Moments of Mercy: For the LOVE of......pancakes?

LOVE

I meant to post this yesterday, but I was enjoying my day of love with my two sweethearts. As the day was going on I couldn't help but ponder 'What is love?'. Well, I decided to see what the world describes love as.....just for fun.

The dictionary describes it as:

"strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties <maternal love for a child>
affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests <love for his old schoolmates> an assurance of affection <give her my love> warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion <love of the sea> the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration<baseball was his first love> a person's adoration of God."

It went on for a little while and there were plenty more 'adult-ish' definitions, but I won't get into those.....hello, young folks read this too! Then it gave some examples of love:

Children need unconditional love from their parents.
He was just a lonely man looking for love. <--------insert small chuckle
Mr. Brown seems to imply that when he retired he relinquished her love as casually as he dispensed with her secretarial services. —Ken Follett, New York Times Book Review, 27 Dec. 1987

I then traveled over to the thesaurus. Other words that were used to describe love:

adulation, affection, amity, amour, appreciation, ardor, attachement, crush, delight, devotedness, emotion, enchantment, enjoyment, fervor, fidelity, flame, fondness, friendship, inclination, infatuation, involvement, like, rapture, respect, sentiment, weakness, worship, yearning, zeal

Next, out of pure curiosity, I asked Google, "What is love". Note to self, don't ask Google what love is.......

I decided to check some social networks that I belong to. I was curious to see how people were reacting to Valentines Day. Of course there is the typical excitement of the day; flowers being delivered, chocolates, candies, and other things that will not be mentioned. Pictures being posted left and right of folks Valentines treasures (not gonna lie......at the end of the day I was tired of seeing flowers). Then there were the 'Scrooges of V-Day'. I love reading the 'anti- V-Day' statuses. Of course, it got me thinking. Why do people hate Valentines Day? Its the day of celebrating love, right? Most of the scrooge statues came from those who unfortunately (but maybe not unfortunate?) didn't have a 'special someone' to celebrate it with......okay, no surprise there (but let me make clear that not ALL non-couple folks fall into this hatred of the day of love). But then there were the others who HAD a loved one (spouse, significant other, etc) to celebrate the day of looooooove with. So why were they despising it? I decided on a few reasons:

1. Their S/O wasn't there to celebrate the day with (working, drunk, playing X-Box, etc)

2. Their S/O always forgets Valentines Day or thinks it a waste of February space, so therefore no flowers and chocolates and whatnot

3. They spend too much time drooling over what others had received for Valentines Day and became hostile to their S/O for sucking at gift ideas and demanding them to return the loofa and bath salts

4. Something happened when they were younger on Valentines Day and they haven't been able to get it over it since ( i.e. Jenny was in love with Roger and thought Roger loved Jenny, but Roger gave Cindy a Valentine Card in the 3rd grade that stated, 'You ROCK Valentine!' with some conversation hearts that said 'Be Mine' 'Call Me' 'I luv u'. Tragic.)

5. They are just straight up TOO COOL for such a holiday

6. Lastly, they don't believe that you should only show someone you love them ONE day out of 365 days. Because, who does that? I'm not sure if I know anyone who only loves one day out of the year........scratch that......my cat, but her day of love is usually Christmas when she runs up and down my tree, knocking down ornaments, and pulling down stockings.

So, how do you change the mind of a Valentine scrooge......

You introduce them to pink-heart shaped GLUTEN-FREE pancakes.

Problem solved.

The Worlds Easiest & Yummiest *GLUTEN-FREE* Pancakes

I think the saying is "You crave what you can't have"......okay, maybe I just made that up, but I can tell you that I have been craving waffles and pancakes ever since I was diagnosed with CD. I searched high and low in many, many stores for a gluten-free pancake mix. Including those fancy swanky 'earthy-organic' stores and to my luck I either couldn't find a gluten-free pancake mix or it was WAY to expensive. I began searching on the internet to try to find a recipe that I could put together. By the fourth or fifth recipe I found myself starting to hit the keyboard keys harder with my fingers. It was so frustrating! I couldn't find a recipe that included ingredients that I already had in my house. There are so many different flours that go into a gluten-free meal (many of those I don't have yet....again, expensive!) and many, many other ingredients that I didn't have and didn't feel like going on the search for around town. As I begin searching through my kitchen for another Valentines dinner idea I spotted this my Betty Crocker's Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix.

The light bulb in my head went crazy and I was desperate. Could I make pancakes out of cake mix? HECK YES I CAN! Its pretty simple to make. Just follow the cooking and recipe instructions on the back of the box.

** I did switched around a few things. Instead of adding water (like the recipe calls for) I used milk instead. I also added about 1-2 teaspoons of corn starch (just to make sure they'd be fluffy) & red food dye, of course! You mix all of the ingredients together and cook them like you would any normal pancake and BAM! you have yourself some delicious gluten-free pancakes.

Mmmmmm....

If you have picky pancake eaters like I do, try making 'mini pancakes' or what we call them in my house 'finger foods'. Miss A will not eat pancakes, but she ate the mini ones that she could dip in her syrup. Success!