Peculiar Pancakes.

One thing is for sure, you would never find pancakes like mine served at IHOP.  Mine are pretty tasty and much healthier for you than traditional bisquick pancakes.  I have to say my youngest did his mama proud when he turned up his nose at Cracker Barrel pancakes.  They just didn’t taste right…. That’s my boy:) Can you say “white wheat?” because I rarely use white refined flour.  Just not filling enough.

So we have said “ugly” pancakes every Saturday.  I get lots of opportunities to practice but still they end up irregular.  Sometimes they look like a derby hat from yesteryear. That’s if I’m lucky.  My husband insists I always flip them just a tad early and he may be right.  I’m not exactly known for my patience (but oh, how God has refined me via my incredible children).  They don’t often burn but some are browner than others.  Consistency is not my best quality in pancake making but Jack Prelutsky of The Pancake Collector fame, would probably find them acceptable.

I also (go ahead and roll your eyes here) am one of those annoying homeschool moms that like to make things from scratch.  Including bread: the healthier I can make it the better.  Since I may be having some gluten sensitivity issues as of late, I decide to try the latest rage, soaking my grains.  Long story short, it didn’t work.  I did my research. I suppose I could have been a little more thorough but everything I found was so vague.  I decided to just give it a go with dh’s help.  All looked well until I added the other ingredients to the fermented dough and pushed ‘start’ on the bread machine.  I had high hopes but they fell flat. No nice round ball of dough ready to go into the loaf pan and rise happily for the next hour.  What I ended up with looked something akin to bubbling bread soup. Disappointing.

Happily I was chatting with a good friend at my kitchen table and had to conceal my chagrin.  I just closed the top of the bread machine and walked away.  After she left though I had to console myself with thoughts of Thomas Edison trying 152 times or whatever it was to invent the incandescent light bulb before he succeeded. I called my other friend, the one who suggested I soak the grains in the first place, to see if there was some kind of miracle cure I could do to make it all turn out alright.  She was dear and sympathetic but reassured me that it was a flop and I should just turn it into some nice sour dough buns or pancakes.

What is this?

All is not lost?

That was exactly what I needed to hear.  I was so glad I had not gone with my first impulse and just thrown it all away. I hate wasting expensive ingredients like raw honey and organic eggs and such. It was quite the boon that I could at least get some use out of my unsavory concoction. But would my family eat them? Sourdough pancakes do not sound like something they would be up for, but they do enjoy sour dough bread. Gotta try it.

So I added a few more ingredients, fired up the griddle and voila–some tasty sourdough pancakes! O happy day:) How much like God is that? To take the mess we often make with our daily lives and turn it into something delicious and savory? To take our best efforts that have fallen short because we depended too much on us and not enough on Him.  That is a glorious thought.

He can make beauty from ashes, restore the years the locust have eaten and love us wholeheartedly even though he knows we are only made of dust. I am so amazingly encouraged by the grace He shows me on a daily basis. And forever grateful that He doesn’t throw us away when we make any kind of mess. Though pain or discomfort accompany our sin, nonetheless, in the end, He just turns it into something beautiful.

If we will let Him.

How often do I pout or whine or all the other things I tell my offspring are verboten in our house? How often do I look for the good He will bring from trials and tribulation? It is so easy to give other people advice, isn’t it? Don’t other people’s problems always look like something you are willing to trade for yours? Nobody’s problems could be as bad as mine. We don’t admit we think that way, but we often do.  Or at least I will speak for myself.

I may not always be the sharpest crayon in the box, but I think I am starting to catch on. I am going to try less throwing away and more repurposing. In my new quest to be an “imperfectionist” I am going to look to see how God can use my less than ideal circumstances to bring Himself glory. And I’m going to look for the ways in my past that He has taken a failure and turned it around like only He can.

I may be the only one eating the sourdough pancakes I made, but I think I will enjoy every bite.