Shrove Tuesday

Tomorrow is known as Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday. I googled 'shrove Tuesday' and read this website which pretty much tells it all so I am not going to reinvent the wheel. One thing I did want to point out is the photo of the pancake on the website. It looks a lot like what we would call a crepe because they are much thinner than what we would describe as a pancake and the Brits do put a bit of lemon juice on it and caster sugar which is like regular sugar that's been put in a food processor and chopped up finer. They are good eatin'. While I have never seen golden syrup added to it because we don't fancy the stuff, I don't dispute the occurrence. I need to explain that golden syrup is like really thick syrup and is light golden, like a cross between corn syrup and molasses and is used in baking recipes as well. It is in no way similar to good ol' American pancake syrup (corn syrup and all) or Maple syrup. As an aside, we discovered they do have molasses here and it is called treacle.
We will definitely be eating fat American pancakes (and American sausage links - YUM!) tomorrow for tea (which is American "dinner"), but in actuality EVERY day is Pancake Day in our house for Owen. On Sunday mornings, Craig traditionally makes gourmet pancakes for whoever wants them and the leftovers are refrigerated for Owen to eat EVERY morning for breakfast. Seriously, he has pancakes every morning. He used to eat what we called "pancake roll-ups" which were commercially available pancake and sausages on a stick that we used to get at base. Unfortunately (that was sarcasm), the new base does not carry them. Owen's healthy heart will thank the base in his adult future.

I also found this other website which I enjoyed for it's definition of 'shrove': "To shrive someone, in old-fashioned English (he shrives, he shrove, he has shriven or he shrives, he shrived, he has shrived) is to hear acknowledgment of one's sins, to assure one of God's forgiveness and to give one appropriate spiritual advice. The term survives today in ordinary usage in the expression 'short shrift'. To give someone short shrift is to pay very little attention to one's excuses or problems. The longer expression is 'to give him short shrift and a long rope', which formerly meant to hang a criminal with a minimum of delay." So get shriving before you are given short shrift, people!

I highly recommend following the above link and just reading it. I especially liked the part about the word "carnival" which leads me into a perfect segue for Mardi Gras. I want to wish everyone a Happy Mardi Gras and laissez les bons temps roulez! I will be having a delicious cuppa Community Coffee (sans King Cake unfortunately) because we have the stuff delivered via post but we will return to New Orleans perhaps next year. Which American friend(s) are game? I can be a really good tour guide...