If you're wondering why you're seeing so many pancakes all over the food web today, don't think it's just because IHOP is giving away free pancakes. They are doing that, and blogs are posting pancake recipes because today is Pancake Day, another way to commemorate Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday. Today is called Pancake Day because people would make pancakes to use up butter, eggs and milk before Lent.
For all the other times when I was a good girl, when I was cautious – hell, I’ve basically been abstaining for the last two years – it would be just my delicious luck to go unprotected the one time when it actually matters, and get infected. Once. Just once! As if almostsharing my Asian heritage with Semi-ho Sandra because her last name is Lee weren’t enough, now I am diseased. Tainted, if you will. I have been (self) diagnosed with . . .
The Emeril Epidemic.
Technically, he’s a pandemic because he’s basically everywhere, but I have this thing with alliteration.
The only reason I ever watched tv was for the Food Network, and truth (that will reveal how old I really am) be told, I even loved watching the original Essence back when Emeril was still a relatively unknown chef who always looked into the wrong camera during taping. I loved the Food Network and could even say I had an unhealthy addiction. As expected, there were changes as the the years went by. While I liked some new shows and personalities like Ina Garten and Loverboy Bourdain, far more new shows reflected a whole new direction that didn’t appeal to me. Overall programming on the Food Network was declining.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt, though, and convinced myself that the magic would come back. Like a battered wife, I made excuses, telling myself it was my fault that I couldn’t stay up late enough to watch re-runs of A Cook’s Tour that the Network had relegated to 3 AM slots. Given my bloggy, work-at-home schedule, it actually worked better for me to have uninteresting shows during the daytime that wouldn’t distract me. I even argued that Emeril was a case study in celebrity marketing brilliance. I was fooling myself but finally, cancellation of the original Iron Chef (Japanese) was the epiphanous moment that forced me to take drastic action.
I cancelled cable.
I’ve abstained from the Food Network for almost two years, and I don’t regret it one bit.
But that’s the danger with these things. You could have been exposed to it long before you ever started taking precautions, and once you’ve been exposed, you’ve got it. You may not know you have it, but it’s in you, somewhere deep down in the dark, scary place. It can remain dormant for years, and it's possible that it may never develop into a full-fledged affliction, but when you least expect it, it could flare up like a cigarette butt in a field of tumbleweeds. When your mental defenses are down, when you’re under psychological duress, when your emotions are hitting lustlovey highs and workstress lows like it’s that time of the month every day of the month, it’ll rear its ugly head that looks strangely like...Emeril Lagasse's.
calm before the storm
Suddenly you’ve metamorphosed from a shy, quiet food blogger with simple taste to a chubby, pink-cheeked troll of a showman tv celebrity chef. A breakfast of a simple stack of pancakes metamorphoses into a chocolate pancakes with Bam! homemade vanilla ice cream hurled on top and you toy with your own emotions by Bam! sending a deluge of warm cherry sauce to carve deep crevasses in a vanilla matterhorn that's already cascading in creamy rivulets over cocoa cliffs, and then you're caught up in the excitement, you've crossed the line, you've gone too far, so why hold back now?! You can't! You just can’t hold yourself back from by Bam! drizzling hot fudge all over the deep, dark, dirty delicious mess.
It took everything I had to not spank powdered sugar like virgin snow all over the stack, the plate, and the countertop.
There's some sort of prescription treatment for this, isn't there?
Resources from Around the Web:
~ Boston Globe's Simple Cherry Sauce with Kirsch
~ EatingWell's recipe for Chocolate Pancakes (and they serve theirs with a raspberry sauce)
~ CDKitchen has a recipe for chocolate pancakes with the kick of Kahlua
~ a good, basic recipe for Chocolate Pancakes at Recipezaar
~ Better Homes & Garden recipe for Chocolate Pancakes via Everything and Nothing
** this post originally published on 08.11.07 **
** a year ago today, naked isn't naughty when you're eating greek salad **
** two years ago today, there was flailing flesh and finger cymbals at koutoubia **
tags :: food : and drink : cooking : recipes : breakfast : brunch : los angeles
Pandalicious says
damn, those pancakes and ice cream look to die for.
i love food network! emeril is ok.. but giada and danny boome are the most fun to watch. sandra lee is hella annoying!
