Mardi Gras/Carnival/Shrove Tuesday

The day before Ash Wednesday

 Known in exuberant communities   as "Mardi Gras" (Fat Tuesday) a day to enjoy fatty foods before the Lenten Fast, or as "Carnival" (farewell to meat) for the same reasons.

 In more austere places it is "Shrove Tuesday", a day to be shriven (absolved) from sin before the austerities of Lent.

 In the U.K. and Commonwealth countries it has the more prosaic and practical name of "Pancake Day", or "Pancake Tuesday" (using up eggs and fat before Lent).  **  More about this below.

 I should have eaten a wonderful Rib Eye steak today with its delicious fatty veins, perhaps with chips (French Fries) cooked in Lard.

 Instead I made a more restrained batch of Black Bean soup (with pearl onions).


Utterly delicious

Then  I threw caution to the winds by making Rhubarb Fool for dessert. Oh that vein clogging whipped cream!

 



Many local Churches offered Pancake Tuesday suppers.  I avoided them like the plague.


These globby/stodgy/clogging  creations are made just about palatable with a judicious sprinkling of  genuine Maple syrup.

 Maple Syrup is very expensive so they are usually swamped with ghastly and sickly sugar syrup.  Ugh!

 My soul and body long for English Pancakes (truly Crepes).










They were a once in a year treat, squirted with fresh lemon juice and a half-teaspoonful of sugar, then rolled up to enjoy.

 Mum made them only on Shrove Tuesday; such a labour intensive task when there were  nine children to feed. "Good ole Mum!"

 Maybe my taste buds remember them so well because they were an annual treat.

 I can smell them even as I write!

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