"Mommy, How Do I Flip This?"

This morning, Anna asked to bake a Honey Puffed Pancake for breakfast. I've blogged about it before, here. The recipe I'll give below. It's not a simple recipe, but she loves it, and I want her to cook, so I said yes. We agreed she should cut the recipe by half, since she's the only one eating it this morning. She did a great job!

It looked wonderful in the pan, as it began to bake.

And it turned out that golden, crispy egg-yellow. But then I heard her call from the kitchen, "Mommy! How do I flip this thing?"

And my heart itself flipped over, skipped a beat. Isn't this what she's doing, right now in her life? Making that move, that flip, from our home to her college? She's done all the work. She's adjusting to new responsibilities. But she still needs a little help from these older hands, experienced hands. Hands that have learned how to flip things in life.

"Grab the handle upside down, honey. Like this."  I show her. "Put the plate beside the pan, and turn the pan over, quickly."  You have to trust that a good firm, confident upending of the cast iron will reveal a beautiful pancake.

It was delicious. Now she's cleaning up the kitchen, bless her. Nineteen years of slow, vaguely-methodical training do eventually pay off. She's ready.

Honey Puffed Pancake (from the Hancock House B&B, Dubuque, Iowa):
1 cup milk
6 eggs
3 Tbs honey
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 Tbs butter, divided

Honey Butter Spread:
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
cinnamon to taste

Preheat oven to 400º. In blender: milk, eggs, honey, cream cheese, flour, salt, baking powder. Blend ingredients on high for 1 minute. Grease 10-inch ovenproof skillet (We use cast iron.) with 1 Tbs butter. Add remaining 2 Tbs butter. Heat skillet in oven until butter sizzles. Pour batter into skillet and bake for 20-25 min. until puffed and golden brown. Pancake will fall and flatten some after being removed from oven.

Beat the ingredients for the spread while the pancake is baking. You may heat it gently on the stove to a liquid, if you prefer. (As Anna did in the pictures.) You may serve the butter spread with pancake syrup on top, or use it alone.