Cooking Lessons

Cooking offers us many lessons and the beauty of plant based cooking is when a recipe doesn't turn out like we envisioned, we can almost always save or repurpose it.  

Saturday, I was teaching my Plant Based Cooking class at Urban Yoga Chicago and I was so excited to share my breakfast recipes with the group.  The day before I finally perfected my Banana Walnut Pancake recipe and was looking forward to preparing it with the class. Things seemed to be running smoothly until we got to the pancakes.... When I made the batter in the Vitamix, it was quite thin but I thought it would thicken up as it usually does when it sits, it didn't. I wasn't sure what the problem was because it had been quite consistent when I made it at home. Perhaps doubling the recipe threw it out of balance?

We forged ahead and fired up the cast iron skillet (same type of pan I use at home) and drizzled it with coconut oil, but when I poured the batter into the pan it seemed to take an extra long time to begin to cook - I wasn't seeing the bubbles popping. Hm.... As this was happening, I realized we don't have a spatula aka pancake turner at UYC  😳.  I was hopeful I could make it work, but I quickly saw that all I was creating was a pancake mess.  I tasted the deformed blob in the pan and it tasted so good! It was banana-ey and sweet, I wasn't ready to give up. Thinking quickly, I turned on the oven to 350˚ and pulled out a baking sheet, lined it with parchment paper and poured the batter into the center creating a large pancake. We topped it with chopped walnuts and into the oven it went. I crossed my fingers for something edible come out of this. 

What emerged twenty minutes later was such a treat!  A big pancake that we cut into wedges and topped with coconut oil and maple syrup.  The taste and texture were right on. It was simple to make - no standing over the stove, no smoking oil (coconut oil always smokes for me when I'm making pancakes, does this happen to you?), no trying to keep the already made pancakes hot and if you prefer less oil - these had far less oil since they baked on a dry baking sheet which also made clean up a breeze.

​Through remaining calm and considering the options, we were able to transform a disaster into a delight. On a personal level, this was an opportunity for me to connect into my breath, remain calm and set my ego aside knowing even as a teacher, I don't have to be perfect with all that I do and there are valuable lessons to be learned even when things don't go the way we planned.