Pancake Day

Full after my pancakes

Today is Pancake Day. So, guess what I  ate by noon today? Thats right, PANCAKES. I made American style pancakes and they were fabulous. This is my fourth attempt to make pancakes since I got back here. The first two times were a mess because of the batter. They batter that the grocery stores sell is for Traditional English Pancakes. A traditional English pancake is very thin and is served immediately. The pancakes look like Crepes. You can make fluffy pancakes with the batter here. So I had to search for some Bisquick. I look through so many different stores and I finally found Bisquick at a Morrisons (not the restaurant). My pancakes have been great since I got the Bisquick.

Anyway, back to Pancake Day. Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent – the 40 days leading up to Easter – was traditionally a time of fasting and on Shrove Tuesday Anglo-Saxon Christians went to confession and were “shriven” (absolved from their sins). A bell would be rung to call people to confession. This came to be called the “Pancake Bell” and is still rung today. Shrove Tuesday was the last opportunity to use up eggs and fats before embarking on the Lenten fast and pancakes are the perfect way of using up these ingredients.

This is what Pancake Day is all about. Its celebrated in many different places around the world. They even do pancake flipping contests. What fun.