Lent and the Pancakes to Remember (Part 2)

I published yesterday's post and realized I never really mentioned the pancakes I referred to in the title. So here's the second half of my thoughts...they often travel separately! ;-)

I was talking with my friend the morning after the trip to pancake palooza (we ended up eating MANY yummy pancakes, thanks to IHOP), and asked her about her Shrove Tuesday Pancake Party. She said everything went really well and everyone had a great time. She had two pans going at once, which is a record, and she served them with the traditional (for her annual party, at least) lemon and sugar, lemon curd, or butter and treacle. It was then that the little turtle in the back of my brain that runs the memories section of my head popped its head out and began turning the wheels...lemon and sugar!! Of course!! I remember as a child having pancakes at night with butter and table sugar sprinkled on, then having my mom squirt lemon juice on the top. It was tart and sweet and yummy and a little soggy with the traditional American-style pancakes all at the same time. I can see them filling my plate. I can see the puddle of butter and the sugar melting into it. I can see the lemon juice splattering over the sugar and making even more yummy liquid on the pancake. I ate until I couldn't hold anymore - I was a small child at the time, after all.

As the years passed, we didn't really acknowledge the season and barely went to Easter services. Then I grew up and the memories of our Pancake Tuesdays and lemon and sugar topped pancakes evaporated like the steam from these hot breakfast breads. As I go back through my memories now, and I talk with more people about cooking and recipes and trditions, I'm finding those tastes and smells and sights coming back to me. They are important, not just to keep, but to pass along. Not just to family, but to friends and anyone who will listen, because that is how we still know today what Shrove Tuesday really is and how to eat pancakes with lemon and sugar.

If you are observing Lent, I wish you well on your journey. If you are not, then try this treat...or maybe try to prepare something else from your childhood that you remember as a treat.