Entertainment
Minneapolis Salted Butter Pancakes
When it comes to pancakes, I tend to stick with the basic styles — buttermilk, Bisquick, banana — and my general take is that if you don’t over-mix and you keep an eye on your burner, you’ll be great. Before parenthood, I’d sometimes get excited about a recipe with beaten egg whites, or one of those giant pancakes you bake in the oven for like two hours. But these days, I’m not trying to impress anyone; I just want breakfast.
I tell you all this so you know that I mean it when I say these pancakes are genuinely special. The recipe comes from Tanya Bush, who shared the origin story in her new narrative cookbook, Will This Make You Happy.
“Ideal Diner in Minneapolis serves the perfect pancake, with crispy edges and a custardy center,” she writes. “They’re designed to be drowned in maple syrup — and perfectly salty. I spent years desperately trying to recreate them.”
Tanya’s recipe is as easy and straightforward as any pancake, but it has a couple tweaks. First, malted milk powder — just a teaspoon. “It gives the pancakes a toasted flavor,” Tanya told me. “And a nostalgic depth and richness.” I love this addition and was pleasantly surprised to find malt right there in the breakfast aisle of the grocery store. Second, she fries her pancakes in ghee or clarified butter. It has a higher smoke point than regular butter — which is how you can get those crispy edges without ruining breakfast with a burnt-butter flavor. I don’t know how I got this far in my pancake-making life without realizing this, but it’s a game-changer.
Even if you, like me, have become set in your pancake ways, do yourself a favor and quit being a curmudgeon for just 10 minutes, because that’s all it takes to get these on a plate.
Salted Butter Pancakes
from Will This Make You Happy by Tanya Bush
Makes 6-10 pancakes
125g (1 cup plus 1 1/2 tsps) all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp malted milk powder
113g (1/2 cup) salted butter, melted, plus more at room temperature, for serving
118g (scant 1/2 cup) whole milk, at room temperature
100g (1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp) whole milk buttermilk, at room temperature
100g (2 large) eggs
Scant 2 tbsps maple syrup, plus more for drizzling
Ghee or clarified butter*, for frying
Note: If you prefer to make your own clarified butter, here’s a simple method.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and malted milk powder. In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, milk, buttermilk, eggs, and maple syrup.
Add the flour mixture to the milk-egg mixture and mix until just combined. Do not overmix. The batter can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days or stored in the freezer for up to 2 months.
In a cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, melt 1 teaspoon of ghee. When the pan is hot, add 60 grams (a heaping 1/4 cup) of the pancake batter to the skillet. (Use less batter if you prefer a smaller pancake.) Cook until the edges start to set and holes appear on the surface, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook the other side until the edges are crispy and golden brown, 1-2 minutes more. (The pancake should be cooked through; cut into the first one to check.) Repeat with the remaining batter, adding more ghee between each pancake as needed if the skillet looks dry. If you are not serving the pancakes immediately, keep them warm in the oven at 200°F (95°C).
Serve the pancakes with a pat of butter and a generous drizzle of maple syrup.
Thanks so much for breakfast, Tanya!
P.S.Overnight baked French toast, the formula for a perfect brunch, and zucchini muffins for school mornings.
(Photos by Tanya Bush.)
Entertainment
Cornbread Mafia review: True crime meets stoner comedy in this outrageous documentary
If the story of the Cornbread Mafia weren’t true, you might think it’s something the Coen Bros. had dreamed up. The stranger-than-fiction tale of a motley band of “dirt-poor dirt farmers” from Kentucky growing into “the largest homegrown marijuana operation in the U.S.” fits in nicely with the likes of Raising Arizona and O Brother, Where Art Thou? in terms of outlaw energy and Southern-fried comedy.
From the jump, documentarians Evan Mascagni and Drew Morris introduce the eponymous criminal organization with a disarming sense of humor. Cornbread Mafia begins on lush green farmland, where brothers Joe Keith Bickett and Jimmy Bickett pull up in a pick-up truck with a bed piled high with marijuana. Joe introduces himself and his brother from a script, but fumbles his delivery. So, they’ll do another take… in which someone’s cell phone will blare, interrupting Joe’s flow.
It’s an amusing beginning that gives the audience permission to laugh along with the Bickett brothers as their audacious story is unfurled. But more than that, by drawing attention to the artifice that exists within documentary filmmaking, Mascagni and Morris offer a subtle disclaimer that every story is shaped by its teller. What you see here might not be the whole truth — but it’s the truth according to the Cornbread Mafia. And that truth is outrageously entertaining, while offering some solid food for thought.
Cornbread Mafia is a gangster story with a comic air.
In talking-head interviews, the documentarians sit down with the Bicketts, a wide array of their notorious associates, and even the occasional lawman to reconstruct the history of the Cornbread Mafia. Their stories are hilarious and bonkers, involving car chases, half-cocked heists, tiger cubs, and an elegant ally named Susie, who’s introduced with the snarled non sequitur, “I think rats should die.”
