Today in the life of our local church we are celebrating Fat Tuesday. We will have a community gathering and eat real American pancakes with sausage and syrup. The proceeds will go to a good cause, I won't have to think of something for supper that will please all five people in my family and a good time will be had by all!
In England, a little less imaginatively, they/we are celebrating Pancake Day! Today is Shrove Tuesday - not a name you hear often around these parts! it seems to me that Fat/Shrove Tuesday and Pancake day are pretty much the same thing just celebrated a bit differently. No cheap shots please from my overseas friends about the use of the word "Fat" on this side of the Atlantic :)
Both terms describe the day before the start of Lent, a day of releasing high spirits and using up rich foods before the sombre time of denial and reflection. The word "Shrove" is the past participle of "Shrive" - or obtaining absolution for sins by way of confession and penance. I love these archaic English terms!
In England today in addition to the consumption of wafer thin pancakes with lemon juice and sugar, all sorts of traditions are taking place. As part of the community celebrations there may be a "mob football" game, a tradition dating back to at least the 12th century if not earlier where teams from different villages would play this somewhat violent game as part of the festivities or there may be a pancake race! Pancake races are terrific fun! The story goes that a housewife was so busy making her pancakes that she forgot the time. When she heard the church bells ringing to call her to Shrove Tuesday service she dashed out of the house still flipping her pancakes in the pan!
Vive la difference!
So before we enter our time of reflection and denial here's a moment of levity
What did the young pancake say to the old burnt pancake?
"I don't like your flip side"!!! GROAN!!!!!
Here, courtesy of Emma Bridgewater is a lovely recipe for English pancakes!
Ingredients
1 Cup plain Flour, 3 eggs, 2 Cups milk, 2 Tablespoons melted butter, 1 Tablespoon of sugar, 1 Pinch of salt
Method~Sift the flour and salt in a bowl and add the sugar
Make a well in the flour, stir in eggs and milk (beaten well together) and the melted butter, whisking it into a cream thick batter Leave it in the fridge for an hour to stand if possible
~Heat a thick frying pan and coat with oil. Pour in less mixture than you think and tip the pan about until the batter covers the base the thinner the pancake the better
~As soon as it has crisped underneath FLIP with a confident gesture and cook the other side
~To avoid screaming make the first few before you admit they are ready then the wait for the first pancakes is shorter
~Keep eating them till the batter is gone
Happy Pancake Tuesday!
OK! I have to know the answer to this question!
Who is buying all that English fare in HEB?
I am not complaining (un-British of me I know!) about the fantastic and large selection of English food available in Leander's HEB, but I would really like to know who's buying it? I know a few English people in this area and I know a few Anglophiles who like British biscuits, tea, Ribena, Marmite etc, but there is a huge choice of grocery products at this Hill Country store and some of it is pretty specialized so I am curious to know who is lapping it up? I may find some new friends or some new English playmates for my kiddoes!
My children are so used to going down HEB's International aisle with me and standing longingly in front of all of those (over-priced, irresponsibly carbon-footprinted) English foods that they didn't even bat an eyelid when I took photographs of the shelves. They have their own favorites - English baked beans, English tomato soup, any kind of sweet but especially wine gums! The latter are not at all alcoholic by the way, but I think the name adds a certain 'je ne sais quois' to the eating of them! I sure do feel very happy after I eat them! The kiddoes' Dad also likes English fare but tends to find the malted, hopped (is that a word?), beverages of his choice down a different aisle in HEB and they have a good selection of those too!
On a different note, in class today, my junior Anglophile students who enjoy the Harry Potter books were asking me what "Crikey" and "Blimey" mean. They get the general sense of surprise and exclamation implied by those terms but wondered whence such colorful and strange words derive. It was interesting! "Crikey" is a shortened form of "Christ the King", used to express displeasure at an event and "Blimey" is a shortened form of "God blind me" used when someone saw something that they should not have seen.
Well who knew?
