We observe Shrove Tuesday and eat pancakes. The big pancake race between the women in Olney, England (50 miles NW of London) and Liberal, Kansas is big news around here today (I live in Kansas). The race in England was held at 11:55 a.m. and will be held here in Kansas at 11:55 a.m., so hasn't happened as of this posting. Stay tuned.....

-Grainlady

One Word -

P A C Z K I

DD and I decided to give up unhealthy eating for Lent so for our "last" meal on Fat Tuesday I'm trying my hand at making General Tso's chicken for the first time in my life. It's got about everything bad in it (sodium, deep-frying, sugar, startch, etc.) that we can think of. If it turns out nasty the family will just start Lent a little early.

Oh I really, really wanted to make a King's Cake but things have been too crazy. I really want to do pancakes tonight as well but I may get outvoted.

I do know that tomorrow night we'll be having ravioli!

Nina

Nina, would that be HM rav's ;- )

Lucy

It's Fat Tuesday and I'm locked in my house...LOL! Wow! The parades and partakers are out in abundance. You can't even drive around the city at this moment. I don't live in New Orleans but our Mardi Gras is getting larger every year. I'm thinking that sometime tomorrow morning it will be 'safe' to leave the house.

Since it's Fat Tuesday and the day before Lent we are having a grilled steak with thrice cooked potatoes, asparagus and bread. Hmmmm, back to healthy eating after today. We re so proud of ourselves for not eating any King Cake this year:-(

I don't know anyone that eats the pancakes in this area. I'm sure there are some but 's not a custom that I'm aware of. I remember a thread last year on this subject.

disneyginger, What's "P A C Z K I"?

Boo, Enjoy your spaghetti with meatballs.

Fat Tuesday is also Paczki Day for those of us of Bohemian decent. A Paczki is basically a jelly donut.

The Icelandic tradition is to have bean soup with salted mutton on this day. We call it Sprengidagur which translates as "Bursting Day". Yesterday was "Bun Day" and we stuffed our faces with cream buns. Tomorrow the kids will be out in force, wearing costumes and going from shop to shop singing and receiving candy in return.

Oh Lucy...no, they're (ssssshhhh) storebought & frozen ravioli. Not even a fancy, "homemade" type brand. It is a day of abstinence, after all ;-).

Nina

Just got back from our friend's Fat Tuesday N.O. type jazz gathering. Local musicians, music teachers, friends, family and riff-raff (me) gather at her house and participate in the music. She prepares N.O. foods, beans & rice, spicy everything, bread pudding, crab cakes, King cake, Hurricanes, alligator, etc,etc,etc; three roomfuls of food-and-drink-laden tables and endless music. So many horn players, so little time!.

Fastnacht (first night of the fast) Day arrived in PA Dutch country yesterday, as it does every year on the day before Ash Wednesday. It's an old custom from the part of Germany the PA Dutch immigrated from and is still celebrated in the area where I live.

A fastnacht is a puffy square doughnut with a diagonal slit from one corner to the center. The dough has mashed potatoes in it (although you can't taste it in the doughnuts), no type of filling or frosting other than powdered sugar and is traditionally fried in lard, although some places now use oil.

Eating them is supposed to give you luck for the springtime and also give you strength to resist temptations during Lent. Even those who are dieting will have a bite for luck in this equivalent of Fat Tuesday in other parts of the country. It's not celebrated by the Amish because it's a 'frivolous' day, but by the more progressive PA Dutch sects like the Moravians and Schwenkfelders.

It's the biggest fund raiser of the year for some churches and volunteer fire companies, who will literally be up all night frying hundreds of dozens of fastnachts. Even the grocery stores will have a type of "drive through" arrangement where you can pull up to the curb and buy them.

There's a lot of folklore connected with the day too, like the last person out of bed that morning only gets to eat one doughnut or can eat only misshapen ones. The lard from frying the fastnachts used to be used grease all the garden spades and tools to assure a good vegetable garden.

Ruthana- thanks for the info on Fastnacht. I had never heard of it & thought that it was pretty interesting.

Regarding the mashed potato in the donuts- my mother has a recipe for potato donuts & they are outstanding. A different kind of sweet and a little bit denser than regular donuts but pure heaven hot out of the oil. The recipe makes a huge amount and I keep meaning to have a "donut day" where I invite a bunch of people over to help make & eat them. Her are the traditional "donut" shape. The fastnacht sound more like beignets.

Oh terrapots, we do our own "Mardi Gras" every year but it's always late. This year it's going to be the last weekend in February. I love it because it's an excuse for me to cook a lot. We do seafood gumbo, chicken jambalaya, red beans & rice, greens, crawfish bread, crawfish boulettes, pralines & king's cake. No horn players, though.

Nina

Disneyginger

I was going to do Paczkis, but have a new cookbook that I got for cooking in my Tagine. It had a fried doughnut that I made instead ... with cardamom. Yummy !

Fortunately for my waistline, the family gobbled them all up :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Mandazi

I like to do Crawfish Etouffee but our schedule didn't allow it last night. So we just had leftover baby back ribs from Superbowl and the kids had pizza bagels and chicken tacquitos. So much for good food :-( But hopefully I'll work in the etouffee sometime this month, along with my first attempt at King Cake! Can someone please remind me when you're supposed to eat hot cross buns?
Thanks!
Nancy

Nancy,

Hot Cross buns are a Good Friday tradition, at least they were for me growing up. You start seeing them in the stores a few weeks before Easter. Clive loves them.

This is so interesting to hear about the traditions around the world. Netla I was not aware you are in Iceland. Totally awesome.
No traditions here- don't observe Lent. Sue

Nina, start making friends with the local musicians, you might start at school. These local musicians love music and pretty much are "have notes, will travel" type. Most of the music groups (bands) just play for the comraderie and to keep their skills up. They usually have FT daytime jobs doing something else.