and rolled the pan cake into a roll and added syrup. I confess I haven't made these since Mel died over twenty years ago but I think my daughter Leah still makes them sometime.

11 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

i read about Pancake Day on 2 European blogs - apparently the flour, lard, butter, etc., was meant to be used up in pancakes as the last day before lent. :)

Jean said...

I don't remember eating pan cakes when I was growing up but my dad love to fish and when he cooked his fish for supper he would cook something that look like pan cakes to eat with them. He called them flitters. I really didn't care for them at that time. I do love pan cakes and sausage now for breakfast . Take care. Jean

salemslot9 said...

it was paczki day here
my John picked some up after work

Jill said...

I adored this wonderful memory! Crepes can really be a challenge to make and it sure sounds like you mastered it. Fun story!

Lucy said...

I have heard of crepes but would not have known how to make them. To old to learn now.

jack69 said...

Never had them, but they sure sound good. Funny, I still haven't eaten a crepe. Did not know what they were until a few months ago Sherry pointed them out to me on a menu, the picture was pretty and looked delicious.

Funny how dumb I feel sometime!~! hahaha Of course some folk would word that differently for me, 'Funny how dumb you are,". But then the point is to be happy.
Always love your tales.

Lori said...

My mother made wonderful dumplings, but they were huge. When I got married Thomas expected dumplings to be small, and if I ate anyone else's dumplings (outside of my family) they were made small, so I started making them small. So I asked my mother why she always made hers so large (as big as walnuts or larger). She said her mother-in-law, my grandmother, made them that way, and that was how my father liked them, so that's how she made them, although she'd grown up with them made small and a bit thin. I guess we learn to cook things the way our husbands like them, don't we? I have to say that once in a while I make my dumplings the way my mother made them, and I like them just as well. I don't know if it's National Pancake Day or not, but now you've got me wanting some!

shirl72 said...

I saw a pancake race on TV this
week. They were flipping them in
the pan as they were running.
It was really funny. The men
were dressed like George Washington. I don't think I could
run and flip pancakes.

I do love them with maple syrup.

Shirl

garnett109 said...

now i'm hungry for pancakes!

~mel said...

I used to work in a restaurant that served crepes on their Sunday brunch and I had to make a LOT of them. We filled them with different fruit filling, apple, cherry, strawberries and cream cheese, etc... but my favorite was the ones filled with a spinach and mushroom filling with a cheese sauce over them. Now you have me craving them - and my dear hubby hates them. I just might have to wait a few days until his shift changes at work and make them when he's gone:)

Lucy said...

Mom made pancakes and eggs and oatmeal every morning for the men before they went out to do their chores. Love your background.