pancake haters

It IS late to be wittering about pancakes, but this post comes belatedly for 2 reasons. Firstly, we have been more or less flooded in, hemmed in in our house, and with two small kids this has meant much shouting, much mess, and no time to write anything other than "help" on bits of paper I released out of the window, hopefully. Secondly, my two children detest pancakes and so there is not much point wittering about them.

Until, that is, the weekends sodden traipsing around the metropolis that is Chatteris and it's myriad charity shops threw up some old Ladybird "Well- loved Tales" series 606, in other words, the ones we had as kids. A quick browse on ebay shows that these are now in the grip of one serious nostalgia price hike. A copy of Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty in good nick will cost you upwards of £40.00 now, and even my modest, less popular finds are worth about £15.00. I rooted out, for the princely sum of 20p the lot, "The Billy Goats Gruff", "The Enormous Turnip" and "The Big Pancake", hence the blog. I had forgotten just how weird the illustrations are. The Big Pancake in particular is quite grotesque. Here are the family of "seven hungry boys" and their mother (no father mentioned). The mother is clearly desperate to shut them up and makes them a big pancake. The boys amuse me, as they all seem to be more or less a similar age. Possibly Quintuplets and twins? But then, on second glance, either the family gene pool contains a lot of material or this woman has had offspring with several different fathers, very rapidly. Ginger, brown, black, and yes, even a prematurely grey haired child, this woman has the full range. And a natty selection of coloured bow ties to dress them in. Anyway, I am sure you know the story. The pancake does not want to be eaten, and runs away. This utterly disturbed son whose dislike of pancakes is ow compounded by the fact that they might rise up and speak to him. The whole of what looks like Bremen chases after it, failing to catch it, in an immensely repetative manner, until it is tricked, thankfully, to it's doom by an intelligent pig. the reader thanks the Lord they can stop reading. Charming, and i'm ebaying it.

I also found this fabulous recipe book for 10p. I can't wait to try out these pancakes.

Or this brussel sprout mousse.

Look at the spread here. No wonder there's a bottle of wine open (Leibfraumilch, naturally), drunk is the only way you could eat it.

And so, struck with inspiration, I abandoned the pancakes and instead opened 2 tins of cling peaches, one of the only fruits my lot will eat at the mo, and made a clafoutis instead. I didn't take pictures, I just ate it, and so did they.

Clafoutis

Measured in cups. I have a measuring cup set and find it so useful.

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup milk full fat

3 eggs

vanilla extract

2/3 cup flour

fruit

Blend it all up, bar the fruit till it's a nice batter. Put half of it in a shallow dish, then the fruit, then the batter, then bung in oven at 350 for about 45-55 mins. Eat with ice-cream, or by yourself secretly before anyone else gets it.