Pancakes For Two — Friday Is Flexible, and Pancakes Are Joy

Year four ends in a pandemic. That's the sentence. That's the summary. Two hundred and eight weeks of this blog and the world is closed and I'm at home and Connie is at work (essential) and Clay is in the kitchen with me and we're cooking because cooking is what you do when the world stops and you have a stove and a pantry and a son who needs something to do with his hands besides worry.

The week's cooking: Monday soup beans (always). Tuesday fried potatoes and eggs. Wednesday chicken and dumplings from the frozen chicken in the freezer. Thursday white beans and ham from the pantry beans and the frozen ham hock. Friday pancakes for dinner because Friday is flexible and pancakes are joy. Saturday, Clay and I made his first attempt at fried chicken — Betty's recipe, the full production, the buttermilk brine and the seasoned flour and the cast iron at 325 degrees.

Clay's fried chicken was sixty-five percent. The brine was right. The flour was right. The oil was too hot — he went to 350 instead of 325 and the crust browned before the inside cooked. A common mistake. The same mistake I made a hundred times before I learned that 325 is not a suggestion but a commandment. He'll learn. Next time the oil will be 325 and the chicken will be seventy percent and the time after that seventy-five and the climb continues, one batch at a time, one Saturday at a time, one lesson at a time.

Betty called on Saturday. She's alone in Evarts. I can't visit — the pandemic, the risk, her age, her lungs. The monthly drive is suspended and the suspension feels like an amputation. She said she's fine. She said she's cooking. She said the garden is going in regardless of the virus because "the virus isn't invited to my garden." I said I'd come when I could. She said "Don't rush. I'll be here." She's eighty. She has macular degeneration and lives alone and the nearest hospital is forty-five minutes over mountain roads. "I'll be here" is not a guarantee. It's an intention. It's the same thing Clay said: "I'm going to be okay." Future tense. A heading. Not a destination.

Year four. The year Clay went to war and came home and fell and got up and fell and got up and is getting up still, every day, in a kitchen that smells like beans and cornbread and the specific faith of a family that has survived mines and wars and now, apparently, a pandemic. Year five starts next week. The soup is on. The stove is lit. The pantry holds. We hold. Forward.

The fried chicken lesson will come back around — Clay will get the oil to 325, and the chicken will climb from sixty-five percent toward something closer to Betty’s standard, one Saturday at a time. But it’s the Friday tradition I keep thinking about: pancakes for dinner, no apology, no occasion required, just the two of us at the stove while the world stayed closed outside. If you need a recipe that asks nothing of you except a bowl and a skillet and someone to sit across from, this is the one. Pandemic or not, pancakes for two are enough.

Pancakes For Two

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 20 minutes | Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (plus more for the pan)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt until evenly combined.
2. Mix wet ingredients. In a separate small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the egg, milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract.
3. Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined. A few lumps are fine — do not overmix or the pancakes will be tough.
4. Rest the batter. Let the batter rest for 3–5 minutes while the skillet heats. This gives the baking powder time to activate.
5. Heat the pan. Warm a cast iron skillet or nonstick pan over medium heat (around 325–350°F surface temperature). Add a small pat of butter and let it melt and coat the pan.
6. Cook the pancakes. Pour roughly 1/4 cup of batter per pancake onto the skillet. Cook until bubbles form across the surface and the edges look set, about 2–3 minutes. Flip and cook the second side until golden, about 1–2 minutes more.
7. Serve. Transfer to plates and serve immediately with butter and maple syrup. Makes 6–8 small pancakes, enough for two.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 9g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 44g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 380mg