Shrove Tuesday (or PANCAKE day)

Growing up in Canada we always observed Shrove Tuesday - both the Catholic family members and the Protestant. (We're a mixed bunch on both sides - remember the Irish Rovers song "The Orange and the Green"???? That was kind of like us. My Grandma on my Dad's side always despaired that I was being raised Catholic!)

As a Catholic girl and military brat, I attended the DND school on base and not a Catholic school. We had nuns who came to our military school to take the Catholic children and teach us Catechism while the Protestants had their religion class. Every year we enjoyed pancakes in the school library on the day before Lent started. Pancakes and syrup are my association with the day before Ash Wednesday, known to many elsewhere as Mardi Gras. I guess we're a little milder in our idea of a pre-Lenten party and feast than our southern neighbours!

The older boys were extremely excited about today. They're having a pancake lunch at their parochial school and are totally and utterly psyched to have pancakes for dinner. My husband bought some lovely bacon to give us some protein with our sugar and carb overload.

I'm about to get the batter ready for tonight's dinner. I always use an old family recipe for a nice, light pancake. It was my Great-Grandma's recipe from Lancashire, England. I guess it was considered special in the late 1800s and early 1900s because it uses a lot of baking powder.

I'm making a quadruple batch of this pancake batter (seriously) and wondering exactly how long it will take me to make a gazillion pancakes. And how much batter I'll have to prepare when they're teenagers!!!!

We've been reading the Little House series every night and the boys loved Farmer Boy, of course. Now we're on The Long Winter and they love how Almanzo and Royal feast on stacks of pancakes. So I've been asked nicely if they can have stacks tonight. I just wish I had a bigger frying pan or a proper griddle! Must remember that as a must-have in future years.


Recipe: Great-Grandma Beal's Light and Fluffy Pancakes

Ingredients:

First mix together:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar

Then beat in:
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 tbsp melted veg oil (or 2 tbsp melted butter or shortening)

How To Prepare:

Sift the dry mixture over the liquid mixture and blend together. You can also add frozen/fresh blueberries or other fruit to the batter if you like (we often add blueberries).

If the mixture seems too thick, add a little more milk. This batter makes a light pancake - the mixture should be light & not too thick (but not too runny either - just not like gumbo!).

Grease a frying pan very lightly. Drop the mixture into the hot pan. The pancake is ready for turning when small bubbles appear.