PANCAKE DAY

Today we celebrate Pancake Day in England. Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday was traditionally a day when Christians went to church to make their confessions and become “shriven” before the start of Lent. Lent begins the day after Pancake Day on Ash Wednesday. As the Lentern period up until Easter was considered a time of fasting, Shrove Tuesday was the day when people would use up all the eggs, fats and sugar in the house by making pancakes and so Pancake Day was born. It still continues to this day. Pancake races are held in some towns in England to celebrate the day. Our American neighbours in New Orleans celebrate Pancake Day in the form of “Mardi Gras” which means literally, “Fat Tuesday”. It's nice to see that they are still able to go ahead with their parades this year, despite the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. We wish them well.

I like my pancakes with jam and a dash of lemon juice but however you choose to eat them, pancakes are certainly a delicious way of using up all the leftovers! For recipe ideas go to:- www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/basilpancakswithsuga_66226.shtml
A tip for really light batter is to add a dash of soda water or lemonade (if you like a lemon flavour) to the batter.