When your menu is set from the outside

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Today is National Pancake Day, so that’s what’s on for dinner this evening.

I see that this “holiday” is one of those announced by a corporate entity with an axe to grind (or pancake to flip), similar to all those that seem to have been invented by Hallmark, but that’s okay. Break out the Bisquick and the sausage patties, dig out my griddle pan, warm up the syrup, and we’re all set.

7 Comments

  1. Yum! Hope you’re planning on pancakes again *next* Tuesday, ’cause that’s the real Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras.

  3. Interestingly, we had pancakes Sunday made from the “reduced fat reduced salt” Bisquick version. Frankly, without the fat and salt they just tasted kind of bland. Back to the buckwheat pancake mix.

  4. If I’d had any buttermilk I’d have made these:

    Two cups flour
    Two tablespoons sugar
    Two teaspoons baking soda
    Two eggs well beaten
    Two cups buttermilk
    Two tablespoons butter, melted

    Mix together dry ingredients.

    Stir in buttermilk.

    Fold in eggs.

    Stir in butter.

    Cook on a hot, ungreased griddle until brown on each side.

    They’re absolutely wonderful. If it’s only for two you might want to halve the recipe, though. These quantities make a lot of pancakes.

  5. Well now I heard that it was a day where the pancake joint holds a charity event. ?

    And I never realized there was any connection between pancakes & fat tuesday either.

    All news to me.

    I’ve only ever made pancakes from regular bisquick (which I use mostly for a variety of other things).

  6. I don’t know if IHOP originated the idea, but they jumped in with their “free” short stack in return for a donation to local charities.

    Re Fat Tuesday: From Wikipedia, “Pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent because they were a way to use up rich foods such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent. The liturgical fasting emphasized eating plainer food and refraining from food that would give pleasure: In many cultures, this means no meat, dairy, or eggs.”

  7. Ah it’s one of those Lent things. I just knew about the ash wednesday and the not eating meats on Fridays during Lent. I think the meat on other fridays, as wella as the overall type fasting from “rich foods” during Lent, went out with Vatican II in the 1960s. (Before my time.) And I’ve never personally heard anyone mention pancakes.

    But what’s most interesting about this tradition, with the youths, is that it’s now a trend to give up something non-food related for Lent. Like a luxury like playing Gran Turismo 5 (heard about that on the related forum last year).
    I imagine this is a commentary on our relatively higher standards of living compared to olden times, when I suppose rich foods were the only real luxury a lot of people had that could be sacrificed.

    I suppose that’s why it seems odd today to consider pancakes as particularly luxurious. Not that I’m knocking their culinary value. ha ha. I just mean that the ingredients involved are relatively cheap… compared to a lot of food.

    Unless you’re complimenting the recipe with fresh out of season organic blueberries and authentic maple syrup instead of just some butter & a syrup of blueberry preserves.

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