Buttermilk/Sausage Pancakes

Karmic Balance and Fat Pancakes



I'm not Catholic, I'm Unitarian. In fact I'm a devout Unitarian -- which means I never go to church. Unitarian/Universalism is kind of an odd religion. For one thing while most churches go through schisms and fragment, the Unitarians and Universalists decided to do a merger -- think Westinghouse and General Electric but smaller and a lot more idealistic.

Unitarians don't have dogmas or catechisms (although I know of one Unitarian who had a dog named Dogma and a cat named Frank). We pretty much leave it up to individual members to decide what to believe and when and how to believe it. Actually, that's not entirely true. Most Unitarians believe people should be nice to each other.

One of my personal beliefs is in the need for direct human assistance in keeping the universe karmically balanced. This can take many forms. For example, if you go into work late, then you should leave early to keep things temporally balanced. If you cuss out a young man who pulls out in front of you, then at the first opportunity you should cuss out an old man to maintain geriatric balance. It's even better if you can cuss out an old woman thus promoting both geriatric and gender karmic balance.

Sometimes one must look at the big picture, and Lent is one of those occasions. Now, I'm just one man and there's not a lot I can do personally to keep things balanced when so many people around the world are denying themselves something for 40 days. In fact individual efforts to make up for such self-denial are a Sisyphean task (did those Greek gods know about torture or what?). Nevertheless each year at this time I do my best to make up for at least one devout Catholic by taking up a new vice for 40 days. I'd tell you what my new vice is this year, but since the episode back in '84 with the penguin and choir director I've found it best to keep that to myself -- you don't want to spend a weekend in jail with an angry penguin.

Another of my beliefs is in any celebration involving eating so when I heard that Catholics eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday I felt it was my duty to demonstrate my solidarity and sympathy for their efforts to get into heaven by fixing pancakes. So I fixed pancakes yesterday. I also cooked up some good country sausage and dumped that into the batter. They tasted even better than they looked with those marvelous little bites of sausage strewn through each cake. (Sort of like finding the baby in a King Cake but more of them and edible.) I recommend using molasses on these.

Buttermilk/Sausage Pancakes
2 c all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 c powdered buttermilk
2 c water
2 ea eggs
1 tbsp butter -- melted
4 patties country sausage -- cooked and cut into 1/4" dice


Using a whisk, mix dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, beat together water, eggs and melted butter.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat.

Mix the wet mixture into the dry mixture, being careful not to overmix. Scoop the batter onto the griddle and sprinkle with sausage. Watch for air bubbles and then flip and brown. Serve hot. Makes about 12 pancakes.

Note: Don't mix the wet and dry ingredients until you are ready to cook the pancakes.

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