breakfast for dinner

I wish I had taken a picture of our dinner last night.

When I suggested to the big bug we have pancakes in honour of Shrove Tuesday she said "For real???!!" Light and fluffy - thanks to Trader Joe's Buttermilk Pancake Mix - we devoured them with sausages and maple syrup. mmmm. Which got me to thinking - Why do we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday? I only know that as a kid we always went to the big pancake dinner at church before Ash Wednesday. It turns out that Shrove Tuesday aka Mardi Gras (which translates to "Fat Tuesday") is historically the day you rid your house of fat in preparation of Lent. It is traced back to 15th century England where people were expected to use up butter, lard and eggs before beginning their fast.

By the way, Shrove comes from the term "shriven". To be shriven is to confess and to be forgiven which is also a pre-Lenten tradition. The church bells that ring out on Shrove Tuesday - calling the parishioners to confess - have become known as "pancake bells".