Frugal single serve pancakes: A recipe revisited

Preface

Revisits “Poor Man’s Pancakes” with a single serve, no dairy, no egg (meat) version, along with updated political commentary. And the new title avoids a phrase that borrowed from my culture’s sexist history, though we tend not to think of it¹.

I experimented with this recipe due to being behind on my grocery shopping, and having no eggs and no milk substitute². It worked out quite well, and leaves me wondering exactly why milk and egg are usually part of the recipe. To my taste it doesn’t make a significant difference.

The recipe

Ingredients

Dry

• ½ cup flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder (not soda)
• 2 teaspoons sugar (or to taste)
• If you wish add flavours such as cinnamon or cocoa

Liquid

• ½ cup water
• 1 teaspoon of oil

Preparation, cooking, and serving

1. Sift dry ingredients.
2. Add ⅓ cup water, mixing well.
3. Add 1 teaspoon of oil, mixing well.
4. Preheat a pan/skillet over medium heat, with a small amount of oil (to avoid sticking, prefer less than a teaspoon).
5. Pour batter onto pan.
6. Cook until internal temperature reaches 74°C (The batter should no longer be moist, instead it should be ‘cake-like’).
7. Turn off heat.
8. Empty pan onto serving plate.
9. The author likes to add maple syrup and eat, you might like margarine or butter as well. Or you may prefer jam or other toppings. Strange as it might seem to some, you might even like the pancake plain.

Most of all enjoy your (large) pancake.

And the promised (threatened?) political commentary (rant?)

Housing is a more pressing concern now than it was when I wrote the first article in this pair. It’s rather disappointing that my concerns about the ‘Community Well-Being and Safety Plan’ for Midland being aspirational with insufficient urgency and goals for immediate action seems to have been well-founded, despite then Mayor Strathearn’s reassurance that meaningful action was coming soon. The County of Simcoe has only recently taken some steps, and Midland has finally woken up and realized that this issue needs action on root causes.

Of course, whether than means equitable and meaningful action or simply attempts to shove it back under the rug and/or treat poverty, mental illness, and/or addictions as criminal problems remains to be seen. I suspect in this region there is too much emphasis on criminalization and seeing only the tip of the iceberg (those with addictions issues) and failing to address the real problems that have gotten us here³.

The Province of Ontario is missing in action on providing the needed funding⁴ for mental illness treatments and supports, never mind facilities that allow those who are ready for treatment for their substance abuse and/or addictions issue, or who have those issues as a result of trying to self-medicate for mental health disorders for traumas (due to the despicable unavailability of ready access mental health services) to walk in the door immediately. Six month to two year wait lists cost our society more in the medium and long term (at the very least) than having the services available.

Of course the Tories don’t want to accept that because they have this delusion that private companies are ‘more efficient’. Private companies don’t provide the same or better level of service for less money, they provide less service for more money. I believe the perception of efficiency comes from two main factors.

1. Private business is not transparent, so the public doesn’t get to watch it anywhere near as closely as public organization. Public organizations are under constant scrutiny, so we are more aware of their flaws.
2. Private business tends to be able to not be held to the same standards as government when it comes to any number of policies, rules, and regulations that slow government down and make it more costly. The thing is, that those cost-incurring policies and so on, are things we say we want for all organizations. This goes back to the first point; we don’t have as much clarity on private organizations, so many don’t recognize their failings as clearly as with public organizations, until someone blows the whistle, or there is a disaster.

Conclusion

I usually try to be more positive, but a series of recent news articles, opinions columns, and biased surveys are getting the better of me.

I’m getting (at least) irritated with the nonesense and intolerance, and my patience threshold is such that if things don’t turn around to a greater prevalence of reasonable behaviour and actions, I may start getting angry. Not in the “He snaps, he loses it…” kind of angry, to be clear, but in the “I will not go quietly. Rage, rage against the dying of the light” variety.

Footnotes