when skies are grey : Day #68 in Orvieto

May 1, 2013 – Wednesday / Secret Pancake Mission Day

Laura, Sara, Jenna, and I met in the kitchen this morning at 6:55 to start the pancake mission. We had our ingredients, some frying pans, and the only thing we needed was a real kitchen. But we have a small hot plate thing that we used to make cappuccinos on, so we just put the frying pans on the hot plate. It took a while to make each pancake, but it worked! So unfortunately there were a few early risers who wake up before 7 every morning (I’m not sure how they do it) so they saw us begin the pancake mission, but thankfully they kept it a secret until the others came down for breakfast between 8-8:30. From 7-9am, we played “Banana Pancakes” by Jack Johnson on repeat in the breakfast room. Not sure if everyone appreciated it but we sure thought it was festive and it was great even though it was on repeat for a whole two hours. We made three pancakes for each person – 20 students, two professors, and Karen. Prof Doll showed up after breakfast and we offered him a pancake but he just had pancakes at his house! So it was obviously a good pancake day. Our most popular pancakes were the chocolate chip banana kind, but then the chocolate chip banana pancakes with chocolate batter were a hit, too. We got a little bit crazy by the end and but instant coffee into the chocolate pancake which made it into a mocha pancake. Then we made a chocolate cornflake pancake (gotta love those cornflakes) which kind of tasted like soggy cereal but it wasn’t awful. Anyways, everyone was really happy even though when they walked into the breakfast room one at a time throughout the morning, they all looked a little bit shocked and confused to see us hovering over the hot plate, all asking, “DO YOU WANT A PANCAKE????” But once they realized that yes, there are pancakes, the breakfast room was quite jolly and festive, especially with the background music.

Even though everyone was really excited for the pancakes, when Becky walked in the breakfast room and saw chocolate chip banana pancakes, I thought she was going to fall over. She was SO EXCITED and couldn’t believe it, especially because we had talked about it last night! So even just seeing her reaction to the pancakes was worth it. We finished making the pancakes right at 9, just in time for class, but the four of us had to go to class in our pajamas because we didn’t have time to change! Also, we have some leftover ingredients (including the weird baking powder) so I think we will try baking something again soon, but maybe not at 7 in the morning this time. :)