Shrove Tuesday - 5 Things

 Why pancakes ?

 Legend tells us that a housewife was using up her eggs and milk before the Lenten fast began when she heard the church bells calling her to confession. Rather than put her cooking aside she ran off to church, complete with pan apparently tossing the "pancake" along the way!

5 more things about Shrove Tuesday:

1.Shrove Tuesday is the day before Lent begins.

2.Shrove Tuesday is also known as Pancake Day, Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras.

3.It's the last day of being able to eat whatever you like before the ritual fasting of Lent.

4.Shrove Tuesday is 47 days before Easter Sunday.

5.Shrove comes from the word shrive which means to confess, traditionally people would go to church to confess their sins on Shrove Tuesday.

Image: Wiki Commons  Belathee Photography

Beer Advent calendar - One for the men

 

Caught by the River has a beer correspondent, Ben McCormick, and Ben McCormick also has a blog of his own, Beer Advent Calendar. Every day in December leading up to Christmas Ben samples, and writes about a beer from his beer advent calendar, a crate of 24 beers. We're told that we can "Expect random anecdotes, the odd complaint and sometimes frankly absurd metaphors as Ben tackles the seemingly simple task of drinking a beer a day in the run up to Christmas."

If you'd like to join in, and of course it's not really just for the men, here's a list of the beers to be tasted:

Magic Hat #9
Brasserie Lefèbre Barbar Bok
Orval Trappist Ale
Mikeller The American Dream
Brooklyn Lager
Kernel Export Porter Cacao
Summer Wine Brewery Mokko Milk Stout
Redchurch Brewery Old Ford Export Stout

Kernel Imperial Brown Stout

To Ol Mochachino Messiah
De Dolle Brouwers Oerbier
Jupiler Bière Blonde
De Molen Geboren & Getogen
Sierra Nevada Imperial Red Ale
Lindemans Cuvée René
Brewfist Burocracy
Kernel B.A.D.S.C.C.A.NS. Galaxy IPA
Lovibonds 69IPA
Winsor & Eton Kohinoor IPA
Delerium Nocturnum
Ska Brewing Pinstripe Red Ale
Left Hand Brewing Milk Stout
Curious IPA
Dominion Hop Mountain Pale Ale

Ben has no idea which beer is behind each of the numbers so they aren't listed in any particular order. You can follow this unusual Advent, make comments etc over at Beer Advent Calendar.

Yummly - The world's largest recipe search site

Have you discovered Yummly?

Yummly operates a brilliant search filter so you can find recipes with or without certain ingredients, great for when you're trying to use up what's in the fridge. You can also search  different world cuisines, holiday recipes, courses, different diet types, allergies, nutrition, the time you have available to make something,  by taste eg. salty, sweet, spicy etc and you can even search by brands eg. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!

If you haven't already discovered Yummily go and take a look but be warned you could come away seriously hungry!

Weekend Bake - Ham, Egg and Cheese Pie

This is a family favourite adapted from a Rose Prince recipe for a Summer Galette once published in the weekend Telegraph, it's delicious. This is how we make it:
Line a tart dish with ready made puff pastry, makee three plain omelettes then layer the omelettes in the dish with ham and cheese, added a puff pastry lid, with a hole to let the steam out, and bake on Gas mark 6 for about 30 minutes until golden brown.

The Raspberry Jam Post

Personally I was never overly fond of Raspberry Jam.
Until that is I tried the Raspberry Jam made by the young mother who lives in the village.
I loved the young mother's Raspberry Jam.
But the young mother doesn't want to make anymore Raspberry Jam
something to do with Food & Hygiene, labeling and %'s.

There's a lady from town who makes Raspberry Jam, labeled with %'s.
She makes it to sell in the farm shop
but
I'm not overly fond of the town lady's Raspberry Jam
and the young mother doesn't make Raspberry Jam anymore...