The Breakfast of Generations

I am not a breakfast person.  I know, I know, it’s the most important meal of the day and all that but honestly, I hate making breakfast and making myself eat it.  Lunch?  Lunch is my jam.  I love lunch.  Soups, salads, sandwiches, leftovers—I would rather eat any and all of these foods around 10 am than eat any breakfast type food in the 7 am hour.  I’ve always been like this and I think my kids kind of are too.  However there are a couple of exceptions to this breakfast aversion.  One is any MOPS day.  Our MOPS group always has a huge hot breakfast and so every other Tuesday for almost 6 years now I’ve loved feasting with my friends on fruit, various breakfast casseroles, bagels, donuts and coffee.  I have no desire to make myself or my family a hot breakfast casseroles but I walk into MOPS and I want to eat all the things. 

The other exception to my intense dislike for eating at a normal breakfast time is when my dad is making pancakes.  Pancakes are probably the other quintessential Hanson family recipe that we are all very attached to and particular about.  I’m not talking bisquick pancakes or IHOP pancakes that are all thick and fluffy.  I was a sophomore in high school before I knew thick and fluffy pancakes even existed.  I remember being on a mission trip with friends and being served pancakes one morning and I literally asked a friend “what are these? These aren’t pancakes!”  The Hanson family pancakes are super thin, almost like crepes.  They are great with syrup but also amazing with powdered sugar, strawberries and a little lemon juice squeezed on top.  The batter is mixed up using normal pantry ingredients and the recipe goes back generations.  I am not even going to try guessing where it originated except to say I’m sure it came over from Germany with my great great grandparents.  I know my great-grandmother made them for my dad and his cousins when they were growing up (and even I have memories of eating them at her table over the years since she lived until I was 20).  I know my grandma made them for all of us cousins and now my dad makes them for his kids and grandkids.  My dad didn’t do much in the kitchen when we were growing up, he worked hard outside the home but when mom was working an evening shift and dad was in charge of dinner or it was a special Saturday morning, Oma’s Pancakes were often on the menu.  My kids already know that at least once during each visit to Minnesota Papa’s Pancakes will make an appearance.  Grandma doesn’t make them, only Papa. 

Because they are so thin you can eat a lot of pancakes in one sitting.  At my great-grandma’s 90th birthday party/family reunion, we asked Oma to set the record straight as to who held the family prize for eating the most of her pancakes in one meal.  She affirmed it was my dad and his brother Vaughn who put away the most when they were teenagers, each eating probably 25-30 pancakes for breakfast.  My dad says he remembers his grandma standing at the stove and just flipping pancake after pancake piling them onto the boy’s plates.  I’m sure my own boys will give them a run for their money someday, letting Papa stand there flipping and flipping waiting until they say they’re full. 

These stories, memories and recipes are all woven into the fabric of our family tree.  We all have memories connected to watching our great-grandma, our grandma and now our dad mixing, pouring and flipping piles of pancakes, adding them to the table with cups of coffee and orange juice and plates of bacon.  One recipe can transport us across generations back to old farmhouse kitchens in the midwest and even homes across the sea as grandmas or grandpas stand in front of hot stoves flipping and flipping, piling pancakes on plates, ready to welcome pajama clad sleepy heads to their tables.

Of course I'll share the pancake recipe--it's not a secret family recipe and since they are so delicious we highly encourage any other family to adopt them!  Warning, once you try these you will never be able to eat an IHOP or bisquick pancake again!

1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

1/2 tsp baking powder

Dash of salt

1 cup flour
Beat all together until smooth and cook like pancakes.