Pancake Day!

Ok my fellow Americans.....have you ever in your life heard of Pancake Day? Seriously? This is a holiday here. HILARIOUS! I thought it was a joke.

So, I'm working today through the end of the week at Emma's school. I'm in a class with 7-8 year olds. It's fun actually. But, early in the morning I smell a wonderful, familiar smell. I ask what it is and am told it's pancakes. Ok, well someone forgot breakfast, right? WRONG! I sit and listen to the first lesson of the day in the class: it's all about how tomorrow is Ash Wednesday (in my la-la land it's only my birthday...oops!). The teacher discusses how Jesus fasted for 40 days. One kid got all excited, raised her hand and said, "you mean it's only 40 days until Easter?" Ok, so they were missing the point of the lesson, but YES!

I'm losing my point now. Sorry! Anyway, the story went on about Jesus giving up everything (Lent) and how the tradition here (they think it's worldwide I think, although it isn't Californian) is out of respect of Jesus and his suffering, people clean out their cupboards and fast themselves. But, the tradition is to make pancakes!

So, after lunch was our turn. I made and flipped pancakes for well over an hour. It was fun. They were homemade (eggs, grams of flour that you have to weigh as measuring cups are too inconvenient or not "metric" enough for them, and milk (again, mililiters not cups). The kids poured, mixed, cracked (and spilled) the eggs, etc. It was a great time. They were more "crepe" like and delicious. We put fresh lemon juice and sugar on them, rolled them up and YUM!

I guess people really do cook them though all day and especially for dinner. They make savory ones and add things like onions, cheese, etc and one person said they put Ben & Jerrys ice cream on the dessert ones. Wow! I'm not sure if I prefer having my pancakes with MAPLE syrup (oh yeah I ordered syrup and got golden syrup....so thick and buttery and so not maple so not Emma's favorite) and for breakfast OR how they do it here for one full day with anything and everything! They probably get so sick after today that they actually do fast for a bit and don't eat pancakes again for a long time.

So, to all of you.....HAPPY PANCAKE DAY! (I don't think they say that here, simply just that today is Pancake Day).