Shrove Tuesday

Otherwise known of course, as Pancake Day.

As I'm sure most households do, we always look forward to making them 'en famille' with the children's enthusiasm lasting just long enough to get the first batch of completed pancakes onto their own plates, loaded with strawberry jam or chocolate sauce before the (clearly outrageous) suggestion of an alternative savoury filling of ham, cheese and mushroom sends them scuttling into the TV room shouting "eurghhhh" or "no way".

Another annual tradition is trying to find a variation on the previous years egg-free recipe for pancakes so that M too can join in the eating fun.

This years attempt was a little too buttery and (in my book) should be consigned to the Big Pancake Recipe Dustbin in the Sky.

To counteract the greasiness of the couple I nibbled on (for 'nibbled' read 'wolfed down'), I drank a rather lovely bottle of Chilean red. As I have decided to give up drinking wine for Lent - for the first time in history I might add - I thought I might as well say à bientôt to the grape with my hat cocked to one side and my silly smile alerting those around me what I had been drinking!

What on earth am I talking about?