I’ve been told my pancakes are pretty good, and they are. Here’s the recipe.

• 1 cup milk (or ¾ cup when using white flour)
• 1 egg
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 2 Tbsp oil, butter, honey or syrup

At this point you can add some fruit if you wish. I’ve tried apples and bananas. (I’ve also tried chocolate chips, but chocolate isn’t a fruit, unfortunately.)

• ½ cup apple, diced
• ½ banana, diced or mashed

Mix it all up really well, start heating the griddle, and add:

• 1 cup flour, whole wheat
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• ½ Tbsp cinnamon (optional; good with apple)

Mix it up just enough to get the clumps out. (Extra mixing will counter some of the “rise” effect of the baking powder.) Pour a third of a cup of batter on the griddle, flip the pancake when its bubbles stop rising or its edges change in texture, and give it about ¾ of the time on the other side. (If you think the first pancake is too thick you can add milk. If it’s too thin, add flour.) Repeat.

This makes about six ¼-pound, 5-inch pancakes, or more if you added fruit. I’m usually full after eating three, and I can only eat all six in one sitting if I’m really hungry.

Toppings my family and friends have enjoyed include yogurt, applesauce, chopped pecans or walnuts, fruit jelly, butter, and, of course, maple syrup. Just remember that it doesn’t do you much good to eat a healthy pancake if you drink twice as much maple syrup in the process.

Happy eating!

Thursday I gave a 4-minute speech in my technical speaking class on the trend toward the use of electronic textbooks (see Wikibooks) over paper ones. It was meant to be an introductory speech to show my professor and me what I needed to work on for the rest of the semester. This afternoon I met him in his office to watch the tape of my speech and hear his suggestions.

I was instinctively nervous when I gave the speech and I was sure that it was quite noticeable. I was even ready to tell my professor that my nervousness, the obvious problem with the speech, was unconrollable and would only go away with more practice. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that I didn’t appear nervous at all on the tape. The main advice I received was to avoid the lectern. According to the notes he gave me, my eye contact was “generally good”, my gesturing was “expressive”, I had a “good opening!”, and I did well at following the assigned guidelines for the speech. My total score was 19 of 20, or 95%.

Also, I couldn’t help but notice that I looked quite handsome in the video. My professor must have noticed, but he didn’t give me any bonus points. Maybe next time.