A/N: I know no one wants to read hugely long author's notes; but, I still write them. This fic is labor of love, and experience. So I always need to send the shout out to my mother in law, GoddessThunder. She gave my wonderful husband Voetsek007. And that Montana Scandinavian culture which is so very different than what I grew up with. Gaben and Always-Underrated thank you so much for being the most amazing betas!
And thank you so much to everyone that takes that little bit of extra time to review, favorite, alert and read! I love you all: afrozenheart412, Gaben, Sporting Angel, … Thank you so much! I love hearing from all of you.
CSI: NY CSI: NY CSI: NY CSI: NY
Chapter 13: Pancakes
"I want pancakes!"
"Okay, so do you want me to make pancakes? Or do you want to make pancakes?" Danny asked a very pregnant Lindsey.
"You can't make them right." Lindsey announced rubbing her belly. "I want them like my Mor-mor, used to make," she half-scowled, half pouted.
Danny tossed his hands up in the air and started digging for his cell phone, which was buried in the couch cushions. "What kind of pancakes did your Mor-mor make?" In the time he and Lindsey had been together he'd learned that Lindsey's mother's mother was called mormor instead of grandma or nonna. Apparently, if it was her father's mother the Norwegian language had a different word for it. Danny didn't really keep up with Lindsey when she talked about Norglish, or was it Scandlish?
But, no matter what; Swedish meatballs with potatoes, gravy, lingonberry jam and a roll like they'd had at IKEA last weekend was really good! Although the trek out there, via the NY public transportation system had been a royal pain in the ass. And then Lindsey had picked out one bookcase, two lamps, three pictures with frames, and a few random other things like a vase, some candles, a mirror, and some stinky stuff. Plus, a comforter cover and a rug. Yeah, she'd pretty much blown their entire months grocery budget, entertainment budget, and the electric bill all in one hit. Yep, now at least one of them though preferably both of them needed to pull some overtime.
"So how do you make Swedish pancakes?" sighed Danny, knowing he wasn't going to have any peace until Lindsey had pancakes.
"Ummm…." Lindsey felt a kick. "I don't know. I just want pancakes!"
Danny nodded his head wisely; he knew not to argue with a pregnant woman. It was a lesson he'd learned the hard way. He grabbed his cell phone off the counter and scrolled through the numbers until he reached Lindsey's parent's number.
As the phone rang he walked into the other room, giving himself at least a little bit of privacy. "Hi… Mrs Monroe."
"Yes, yes, everything's alright."
"Nope, Lindsey's fine. She isn't in early labor." It was amazing at how he could never quite seem to get a word in edgewise. And how he could now track Lindsey's conversations with her mother just by the two or three words she said every couple minutes.
After a couple of minutes of listening to news of Montana, the extended family, and about the prize that the neighbor's son had won at Boy Scouts, Danny was finally able to get more than two sentences in. "Yes. Mrs Monroe, Lindsey wants Swedish Pancakes and jam. And my life isn't going to be the same until she gets them." Danny pleaded.
He could hear Lindsey's mom laughing over the phone lines. "Oh, I loved those too when I was pregnant with her. Do you have a pen and paper?"
"At the ready!" Danny really didn't want this day to become a cataclysmic catastrophe 'The Day The Pancakes Stopped!' or 'The End Of the World' or something like that…
Still laughing Mrs Monroe started reciting from memory the recipe she'd learned from her mother "Three eggs, two and a half cups of milk, a little over one cup of flour, a half teaspoon of salt, and three tablespoons of oil."
"That's it?" Danny stared at the list; he'd been expecting a lot more ingredients or weird stuff that couldn't be found outside of Montana!
"That's it. Just mix it all together and put it in a preheated greased non-stick pan." She snapped her fingers. "I almost forgot Mor-mor always used to put in a quarter teaspoon of almond extract, and a pinch of ground cardamom."
"Wow, that sounds doable" sighed a relieved Danny. He looked down at the list and felt almost confident, this didn't look too difficult.
"Yep." Mrs Monroe responded with that flat Northern Montana South Dakota accent, remnants of Scandinavia that had been passed down from the homesteaders. "If you haven't done them before use two pans, and when the first side is done turn it into the other pan instead of using a spatula."
"Huh…"
"These are a lot thinner than the pancakes you make." Mrs Monroe explained. "They're more like… Like…" She waved her hands around in the air (Danny could hear the swooshing over the phone). "Crepes."
"Okay, that makes sense." Danny commented remembering that bistro place Lindsey had drug him to a few weeks ago. "We went for crepes a couple weeks ago. A place Lindsey read about somewhere. Called… Lina Frey Bistro something… Bistro Nouveau."
"She told me about the meal. Sent me pictures from her phone."
Danny tuned out as Mrs Monroe went into a five minute description of the meal that he and Lindsey had eaten. Sheesh, he'd been there. He didn't need to hear about it a third time. The indigestion had been bad enough."
While Mrs Monroe continued talking about how vivid and clear the sonogram pictures Lindsey had emailed her last week, Danny made a shopping list. Jam, eggs, milk they had, and they were out of bacon! Bacon, they would need bacon.
When he finally hung up ten minutes later, Danny had also figured out that they needed Tide, Provolone cheese for sandwiches, a loaf of bread, tomatoes, and toilet bowl cleaner. He could do this! He could make Swedish pancakes, although why they couldn't just go to that Lina Frey place again was beyond him.
"Linds, I'm going out. We'll have pancakes for dinner," he called over his shoulder as he made his way to the door with a couple of reusable shopping bags jammed into his coat pocket.
"Nice!" Lindsey waved good-bye from where she was folding laundry as she sat on the worn sofa resting her feet. "Love you!"
It was another good day in the Messer Monroe household!
E/N: The recipe works. It's my family's recipe and we do add the almond extract and ground cardamom. Or if I only have whole cardamom, I add a little fresh grated nutmeg.