Quote:
My premises have been completely obliterated!

Your premises have been completely obliterated? I've just hosted a pancake party for about fifteen people -- my premises have rarely looked so obliterated as they did this morning.

This year I did vegan pancakes as well as the standard-issue ones: soya milk instead of cows', and half a banana instead of the egg. This doesn't make a mixture with quite the same mechanical properties, and I still think it was very skillful of Dave to produce proper-looking pancakes out of it (I totally failed with it when I tried).

Rob is right that I have a Le Creuset cast-iron frying pan, but I suspect the one Roger's talking about is my other one, which I much prefer: Meyer Anolon. I also have their chef pan, kind of like a round-sided saute pan, which I've used for virtually every meal I've cooked since I got it, it's outstandingly useful.

Both Meyer pans are hard-anodised non-stick, which is much more resilient than the teflon in the Le Creuset one. I currently use wooden spatulas (one slightly carbonised at the end where I've used it for gumbo roux) but have been eyeing up silicon ones. Nowadays I make gumbo roux in a stainless-steel pan with a stainless-steel spatula, and for some reason it was very hard to find the necessary flat-ended spatula in steel.

Someone brought a small bottle of maple syrup last night but, as I have no cricket bats requiring seasoning, not much of it was used and I'm now looking into the regulations concerning its safe disposal. I expect it's a no-no to let it enter the water table.

Peter

Edit: Now also feeling slightly guilty for not inviting you two, Roger, but I didn't reckon you'd make the trek up here and back on a weeknight...