An increasingly rare meal

Yesterday a friend posted about a smoothie he makes. One of the ingredients was maple syrup. Naturally, maple syrup made me think of pancakes — even though I don’t put maple syrup on my pancakes. The flavor just, eh, doesn’t appeal to me.

Then this morning, as I was rearranging things in my cupboard, I came across the box of pancake mix hiding in the back. Man, how long had it been since I made pancakes?………. Over a year? At least. Why? I don’t know. I go through phases.

It was about lunchtime, and I hadn’t eaten yet, so pancakes. With only butter.

I enjoyed my flapjacks, but then I remembered why I hadn’t been making them very often. There’s more to clean up. I can usually do breakfast with just a pan, fork, spatula and plate. And I can clean them with just spritzes of water-vinegar mix. But pancakes require a measuring cup, mixing bowl, soft spatula for mixing, pan, spoon for moving batter to the pan, hard spatula, plate, and fork. And the bowl, spoon and soft spatula require several cups of water to clean off the batter residue, some of which dries and sticks to things. 

No, it’s not like I need to clean up a four-course meal for six with lots of greasy gooey crusty stuff. But I’ve gotten used to doing things very simply. Ideally, minimalism isn’t only about having less but also about doing less.