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Pancakes: you gotta jive if you wanna shrive in Pancake Land (plus my special banana pancake recipe).

(For the recipe, scroll to the end!)

You know that scene in Matilda where she makes pancakes and dances to ’Send me on my way’ by Rusted Root? It’s the most groovy scene ever. Not only because we see Matilda’s awesome magic powers, but despite all odds, she has such a good vibe. Music, pancakes and magic. Brilliant start to a film.

I try to recreate that scene a little every time I make pancakes, because why wouldn’t you? It feels good to indulge in a bit of kitchen boogying and to spend some time imagining that I’m a fictional, magical child that is a lot cooler than myself. She’s got super powers for goodness sake. So we know that pancakes are whimsical, fun, and need a little bit of magic to send you on your way, but they also remind me of birthdays. From as early as I can remember all the way up to the present day, my birthday morning has usually gone like this: demolish an obscene amount of pancakes (upwards of ten), then decide that I shouldn’t have another one because really that would be the one that made this whole debacle appear greedy, and at this ripe old age I should really be keeping it classy.

Hands down, my favourite part in the pancake-making regime, is dancing along while you’re going. I’d go as far as saying that it’s part of the recipe and it truly makes the pancakes taste a lot better. I advise that you come up with a dance that works for you. My pancake-making dance is very silly, a little intrusive, and looks about 50% more awkward than is actually funny. But it does make me happy, and that’s the point. When I was at university in Birmingham, there were far too many essay questions being thrown around, and far too many wonderful nights spent watching Gilmore Girls with my housemates. This perfect procrastination often caused what I can only describe as “a week from hell” towards the end of term, in which we attempted to smash those deadlines. The only way we got through the work was to have frequent “dance breaks” in which we chose to dramatically boogie to either a Taylor Swift or Beyonce song. The sheer physical exertion and hilarity of star-jumping around to “Countdown”, or “We Are Never Getting Back Together”, meant that our spirits were lifted, and we remembered that life can be fun too. This is the purest example I can give to show you what the pancake dance is all about. And thanks to social distancing, it’s unlikely that anyone else will see your crazy moves, so go wild!

DISCLAIMER: In this next section I relate pancakes to social distancing in a way that makes this blog not only 100% relevant, but also #relatable. It’s gonna be great.

So, there’s a pandemic going on at the moment, and we’re all staying at home. Yes, I am bringing up the elephant in the room. The elephant is in the room because she has to stay at home for the time being, due to the current climate. We’re all very worried at times, hyper at other times, and, let’s face it, just as freaked out and grumpy as we usually are the rest of the time. And quite frankly, it’s not helping the situation having elephants in every room, and it’s starting to get really cramped. Who knows what the best reaction to this is? Should we throw our arms up into the air, frantically run around the room, and scream “CAROLE BASKIN!” in a southern accent? Perhaps, yes. We can’t expect ourselves to react perfectly or normally to this very imperfect and abnormal situation.

Take pancakes, for example. The first one’s the throw-away. What a beautiful saying to provide you with confidence even in the face of complete failure. “Don’t worry if that pancake is terrible, that always happens the first time! In fact, here in Pancake Land we welcome you to fall flat on your face at the very first hurdle! Yes, that literal hurdle just there, right in front of you now, just beyond the gates into Pancake Land. That hurdle represents your first pancake which will be burnt on the outside whilst somehow raw in the middle. But if it does, that just means it’s working. You’re fitting in wonderfully in Pancake Land!”. I love applying this approach to any situation. It’s not a new idea, it’s just accepting that nothing is perfect. We’ve never had to stay at home on this scale before, so I say we see it as the first, shitty pancake. The first pancake, that we choose to put all of our effort into, and yet it turns around to bite us in the butt. And it happens to us all. That’s pretty much where this analogy ends because fingers crossed, after the coronavirus outbreak ends, we won’t throw another one on the heat just to churn out a more successful pandemic. All I’m saying is, there’s no right way to do this, so let’s stick together, spread the joy, and spread some magic on those pancakes in true Matilda style.

Finally, for when you’re next feeling crêpe (I’m sorry, I just had to…), below is my own special recipe for very delicious banana pancakes, just for you. Indulge in the whimsical, shake your sexy hips, and enjoy frying up a breakfast that you love. Whether you prefer that fluffy american style, if you like to chomp on chocolatey chunks, or if you’re feeling french, there’s nothing better than pancakes.

