PERSEVERANCE: When I was making the batter, I had to blend the spinach together with other ingredients. I’ve mentioned this before, but my food processor is tiny. Blending 2 1/2 cups of spinach with 1 cup of Greek yogurt in that thing was too much for my processor to handle. I tried to blend the mixture in batches, but that just created a bigger mess. Then, I remembered that I have a blender! It’s been falling out of favor in my kitchen lately because I find it difficult to mash food in a conventional blender, as the food gets stuck in the bottom quite easily. But with the combination of milk and yogurt in the pancake batter, blending the ingredients together was much easier! Of course, what I really need is a Vitamix/Blendtec blender. That and a Kitchen Aid standing mixer. A girl can dream . . . PATIENCE: I don’t make pancakes that often, but whenever I do, I always mess up somewhere. Generally, I use medium-high heat whenever I cook anything. Pancakes, on the other hand, require a bit more patience and TLC. Unless you enjoy eating “well-toasted” pancakes. I quickly realized that the pan was too hot when the sides of a batch of pancakes turned coffee brown in 1-2 minutes. Oops. Medium-low heat is the way to go. RESPECT: Respect the pancake! Don’t go shoving a spatula underneath the cakes and flip them over in haste, unless you want pancake lumps. When I realized the error in my ways, I started to shimmy the spatula gently underneath the pancake until a significant portion was on top of the spatula. Then, I flipped them over. Success! Oil helps with the shimmying, too. I made sure that the pan was coated with cooking spray before cooking the pancakes. So, there you have it. How cooking pancakes taught me more about perseverance, patience, and respect. I thought that the pancakes looked pretty good, but the tiny honey bear that I picked up at the farmers market definitely stole the show.
