Sunday, August 16, 2015

Sunday Musings on Pancakes

I learned an important lesson this morning: no matter how easy it appears, if you don’t have some basic understanding of how it’s done, making pancakes is a bitch! I mean, I’ve seen it done millions of times, I’ve just never tried it before. Well, I wanted pancakes for breakfast this morning, and since it’s my birthday, I was gonna have them! 

 Everyone I know cooks pancakes on a griddle. Well, I don’t have a griddle; I have cast iron skillets. I decided sausage would be good with pancakes, so I fried the sausage patties first (mistake #1). I thought I had cleaned all the sausage grease out of the skillet when I started the pancakes, but apparently I hadn’t. The directions on the box said to let it cook until the edges looked done and flip them only once, which is what I did. Well, I must not know what “done” looks like, because when I finally flipped it, it was stuck to the skillet. Got it flipped and it was a dark brown. I finally got the first one finished and on the plate, and before beginning pancake #2, I re-read the directions on the box. “Lightly grease griddle (what’s it with people and these damn griddles?).” So I decided butter would probably be best to “grease my griddle” (mistake #2). The butter helped the sausage grease turn loose of the skillet, resulting in a black pancake. After that, I just kept pouring and doing the best I could. By the time I got the last of the batter in the skillet, I finally had the process figured out enough to get what Eli called an “acceptable” pancake. Thank goodness I had a “pancake expert” in the house to coach me! 

 Eli and his lovely young girlfriend, Amelia, came to town last night for the show. Eli played guitar with me last night for my birthday party. Since it was my birthday show, I thought I’d have a few drinks to celebrate. I haven’t drank in so long that 2 beers were enough to force Eli into DD status (I’m such a lush these days!). 

 We celebrated three other birthdays last night, too. Brian, Wendy, and Apryl were all there celebrating their birthdays with me, and we had a wonderful celebration. I did a few things I don’t normally do (like playing with tracks!) but we all had a great time in a packed house. 

 I really want to thank Sheila, Josh, and Suzanne for staging a perfect celebration for us all. JugTown Grill is a wonderful place for anyone that hasn’t had the chance to check it out. I highly recommend the place, especially the Grilled Bologna and Cheese! 

 Thank you all for coming out and celebrating 43 with me. You’ll never know what it means to see each of your faces and most every show. I also want to thank you all for letting me play some of the stuff from the new album. As a musician, you don’t get a lot of chances to play your original material, at least not in a Pub environment. It means a lot to have a place open to these types of shows, and it means even more that the audience is receptive to listening to songs they’ve never heard before. Hopefully, the album will be ready by the end of this year, so you’ll be able to hear them whenever you want soon enough.