Screen siren Ava Gardner was a classic study in contradiction. The Hollywood sexpot with the sardonic humor and mercurial temper had an affinity for car chases, booze, swearing and macho men including Ernest Hemingway and famed bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguin. As Tinseltown legend goes, she was the only fiery-tempered beauty that her onetime husband, Frank Sinatra, couldn’t tame.
But Gardner was more than meets the eye. She was also the painfully shy farm girl from North Carolina who liked to walk barefoot, took seconds on her fried chicken and just wanted a “house by the sea” with a “damn good kitchen to cook in.” Her favorite family recipes to whip up included corn fritters, baked candied yams, southern coleslaw and sizzlin’ hotcakes “just like her mother’s.” The starlet maintained that nothing beat pancakes for breakfast, served piping hot and swimming in butter. On a rainy day like today, we couldn’t agree more.
Ava Gardner’s Easy-Breezy Pancakes
Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
3 cups milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
Directions:
Sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Beat the eggs, and add to the milk and melted butter. Mix all into a smooth batter and cook on a well-greased medium hot griddle until golden brown.