“A day may come when the courage of men fails. When we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day!” 

This day, I fought! This day… I conquered the beast – nay, the demon – that for years has plagued my mind and stripped away at my sense of self. This day… I made pancakes. And they were fucking delicious.

Like all tales of victory, though, I should start at the beginning. This past Sunday my friend came over to help me make pancakes, the last recipe of my inquiry blog and the dish that even after years of practice I’ve never been able to properly make. the insides were always too doughy, the outsides too burnt, else the ingredients forsook me and the food turned bitter upon my tongue. Nevertheless, a semester of successful cooking has not left me without improvements, so with a more skilled learner at my side to expand my zone of proximal development, I entered the kitchen and prepared to make this breakfast food.

The recipe is as follows: mix 1 ÂĽ cups all-purpose flour, 2 tbsp of sugar and 2 tsp of baking powder (NOT BAKING SODA! This has foiled my efforts in the past…) in a bowl together. Add 1 egg, 1 cup of milk and then 1 tbsp of canola oil. Mix up that batter until the lumps have been vanquished, then prepare a pan with some spray oil and put it on medium heat. 

At this point I was ready to start the cooking process – OR SO I THOUGHT! Luckily my friend Celina was there to stop me, and she taught me the following life/pancake hack! (The video itself isn’t accepted by WordPress, but thankfully the audio conveys the brilliance of this moment).

Testing the pan! I knew not of such a thing, but by golly did it work! After a bit of time the water drop sizzled upon hitting the pan, which meant that our pancakes were ready to go in.

Next step was watching for the bubbles. I admit, I am often a premature flipper when it comes to pancakes, as I’ve always heard you flip when bubbles start to appear. Apparently, though, you have to wait until BIG bubbles appear. The resulting holes when they pop should look similar to an ant hole in the ground – miniature yet cavernous. Here’s a photo for reference:

The pancakes were flipped at the appropriate time, and after 5 minutes of being a helicopter parent my babies were done cooking! (That turned into a terrible metaphor, but sometimes it’s important to remind yourself of your flaws, so I’ll leave it in :P). 

And VOILĂ€! SUCCESS! HOLY BANANZA WE DID IT!!! The taste of victory is sweet, and not only because of the maple syrup. All my thanks to Celina for helping me through this process, and thank you to you, dear readers, for accompanying me on the journey that led to this triumphant moment. I hope you’ve all found something special on this blog, be it a recipe, a cooking tip, or even just a laugh. I am the living proof of the moral from Ratatouille, and this inquiry project was a wonderful way to push myself into discovering that. Just as I will keep cooking, I hope you all can take time out of your lives to try something new and embark on a quest that will lead you to a similar joy. 

So long, folks!