Christie @ fig & cherry says
Oooh so sinful - in the best possible way! :)
samantha says
I couln'dt agree more about Emeril - he is the ultimate. Bam - you never really get over him. Celebrity chef or no - he is the best.
freeway-j says
Ice cream for breakfast is the ultimate! You should try 26 Beach in Venice for brunch. They have 2 ice cream and 1 peanut butter and chocolate breakfast option:
The Polar Bear – 2 French “croissant” toasts with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, fresh berries, melba sauce & grated white chocolate
Peaches N’ Cream – 2 French “croissant” toasts topped with caramelized peaches, a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream & melba sauce
Reece’s Peece’s – French toast stuffed with creamy peanut butter, chopped Reece’s, & topped with grated Belgian chocolate & served with chocolate sauce on the side
Rebekka says
MMMMMMMMMmmmmmm
Melissa says
Food Network: porn for fat people
ThatsSoYummy says
Oh My this looks amazing, eventhough i am not a fan of cherry sauce, more of a chocolate girl all the way, these look Yummy ;-)
Great job.
If your ever looking for milk chocolate chip buttermilk pancakes let me know.
ThatsSoYummy says
Oh My this looks amazing, eventhough i am not a fan of cherry sauce, more of a chocolate girl all the way, these look Yummy ;-)
Great job.
If your ever looking for milk chocolate chip buttermilk pancakes let me know.
Eboni says
Not to be redundant or anything, lol, but those pancakes look absolutely indulgent! I love your blog and will remain faithful. How wonderful and inviting it all looks! I have got to start taking my own photos!
Shirley says
I'll be over in a minute with my spoon! I think I've died and gone to heaven. This is the most scrumptious thing I've ever seen. Maybe with the exception of Johnny Depp.
Shirley says
I'll be over in a minute with my spoon! I think I've died and gone to heaven. This is the most scrumptious thing I've ever seen. Maybe with the exception of Johnny Depp.
Sweet Temptress says
How do I subscribe to your site? I've searched all over for the RSS link.. but couldn't find it.. :(
Sweet Temptress says
How do I subscribe to your site? I've searched all over for the RSS link.. but couldn't find it.. :(
sarah j. gim says
@EvilMonkey here's the rss feed via FeedBurner:
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/TheDeliciousLife
strange that your browser/reader doesn't pick it up off the page...will check into that.
sarah j. gim says
@Freeway-J i love how adding "French Toast" to the dish makes peanut butter, chocolate, ice cream and candy totally appropriate for breakfast.
@ThatsSoYummy Milk Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancakes sound AUSOME. and do we drizzle that with hot fudge as well?!
@Shirley scrumtious. pancakes, agreed. Johnny Depp, not so much. but if you were to throw in, say, George Clooney, i may renege.
A_Flama says
Ahhh... DELICIOUS!!!
A_Flama says
Ahhh... DELICIOUS!!!
Katharina says
That stack of pancakes looks delicious! Now THAT is a scoop of ice cream... and drizzled with warm cherry sauce! I'm going on a getaway this weekend and I'm hoping to enjoy a breakfast like this made by someone other than myself. Take care!
p.s. I love your blog and writing style!
pancakeho says
August 11, 2007. A day that will live on in infamy... Where was I at the time? Who knows. What I do know is I read this - probably on Monday August 13th. Lucky 13. At work. I was 30 something. A young buck with a very nice office, built in bookshelves that would require a Silver Spoons like ladder to reach the upper levels and a sad look in my eye. A look that said why can't I eat pancakes instead of being in this office. Thanks for ruining my August 13th.