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Pancakes for Dinner
Don't Flip Out at Dinnertime
By Joan Oberndorf
At that time the pancakes we ate in my house were mostly made from a mix. I now realize that you are cheating your families' taste buds if you never branch out from prepared mixes. A pancake made from scratch is a whole different animal. You also get a lot more variety when you enter into the scratch pancake realm. There are all different kinds of pancakes out there, and I believe that if you're going to break the mold and create a new dinner paradigm, you have to think big.
It goes without saying that kids love pancakes. They consider them a treat, a festive food, and if you serve them for dinner it makes the meal special. While scratch pancakes aren't as low maintenance or as fast as a prepared mix, you can sometimes put the batter together ahead of time (say the night before) or at least get your dry ingredients together. Pancakes are also very kid-friendly if you want to get your children involved in the preparation. Preschoolers are great at dumping dry ingredients into the mixing bowl and they love to stir things together. Older kids can assist with the cooking. One warning: Before you let your kids into the kitchen, take a deep, deep breath and say to yourself, "It's all right if my kitchen gets messy." This is unavoidable, and if you're not comfortable with it, have your kids do something else while you cook. In my book, the mess is worth the fun, and pays off big in the end. After all, if they know how to make pancakes, then some day they can do the cooking when you're sick of making dinner.