is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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It�s not that I can�t get no.
I�ve been needing pancake satisfaction for some time now. On the weekends when I wake up, usually I want pancakes. Often when I go out to brunch, or even when I cook for myself, I�ll end up ordering something else, like an omelette, or cooking something else, like scrambled eggs and toast, or plain old cereal, and that will be fine. But sometimes a girl really needs pancake satisfaction. And I have found none. It all started like two months ago when I made French Toast for Gus and it wasn�t very good. He said it was good but it wasn�t. It was just adequate to its task of filling our stomachs. That was because I was out of vanilla extract, I think, and also the wheat bread was not the best kind of wheat bread for making French Toast. Compromises were made, and tasted. Anyway, a couple of weeks later Gus and I went to IHOP and I did have some tasty pancakes there, but they weren�t perfect. Then a couple of weeks ago we went to Du Jour, where the food is always tasty, and I ordered Buttermilk Pancakes and they were utterly flavorless. They were like pancake-textured Styrofoam air flavor. They worked as a vehicle for getting the syrup into my mouth, but even the syrup wasn�t very good. Then this weekend we went to Plate for brunch, except it was Saturday and they only have brunch on Sunday, so we had lunch instead. My spicy ahi tuna burrito was very tasty, as was my HUGE coca-cola, and the company I was keeping, but still. Then yesterday Gus made some very yummy scrambled eggs with cheese and rye toast, and we also had some chocolate tart I had made the night before, and a coca-cola, and that was a perfect breakfast, along with the New York Times and, again, good company, and yet I had NO PANCAKE SATISFACTION. I guess what I really need, what I�m really looking for, are Evany�s sweet hot pancakes fresh off the griddle. But she is in San Francisco. So today I went and did it. I MADE MY OWN.
Usually I never make chocolate chip cookies, apple pie, or pancakes, because those are three things Evany does so well I feel no need to try to live up to her example. I would rather just have her crank out her example and put it near me so I can suck it into my mouthhole. But Evany is in San Francisco. And one of the bad things about Philadelphia is that it is not anywhere near San Francisco. So I made pancakes using Nigella Lawson�s �American Breakfast Pancake� recipe, but adding some cinnamon and vanilla extract, because how could that be wrong!?
They were delicious. Evany�s are still better. But at least now I have attained the desired state of PANCAKE SATISFACTION. A half-recipe made exactly three fluffy cakes, of which I ate approximately 2.5 before feeling so engorged with pancake that I might never need to eat one again, until next time.
This last weekend I also made a yummy chocolate tart, mentioned above, for Gus, and some tasty macaroons for a Sopranos-watching party. This particular chocolate tart I make is so good that, even though I�m always the one who made it, I can never stop myself from making enthusiastic declarations about how good it is whenever it is in my mouth. For instance, on Saturday night I said, �This is so good it is actually making me feel sexually excited!� (That is such a Cathy-cartoon relationship to chocolate that women perhaps ought not to say such things in public or, really, aloud even when they�re alone. But sometimes enthusiasm takes over. And anyways, it�s TRUE about certain forms of really good dark chocolate.) Gus put some in his mouth, got a look on his face, laughed a little in the way he does when he�s not quite sure what to say, and said, �This is insanely good.� Then on Sunday morning I said, �Eating this makes me feel like a SUPERHERO. Like I can do ANYTHING!� Then I jumped up and down a bit. Ah, the morning combination of caffeine, sugar, and rich dark chocolate custard in a pastry shell.
I have done very little in the way of cooking anything that doesn�t involve flour and sugar. Instead I�ve been living on corn on the cob, yogurt, restaurant food, and whatever else gets offered to me, like when Gus made me a very tasty dinner the other night, one from which I wish I had the leftovers right now so I could warm them up and taste once again of pasta intermingled with garlic and tomato (which is for me the lambada of fruits: forbidden, but all about desire!).
By the way, when it comes to flour, sugar, and chocolate, this is the most excellent cookbook ever. It will win you friends, lovers, admirers, and enemies who are jealous of your baking prowess. In fact I hesitate to reveal it to you, as it feels like it is the secret to my success (at least with cakes, tortes, tarts, and bars). But here it is. Make the world happier.
6:04 p.m. - April 09, 2007
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