I stared at the random jungle of words ahead of me. In the corner of the box, the words, "Pancakes made simple," taunted me. How on earth can even a genius like Mr. Peabody know how to make these?
It was Father's Day and I really wanted to surprise Mr. Peabody by making him pancakes since he was such a good cook. I had woken up at 5 am, an hour before Mr. Peabody always woke up, just to make them for him. The clock already said 5:15, and I had only just gotten the package from the top shelf.
The steps went like this. 1, Heat griddle or skillet over medium-high heat or electric griddle to 375°F; grease with cooking spray, vegetable oil or shortening. (Surface is ready when a few drops of water sprinkled on it dance and disappear.) 2, Stir all ingredients (2 cups of pancake mix, 1 cup of milk, and 2 eggs) until blended. Pour by slightly less than 1/4 cupfuls onto hot griddle. 3, Cook until edges are dry. Turn; cook until golden. Note: If you like thin pancakes, use 1 1/2 cups milk.
I quickly typed into my laptop, 'what is a griddle?' I then clicked images and a billion different pictures popped up. I tried to quietly rummage through the pantry, and I finally found a large frying pan that kind of looked like one picture. Then I carefully put it on the oven top.
The grill was extremely advanced, the best you could get, just like everything else in the apartment. All I had to do was type in 350 and instantly the stove lit up. I frowned when the clock now read 5:20.
I knew what cooking spray was, and quickly got out a bottle of pam. I wasn't sure what grease meant, but I figured that since the bottle was a spray bottle I just needed to spray it. The clock blinked 5:25.
I reread the part about the surface being ready when a few drops of water sprinkled on it dance and disappear. How the heck does water dance! I quickly decided to skip that part. The numbers 5:30 made me hurry on to the next step.
The next step was extremely easy. It only took me 10 minutes to do. For some reason, even after I had followed the steps, the gooey mess in the bowl didn't quite look like it was supposed to.
Finally it was time to cook. I poured ¼ cup of batter on to the pan and sat and waited. I soon became impatient and flipped it over. The gooey pancake just broke in half and stuck to my spatula. Desperately, I squished the pieces back together.
I waited a long time for the nest half to finish, not wanting to mess the pancake up anymore. After a few minutes, the grill started smoking and I quickly flipped the pancake onto a nearby plate. The pancake was burnt, pitch black. I groaned in defeat and poured another ¼ cup on to try again.
20 minutes later I heard shuffling coming from Mr. Peabody's room. I had exactly 10 minutes to finish the breakfast. So far the stack of 10 burnt pancakes didn't look exactly, well, edible. I barely had put on another pancake when I realized I had forgotten the most important thing, the card!
I ran upstairs and quickly scribbled something on a piece of paper. I then ran down stairs straight to the kitchen so my pancake would not get burnt. Sadly, I was too late. Way too late.
In the time I had gone up stairs the pancake had caught on fire! I instantly freaked out, grabbed a cup of water, and flung it at the stove. The fire went out, which was good, but the stove let out a few sparks and all the burnt pancakes now were both black and soggy.
Mr. Peabody took that exact moment to walk in to the room. His eyes got huge as he looked around the room. There was pancake batter all over the floor, having been knocked over as I had run to the sink. The stove wasn't even blinking, obviously having been short circuited. I don't think he even realized that the black wet blobs were supposed to be pancakes.
"Sherman! What are you doing?" He suddenly yelled. "Explain this mess at once!" His white face now was a deep red in anger.
I looked down at the floor and nervously moved my hands together. After a couple of seconds I finally spoke. "Well, I was trying to make pancakes for you for father's day, but I didn't do a very good job."
Mr. Peabody waited for me to go on, but I couldn't bring myself to it. He looked over me, back at the mess, and then at me again.
"How on earth did all this happen in making pancakes?" he asked.
"The stove caught on fire," I quietly told him.
I expected him to yell at me some more, but surprisingly he simply sighed and said, "Let's just clean this mess up
We worked in silence. I wiped the batter off the floor and scraped the pancakes in the trash while he worked on fixing the oven. Thirty minutes later, the kitchen was all clean. I waited for Mr. Peabody to give me my punishment.
"What's this?" he asked me.
The question caught me off guard. I looked closely at the piece of paper he held. It was the card I made him. All it said was 'Happy Father's Day Mr. Peabody' and had a crude drawing of him and me holding hands. Definitely not my best work.
"Just a card I made you Mr. Peabody," I said quietly.
He looked at the card and back at me. I knew the punishment would come any second now.
"I am really sorry for ruining your Father's Day breakfast Mr. Peabody," I told him.
He looked at me again. "Do you want me to teach you how to cook?" he finally said to me.
Again, the strange question caught me off guard. "Cook? What? Why? I, I almost burned down the building?" I stuttered.
He shook his head. "I'm sorry, that was a silly question," he told me.
We stood in silence for another minute. He was obviously upset and was trying to figure out what to do.
"It wasn't a silly question," I said after a while. "I wouldn't mind. I would actually enjoy that."
He looked at me and smiled. "Well the first step is to use non-expired pancake mix," he said, pointing to the box that was sticking out of the trashcan.
I looked closely at the box and realized he was right. The mix had expired last Christmas.
"How about we just go to IHOP," I suggested.
He smiled at me, "That's a good idea Sherman."
We walked over to the elevator, Mr. Peabody holding his one of a kind Father's Day card. Mr. Peabody made me promise to never cook without him again, and I vowed to never cook pancakes again. All in all, it was a good start for the rest of the day.