See, the Cornbread Mafia isn’t just a name. They pulled inspiration for how they operated from the Italian mob’s concept of omertà — meaning a code of honor and silence that favored community over going to the cops. This mafia began in the 1970s as a band of farmers who’d been buying pathetic dime bags of pot from Mexico, until they did the math. A baggie of marijuana was going for $30, while a pound of tobacco was $1.50. So, picking the seeds from their purchased dime bags seemed an almost inevitable move to grow a fortune fairly easily.
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The next bit was figuring out how to develop a breed of weed that could give them the most bang for their growing buck. Enter Johnny Boone, whose sharp mind not only grew their operation across the country, hiding their crops in fields of corn, but also led to the creation of the marijuana strain Kentucky Bluegrass.
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Like any gangster story worth its grit, Cornbread Mafia charts the heady highs and rough lows of their journey, from fugitives to folk heroes. Then, it goes further, into contemporary politics, judicial hypocrisies, and life-changing activism. Yet the filmmakers never let the big topics dwarf the rollicking fun of being in (or near) the Cornbread Mafia.
Cornbread Mafia uses animation and Boyd Holbrook for educational value and whimsy.
Rather than hire actors for reenactments, Mascagni and Morris employ animation to illustrate these larger-than-life tales, as well as complicated explanations about the American justice system and the war on drugs.
The animations for both have a vaguely ’70s Schoolhouse Rock feel. Brightly colored pie charts illustrate a cheeky point about buyer demographics, while cartoon versions of the Bicketts and Boone skedaddle from the cops in a colorful pick-up truck. Then, to finesse transitions between interviews or give context to graphs, the whiskey-smooth voice of Boyd Holbrook serves as narrator.
Now, some might sneer at how this animated approach undercuts the criminality of the mafia’s actions. As bobble-headed potheads, they seem more like the Scooby gang than Scarface. But that’s precisely the point. Cornbread Mafia regards its subjects as outlaws, but it doesn’t condemn them for their crimes. Instead, the doc gives space to these growers to express how they built an industry despite the poverty that threatened to choke their whole town. Like the bootleggers or moonshiners that were their ancestors (in some cases literally), they used their wits, their resources, and their friends to grow a fortune that could care for them all. And it did until the Feds rolled in with a reckoning in the form of mandatory minimums.
From there, Cornbread Mafia explores the sentencing laws that regard non-violent drug offenses on the same level of punishment as double murder. (Sadly, this is not a hypothetical, but a tragic true story that ties into the Cornbread Mafia’s saga.) However, because this movie reflects its subjects’ lust for life and devil-may-care energy, Cornbread Mafia doesn’t tread carefully into a formal march through history, politics, and opposing views. This is a raucous dance of a documentary.
The cartoons, suave voice-over, and lively interviews challenge the narrative that drug dealers are bad guys, presenting these good ol’ boys as rebels with a wild streak. Like the folk hero outlaws who came before them, they are beguiling rule-breakers who inspire awe, envy, and outrage. And Cornbread Mafia does right by them by welcoming its audience into the thrall of that outlaw American legacy.
Simply put, Cornbread Mafia is a sensational true crime doc that gives fresh verve to the standard talking heads, rigorous reenactments, and voiceovers by leaning into the crooked-smiled charms of its subjects. They’re not made to explain themselves, but invited to share their stories. And they do so with joyfulness and frankness that is intoxicating. Cornbread Mafia is not just eye-opening and provocative; it’s also a hell of a lot of fun.
Cornbread Mafia was reviewed out of SXSW.
Entertainment
Moon phase today: What the Moon will look like on March 13
As we get closer to the New Moon phase of the lunar cycle, the Moon becomes more of a crescent shape. Its visible surface decreases each night as the Sun lights up less of the side facing Earth, making the Moon appear slimmer until it briefly disappears during the New Moon.
What is today’s Moon phase?
As of Friday, March 13, the Moon phase is Waning Crescent. According to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide, 32% of the Moon will be lit up tonight.
There’s less visibility tonight, but still enough to spot some features. With just your naked eye, you can see the Aristarchus Plateau and the Kepler Crater. With binoculars, you’ll also see the Grimaldi Basin, the Gassendi Crater and the Mare Humorum.
When is the next Full Moon?
In North America, the next Full Moon is predicted to take place on April 1.
What are Moon phases?
According to NASA, the Moon takes roughly 29.5 days to orbit Earth, passing through eight distinct phases along the way. Although we always see the same side of the Moon, the amount illuminated by the Sun shifts as it moves, which is why it can appear full, half-lit, or just a thin sliver at different times in the cycle. These shifting appearances are known as the lunar phases, and there are eight altogether:
New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).
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Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.
Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)
Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
Entertainment
Hurdle hints and answers for March 13, 2026
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it’ll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
If you find yourself stuck at any step of today’s Hurdle, don’t worry! We have you covered.
Hurdle Word 1 hint
A juicy fruit.
Hurdle Word 1 answer
PEACH
Hurdle Word 2 hint
Never gives.
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Hurdle Word 2 Answer
TAKER
Hurdle Word 3 hint
A glimmer.
Hurdle Word 3 answer
GLINT
Hurdle Word 4 hint
To sock.
Hurdle Word 4 answer
PUNCH
Final Hurdle hint
To empty out.
Hurdle Word 5 answer
DRAIN
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
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