Well tonight I get to eat English pancakes as it is Shrove Tuesday - lots of other nutty things go on in England on Shrove Tuesday - like playing football in the streets and pancake races, to name a few!
Find a great recipe here:
But use oranges rather than lemons, or strawberry jam (jelly)! Caster suger is fine sugar.
The object of the race is to get to the finishing line first whilst flipping a pancake in a frying pan a pre-decided number of times. The skill lies not so much in the running of the race but in flipping and catching the pancake, which must be intact when the finishing line is reached.
Skipping
In Scarborough, on Shrove Tuesday, everyone assembles on the promenade to skip. Long ropes are stretched across the road and there maybe be ten or more people skipping on one rope. The origins of this customs are not known but skipping was once a magical games, associated with the sowing and spouting of seeds, which may have been played on barrows (burial mounds) during the Middle Ages.
Football (not the American kind at all)
Shrove Tuesday sees the start in Ashbourne, Derbyshire of the world’s oldest, largest, longest and maddest football game. The game is played over two days and involves thousands of players. The goals are three miles apart and there are only a few rules. The ball is a hand-painted, cork-filled ball.
Are the English crazy - well I leave that to my DH to decide :-)
Have fun,
Paula
