Breakfast

No need to get dressed before hopping in your car Saturday morning to drive down to the Crescenta Valley High School Quad for Crescenta Valley Town Council?s Pancake Breakfast. In addition to serving up hot cakes, eggs, sausages, orange juice and steaming hot coffee, the event coordinators promise an almost-guaranteed-to-be-hilarious pajama contest with a wealth of cool prizes. And, all this for only $5. Door prizes also will be given out, so you might not go away empty handed even if you?

Fifty tables were purchased raising an estimated $40,000 to support the Glendale Educational Foundation at the Fourth Annual State of the Schools Breakfast. Community members joined educators and local businesses at the Pacific Edison Complex early Thursday morning to hear how well the school district is achieving its goals. The Walt Disney Company donated $25,000 to the foundation to be used for a new animation program to be located at Glendale High School. The morning began with coffee, pastries and a kazoo musical opening played by the audience.

Make plans to invite friends and family to join Montrose Church for an amazing combined service of worship, praise and vision for the coming year at 10 a.m. Sept. 28. In addition, congregants will be introduced to the new LifeGroup leaders and learn more about the opportunity of getting involved in a group. Special activities will be provided for children through grade six. Note that this will be the only service for this weekend. Services will be at Crescenta Valley High School auditorium, at 2900 Community Ave. in La Crescenta.

Clark Magnet High School freshmen were treated to an early morning pancake breakfast on Sept. 11. Teachers, along with Principal Doug Dall, manned the grill and flipped the flapjacks as 310 hungry freshmen lined up. The Associated Student Body worked with school staff to make the transition from middle school to high school easier and fun and organized the event. “I remember this when I was a freshman,” said senior Johnny Goukassian. He added that this informal greeting was a way to build school spirit and to get students involved who would normally stand on the sidelines.

The first time my mom and I drove through New Mexico, I was determined to find the quintessential Southwestern entree. I did not know exactly what that meant, but I knew that anything less than the authentic cuisine would make our trip through New Mexico an absolute failure. We had one evening in the state before we drove on to Texas, so I had my culinary work cut out for me. Southwestern cuisine is a blend of culinary history that dates back to the Spanish colonists. You add the influence of American cowboys, Native Americans and Mexicans, and you have a pretty melting pot for a diverse cuisine that has outlasted wood-plank sidewalks and shoes with spurs.

“This is the best restaurant in town!” Hoover High School student Josh Deaktor said, placing sausage links on a hungry attendee’s plate at the Tri-School Pancake Breakfast in front of Keppel Elementary on Saturday morning. Parents, friends and teachers from Hoover, Toll Middle and Keppel Elementary schools gathered to enjoy pancakes and listen to the sounds of the schools’ choir arrangements. “I decided to help out at the event because I wanted to volunteer in the community,” said Deaktor, who plays the baritone saxophone in the high school’s jazz band.

GLENDALE — Like the recent trend in the cost of gasoline and many consumer goods, the prices of school meals in the Glendale Unified School District are going up. Starting on Sept. 2, the first day of school for the 2008-09 school year, the price of breakfasts and lunches served in Glendale Unified schools will increase by 25 cents, according to food services director Agnes Lally. That will bring the cost of lunch at elementary schools to $2, and the cost of lunch at middle schools and high schools to $2.25, according to the food services office.