Pancake Day!
 

Shrove Tuesday/Fat Tuesday/Mardis Gras

It's always pancake day to me (and I don't let a little thing like not observing Lent put me off! :lol:)

In the UK, this holiday is often celebrated by eating pancakes and lots of them -not American-style pancakes, more like crepes. The traditional filling is lemon juice and sugar although many (like me) add a little orange juice too.

In our house we usually start the meal with savory pancakes (often filled with a minced beef-based sauce, although sometimes we get adventurous with salmon and mushroom for the adults), and then have at it with the sweet ones until we just can't take any more. I cannot believe how many pancakes my 9yo girl can pack away :eek: Back home, as a kid, some families used to forgo a regular dinner and just eat lemon/sugar pancakes until they burst, but my parent always made us have a main course first and the pancakes for pudding/dessert.

Tossing the pancakes was always a huge part of the tradition, as was bragging about how many you'd eaten at school the next day.

Actually, it's so much fun, we probably have pancakes for dinner at least once a month, but still -any excuse

Round here, though, (SE Michigan -notably in Hamtramck, Detroit), the big thing is Paczkis (pronounced poonch-key) -a polish immigrant tradition. They're like huge filled doughnuts. Same principle though -lots of fats and sugar before the start of Lent.

Do you do anything? Eat loads, dance naked with lots of beads? I mean different from your normal day?

Being devout non-believers, we're just stealing the celebration, and will in fact be having our pancake Day tomorrow, on the first day of Lent, because tonight is just not convenient. Fourty days of going without some things wouldn't do me any harm, though :neutral:
(grief, it's posts like this where I feel so mid-Atlantic. Which spelling to use? dessert or pudding? regular or normal?

We used to have the crepe-style pancakes every year as dessert (called "afters" in my house). We had various fillings - depending on funds I assume. Sugar and lemon juice were the staples, ice cream, warmed up Golden Syrup and/ or hundreds & thousands.

My Dad usually ate them with jam, but then he used to eat chocolate cake with jam too. And leftover yorkshire puddings. And ice cream. He liked jam.

Coming from a Catholic family we really did celebrate on Shrove Tuesday. We children usually gave up sweets & chocolate, so were allowed to eat them on pancake day, which was a real treat as we only had them at weekends anyway. Mum & Dad often gave up alcohol (still do in fact) so probably put away a fair amount after we went to bed.

I gave up sugar in my tea one year - haven't had it since.

I used to love Pancake Day years ago. I haven't bothered so much in recent years, especially now that I'm officially an adult, but I wouldn't say no to a few during the football tonight.

Yay! Kansas wins!
 

Liberal takes 2007 Pancake Day race:cool:

That IS my normal day!

Interesting, the winning time for the 414 yards, with pancakes & pan, was 63.1 seconds beating last years 73.5 seconds.

1950 = 1:10.4....1951 = 1:12.1....1952 = 1:08.0....1953 = 1:07.2
1954 = 1:07.7....1955 = 1:05.1....1956 = 1:14.6....1957 = 1:08
1958 = 1:10.8....1959 = 1:08.0....1960 = 1:10.0....1961 = 1:10
1962 = 1:05.0....1963 = 1:05.6....1964 = 1:06.4....1965 = 1:07.6
1966 = 1:04.5....1967 = 1:03.0....1968 = ??????....1969 = 1:04.2
1970 = 0:59.1....1971 = 1:07.7....1972 = 0:59.5....1973 = 1:01.2
1974 = 0:59.8....1975 = 0:58.5....1976 = 0:59.7....1977 = 1:01.09
1978 = 0:59.5....1979 = 1:03.0....1980 = no race...1981 = 1:03
1982 = 1:03.3....1983 = 1:06.4....1984 = 1:04.1....1985 = 1:04
1986 = 1:05.0....1987 = 1:04.7....1988 = 1:02.9....1989 = 1:02
1990 = 1:07.55...1991 = 1:06.0....1992 = 1:01.5....1993 = 1:03.6
1994 = 1:02.0....1995 = 1:04.5

In 1995 the score was Olney, England, 23 wins to Liberal, Kansas, 22 wins, but the history stops there for some reason.
Considering the variation in weather, outdoors in February, the times haven't changed in 57 years. That's surprising because these runners train for this race, and not just a running on a lark. Eliminating the pan cake flip mid-race should have sped it up a little. Maybe the aerodynamics of the frying pan is the limiting factor. :D

IHOP gave away short stacks on the day...I should have went. Goddamn...they have some good pancakes.

April and I went to Texas Roadhouse for steak...mmmm...