Lilly was having trouble creating the perfect pancake (or even a mediocre one), so she decided to try an Australian pancake premix that came in a one liter plastic bottle - just add water, shake, and pour into the pan. Who could screw this up? Except she never wears her reading glasses while cooking; but why would she - she never READS the flippin instructions or recipes! So she decided that she could "improve" and speed up the process by using BOILING water. (When the rest of us were in third grade chemistry class learning the properties of the elements and the relationship between energy and matter - Lilly was either in the swimming pool doing laps, or riding her horse "Homer"...) You guessed it, her pancakes immediately started rising and cooking in the bottle! As the sides of the capped-jug (now converted to a thin-walled pressure cooker sans relief valve) started to bulge out she cried for Tom-Tom to "COME QUICK!"

After uttering only a single expletive, he quickly assessed the situation as another life-threatening event created by the woman he loved - this was not the first time that one of Lilly's cooking experiences had gone south - and he quickly picked up a serrated steak knife and punctured the jug and relieved the pressure (creating only a small gouge in the galley counter-top and a minimal peripheral splatter of still bubbling batter). Thankfully, we can report that there was no personal injury or loss of life related to this incident... Tom-Tom then cut off the top of the pancake jug, and LILLY removed the "batter" with a putty knife and plopped it into her hot skillet. Among her many good qualities, Lilly is frugal to the extreme (is there any other kind?), and she insisted that we eat her pressure boiled/fried pancakes. The end product looked like hash browns, had the consistency of a silicone based sea slug, and tasted like, well, pancakes. So we ate 'em...

We are not making this up! We are anchored in Pancake Creek behind Bustard Head on the Queensland Coast. (Perhaps the inspiration for Lilly's cooking adventure?) It is blowing 25 to 30 knots out on the Great Barrier Reef, and is forecast to continue to do so for the next few days. We are snugged-down in a hidey-hole, working the Project List and "cooking"...

Tom & Lilly
S/V Tiger Lilly
anchored in Pancake Creek
Queensland, Australia

As you can see, it is a little cool today in Pancake Creek. (For almost six years Tom-Tom has tried / begged / finagled / pleaded with Lilly to make his breakfast in the buff - and this absolutely HEINOUS outfit is what he gets...) P.S. We threw a leftover pancake over the side, and a passing CROC threw it back! As Jackie Gleeson would say, " What a revoltin development this is..." (Or was that William Bendix...?)