7:10 am. Saturday. I’ve just completed making four perfect pancakes for my kids. Golden brown, fluffy enough to jump on in your stocking feet. The kids are happily munching away, chugging a gallon of milk, and humming their “happy” songs.

“Now for the “Piece de Resistance!” *  I declare, as I prepare to flip MY pancake.

The pancake goes up in the air, does a Triple Lindy, and a section of the cake decides to detach from the mother ship, and set a trajectory course off to the east, while the main fuselage continues on the flight plan that I had filed. Down, comes the cake, one piece floating into the pan, in a gloriously soft landing worthy of a “9.8” from the Lithuanian judge, while the second section of the now-disintegrating cake splatters on the stove and comes to rest in “Ugly Land”.

It’s rare to look in a cook book and see a “Exploded View of Pancake”.

I sent a Downed Aircraft Rescue Team to retrieve the errant section and continued muttering something in French while I looked over my shoulder to see if my children had noticed that Dad isn’t a gourmet chef. Luckily, they were still chomping and guzzling, and accidently putting their elbows into Log Cabin syrup.

I shoveled my wounded cake onto the finest plate I could find (this ought to make it look better) and sat down, asking for the about-to-fall-on-the-floor pancake syrup.

Don’t ask me what the light colored stuff is in the photo above. I could be homemade butter; it could be sea foam. I’m not sure.

The cake tasted ok despite the looks.

Now I know how George Lucas made his models in the earliest Star Wars episodes. He cooked his own pancakes for breakfast.

Oops, I gotta go. My wife says Spielberg is on the line.

*Noun
1.
piece de resistance – the outstanding item (the prize piece or main exhibit) in a collection: collector’s item, showpiece-curio, curiosity, oddment, peculiarity, rarity, oddity – something unusual — perhaps worthy of collecting: rariora – (plural) rare collector’s items

2.
piece de resistance – the most important dish of a meal: dish – a particular item of prepared food; “she prepared a special dish for dinner”                                  (source: thefreedictionary.com)