The Baking Dish

My grandparents would come and visit us for every holiday.  Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas - they'd pack up their Mercury Grand Marquis, get a trip tick from AAA, and leave Indiana headed east to New Jersey.  Although it meant abandoning my nice bed to go bunk on a cot in Jed's room, it was really fun to have them come visit.  The thing I looked forward to the most was Grandma's lemon pancakes.  She would actually bring her own glass baking dish to make the pancakes, necessitated by the fact that Mom did not have the proper dish in her cache of kitchen accessories.  Truth be told, the baking dish was just a regular old 9x9 Pyrex (the light brown version made popular in the 60's) and she just liked to give Mom a hard time.  That said, it did create an aura of mystique about these pancakes, and it also meant we only had them when Grandma was in town. I'm fully confident Mom could have rocked the lemon pancakes.  I think she just enjoyed letting Grandma have the honor every time she came into town.

Grandma was a tough cookie and didn't have the most patience for the completely chaotic vibe created by the six of us, but she was a good soul.  Dad was an only child so Grandma wasn't accustomed to the noise, bustle and apparent lack of structure that a household with six young kids produced.  Visits that lasted longer than a few days tended to test her will, and sometimes you could feel the tension build (and not just because Mom's baking dishes were inadequate).  Nonetheless, Grandma was a master storyteller, extraordinary artist and queen of the lemon pancake, and we all enjoyed her visits.

I have to admit that I have never baked the pancakes from scratch.  I found a mix at Williams-Sonoma that does the trick and, honestly, I was always so intimidated by Grandma's undying confidence in her skills and that Pyrex dish, that I never felt up to the task.  Funny thing is, Thomas absolutely loves these breakfast treats (known to many as German pancakes or Dutch babies).  I've gotten in the habit of making them at least once on the weekend, and T and I will sit over the stove eating the pancake before it's even cooled.  Grandma must be turning in her grave - the audacity to eat such a delicacy straight out of the pan!

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to attempt to make these from scratch.  Kind of wish I knew where that baking dish of Grandma's was, but I've got the Williams-Sonoma mix on hand just in case.

Lemon Pancakes
1 stick butter
1/2 C flour
2 eggs
1/2 C milk
Lemons
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 450.  Melt butter in in glass 9x9 baking dish in oven.  Beat eggs slightly. Using a whisk, alternately mix in flour and milk until blended well.  Doesn't need to be perfectly smooth.

Pour in the baking dish and bake for 15 minutes.  Top with lemon juice and powdered sugar.