A Bob and Carlos Story: Sunday Breakfast

A couple of years ago Carlos told me a story about his mother making refired beans in their kitchen in Mexico City. She’d cooked the beans and then began to mash them in a skillet, and every so often, she would pick up the pan and flick it hard to flip the beans and then mash again. One time she flipped a wee bit too hard and some of the beans ended up on the kitchen ceiling.

Carlos laughed at his mother trying to explain to his father about beans on the ceiling.

Well yesterday, as Carlos does, he was making pancakes for breakfast, and as I came into the kitchen to eat, he reminded me of the Bean Story and then pointed to the stove where he missed the griddle with a ladle of pancake batter. 

I saw a mixture of batter and dried cranberries kind of congealing and cooking on the stovetop, and we … well, mostly me … had a good long laugh about that and then sat down to eat.

He likes syrup on his pancakes and I like a little butter and some cinnamon sugar on mine, so I buttered a cake and reached for the “sugar” and saw that he’d gotten Whole Jamaica Allspice for me. And so we laughed about that as I went to the cupboard for the real cinnamon sugar. I sat back at the table, buttered a cake and sprinkled … wait for it … it’s epic … Celery Seed on my breakfast.

We couldn’t stop laughing because between the two of us, we are the hottest of messes.

PS Celery Seed isn’t so bad if you want a more savory cake.