Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Hart Dowd

April 12, 2006

Our new chief historian and researcher for Storytime Tapestry is Hartson Dowd.  He is taking on his new position with a bang and has offered several submissions on lent, Easter, and Passover.  I will be sending out one a day during this religious season.

Shrove Tuesday

Hartson Dowd

Lent is a time of penance, prayer, preparation for or recollection of baptism, and preparation for celebrating Easter.  Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, the 40^th weekday before Easter.  Of the Sundays in Lent the fifth is Passion Sunday and ther last is Palm Sunday.  The week preceding Easter is Holy Week.  Lent ends at midnight on Holy Saturday.

Shrove Tuesday is also known as Pancake Day.  In the old days the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday was the day when the priest “shrove” his parishioners – meaning that he heard their confessions, so that they could enter the fasting season, Lent, with a clear conscience.

People were not allowed to eat milk, eggs or fat during Lent, so it became the custom on Shrove Tuesday to use up all your butter and eggs by making pancakes.  Traditionally the pancake is turned in the pan by tossing it in the air.  Pancakes may seem an unlikely last indulgence, but because the recipe uses up all the rich ingredients like butter and eggs from the larder, it became a tradition.

Early English recipes for pancakes included wheaten flour, eggs, butter or lard, a liquid (water, milk, ale or wine) and flavorings such as white or brown sugar, spices and liqueurs.  The pancakes were fried in butter or fat and served flat, or rolled and sprinkled with powdered sugar, topped with preserves or drenched with alcohol.

In the Maritimes, household objects such as rings, thimbles, coins and other objects are baked into the pancakes and served to younger family members.  Finding coins in a pancake means that you’ll be rich; getting a ring suggests you’ll be the first married, and the finder of the thimble will become a seamstress or a tailor.

Canadians also welcome Pancake Tuesday as a sign that Easter – and thus spring – is just around the corner.

In Iceland the day is known as “Sprengi-dagur” (Bursting Day) and is marked with the eating of salt meat and peas.

In Sweden, a traditional Swedish pastry, called Semla, is eaten only on this day.

Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day is also known as Mardi Gras (Creole-French word for “Fat Tuesday”) Carnival  (from the Latin for “farewell to the flesh”), and Fasnacht (the Germanic “night of the fast”).  It is a big celebration and celebrated around the world.  In New Orleans, USA, Mardi Gras is a huge event and people hold parades and parties to celebrate.

A famous pancake race at Olney in Buckinghamshire, England, has been held every Shrove Tuesday since 1445.  Families gather for sweet and savory pancake suppers, and housewives still compete in the peculiar tradition of donning their aprons and racing each other holding pancake-filled frying pans.  Strict rules require that each contestant successfully toss and flip her pancakes into the air at least three times before crossing the finish line!

Whole-Wheat Pancakes

{makes 8 pancakes}

1-1/2 cups whole-wheat flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

? teaspoon salt

1-1/4 cups 2 per cent milk

1 egg beaten

3 tablespoon vegetable oil

? teaspoon vanilla

vegetable oil optional

In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

In another bowl beat together milk, egg, oil and vanilla.  Add liquid ingredients to dry, mixing until almost smooth (discard small lumps).

Heat skillet or griddle over medium heat; brush with oil (optional for non-stick pans).  For each pancake, pour ? cup batter into skillet.  When underside is brown and bubbles break on top (about 2 minutes), flip over and cook for 30 to 60 seconds or until second side is golden brown.  Serve hot.

Get Sappy With Syrup

Lent coincides with sugaring off, the six-week period during which the country’s maple syrup producers start tapping into maple trees to collect sap for making maple sugar which is a natural partner for pancakes

Sugar maples, red maples and silver maples are the main syrup-producing trees.  An average tree yields between 35 to 50 litres of sap, which will produce 1.5 litres of maple syrup.  It takes on average, 40 litres of sap to make a litre of syrup.

Maple French Toast

1.2 cup maple syrup

3 eggs

1/3 cup milk

? teaspoon vanilla

? teaspoon salt

6 slices day-old French bread, sliced ? inch thick

2 tablespoons butter

Beat together maple syrup, eggs, milk, vanilla and salt.

Place bread slices in a single layer in a 9-by-13-inch dish.  Pour batter evenly over bread.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Melt butter on griddle.  Brown slices on both sides.  Serve with maple syrup, maple butter or maple jelly.

Submitted by:  Hartson Dowd

thedowds@telus.net