Grace’s 5-Step Banana Pancakes

YOU WILL NEED:

1 funky album that makes dancing and smiling irresistible to you (my recommendations: Brothers & Sisters by Lakuta, Geography by Tom Misch, Graceland by Paul Simon) 2 bananas 2 eggs 5 tbsp of self-raising flour (approx.) 1/2 cup of milk 1 big sprinkle of cinnamon (approx.) A big pinch of salt Unlimited butter for the pan (obvs.)

Recipe for 5-6 big, fluffy pancakes… multiply those quantities for more joy.

METHOD:

Step 1: Put on your fabulous album and start to groove.

Step 2: Mash the bananas in a bowl and beat in the eggs and the milk.

Step 3: Gradually add the self raising flour and beat with a fork. I normally follow my intuition here - you want a reasonably thick and gloopy consistency, but not too thick. We are aiming for lovely fluffy boys after all. Add more flour if it’s too thin.

Step 4: Add your cinnamon and a big pinch of salt, with some panache baby!

Step 5: Cook ‘em up! Heat your pan up at a low heat with a knob of butter in there, then drop half a ladle of batter onto the pan and sing “Woohoo!”. Flip when you feel funky, or when you see the top starting to show air holes.

Keep droppin’ that sweet, sweet batter and flipping those ‘cakes till you just don’t care! Serve with yummy toppings like blueberries, icing sugar, golden syrup or nutella for the ultimate delish treat.

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Tea: discovering mindfulness through the love of a cuppa.

First things first, let’s talk about the warm, golden nectar of happiness; tea. Milky or black, fruity or spiced, it’s the only drink besides water that does you good inside and out. Coffee will give you the trots, booze gives you a hangover. When you drink tea you have to stop where you are and slow down. As far as I’m aware, no one has ever rushed to down a piping hot mug of tea in the last ten seconds before they head out of the house. Well, someone definitely has, but I bet you they never did it again. So tea makes us feel good, but why? Well, I genuinely thank tea drinking for giving me some regular time to relax, contemplate, and sit down on my own, or have a much needed chat. There’s a reason why we’re so romantic about tea drinking. It’s a habit that for many of us we’ve been doing all of our lives, and is the one thing that most regularly and organically brings us together with people. Not to be over the top, but tea basically runs through my veins. When I was little, every morning I’d sleepily go into my mum’s room to swipe a cuppa from the pot, make some attempts at chatter from the squeaky wicker chair, and look out the window. Then when I got home every day, I’d chain about 3 cups of tea and 10 biscuits. I know I’m not alone here. Dark chocolate digestives? Yep, thought so. We all know that tea is the gateway drug to biscuits. Essentially, tea gave us time to sit and think, and talk to those around us. I think that when you grow up, you lose those moments because you stop thinking of them as very important parts of the day. Our days become to-do lists. But boy oh boy are those moments important. Essentially, the ritual of drinking tea was my first experience of a kind of mindfulness. A time to note how you are, inside and out, and a time when you can’t really lie to yourself. When life has been busy, I’ve found myself going weeks without tea - now at this point I sound like I’m losing perspective, and I probably am, but stay with me. Those weeks that I don’t drink tea align pretty much exactly with the weeks when I have no idea what’s going on in my head, or in the minds of others. I’ve heard people saying that the state of your pot plants reflects the state of your mind. But, when I’m feeling good in myself, I’m too happy drinking earl grey to even buy plants. I suppose what I’m saying is that everyone has their different little acts of mindfulness that filter through each day. Watering plants, exercising, talking to friends, meditation, cleaning, baking… etc. It might be something you’ve been loving to do all your life, or it might be something new. It’s definitely not the thing that you feel you should be doing, it’s something you already do. It’s whatever makes you take that sigh of relief. And as you’ve probably guessed, one of mine is drinking tea. To finish up my thoughts on tea today, I have to tell you that my tea of choice is the aforementioned underdog, Earl Grey. English breakfast tea may have taken over, but everybody loves an underdog. I think a lot of folk think that it’s too much faff for them. Why put a floral fragrance in tea? You may as well eat some grass. What’s bergamot and who the damn heck is the Earl Grey? Sounds like some sort of twisted, fancy fairytale-jungle. Well, I couldn’t agree more. However, from my experience, it’s the least expensive thing that makes you feel fancy. And don’t we all like to feel fancy sometimes?

So bugger off and make a brew. After all, there’s nothing better than tea.