Cooking a l'Americain, woo yeah!

Almost all of my roommates have shared some type of food or drink specialty from their native countries, so I decided last weekend it was time for me to introduce them to some good, ‘ole Southern USA cookin … well not a very thorough introduction, but I did my best. If you know me even remotely well, you should have easily guessed that the first thing I made was PANCAKES!! That’s right, we’re not talking French-style crepes, but hearty, thick, butter & syrup pancakes! Although that was my goal, the final results sadly ended up being very similar to crepes. In the international food section of a French grocery store, I found a box of “Recette Americaine” pancake mix; the only instructions were to add water and melted butter, but this produced the lumpiest (yet too thin & watery) pancake mixture that I’ve ever seen. So they actually ended up resembling crepes much more than traditional pancakes. And my thriftiness, coupled with my lack of love towards Canada, prevented me from buying the Canadian Maple Syrup (which would have cost about $8.50 for a small bottle), so they really didn’t come close to experiencing the real thing. I have promised the roommates an encore pancake feast in January, so hopefully I can persuade Mama Wynn to bring Bisquick and Log Cabin in December when she comes :)
I did slightly redeem myself last night by making American hamburgers for my roommates. I found ground beef patties, authentic Heinz ketchup and “hamburger bread” … and it was a much more successful meal! My Italian friend apparently knew an American family who made homemade cinnamon donuts, so he is convinced that, as a good American, I should also be able to make donuts … but I’m obviously not even going to attempt that one!