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A pancake tale

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A note about today’s blog from Mary: Enough with upheaval and world events for a moment. I could not resist Tem’s gracious offer of this classic cooking story for today’s blog. It’s a rare glimpse into a moment of non-magazine-related-time – in 2008, no less – for Kate and Tem. Enjoy it!

A pancake tale

It was Saturday, January 19, 2008 at about 3 pm PST. Although it was sunny and mild weather, and Kate and I each had better, more socially responsible things on our to-do lists, we found ourselves obsessed with computer Boggle (a word game). Just one more game. Just one more game. Just one more. Finally we gave in to the impulse to make pancakes, vegan pancakes in particular (since neither one of us eats eggs any more) a plan we had been discussing for a few days now. We got some Internet recipes that used butternut squash and hazelnut milk and plunged right in. We had to modify the recipe a bit so it was a bit of an experiment. But we forged ahead.

It was looking good when we mixed the dry and wet ingredients and discovered that the gloppatude was just about right. Glop, glop. OK, then, now we’re cookin’ — with a cast iron (Mars) skillet. Since we were cooking together and having fun cooking together (slightly, ahem, a RARE occurrence in the fire sign environment we have here), I ran over to the computer to run a chart (of course) to see what universal pattern, if any, was bringing these unexpected pancakes into being. This was my first mistake. For while I was doing that I left a Sagittarian (Kate) alone to pour the batter in the skillet.

At the moment I cast the chart, Moon was exactly conjunct Mars at 24+ Gemini, opposite Venus at 24 Sagittarius in the 6th house, with Cancer rising. That explains the enthusiasm, the Boggle, and the bold domestic experimentation from two Mars-in-Pisces natives. I looked up the Sabian symbol for the 25th degree of Gemini to find some sort of cosmic pat on the back for being in tune with cosmic forces, and here is what I found: A GARDENER TRIMMING LARGE PALM TREES. (Don’t tell James Randi!)

I returned to the kitchen to find Kate looking a bit perplexed with four large and very thick pancakes a’grillin’ — all mooshed together, with no room to spread out or to be flattened into the proper thickness. Uh oh. Trouble in paradise. We decided that this batch was beginning to resemble some kind of mutant gooey meatloaf and probably next to hopeless, and got to work with Plan B — thinning the batter and pulling out a new teflon-coated skillet. Meanwhile, I was trying to find some way to blame Mars for this unfortunate turn of events. Moon had been exactly opposite Venus when we started making the batter (and it was definitely sweet enough, but too gooey inside). The second batch, the thinner ones, came out a bit better, but still not the right texture. They all looked a bit too much like burgers. Ironic for vegan pancakes, eh?

Moon-Mars was exact in Gemini, and squaring my natal Mars. I guess the Gemini energy explains why I am writing about this incident right now with slightly burnt (Mars), yet somehow gooey (Moon), pancakes in my belly. That and of course wanting to share important astro-pancake research with our readers – and hey, the Moon is void-of-course now so what else can I get done, anyway, right?

The moral of the story, according to Kate, is that with Jupiter now in Capricorn, we shouldda stuck closer to the recipe. And with the Gemini-Sag opposition, we got distracted and too experimental for this batch of pancakes to have a decent texture, even though they tasted OK.

3 Comments

  1. I may have a Cancer ascendant and the Moon conjuncting the midheaven – but I find cooking a chore and a hassle. Long live the microwave!

  2. My much-loved older sister has Moon conjunct Mars, in Scorpio. The image of her feelings and emotions being “all mooshed together” like those pancakes really resonated with me. I wonder what would be the Teflon pan signature in a chart? A strong Uranus? Moon and/or Venus in Aquarius?

  3. Try some applesauce to substitute the lack of eggs. Add a bit of cinnamon and serve with honey. Yum!


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