When we visit my parents in Mission, Texas each year (near South Padre) there is always plenty of memory making fun happening.
We get to go to the beach…
We swim in their retirement community pool and hot tub under the palm trees…
We go to the zoo…
We hang out and get to explore parts of Texas we haven’t seen before…
We get to cook, play board games, do art projects, ride the golf cart and more and more and more. There is plenty of fun when we go to Grandma and Grandpa’s.
But no matter what, if you ask the kids what they remember the most about visiting Grandma and Grandpa this past Spring Break, they will all tell you “Pepper Pancakes!”
“Pepper Pancakes?” you ask. Yes… pepper pancakes made our top memories of Spring Break 2012 and any time I make pancakes now I get a little shout from the galley “Make sure you put pepper in them!”
To make a long story short, my mom was making pancakes for dinner and Jacob was helping her. She is a grab and dump kind of cook (an excellent cook, I might add) and doesn’t do a whole lot of measuring. As she was grabbing and dumping she reached for what she thought was the salt and instead grabbed the pepper. Before even realizing it she dumped quite a bit of black pepper into the pancake batter. This, naturally, got a HUGE amount of laughter from the kids. She then decided to mask the pepper by adding a little bit of cinnamon. Needless to say, we ate the pancakes and they were actually not that bad. The best part of it was all the laughing that happened all night long and anytime Grandma went into the kitchen. She will be forever have a reputation for her infamous pepper pancakes!
What is one of your favorite food memories…where food or a recipe didn’t turn out quite as expected, but the memories tied to it are far greater than the food ever could have been?
Disclosure: I am honored to be a 2012 paid brand ambassador for Hallmark Life is a Special Occasion. All opinions expressed are my own. For special discounts, product offerings and news about Hallmark, feel free to sign up for their newsletter.
I love that. Very special that your children will have these memories. It makes me sad Andrew doesn’t have grandparents….we adopt older people from our church and they become his role models as grandparents.
Such a cute story! A good lesson in the kitchen as well… Perfect isn’t always best!
Kristen creates recipes for her blog. Do you suppose she might have gotten that “creative” gene from her Mom. Who knows, maybe Pepper Pancakes will trend.
I thought for sure one of the kids was going to dump the pepper in… I was wrong! (Was thinking that because my son recently dumped a whole container of allspice in the flour container and then sprinkled with nutmeg – luckily I caught him before all the nutmeg was gone!)
My husband and I always joke about my “broccoli con queso”… when we were poor college students and newlyweds and I decided to make this broccoli rice dish but when I went to buy velveeta I couldn’t believe how expensive it was… I found a con queso chip dip and decided to try it as it was half as much. Oh wow did it make the whole dish pretty much disgusting! My husband was a good sport about it and we actually ate it that night for dinner but I had to throw out the leftovers (after they sat in our fridge a bit too long because neither of us could stomach eating it again!) Whenever I think of that story, I am transported back in time to our little apartment on campus.
This is surely one of those fun memories your children will later tell to their children and grandchildren. It may even become a Spring Break tradition to toss a bit of pepper into the pancakes in honor of your Mom each year. Love it!
So funny… one of my favorite food memories was a chocolate cake I had with black pepper ice cream. So so so good! That kick was totally memorable.
Your pictures are definitely worth a thousand words — love these!
And love the baking mishap turned tradition. Ha — I’m a little obsessed with pepper, so these actually sound great!
Kris, thanks for posting more pictures of Mom. She looked pretty good. As a Grandpa I assure you that Grandchildren visiting is a delight. Wishing you much love and a special thank you for the things you post. They remind me that there is truly a creative gene in families and it most surely has been passed on to each of us. You have managed to utilize it best through your blogs and writings while Kath has poured herself into music and creativity there. My speciality seems to be sarcasm though and there is little popularity there. Love to your family which is another gene that each of the family Mom’s have inherited.
My first thought: you know, pepper pancakes actually sounds pretty gosh-darned good. Then, I read the story behind pepper pancakes: now, I want some! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I am so bad I don’t add pepper to anything…such a sweet fun story to share…and I personally love hallmark. I love cards!
How fun. Love stories like this!
Haha! Poor Grandma will never live that one down but at least they were devoured!
I love spontaneous special memories like that!
Great bonding for the kids and grandparents. I know they very happy so keep the visits regular and taste those pepper pancakes.