The Pancake Incident

  One of the most important rules at my dad's house was always eat what you take. My sister Diane could explain it better than I. She would sit for hours at my dad's table refusing to eat her peas.
I learned that if the plate was dished up for me I could avoid the hours of sitting by showing him that I tried the item and respectfully declined. He would let me off the hook. This was rule you didn't violate at my fathers house.
  When I was 26, I lived in Yakima for a short time. My roommate’s girlfriend came over one morning and decided to make us breakfast. The trouble was we lived like most bachelors did, we had no food. She did her best and made the breakfast just as my dad came to visit. I took my share and he took a few pancakes for himself. I placed a bite of pancake in my mouth and almost choked. She had decided sense we didn't have butter that she could use lard.

     I quickly slipped back into the kitchen and throw mine in the garbage. Turning I could see no one had noticed and I washed my mouth out with a shot of vodka. Note I don't drink much and tend not to drink at 10 am in the morning.
  I stepped back into the living room and there was my dad. He had a look on his face that I will never forget. He sat there with half eaten pancake and looked at me as if I had taken the coward’s way out. I watched as he struggled with another bite and it told him, "we have to go or we will be late."
  "I haven’t finished my breakfast," he answered.
  "We have to go, if you need to eat you can take it with you," I said.
  He looked disappointed as we left with that plate. I didn't let him off the hook until we reached the car.
I do remember him saying, "Oh, thank God."
  If you want to try the recipe don't us the required egg and fried each pancake in lard and of course think of my dad as you chock each bite down.