Family Meal Plan: Buddy's Breakfast Pancake Spaghetti + Super Simple Syrup + Simple Syrup Soda

Buddy's Breakfast Pancake Spaghetti

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• drizzle :

  to trickle a thin stream of a liquid ingredient, like icing or sauce, over food.

• fry :

  to fry in a pan in a small amount of fat.

• measure :

  to calculate the specific amount of an ingredient required using a measuring tool (like measuring cups or spoons).

• pour :

  to cause liquid, granules, or powder to stream from one container into another.

• simmer :

  to cook a food gently, usually in a liquid, until softened.

• whisk :

  to beat or stir ingredients vigorously with a fork or whisk to mix, blend, or incorporate air.

"Buddy the Elf" and His Breakfast Spaghetti!

Buddy's Beginnings!

The story of "Buddy the Elf," is from the movie "Elf," written by David Berenbaum. It is a timeless tale of discovering who you are and where you belong when you feel like you don't fit in anywhere. The story begins when a baby crawls into Santa's gift bag at an orphanage and is unknowingly transported to the North Pole. Santa's elves call the baby Buddy because that is the brand name on his diaper.

The head elf takes the baby into his home, and Papa Elf raises Buddy as his son. Buddy becomes an adult and is determined to be a good elf; however, he cannot work as quickly building toys in Santa's workshop as the real elves, and he's so much bigger than everyone else. Then he overhears that he's not really an elf—he's a human! 

Papa Elf tells Buddy about his parents, Walter and Susan, and that his dad is still alive and living in New York City. He also gives Buddy an old photo of his parents. Since his mom never told his dad she was pregnant and died soon after giving Buddy up for adoption, his dad doesn't know he has a son. 

Santa tells Buddy that his dad is on the naughty list because he has been selfish and hasn't been a nice person lately. He thinks Buddy might be able to pass on some of his abundant Christmas spirit to Walter. Buddy agrees that is a good idea, and since he no longer feels like he fits in at the North Pole, he decides to go to New York City to find his dad. Still wearing his elf clothes, Buddy walks all the way to the city. 

An Elf in New York City!

Buddy learns many things on his trip and after he arrives in the city. For example, you don't want to hug a wild raccoon in case they are angry; going around and around in a revolving door can make you dizzy and sick; and store escalators seem very scary at first, but they aren't really. One thing he didn't learn, though, is that used chewing gum left in the street is not free candy, and you probably shouldn't eat it. 

Buddy finds his dad's office in the Empire State Building and goes up to his office, but his innocent, child-like enthusiasm puts off his cynical businessman father. Walter doesn't believe Buddy is his son and thinks Buddy must be crazy since he's dressed like an elf and talks about Santa. 

Buddy shows Walter the photo of Buddy's parents when they were young. Walter gets upset and tells Buddy to leave, and when he tries to return, he is kicked out of the building. The security guards tell Buddy that Santa is at Gimbels department store. Buddy ends up in the toy department and meets Jovie, an employee dressed like an elf for Christmas. Buddy quickly falls for her.

With nowhere to go, Buddy stays the night at the store and fantastically redecorates the toy department. The next day, he tackles the store Santa for posing as the real Santa and is arrested. Walter bails Buddy out of jail and takes him to the doctor for DNA tests to determine whether Buddy is his son. The tests prove that Walter is Buddy's father, so he takes him home, where Walter's wife and young son also live.

Sweet Spaghetti for Breakfast!

Buddy's stepmom, Emily, serves spaghetti for dinner, and Buddy adds some of the syrup he has up his sleeve to the spaghetti. That's when he tells them about an elf's four major food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup. The following morning, he adds chocolate syrup, candies, marshmallows, and broken-up toaster pastries to Emily's leftover spaghetti for his breakfast! 

Buddy's half-brother, Michael, also thinks Buddy is a bit strange, but after Buddy helps him defeat some school bullies during a snowball fight, they become fast friends. 

Walter's boss blames him for a printing mistake and decreasing book sales and tells him he better have a new book ready to pitch by Christmas Eve. To meet the deadline, Walter brings in a well-known outside writer, Miles Finch, to help them write a new children's book and get them back on track. 

