Tuesday

I wasn't even going to post today at all because I couldn't think of ANYTHING even halfway intelligent to write (and I still can't), but I have exciting news to share!

No, we're not suddenly having twins (THANKFULLY!). My good friend Erin, as true and Canadian as they come, just started a blog! Please check it out: Erin's Blog.

Also, as I've been reminded several times this afternoon, today is Shrove Tuesday. I completely forgot. This happens every year. I usually forget about Shrove Tuesday until Ash Wednesday when I must hastily contrive some sort of Lenten promises that usually all go out the window within a week. It's sad when you think about it because Lent only lasts for 40 days. When we make resolutions every New Year (well, some of you still do, don't you?), we go into it optimistically expecting to pursue them for a whole year - at least - but realize after about a week that they were really just that - good intentions, not really resolutions.

So I guess tonight I will have to set aside some time to think about Lent and my own Lenten intentions: giving up sweets would deprive the baby of much-needed...sweets. Giving up blogging would simply be a travesty. Giving up reading other peoples' blogs would be equally devastating. No, I will have to come up with something much more meaningful.

All this thinking, will of course take place AFTER I finish revising the menu for the week (yes, KB, we've been faithfully writing up and following a menu for more than a month now! It's such a RELIEF!!!). Thankfully, the spaghetti sauce I've been inventing in my head all morning hasn't been started yet; which also means I've still got another day to get some celery. I had been planning on making a double batch of my Grama's (tasty) Waffles on Thursday so Husband would have leftovers to toast while I'm away next week. But pancakes and waffles in the same week? In my family, we're no strangers to having breakfast foods for supper; in fact it's a favourite little habit (I suppose it really could be a sort of tradition) of ours, but I'm not sure so much fun should be crammed into only one week.

No, tonight we'll celebrate with pancakes and leave the waffles for another time. Not just any pancakes, mind you. "German Pancakes." Most of you will be familiar with them as 'crepes,' but in our family, they have always been and always will be German Pancakes. I realize they're flat which defeats at least a portion of the Shrove Tuesday Pancake purpose (using up the leaven so it's gone before Lent officially begins, right?), but that's just the way we do things in my Menno kitchen. Oh, and forget maple syrup or Aunt Jemima's or any of that other crap. Nope, we go all out in my family. Pure cream and brown sugar cooked up into a tasty sauce. And no, for the love of all things good, we DO NOT for any reason, RUIN our German Pancakes by eating them with any sort of 'savoury' filling(s). THAT is an abomination of the worst kind! You have pancakes and brown sugar cream sauce, maybe bacon and a fried egg ON THE SIDE, but nothing else goes inside the cake, with the possible exception of some sliced banana.

I should at least tell you that we didn't exactly eat these Heart Attack Cakes every week growing up. Because of my brother's and my dad's combined inability to LIMIT their sauce per pancake ratio to something at least somewhat reasonable, Mom would make German Pancake meals only on occasion. Maybe when I'm home next week, we'll even be lucky enough to have one of those occasions. (Did you catch that, Mom?)

So now that my brain is thoroughly ensconced in the culinary dreamland that is German Pancakes, I'll go and clean up my spaghetti sauce ingredients until tomorrow and haul out the frying pan. Mmmmm....I can hardly wait till supper!

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Also, in other news which I alluded to a paragraph or two ago, I'm headed Home for a week on Saturday. If you're 'lucky' (or probably more like if I'm looking for something to do to kill a half hour), I'll post a blog 'on location' in MB. Otherwise, I'm forewarning you that after this Friday, you may see nothing new from me for a week or so.

Happy Lent!