Pancake Time Machine – Part 1

Today we made pancakes, and it occurred to me that I have been pan-caking a bit differently in every country I have lived so far. I am now very happy with my country of residence and also with my pancake recipe, but let’s have a look back with the pancake time machine :

Eierkuchen – My Childhood pancakes in Germany

Pancakes have many names and variations in Germany. In our family they were called Eierkuchen (literally ‘egg cakes’) because in Berlin we stubbornly call the “Berlin Donut” Pfannkuchen (pancakes) to the confusion of anyone who visits from the rest of Germany and calls them “Berliner” and well, pancakes simply pancakes..
Either way, the basic German recipe is indeed high on eggs and has less liquid and flour. The result is a rather dense dough that bakes to a somewhat elastic, rather filling cake. Eierkuchen also often have dark brown, even black patterns, this isn’t considered to be burnt, it’s their actual “look”.

My mother’s recipe went probably something like this :
50 g melted Butter,
100 g  sugar,
4 eggs ,
200 ml milk,
- beat until foamy and add 200 g flour.
Beat again. Fry!
Optional : Throw and tumble pancakes with verve to amuse the children, send them off to eat the first round in the dining room, then answer the phone in the corridor …and forget about the last pancake that turns into charcoal in the kitchen. Easy!

As toppings we usually had lots of sugar or strawberry jam, sometimes Nutella. My mother’s only variation, the simple apple pancake (acid type apple wedges thrown on the top of the pancake) was not popular with us then – not sweet enough!  My brother also liked the dark and strong sugar beet syrup, (must really try and get that here somehow). We loved mum’s pancakes, they averaged maybe 20cm in diameter, were 0.5 to a whole centimeter thick and after a single one, you generally felt like the only way to move was to go rolling around..  they were very filling indeed!

Daddy Pig is obviously "a bit of an expert" in pancake tumbling.

To be fair, many German recipes aim for a lighter dough, as a teenager I found out that other families actually added a teaspoon of baking powder or – kinky!- sparkly mineral water or even beer to make the cakes a bit fluffier.
Today, thin and light French Crêpes and smaller, American style pancakes are very popular, too, including the runny acorn syrup (hopefully imported from Canada to be the real deal). Anything goes as long as it isn’t exclusively eaten during the morning hours of a certain fast food restoration chain (or two). Making pancakes is soo much fun:

(The photo links to one of our favourite PeppaPig episodes – Pancakes!)

Links :
wiki on pancakes and variations around the world
Peppa Pig – Pancakes – on youtube

Tomorrow : Young and chic  with Crêpes in France

Crafty – Ahoy Pirates ! (cardboxing a pirate ship)

The last months were all about HarrHarr! – Pirates!
For Tornados Birthday, I prepared a treasure hunt, we then went to SeaWorld on the following weekend (pirate show) and by Halloween, first at kindy and then at a neighbour’s party, we knew our dressup/moustache routine. We played A LOT of pirate games with the Lego and the Fisherprice men too, but we only had small or makeshift boats (shoe boxes) ..
Then I started a project and it did not look too bad – but I could not find anything for a stable big mast! This weekend I finally dug out a tube from a (broken) play tent. I think the red sails are a good effect.
Obviously, it’s not a very true reconstruction (oh, Fisherprice has a really awesome set)  but I am very glad to say that Tornado was, again, very happy  with our homemade and recycled cardboard version, especially, because I tried to satisfy his wishes for certain features, like the outlook on top of the mast, an anchor on a string and, a trapdoor for the “cabin part”.

Budgeting (State) School – got your booklist?

I know..! No need to shriek how much I would pay for a private school.
Because honestly, I don’t care. Although I am sure, there are some awesome schools out there, I am by principle against the idea that your wallet should decide over the quality of your education.
Having grown up in a country where private schools were much rarer and going to your local primary (state) school was the norm for everyone, it is hard for me to comprehend how a country would allow schools with religious or other elitist concepts be responsible to train and care for a part of their youth, while others have to “make do” with the free State Schools.

"Who you gonna call..? – Ghostbusters! (Cheap as Craft)

When Tornado was 3, my husband’s teenage kids were babysitting him one afternoon, and to pass the time, they decided to watch a DVD – and chose “Ghostbusters”. Now, in the rather wide range of movies of Awesome’s collection, this was probably a wise choice in their eyes (it’s rated PG, I just checked) and I remember loving that movie when it first came out (and I was their age) but I would have known that it was WAY to scary for my boy!  At the time, he would run out of the room at the ‘scary scene’ in “Cars” when Mater takes Lightening McQueen out at night to scare the Tractor-cows – before the big Monster-mower even appears! Even today, at almost 5 and very keen on watching all kind of ‘scary’ animation (Ben10, Dragon Booster and the like), Tornado is still pretty sensitive when it comes to ‘real scary’ (+music+darkness) on the screen. And while special effects have come a long way since 1984, for him, it would have been ‘real horror’ actually.

In any case, although he never saw the movie to the end (my stepkids would have realized their mistake after the first scenes..), I heard about it for weeks. There wasn’t a real increase of nightmares, but he certainly was impressed and we talked about it A LOT. We still talk about it, and he still doesn’t want to see it (yet) but we have seen the animated series ‘The Real Ghostbusters’ at some point. Far less scary. (But why is Egon now blond??)
There are complete episodes on youtube, for aficionados.

So for some reason, this week he wanted to ‘play Ghostbusters’, so I printed out a few stickers for his shirt (and mine) and made him a very simple but very efficient “Proton Gun” that I connected to his little backpack with a rest of cable-tidy tube from Ikea.

A teddy became a ghost with an old sheet and we had lots of fun!.. and playfully tackled, any eventual residual fears that he might still have about ghosts (we know they’re just ‘pretend’ but still..) especially with all that talk about funerals and mummies lately.

And of course, more stickers had to be printed to transform some Lego guys for further play:   

On a sidenote : We also had a look at the music video, it’s delightfully 80s and Chevy Chase (who played the repairman in the recent “Hot Tub Time Machine” which was so much better than I had suspected) doing this trick with a cigarette – unthinkable today, almost criminal some would say, as it would have inspired many young boys to learn the same thing (and smoke).
My husband can still do it.

More ‘Cheap as Craft’ : “Cardboard City“

Cheap as craft : The fridge magnet

Oh, I know. “Craft” you share online is generally those gorgeous handmade dolls in patchwork clothing or the weird but charming knitted monsters.. Pretty, but yeah, not me really.

I still do ‘stuff’ with and for my boy, sometimes spontaneously and i actually LIKE it best when it doesn’t cost us a penny. Budget craft.

Today I drew a smiley on a very evenly shaped stone my boy had found in the garden.
I stood in the kitchen and saw an old magnet on the fridge that had lost whatever decoration was once stuck on it. A few drops of superglue later :

I don’t know if you can buy “empty” magnets. For more rocks.. or other things that would look cool on a fridge. I am thinking of shells or pieces of wood… Hm..