CSI: Cooking and Pancakes

So, as a single gal, cooking has to be something you enjoy in order to do much of it and eat more than processed and pre-prepared foods.  Because cooking creates mess.  It just does.  If you do it right, apparently.

And I'm not exactly the best about cleaning up messes.  So much of what I eat while my wife is at work is pre-prepared.  Leftovers from the night before, or easily prepared foods that are nuked and don't create much mess.  Because I hate cleaning mess.  I'm good at creating it.  Apparently, not so good at cleaning it.

I was really proud of myself the other morning, though, when I decided to make pancakes.  The first morning I made them was over the weekend when my wife was around to help clean up after.  Cleaning up with her is much easier than cleaning alone.  Hence, no fun cooking and eating alone.  More fun cooking and eating and therefore cleaning with others.

Well, we all know that pancakes aren't that big a deal.  In fact, I'll admit, this is even the mix that is just add water.  This way when I'm having a craving for pancakes, I'm not dependent upon whether or not I actually have eggs in the house.  Single-secrets.

Anyway, no problem making pancakes when my wife was around.  She doesn't actually let me cook much when she's home.  She was involved in something else at the time, though, and she didn't want pancakes, so I just did it.  OMG!

So, on Monday morning, buoyed by my success over the weekend, and craving more pancakes, I decided to make some on my own.

And I admit, I'm the kind of girl that washes the dishes for the day moments before my wife comes home.  I put stuff off. But when you cook, you're better off cleaning sooner than later, because stuff gets caked on and harder to clean.

So I was proud of myself.  I made myself a delicious yummy breakfast, and then, I was really good.  I cleaned up immediately.  All done quite quickly.  Much relief off my shoulders not waiting until the last minute to clean up.  My day was free.  It was all good.  I made progress and cooked on my own, and even cleaned up.  All was good.

My wife came home and unlike usual, there were no obvious signs as to what I had been up to.  Again, I'd cleaned.  And done it well.  Despite my annoyance in cleaning, generally, with cooking, I had a success I was ready to build upon.

Until we were washing dishes that night.  Suddenly dishes that were washed by my wife were suddenly streaky after I dried them.  Apparently, I had left pancake batter on the towels.  And she said that she detected batter on the floor, and in the vents, and on the ceiling and the light fixture.  Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it seemed that she found traces of my criminal, er, cooking activity wherever she went.

My wife is the CSI.  Each day when she comes home, she takes a quick examination and she can tell what I've done during the day.  Mind you it isn't challenging. It isn't as if I do a lot during the day, but, still....

So, here I find myself craving pancakes but wondering whether or kitchen can take it...

Except I know the answer my wife will think, if not say, when she reads this... Don't worry, I'll make sure it's fine and clean... Just, um, Borg, try to keep it out of the vents, okay? Thanks.

Something like that...