12.016
21 (Thu) January 2021
Pancakes à la Marly
3.5
by me
at home
-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-
Newbery 100 Medals, 100 Meals (31) (see 100 NEWBERY M&Ms)
While reading the 99 books that have been awarded the annual Newbery Medal since 1922 – leading up to the 100th winner to be announced next year – I will also attempt to create one dish for every book, a dish that is directly referenced in or indirectly inspired by the events of the book. Food plays a strong role in many of the stories; not surprising as the characters in most of the books are faced with adversity of some sort, including poverty, so they’re often very hungry and thus grateful whenever they get a bite to eat – as we all should be at every meal, literally give us this day our daily bread. The dishes will be featured as posts on Give Me This Day.
Miracles on Maple Hill (1957) by Virginia Sorenson, illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush. The book is about Marly and her family, who move to a house in the small farming community of Maple Hill, partly to help the father recover from the trauma of his war experiences, though this theme is not actively explored. They learn to appreciate the many “miracles” of nature, like strawberries and red raspberries and blackberries and blueberries and huckleberries and elderberries and pokeberries and inkberries and wintergreen berries, and ducks and pheasants and goats and bees and chickens and geese and cardinals and rabbits and deer and woodchucks and coons and squirrels and chipmunks and owls and swallows and grouse and fishes and peepers and frogs and spiders and moths and butterflies and beetles and lizards and efts and snakes.
Making the book rather difficult to get through, however, the protagonist is kinda bipolar, extremely whiny when things don’t go her way, excessively chirpy when good things happen.
When their car gets stuck in the snow, and her brother Joe goes off in search of help, Marly asks to tag along:
[paraphrased in part]
“Mother – Daddy – can’t I go, too?”
“Hush now, there’s no use both of you catching cold.”
“Mother, we wouldn’t – “
“Don’t argue!”
“Please!”
“Marly! You heard what I said!”
“But, Mother – “
“Marly, don’t argue!”
Marly and her father make pancakes:
[paraphrased in part]
Daddy stood rubbing his hands over the fire. “You and I’ll mix up those pancakes.” Suddenly, for no reason on earth that Marley knew, she ran to him and threw her arms around him, hard, and began to cry. And they made the most wonderful pancakes she ever tasted in all her life. When Joe came in, Daddy said, “Have some pancakes, à la Marly!” Every single pancake was perfect, round and brown. Carefully she filled Joe’s plate, and it was fun to see his face – it was so surprised. “Did you make these?” he asked. “Gee!”
Indeed à la Marly, the pancakes were at the polar ends of hit and miss. Made from what appeared to be a standard package – just add milk and egg (also a drop of vanilla essence) – the cakes themselves turned out very dense, not at all fluffy, and tasted like uncooked flour. But the vanilla ice cream and lingonberry jam provided an amazing flavor combination of sweet and creamy and tangy – definitely worth exploring further on other applications.
(See also FOODS.)
(See also PLACES.)
What were the ingredients of the pancake mix? The recipes I’m looking at for “American pancakes” (as we would call them) only calls for flour, baking powder and sugar (plus eggs and milk). Still, I guess using a package is more convenient, while you know better what you are actually eating if you make it from “scratch”…
American pancakes are the easiest thing to make from scratch, as you’ve described, but also the most reliable to use out of a package. my whole life, i’ve always used a package – American brands, and Philippine brands while I was in Manila – and they always came out the same. Which is why I was so surprised when this Korean brand turned out so weird. I just checked the ingredients, and yes it has a lot of additional grains and stuff that probably ruined it.