Sunday evening, 1987. I come to the table for a typical Sunday night meal. At the close of a busy weekend our dinners were filled with usuals: rotisserie chicken and a salad, some soup, leftovers from a more appropriate weekday meal, or sometimes my mother would whip up her version of Hamburger Helper– a mix of ground meat, a sauteed onion, and plenty of elbow macaroni. Now this wasn’t the sort of meal my mother would usually whip up, but on Sundays, typically fend for yourself night, this sort of American ease was a welcome change.
I have never even had traditional Hamburger Helper, neatly packaged in a cardboard box, with that jolly four-fingered gentleman smiling back at me; but I loved my mom’s version. It was pleasantly bland, seasoned only with salt and pepper, and I gobbled up the little crooked pasta which were far from [...]

I know that I have written about the beloved pancake many times here before. There was the banana pancake, a chubby cake with creamy banana slices cooked in the batter. Then there was the corn pancake of June 2005, which was really just an excuse to sprinkle pancetta over something with abandon. And finally, there was the wild rice pancake, nutty and wholesome. This inundation of breakfast food tells you two things: this is a girl who was had this blog for quite some time, and she really likes pancakes.
And I guess you would be correct on both accounts. Pancakes are a standard, go-to food for me. They are warm and filling, and even a bad one is sort of good. I often order them when going out for brunch, and I love to make them, in all of their different [...]