Whenever Sally gets a bit spoiled, when she says, for example, that the tooth fairy should “bring more than twenty cents, at least,” I like to apply some realistic shock therapy. And one of the best materialism-correctives out there is Little House on the Prairie — both the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Michael Landon TV series. I remember watching the show when I was eleven. We lived on five farm-ish, forest-y acres in Oregon, and Marcy and Brad and I watched with Mom before Dad came home from work.
Twenty years later, my girls and I often watch during the 5 o’clock witching hour while — you guessed it — we wait for Dick to come home.
A few weeks before Christmas we watched an episode where there was not enough money to buy Mary, Laura, and Carrie new shoes. Not special shoes or fancy shoes or shoes with cleats for soccer, but not enough money to buy one new pair of shoes for each girl to wear every day, to school, and church, and play. I can’t think of a better message to expose my kids to right before the eye candy gorge-fest that is Christmas.
In the end, Laura’s horse (who in a suspenseful subplot also needs new shoes) wins a race because Laura is a fine rider; the prize money buys Laura and Mary shoes, and Carrie gets the hand-me-downs.
One of my other favorite episodes is the show where Pa makes a special shoe, with a lift, for the poor little crippled girl. As you know, Pa can fix anything. It’s a fine, fine day at the Dick & Jane house when Dick earns the nickname “Pa.” Like the time he . . . hmmmm (trying to remember the last thing Dick fixed –oh). Like the time Dick re-glued some slats on Spot’s crib. Go, Pa!
But of course I recommend the books too. Though it might be hard to get kids to read them once they know there’s a TV show. I tried to get Sally interested in the first Narnia book last week, but she was very blase: “I’ve already seen the movie, Mom.” {eye roll}
For the littler kids, there are pretty good picture book adaptations of Little House. (Dick objects to the term “littler.” Today he asked me to also please stop using words like “crowdeder” in front of the kids. I think words such like this are just fine. Relax, Dick, them kids talk plenty good.)
Tara sent the girls a copy of Christmas in the Big Woods last month, and we’ve been reading it at bedtime. When the cousins, Peter and Liza, come to stay for Christmas, Ma makes pancakes in the shape of little men (Ma wasn’t much of a feminist) for a special Christmas breakfast. Now guess what my kids have been asking for? Little men pancakes.
So I tried my hand at making little men (and women) with my favorite pancake batter. I can make a pretty mean Mickey Mouse free-style, but people have a few too many appendages, so I thought I’d get metal cookie cutters and really show Ma what was what.
I found dozens of shapes for 99 cents each at the Snobby Lobby, which I might now have to call the Hobby Lobby, as it is hard to accuse a store of snobbery when it provides so much joy for 99 cents. Sally chose a tulip, Susan a crown, Spot a glass slipper, and Dick a star. I chose a daisy, because I like my pancakes big and uncomplicated. (I’m thinking this heart shape would be great for Valentine’s Day.)
Some Pampered Chef tools are overrated, but I use this griddle every day.
A few things to remember if you too aspire to the “Ma” title. 1) Pre-heat and grease the cookie cutters generously along with your griddle 2) If you have a turkey baster, that’s an easy way to distribute the batter well.
I like these best with 100% whole wheat flour (the red wheat stuff, not that new-fangled white wheat crap).
3) Be patient with these — they need to set up well before you flip and take the cutter off, so keep the heat low enough (on my stove, that’s “medium”). Patience and lower-than-regular heat is also good because these always seem to turn out thicker than regular pancakes (of course, I could just add more liquid, but they’re yummy this way).
The metal cookie cutters get hot, but if you cook a lot, you start to lose all sensation in your finger tips anyway (comes in handy when cooking tortillas, etc), so that’s not really a problem.
Pour you some homemade buttermilk syrup down over the top of these puppies and enjoy. Your pioneer children will thank you!
Jane
{Back to Bloggy Giveaways Post}
Subscribe by email
This is such a great idea! I’m making tomorrow. I just mixed up a big batch of your pancake mix last week. We even have some good cookie cutter shapes like dinosaurs. But I will try hobby lobby for more. Thanks for the sweet tip.
Nice idea for the pancakes.
