On Pancake Breakfasts

First, let me note how much I enjoyed this morning's breakfast at St. Pius X. I walked into this church and was in some ways shocked by how much it reminded me of St. Joe's back in the Rose that is Mount. One of the great parts about attending Catholic services nowadays is that the general devotedness of most serious Catholics to the Vatican means that there is a far amount of anti-war rhetoric included in the mass. We said a decade of Hail Marys at the end of mass for the end of war, very solid. Both of the past two weeks have included a prayer from the Pope directed towards the safety of all people in Iraq. The only thing that pissed me off, and indeed convinced me that St. Pius will not become my regular parish, is that they ended by singing the Star Spangled Banner, which makes no fucking sense in relation to a mass which is all but DIRECTED at the lack of morality that this song currently represents.

But so I roll over to this pancake breakfast after trying thoroughly to ignore the singing of the national anthem and walked into pretty much exactly what I expected. At St. Joe's the pancake breakfast is in the school gym. St. Pius X doesnt appear to have a school on the premises, so it was in the large room of the Parish Center area, but for all practical purposes it was the same, there were basketball hoops and a linoleum floor. There were those 8 person lined up tables with folding chairs and plastic tableclothes. I paid my three-fitty, put in another dollar for a raffle ticket from the dude sitting next to the dude selling tickets to the breakfast itself.

So I got into the line, which, right after the 10:30 mass was pretty long, and worked my way through. This pancake breakfast had eggs, sausage, and hashed browns as well as the standard pancakes. When I say "standard pancakes" you must understand that I mean STANDARD PANCAKES. The pancakes I ate this morning were exactly the same as the pancakes I have eaten at every other pancake breakfast. I think every K of C and catholic church in the world must somehow have the same pancake recipe or something. Maybe its inscribed in every tabernacle ever produced or something, I don't know, but it can't be coincedence. I would say they all just happen to use the same mix or something but even if two people use the same mix the resulting cakes are often quite different. So the pancakes, as always were excellent. They have this perfect degree of fluffiness but also soak syrup in just the right manner so that they are heavy on your tongue while they dissolve into buttery sweetness.

The sausages, though I didnt eat any obviously, were standard pancake breakfast sausage. You know, like they used to serve when they had breakfast day in elementary school lunch, that grey-brown color with an almost sparkly casing. They arent great, but hey, cheap sausage is cheap sausage. The St. Pius KCs added some standard scrambled eggs and hashed browns that were quite good, legit sliced potatoes with celery and onions and both green and red peppers. Quite impressive for a pancake breakfast.

It should be noted that in one respect this pancake breakfast fell short, that area, the service. It wasnt bad, everyone was nice and everything. The point is a pancake breakfast is all you can eat, you are supposed to go to town on these pancakes. Here at St. Pius, however, I had to stand up and walk back to the serving area when I wanted more pancakes. Some kids came around and brought me coffee a couple times, but food was stationary.

Here's what i think in this respect. The best atmosphere for a pancake breakfast should be like a friend's mom's kitchen, specifically I think of Carole's (Katie's mom). It should exude the attitude that your eating there is doing them a favor. Eat, eat, come one , you can eat some more, is what it should say. Now, obviously, when one is eating out, this attitude is never actually there. These people dont WANT you to eat more, but they also dont really care if you do since each pancake costs about 1/100th of a cent. Most of the time when you are in someone's house they dont want you to eat more either, but they make it seem like they do. The easiest way to create this type of a feeling is to simply bring the pancakes around to you. Just have another dude who walks around with the coffee dude/ette with a tray of pancakes. There were plenty of pancakes in the serving area in the first place, just pile some more on and send them out.

Regardless, those are my thoughts on pancake breakfasts. Get out and support your local K of C and enjoy some good flapjacks.

Peace,

MB-K