Pancakes?

So, this morning, my son gets me up and asks if we can cook pancakes in my dutch ovens. I've been wanting to get him more and more involved in cooking, so I jump at the chance. We start up the coals, and then come inside to mix the batter up.

Then I have him spread out the coals around my lid stand, and we put the lid on top, and we start waiting for it to heat up.

...And we wait

...And we wait.

Finally, I think it's hot enough, and I tell him to pour on some batter. By this time, of course, he's lost in his Gameboy, capturing Pokemon. But he sets it down and pours on the batter.

And we watch it start to cook.

Sort of.

It does finally cook enough to flip, but it's not really a golden brown, more like a pale white. Pretty soon, he goes inside with the air conditioning, leaving me to sweat it out in a 90 degree morning over a hot griddle. Well, a sort of hot griddle, anyway.

I did manage to cook all of the pancakes, but it never really got hot enough to cook them right. I'm not sure why. I guess, I just need more coals, and need to have them lit a little longer before I put on the lid. Hmmm...