Miles has dwarfism and is very sensitive to jokes about his short height. After his first date with Jovie, Buddy shows up during Walter's meeting with Miles and the two staff writers to tell Walter how much he loves Jovie. Buddy unintentionally insults Miles by calling him an elf a few times. Miles attacks Buddy and leaves in anger, and a stressed-out Walter yells at Buddy that he doesn't care if Buddy is his son and to get out now.  

Walter's writers find Miles' notebook in the conference room and realize their own book idea is similar to Miles', so they decide to go with that. It's Christmas Eve, and Walter's boss arrives to hear about the new book. Michael runs into the meeting to tell Walter that Buddy has left for good, and Walter realizes he made a mistake and didn't mean what he said to Buddy in anger. When the boss yells at Michael for interrupting the meeting, Walter quits his job, and they leave to find Buddy.

Buddy Saves Christmas!

In the meantime, Buddy dejectedly walks around the city when he sees Santa's sleigh fall out of the sky. He runs to Central Park to find Santa. He finds Santa and the sleigh, but the engine has fallen out, so he searches for it. Walter and Michael find Buddy, who introduces them to Santa. Buddy gets the engine back in the sleigh, but Michael's and Walter's growing Christmas spirit after they meet Santa is what really begins to increase the sleigh's power. 

A crowd has gathered near the park where news reporters are reporting the sightings of a very large elf and Santa's sleigh. Michael and Walter join them, and Michael begins reading Santa's Christmas gift list in front of the television cameras. People at home listening to the news hear their names and the gifts they asked Santa for, confirming their belief in Santa, which powers Santa's sleigh even more. 

Jovie sees the story on TV and runs down to the park. She overhears Michael saying that Santa needs more Christmas cheer to power his sleigh and remembers Buddy telling her, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear," so she starts singing, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." A few others begin to sing with her, and then, when everyone there, including Walter and the people listening on TV at home, join Jovie in singing, the sleigh reaches full power. Santa and Buddy take off to deliver presents to all the children in the world. 

The end of the story takes place the following Christmas. Buddy is reading a book to young elves that he wrote about his life. The book was produced by the publishing company Walter started after leaving Greenway Press. Buddy and Jovie are married and are visiting Papa Elf at the North Pole with their baby daughter, Susie, named after Buddy's mom.

The End and Pancake Spaghetti!

The story of "Buddy the Elf" is endearing, and his take on spaghetti is undoubtedly an interesting, if overly sweet, recipe! The Sticky Fingers Cooking version, "Buddy's Breakfast Pancake Spaghetti," may not be sweet enough for Buddy but will be delicious and fun for kids!

Let's Learn About the North Pole!

• The Geographic North Pole is in the center of the Northern Hemisphere, the northernmost point on Earth. From the North Pole, all directions point South. All longitudinal lines meet there. 

• It is the geographic opposite of the South Pole and is in the middle of the Arctic Ocean rather than on a continental land mass. Being in the ocean and at sea level makes the North Pole's climate warmer than the South Pole and its continent, Antarctica, a land mass with an altitude of 9,200 feet. 

• However, it is still freezing at the North Pole and mainly consists of sea ice floating on top of the Arctic Ocean. According to NASA, due to cold winds, cold temperatures, and the darkness in winter, the sea ice is 5.4 to 6.2 million square miles each year by March. It shrinks to about 2.7 million square miles at the end of summer. Due to warming temperatures, the polar ice cap has been shrinking more than usual in summer in the last few years.

• Since the sun only rises and sets once a year at the North Pole, and all time zones, like longitudes, converge there, it does not have its own time zone. No one lives there permanently, so explorers generally use Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or the local time of the country's region from where they departed. 

• The North Pole does not belong to any country, but the countries surrounding it and the Arctic Ocean are Canada, Denmark (via Greenland), Norway, Russia, and the United States (Alaska). 
• Polar bears and Arctic foxes come close to the North Pole, and a few fish and birds are spotted at or near it.
• There are various cultural associations with the North Pole. One, of course, is that the North Pole is the home of Santa, Mrs. Claus, the elves, and Santa's workshop. That is where he and his elf employees make toys and gifts for millions of children around the world, and from where Santa and his reindeer fly away in a sleigh to deliver those gifts on Christmas Eve.
• Canada's postal service has assigned the postal code H0H 0H0 (Ho! Ho! Ho!) to the North Pole for all the Canadian children who write letters to Santa each year.