Mike and I have an irreconcilable difference. He won't eat pancakes for dinner. I love pancakes for dinner. I love and adore pancakes for dinner, and he doesn't want breakfast for dinner. PICKY! I'm set to try out Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pancakes. But I will also be trying CDW's pancakes, she invented her own recipe and included brown sugar...'nuff said. Also, CDW's kids preferred their mama's cakes to PW's. May the best pancake win, which of course will be CDW's, I am very partial.

So, there are a lot of pancakes in my near future. Wonder what Mike will do. It's so great that Log Cabin now boasts NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP on the label. It's about time. I love thick pancake house kind of syrup but didn't buy it for years because of bad old ingredients. I love pancake house pancakes. They are stretchy. Once I asked at International House of Pancakes, or someplace, What's your trick for stretchy pancakes? The waitress said the trick was to beat the batter for an hour. Oh, and to add 7-Up to the batter, or something like that. All this amused me, as every pancake recipe I've ever read says, Do NOT over beat the batter, leave lumps. Well, I like my pancakes at home, but they are definitely not stretchy texture, they are more crumbly. As far as 7-Up, I really don't know what to do with that. Howard Johnson's used to have terrific pancakes, so did The Garden Cafeteria. I even wrote a letter to the editor about The Garden's pancakes and the whiff when the waiter brought them to the table and lifted the silver dome with his white gloved finger. Oh, I can still smell that wafting cakey steaming aroma. And the syrup smell, love it. You know, you open the door to any place serving breakfast and what do your lungs inhale? Syrupy air particles, of course.

Well, the reason I wrote a letter to the editor is because the newspaper printed an article about The Garden's famous murals painted on the walls. Banyan trees with monkeys swinging from them. It was truly fascinating. Now they want to take down the building, but what to do with murals painted on the cement walls? Since some of my fondest childhood memories are associated with The Garden, I had to write and express myself. I don't do well with change. Bad change. My mother knew the children of the cafeteria owners so I wanted her to ask if they still had the recipes. But of course they did not. Honestly. This place had a fish pond with a bridge over it. And, being called The Garden, it had plants everywhere. Truly, it was like dining in the jungle, except the waiters had white jackets. The lines on Sunday after church would wrap around and around. Sometimes I ate there twice in one day. My grandparents took us kids for breakfast so other people could get ready for church in peace, and then again for lunch.

Do any of you know how to make stretchy pancakes? Please give it up, if you do. I was just telling CDW today that some women do not share their recipes, I've had it happen to me. Gads.

One of my best friends growing up did not pour syrup on her pancakes. Where was she coming from? Or maybe she didn't put butter on them, either way, my thought processes could not be reconciled to that.

I think I will be doing a series of blogettes while the Olympic games are playing. I feel a little burned out, not sure why.

Kafeteria KEM