Pancakes And Eggs

Lately in my posts, I seem to be including the phrase, “when I was a kid” – and here’s another one – with a few more to come. Like many youngsters, I went through several food phases as I grew up, such as no sauce on my spaghetti, well-done steak, and butter only on my pancakes. The family norm for pancakes, however, was cakes with butter and syrup and topped with an over easy fried egg, which I eventually adopted, and glad I did.

My dad loved to tell the story of going off to a three-day business conference and ordering hotcakes (he never ate pancakes) and eggs the first morning for breakfast and dealing with the negative comments from his tablemates. After watching his enjoyment, the next morning several others gave it a try and were soon singing the praises of the dish. By the end of the third breakfast, nearly everyone at the conference was converted. To this day, when I eat regular pancakes, at home or in a restaurant, they are nearly always topped with an egg or two – you have to try them to believe how good they are. I’ve actually noticed others eating them this way in restaurants.

I don’t use butter any more as I can hardly taste it through the syrup and eggs. So I just put a little syrup from the Vermont Maple Outlet on each cake in the stack, top with an egg with a runny yolk, break the yolk and smear it over the stack and enjoy – as the folks at my dad’s meeting learned, go ahead and give it a try as you might be surprised, and please let me know if you do or have already. The stack is ready for the next step.



After the next step and now ready to eat. You may want your egg a little doner, but fear not, I sopped up all of that good yolk with cake. In case you're wondering, you can definately taste the influence of the egg.


The title photo is the short stack, syruped and awaiting the egg. Timing is important for if the egg gets done too quick, it can get hard while the cakes finish – it takes the egg just a little longer than the second cake (I cooked them one at a time) so I put the cake on then the egg.

An aside – we spent a week at a resort in Vermont several years ago and while sightseeing, stopped in at the Vermont Maple outlet. Their store sits along the road with a large hill of trees behind it. It was mid September, so we decided to buy all of the kid’s a quart of maple syrup for Christmas. When I ask if they made their own, it was a yes, and when I asked where the syrup came from she pointed to the hill behind the store. The leaves hadn’t turned yet but as it turns out, they’re nearly all sugar maples, and she then told us the family story and described their process. We’ve been ordering their syrup every since and have rarely, if ever, been without. I buy it by the gallon, then refill each of the kid’s, and our own, quart containers – as it turns out I believe it’s about time to order some now.

It looks like a pretty spring day for today so have a great one.

Larry