Serves 4 (my mom, my dad, my sister, and I)
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/4 cups skim milk
1 large egg
1 egg white
1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
For the sauce
Mom never made the sauce.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix well. Stir in milk, egg, and egg white. Mix well. People say that nostalgia has rose-tinted glasses. But weekend mornings of the 90s are yellow. A soft yellow that promised pyjamas all day. It’s the colour of pancake batter. And of the early morning sunlight that came through the living room window, diffused by the cream vertical blinds, onto the parquet floor where my sister and I sat watching cartoons.
Or in front of the three-foot high stereo sound system in our living room. It housed the CD player from which I listened to the 1998 VH1 Divas Live album for the first time. And Shaggy’s “Angel” off of Hot Shot, Britney Spears’ …baby one more time, and the Aqua Aquarium cassette my nonna bought for me at a market during my first trip to Molise.
One Saturday morning, I began to record the Digimon theme song on a blank cassette. I sat there, excitedly watching the little ribbons winding slowly round and round, wondering if it was working; knowing that if it wasn’t, I would have to wait until the next day’s episode and try again. As the first verse ended, my sister sat beside me and asked what I was doing. Her little voice and my angry “Shh!” are forever trapped in the loop between the electric guitars and drums. My obsession with cassettes and recordings blossomed into my very first archive. The catalogue includes: Saturday mornings at [address, redacted], Songs from Space Jam, A cappella singing, Squeaky violin practices, and Other nonsense.
Weekends were for early morning mixtapes, cartoons, and pancakes.
This recipe is the only card my mom kept from the Healthy Meals in Minutes box, which has now been otherwise discarded. This step tells you how to prepare the strawberry sauce. Despite the recommendation for the “better than butter, no-fat strawberry sauce,” we always soaked our pancakes in syrup. As kids, we preferred the thick and sweet pancake syrup.
A typical product of the 90s diet/health food culture, each card included the per serving index of calories, carbs, sodium, protein, fat, and cholesterol. As a child, these numbers were not on my radar. Instead, I had this important rainbow, part of every year’s curriculum at school:
In 1992, Canada’s Food Guide changed its title to include “to healthy eating.” In grade 3, our teacher also told us to avoid the ‘3 deadly Ps’: pizza, pasta, and pane (bread). My parents were livid. Diet culture and carb demonization existed outside that classroom, too, of course. Even though making pizza with our dad was one of our favourite activities. We would beg him to toss the dough in the air like we had seen on TV. He showed us how to place the pepperoni in an organized manner, round and round. How could this be evil?
The garish yellow grain products strip of the food pyramid was the biggest, yet deadliest. And it had nothing to do with the soft yellow weekend mornings of the 90s. Before I was aware of my thighs; before we were realized that our mom could consider herself anything besides the beautiful woman she has always been in our eyes; before I learned to hate how I looked in photos. Mom’s Healthy Meals in Minutes pancakes are of that before-time.
Spray a griddle or a large skillet with vegetable cooking spray. Heat over medium heat. Pour batter into griddle, making 3-inch rounds. Cook pancake until tops are bubbly, about 2 minutes. Using a flat spatula, flip pancakes. Cook until golden, about 2 minutes longer. Mom’s pancakes are light and thin. Sometimes runny in the middle. My sister and I always fought for those gooey, underdone ones.
At this point, as the batter hit the pan, the aroma wafting through the house would call you into the kitchen. Ever a virgo, I went through a tablescaping phase as a child. All it took was laying eyes on one standing fan folded cloth napkin at a restaurant; we asked the waiter to show me how to do it. The sizzling batter would be my signal to start preparing for our breakfast. Fan folded (paper) napkins were placed in the centre of our plates and I would scavenge whatever I could find to use as centrepieces.
Place pancakes on a platter; cover with foil and keep warm. Prepare remaining pancakes as directed, adding more cooking spray with each batch.
Place pancakes on serving plates. Dust with confectioners’ sugar. Serve immediately
with strawberry sauce on the side.
My sister and I’s preferred pancake eating technique, to our dad’s chagrin: take two and immediately rip into bite-sized pieces with your hands (the fork and knife were part of the tablescape, but essentially useless to us), make a pool of pancake or maple syrup (it should take up at least half the plate), soak each piece in syrup one by one and enjoy, fork optional. “You better not eat like this at other people’s houses,” he would say.
“We’re home, who cares,” we would reply, our fingers getting progressively stickier.
Cass
Do you associate a particular colour with childhood memories, or periods in time? If so, what?
Which recipe(s) is/are emblematic of your childhood?
If you would like to support my work further, you can
(it’s like giving a tip) or share Crivello with a friend! Thank you for following, commenting, sharing your stories, and even simply continuing to open these emails week after week.
News
In case you missed it
My last Sunday Story was also a little different, and included a growing bibliography for my PhD, which I’m starting in the fall! Read it here:
Sunday Story #20
·
A few weeks ago, in almost complete secrecy, I applied at the very last moment for a PhD after finding out my work contract would not be renewed due to ongoing and critical cuts happening across every department. It was a whirlwind but, as it was something I had been thinking about for quite some time, things fell into place. Most importantly, the few p…
On May 4, I will be in Toronto with copies of Dalla valigia alla tavola as part of a panel for the Librissimi book festival. See my upcoming events here. Stay tuned for May events in Montreal: Primavera molisana with the Federazione delle associazioni molisane del Québec, Librissimi, and the Istituto italiano di cultura!
I got to collaborate with my friend, playwright and actor Michaela Di Cesare, these last few months to create the poster and social media graphics for her upcoming play, Mickey & Joe (Good. Bad. Ugly. Dirty). If you live in Montreal or happen to be around from May 17-25, you should get tickets!
It’s the parquet floor for me, along with the “Digimon” theme song, except that our vertical blinds were a pale peach.