For a random sidenote, you mentioned that the slats broke on Spot’s crib. There was a huge crib recall, that includes cribs manufactured back to 2002, because of slats breaking. My sister recently found hers was a recall and got a brand new (much nicer) replacement. You might check to see if yours is included, http://www.jardinecribrecall.com/ (I do realize that Spot is probably almost done with the crib, and you may not have more kids, but even if you use it briefly, you might be able to pass it on to family or sell it on Craigslist).
Wow, I saw the pics of the pancakes first, down at the bottom, before I went back up and read all the LH on the P stuff and the cookie cutter part. You’re so awesome with your kids. Maybe I should do the WFMW just so I make sure I do something with my kids each week. Very cool.
I loved Little House growing up, both the books and the movies. Almost as much as I loved Anne of Green Gables, both the books and the movies. I see Little House re-runs in Utah, but not out here in CA. My mom loves to watch them all the time (as well as Bonanza and Matlock).
I was the biggest Little House fan ever. I think I read all the books myself by the time I was in third grade, loved the show, and wanted to be just like Laura when I grew up. I guess in some ways, I resemble her in that I write about my life, I teach, and I sometimes wear two braids . . . I haven’t found my Manly yet though.
So cute! I love how creative you can be. I always thought mickey shapes and hearts were all I could do since that’s about all the shapes I could make while pouring the batter. Oh, and I loved the the Little House series – books and television!
I always mean to make pancakes like this…..maybe with your inspiration, I will
So cute!!! I am definitely trying this out!
I love this idea! We’ll definitely be trying that out the next time we make pancakes.
Though since my husband is generally the pancake maker in our house I wonder if that technically makes him the “Ma” of our family? Hmmm…I can’t wait to torture him with that! : )
Ok, I know this is very off the point, but see if Sally will want to read the first book in chronological order and see if she wants to read The Magician’s Nephew. That one is my favorite.
What a great idea. Your batter seems stiffer than mine, do you have a special recipe that you could post? My kids would love this.
Aren’t you just the sweetest little Suzy Homemaker??? Adorable pancakes, although I must admit that the day I discovered “Krusteaz” pancake mix was a very happy day indeed – just add water!
I love Laura, and Mary, and Ma and Pa (and Baby Carrie too, but she never said much). Jack the brindle bull dog freaked me out a little. Oh how I wanted to travel in a covered wagon!!! There is a place where I grew up called “Living History Farms” and I always loved to go there and pretend I was Laura!
Jane – thank you for the intro to Tara! Love her site, and I have a drywall hole that needs patching. Off to Home Depot! kk
Laura — thanks for mentioning the crib recall. I think ours was more of a “user error” problem, where “user error” means that someone pulled on the top rail until a few slats popped out of their proper little places (I have no terminology for DIY stuff).
We got our crib (a nice, elegant Italian one) from a coworker of mine in NYC who had used it for her one and only child. It’s worked well through all three of my kids, so it’s probably not an indication of the quality of the workmanship that a minor repair would be needed after eight years. (I’m assuming the wood glue had dried out a bit, which, again, considering we live in Utah, isn’t so bad).
Kimberly — That is actually one of my goals for blogging/WFMW. I decided a while ago, since housekeeping a la Martha Stewart is not really my thing, that I would try to do one thing a week that would work for both (my kids and WFMW). Some weeks we do more crafty type stuff, and some weeks we hang out at the swimming pool and library every day. As it’s winter, crafts/cooking/etc are winning right now. (Unfortunately).
Michelle — The thing about Manly (and Gilbert and Darcy) is that they’re rare. Few men can plant a field, spell chrysanthemum, and manage an estate. But keep looking — and never settle for a Wickham.
Land of Lovings — So, I realize this post is quite retro, I mean, even more so than usual, what with the kids and mom waiting for Daddy to come home from work, and the irresponsible stereotyping of men as “fixers” and women as “cookerers.” In truth, this is basically how our family works. But I would NEVER turn my nose up at a man who likes to cook. NEVER.
Lori Z — Reading is never off the point. I’ll try that (don’t know why I didn’t think of just getting her to read any of the others in the series.) I did make a rule that from now on she can’t see a movie until she’s read the book. The problem with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was that she was five when it came out, so she wasn’t reading at that level yet (and it was Dick who took her to that movie; we have movie-age appropriateness issues too). Same thing happened with that Bridge to Terabithia movie. I loved the book as a child, but I don’t know if/when I’ll get her to read it.
