Best pancakes around

In an attempt to get better attendance for our church's Activities Committee, Carolyn invited everyone on the committee to our house for a pancake breakfast. She promised them that I would be cooking pancakes and bacon, both of which I do extremely well (according to her). Only one member of the committee accepted the invitation, about 5 others responded with a no, and the other 3 or 4 members don't know that RSVP means a reply is not optional.

The morning of the breakfast, I was arranging everything to cook the bacon properly and fix the pancake mix. I don't use prepared pancake mixes. We prefer making them from scratch using a biscuit mix we make from scratch. While I'm doing this, Carolyn is fusing over the table, the counters, the stove, trying to make everything look perfectly clean and orderly. Twenty minutes before the guests are to arrive I put the bacon in the oven and mix up the pancake batter. Ten minutes before arrival time, I turn on the griddle to maximum heat.

Our guest couple arrives right on time. I check the bacon. It looks about half cooked. Although I had to thaw out the bacon to place it on a rack in the oven, I apparently didn't thaw it out completely and that has set back the bacon 10 to 15 minutes. Oh, well, there's still the pancakes. After 10 minutes the griddle should be plenty hot. I pour on four pancakes. They don't rise. They don't steam. They're dead. I flip them over and find the other side almost the same color. The griddle is only warmish hot. The griddle is dead.

I try to do three things at once while all this time Carolyn is still explaining to our guests how wonderful my pancakes are. I get out two frying pans and start heating them up. I look for another griddle I thought we had. And I disassemble the built in griddle to see if the heating element is loose. It appears that in cleaning the griddle area, Carolyn had accidentally dislodged the griddle. Once I've reseated the element all is fixed (except now I have two big frying pans in the way). Pancakes poured on the griddle sizzle and steam. Bubbles appear. I turn them over and they're perfect brown. They rise just enough to distinguish them from crepes but not enough to use as a Frisbee. The griddle is alive again! My reputation is saved.

Now, here's the recipe for my pancakes (in two steps):

Biscuit mix

5 lbs self-rising flour
2 Tbsp Baking powder
1/2 cup Sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups shortening

Stir all dry ingredients together first. Then mix in the shortening thoroughly by hand or using pastry cutter until shortening is completely distributed throughout the mixture. Should be stored in a cool, dry area. We keep it in a large Tupperware container. You can also include powdered milk and powdered eggs to eliminate the need for milk & eggs in the next step. In that case use 5 cups powdered milk and/or 3 cups powdered eggs.

Pancake batter

1 cup of biscuit mix
1 egg
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup milk

Note how easy to remember the numbers. Mix together the first 3 ingredients and about half the milk. Then use the remaining milk to thin the batter to desired consistency. You may not need the whole cup. Makes 8 to 10 four inch pancakes - about two servings. It's easy to multiply for more servings.