Pancake Day

I do a cheat on buckwheat crêpes, adding some organic wheat flour to make them easier to set. Savoury filling; no blue or other berries involved. Cheese, yes. Like some mushrooms, but really you can come up with tasty fillings from many things you might have in the fridge. About the only fruit I might add is something like pears, that goes well with cheese, onions etc. One could of course use apples (I'm allergic to apples, and to cows' milk).

I don't really have a recipe, as I've made those for so many decades. I use soya milk when I don't have any goats' milk on hand (goats' milk is usually expensive - I have a frozen carton in a neighbour's freezer, must retrieve it. Eggs and a mixture of organic buckwheat and wheat flours. For crêpes, the batter shouldn't be too thick - like thick cream. It is very important to let the batter rest for a while before making crêpes to make them easier to flip and remove from the pan.

Crêpes can also be eaten at La Chandeleur, which is a little earlier, 2 February. Both contain the idea of removing eggs, butter, cream and other fatty goodies from the home before Lent.

Above all, today is Mardi gras (I have rather unpleasant memories of finding myself in Québec City during Carnival and the, er, remains of drunken revelry that took place the evening before my arrival). So revellers, Laissez le bon temps rouler and all that, but clean up after yourselves!

Edited to add: Chandeleur and Mardi gras pancakes/crêpes also contain the idea of the return of the sun, palpable this time of year, as they are round and "sunny", with the egg.

It's Shrove Tuesday and I'm eating steak for supper and I have not intention of being shriven.

Closer to blueberries in appearance, but more purple than blue, with a hint of a nutty taste, but tangy.  Delicious!  They grow in ravines all over the prairies.  We used to pick them wild when I was small, and the blond guy and I still do, sometimes, time permitting.  I'm running low now.  I like them in pancakes and jam, but they are best when they are fresh, with cream or on cereal in the morning. 

I am also the waffle queen around here - got a Belgian-style professional waffle iron for xmas a few years ago.  Ms T's favourite brunch.

lagatta, you've got me thinking about pear and brie crepes now!  I have the pears, may have to pick up some cheese for lunch tomorrow!

Yes.  When I first got it (a gift from my mum), I thought "I will never use this thing, it's HUGE!"  Now I'm not sure I want to do without it!  It's self-contained, easy to clean, and it makes a very nice waffle.  It was a bit of a pain on the storage side before we renovated the kitchen.

Timebandit wrote:

This is the iron I have:  http://www.cuisinart.ca/cuisinart_product.php?item_id=306&product_id=349&cat_id=11

Jebus.  That IS huge, but gosh it's pretty! :)  I have a tiny kitchen (almost done renovating, so excited, I'll have a kitchen again after nothing for three weeks!) so it would be difficult to find room for that. 

I, sadly, didn't do any pancakey-type things for Mardi Gras yesterday.  In fact, I forgot all about Mardi Gras!  One of these years, I'm going to actually celebrate it.  I usually don't think about it until the next day! 

Every year, I also say I'm going to fill a calendar with all sorts of secular (silly/fun/made-up or not) celebration days and actually celebrate them in order to give this atheist some nice, non-religious feast days to enjoy.  I guess Mardi Gras wouldn't technically count, but since I never celebrated it when I was religious, I guess it could still be fun.  Besides, I still celebrate the religious holidays too, but I just do it without religion. :)

We did the same thing! We completely gutted the kitchen right to the baseboards (tore out drywall, ceilings and floor), insulation and electrical.  Had a nice surprise when they found a bit of knob and tube that of course had to be taken out - luckily most of the electrical was not knob and tube.  They put in a bunch of new outlets (the electrical was outdated), had the gas pipe (for the stove) moved to the other side of the kitchen, a vent hole bored to the outside through the brick for the range hood, and the water pipes rerouted to the other side of the kitchen too.

I think we got lucky - our contractor is great, coordinated everything perfectly, got on top of the few concerns we did have right away.  In fact, our cabinetry install (starting today) was moved up by a week - it was supposed to start NEXT Wednesday.  It will really be about 4 weeks.  Started on January 28th, and while the cabinetry will be installed by the end of this week, the backsplash won't be going in until early next week and possibly that's when they'll be hooking up the appliances too (the wiring and pipes are all in and ready though).  But the contractor tells me we should have our kitchen by the end of next week.  Then we have to do the painting or hire someone to do it (we'll probably just do it ourselves).

Anyhow...back to the topic.  Shrove Tuesday!  Although I guess now it's Ash Wednesday, the not-so-fun day after, kind of like a hangover after a night of partying, followed by weeks of deprivation for Lent.  In my secular planet, there is no Ash Wednesday or Lent. :)