|
"Batter
Blaster" - What?!! Pancake Batter in a Spray-On,
Aerosol-Type Can
I was shopping for eggs at Harris Teeter
when I noticed on the refrigerator shelf cans of a strange product
called "Batter Blaster," and had to take a closer look.
Apparently this is some sort of spray-on pancake batter in an
aerosol-type-can. ARGH! First there was
artificial-orange-cheese-product-whiz in some sort of spray-on-aerosol-type-can
(yuck!); now we can also spray pancake batter out of a can.
Whatever happened to the simple joy of cracking a few eggs and mixing up
some pancake batter? It only takes a few minutes to make pancake
batter from scratch; and it's fun for kids to help.
My father used to make amazing, edible
works of pancake art by pouring the batter artfully into shapes.
We particularly loved the Winnie-the-Pooh figures he would make.
The pancake batter recipe we used was in a children's Winnie-the-Pooh
cookbook called The Pooh Cook Book (shown below).
Growing
up I always thought the cookbook had step-by-step instructions for
making Winnie-the-Pooh shapes with the batter (just look at the book
cover featuring Pooh himself flipping a pancake). As an adult, I came
across our original, well-worn, well-loved copy of The Pooh Cook Book and
found that there is no mention about making Winnie-the-Pooh shapes with
the pancake batter at all. I should have known that the idea was
my dad's.
My father was a brilliant artist and sculptor; his
sketches remind me of the Italian masters. It seemed that he could
create anything out of nothing. As one of my childhood friends put
it, he made everything magical. A few days ago we took our children to
see my father's welded steel, life-size "Don Quixote"
sculpture located two blocks from the White House in Washington, D.C.
(in the courtyard at 1776 G Street, between F and G streets and 17th and
18th streets.) (You can see a few photos of Miles Stafford Rolph
II (Jarbo's) Don Quixote sculpture at www.jarbo.org.)
Sculptor Miles Stafford II (Jarbo)
Rolph's
"Don Quixote" welded steel sculpture
Here is a description of my
father's "Don Quixote" sculpture from the book, Off the
Beaten Path Washington, DC by William B. Whitman:
"Two blocks west of the
White House, Don Quixote cuts an extraordinary figure in Miles
Rolph's tour de force of welded steel. Note how the Don's horse,
Rosinante, snarls in anger as her master prepares for another hopeless
foray. 1776 G Street, courtyard between F and G and 17th and 18th
Streets."
I wish I had a photograph of
those lovely, amazing Winnie-the-Pooh pancakes he used to make for
us. I am pretty sure it is not possible to make lovely pancakes with
Spray-on-Batter-Blaster-in-an-Aerosol-Type-Can.
But wait! I
forgot the best part about the Batter Blaster! I went back to take a
second look at the Batter Blaster during that grocery shopping trip, and then
noticed that this is not just any Batter Blaster: NO. This is
ORGANIC Batter Blaster. USDA-approved ORGANIC Batter Blaster.
Wow. This is pretty much the opposite of anything I have ever
envisioned as being "organic."
I'll stick to pancakes made
from scratch! Just pour out a nice round circle for Winnie-the-Pooh's
belly, then quickly add on another round-ish circle/oval adjoining for his
head, then two little circles at either side for the ears, four more
little circles for arms and legs. It's lots of fun to see what you
can come up with making edible pancake art. And it's especially fun
to make things magical for your kids. Pancakes; sculptures; create
beauty! Just not food-product out of a spray-on can.
|
