Pancakes with The Girls!

Last weekend we decided to make pancakes from scratch. By 'we', I mean The Girls. Maybe I should put some emphasis on that: The Girls. There, much better.

Anyway, The Girls and I, we go way back. Like, some of us have known each other for maybe even more than two decades. That's a very long time. I remember running around with some of these girls. Literally. We played catch. I remember the hair-pulling and tickling and kicking (all in good-natured fun, of course). In fact, we're hitting our thirties soon *gasp!* and we still hair-pull and tickle and kick. But then again, I still crack lame jokes. Along the years, we've shared boy problems, jammed in a band together, watched other friends come and go, had slumber parties, debated third (and first) world problems, watched movies, taken road trips to the beach and back, kept each other company through diarrhea sessions, gotten lost in big cities, and grown up, but somehow, The Girls have still managed to hold it together and remain pretty firm friends. This year, our ages total up to a grand 142 years. Which means this year, the average age of The Girls is 28.4.

That doesn't stop us from giggling over pancakes. Especially if they're made from scratch. The Girls (minus one, who's in a different part of the country), when we meet, there's somehow always food involved. Sometimes we like to go to fanc(ier) eateries and have our dinner cooked for us and laugh while someone else is doing the dishes in the back, but sometimes we enjoy cooking our own meals. Although how what was supposed to be a light afternoon tea ended up being full-blown dinner remains a mystery, we managed to eke out 15 thick fluffy pancakes (and a few crepes) with the following ingredients:

Flour, baking powder, butter, milk, eggs, and mandarin oranges and a lime for a suzette sauce. The glass of black liquid is Coke, and no, that wasn't part of the pancake batter (one of The Girls asked).

We zested the lime and an orange, but the pot of suzette sauce was bitter and we had to toss it out because we burnt the butter. We left the zest out of the second pot, and watched it like a hawk, so it turned out pretty and sweet and all sunshine-y. Tasted like marmalade, actually.

It was really a team effort, and halfway through there were designated teams (really: Pancake Team and Suzette Team). It was really therapeutic, greasing the nonstick, ladling out the batter, watching it form a neat circle, then seeing the batter gradually dry up and the little bubbles emerging and flip flip flip. Steaming hot golden pancake. Wonderful aroma wafting through the house.

We had our pancakes with suzette sauce, honey and butter. But only after taking lots of pictures of our beautiful 15-level pancakes.

At the end of the day, The Girls remind me of pancakes. No, they're not oily and greasy friends. And no, they don't taste like waffles. But they're the ones from your childhood, the ones you grew up with, and the ones with all the memories of warmth and laughter and fun. Comfort food. Comfort friends.