We always seem to miss Shrove Tuesday in our house.
When we make a menu we don’t assign days, the meals just flow with a degree of spontaneity that we prefer. That gets us in to trouble whenever Shrove Tuesday rolls around.
It’s tradition to have pancakes on the day before Ash Wednesday. This started because people needed to use up their excess eggs, butter, oil and such before fasting began. Now, it’s just kind of a happy, if unmoored tradition: it’s the day before Ash Wednesday, so eat pancakes.
The problem being, we never seem to make the pancakes on Tuesday with our moveable menu. We forget and then have them on Thursday or Friday, and then they are just pancakes. Tuesday is Pancake Day, and having pancakes on any ordinary day is kind of like the difference between sheet cake and birthday cake. Cake just tastes better when it’s someone’s birthday, and I’m sure pancakes taste better when it’s Pancake Day, not just any old day.
So we marked Pancakes on our menu. We’re making them tonight. We have real Vermont maple syrup, butter and everything. It will be glorious.
Do you do anything special on Shrove Tuesday besides eating pancakes? What is your special family tradition?