Mardi Gras!

But that’s not all I have to say about that. I’m having people for pancakes for lunch today. I’ll give you my recipe for buttermilk pancakes later.

End of day: Actually, I think I gave this recipe to you—or whomever—two years ago, just before we all disappeared from the faces of human society. Or was it longer? Time drags when you’re in lockdown. That was the last party I had, on Pancake Tuesday, for my grandchildren. Up to that time I had always celebrated Pancake Tuesday with pancakes, buttermilk pancakes, expensive buttermilk pancakes, not because of the buttermilk, but because of the recipe.

A friend of mine from Chicago gave me the magic formula. She told me she paid $50 for the “secret”, sold to her by the chef of a popular restaurant. I believed her and passed on its provenance when I included it in my first cookbook.

I have never used a pancake mix. Never.

BUTTERMILK PANCAKES

Put in a bowl 2 c, flour, 1 tsp.baking soda, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, and mix (yes, dry). Stir in 2 c. buttermilk and 2 beaten eggs and stir until fairly well acquainted. Melt 2 tbsp. butter with 2 tbsp, liquid honey and stir this into the batter. Stir well and see what it looks like. Right now you’ve got too thick a batter, good for flapjacks but not for pancakes I like my pancakes closer to crêpes than to hockey pucks so I thin the batter with water as necessary. Start with 2 tbsp., stir and check it. You’re going to make a sample pancake or two as you make sure the (seasoned) pan is the right temperature.

That’s it.