I am not a sentimental person, I don’t often long for the
past. I don’t miss the times when my
kids were little, I always thought of myself as raising adults rather than
children, so when they became someone conversation worthy I was quite content
and didn't look back at whipping noses and butts as regretful. But now as I saw another beautiful sailing
season come to a close I realized that someday they will be gone, they will fly
the nest and with them the things that make my days, my seasons, my life….
My summers now start in February or March when the regatta
schedules are posted on the web…. I book my days off and I anticipate. I don’t even contemplate booking a vacation
until the sacredly short sailing season is over. I spend the summer days paying attention to
the wind speed and researching magical ways of getting the stink out of the
sailing gloves…. And as this season came to a close, and all trophies were
collected, I stood on the dock and realized, that the feeling I get seeing my
kid raise a spinnaker or rig a boat will not be around forever, it will all be over soon, as
soon as they get spread their wings and fly.
One day my summers will not consist of talks of races and
courses, of wind speeds and puffs and fouls on the starting line, one day I will
no longer care what the wind does, one day, there will be no sailing gear piled
up on my kitchen counter, no more bruised toes and burned noses…. They will be
grown up and gone… but not yet…I still have a few years to prepare, and I
better be ready because when it is all over they will be on their way to
magical journey of life and I will be left to long for the old days, looking
for a reason to drive past the yacht clubs.
After a week of races and hurried breakfasts in the car I
decided my sailors deserved a leisurely weekend breakfast, so I went the Dutch
baby to honor the culture that gave us the best sailors in the world and a confusing
measure of a nautical mile…. A Dutch Baby.
Imagine a pop-over, a pancake and soufflé having a frivolous
Ménage à trois, the love child would be a
Dutch Baby, which is a wonderfully eggy, puffed up pancake with crispy edges and
soft center. A vessel to be piled upon
with sweet or savory treats. It makes a
great easy Sunday morning treat and gets even the groggiest teenager out of
bed.
Sweet Dutch Baby
pancake with Lemon Maple Strawberries
For the Pancake
3 tbs of butter
4 eggs
1 cup of whole milk
1 cup of all-purpose
flour
½ tsp of salt
1 tsp of sugar
For the topping
4 tbs of pure maple syrup
1 quart of strawberries
(or other berries)
Zest of one lemon
Powdered sugar for
dusting (optional)
Cut the strawberries
and toss them with lemon zest and maple syrup.
Let stand overnight or at least 1 hr.
Preheat the oven to
450F. Combine all the pancake
ingredients except the butter in a blender and mix well until smooth. Place the butter in the large cast iron
skillet and put the skillet into preheated oven for 5-7 minutes until the
butter is fully melted and begins to bubble.
Pour the pancake mix into the hot buttered skillet and bake at 450F for
20-25 minutes until the edges have puffed up and are crispy brown.
Cool for 2-3 minutes,
top with strawberry maple mixture. Dust the edges with powdered sugar and serve
right in the skillet.
All I can hope for is
that when they are all grown up they will still occasionally come around my
kitchen table so we I can see them gobble up my food and remember all those
sailing summers…. For them it will be fun anecdotes of their childhood and for
me it will be memories of those simple everyday things that make our lives….
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