Kristen — Here’s my favorite pancake recipe. I make up a batch of mix about once a month. Then I only have to add an egg, 3 T oil, and water (or milk/buttermilk) in the morning. I do make them pretty thick — if the batter’s too thin, some sneaks out of the cookie cutter shape, and this is another reason to cook them on a lower temperature than usual. That link for pancake batter also includes the best syrup in the world.
Kikibibi — I do like a mix, but when I make my own it’s whole wheat, and cheaper. I even grind mine own flour now that I live by my mom, who gives me wheat for Christmas, and my sister, who lends me her wheat grinder. We’re living off the land, baby, I tell you. Pretty soon I’ll be sewing pioneer bonnets and, um, digging a well or something.
Those look yummy! I’m afraid I haven’t ventured past the mickey mouse stage yet but maybe I’ll have to try now. Wish I had a snobby lobby nearby.
Oh. My. Word. Perfect pancakes for Prissy Princesses!!! Gotta go get me some, now! Great post!
love these pancakes! i am going to have to try this!
p.s. i have a pretty hard and fast rule (okay as hard and fast as i can get it to be) about reading the book before seeing the movie. no harry potter til the book is read. no narnia til the book is read. for a while i had my kid believing that this was the rule for everyone until he realized that his friends hadn’t read narnia but had still seen the movie. oh well. now he gets my point that i’d rather have the book ruin the movie than vice versa!
white wheat is just the albino form of red wheat. it’s every bit as nutrituous and red wheat, it only lacks the red color and the bitter taste. once you buy it and grind it and use it in your recipies, there is not going back. i cant think of many things better than whole white wheat…
That’s so funny that you mention the Little House books. I loved them as well as the tv show when I was “littler.” H. just got the set of books for her birthday and is LOVING them. I hope she pays attention to all those little lessons about appreciating what you have.
Okay, cutest pancakes ever. I’m going to have to try them. My Mickey Mouse pancakes usually turn into Arthur pancakes because I get the ears too long. Cookie cutters are a great idea. One of these days I’m SO going to try it.
Love the panckaes. Love the Little House. Love Pa. Love the post.
Sylwia — white wheat may be as nutritious and look more like refined white flour, but I prefer the more complex, nuttier taste of red wheat. I’ve ground both from the kernel, and was enthusiastic about the white wheat at first, but it is inferior in my opinion. It’s probably a good thing for those who want to produce something that can pass for white flour, but I don’t mind the darker color that comes with red wheat.
(Incidentally, these pancakes — that I photographed a couple weeks ago — were made with 100% white wheat flour that I was glad to see the end of. Now I’m back to red wheat flour.)
Here I am, 9 o’clock at night, reading your blog…starving because I made a weight-loss goal to not eat after 6 p.m. Ah, it was torture to see those delicious-looking pancakes on the griddle. And then to have you mention homemade buttermilk syrup! Maybe I should splurge tomorrow and have some yummy pancakes for breakfast…can’t be too unhealthy when they’re made with whole wheat flour, right?
Cute Pancakes! Almost too cute to eat…almost. I am glad to see that things turned out fun! Cause now that I know, I’m gonna do it for J & L. Oh yeah, I’ve got to make the syrup first.
Have to ammend my last comment, I meant to say that I’m going to let J & L pick out some new cookie cutters (now that they’re old enough to make a decision) and make pancakes with them. Still have to make the syrup.
My youngest has her birthday next week, so I will have to surprise her with these. Thanks for the fun idea!
Great idea. I am doing this (as soon as I get around to buying metal cookie cutters).
[...] Circle habit, and since I was hungry by now anyway, I interrupted my urgent picture-taking to make pancakes. And then I had to take a picture of this lovely tableau: Still-life of Batter, Hairgel, [...]
[...] C) Practical Tips: Look, Ma: Princess Pancakes! [...]
[...] photographs, of Dick helping Spot with her tights and me making princess pancakes, will accompany an article I was interviewed for on Friday. Melissa, an AP freelancer, is writing a [...]
TY for blogging this, it was very informative and helped me very much