Today is Pancake Day

Here's a variation on a basic recipe:

2 eggs
1 pint milk
1lb plain white flour

whisk all together and leave to settle for 10 mins

get your frying pan/skillet ready
put cooking oil into pan, set gas on high

peel and core 1 lb cooking apples (green, non-sweet) and slice thinly into rounds

dust with cinnamon and sugar

dip into pancake batter mix

place each apple ring into pan and cook on both sides

serve with whisked cream and/or a little calvados (apple brandy) spponed on top

A Russian princess making continental-Europe-style apple pancakes...
yummy
:hi:

the Russian bit's way off!

But the smell of cooking in my street today is full of burnt batter, hazardous frying pans being doused with fire extinguishers and the sound of kids screaming they hate lemon juice and maple syrup....

SO I checked out the local Slovak cafe at lunchtime where they're doing a pre-Lent gastro-blowout buffet with the full pancake number.

They've also got pancakes made with grated plain chocolate, pancakes with blackberries, pancakes made with rum raisins and dairy fudge, pancakes with.....

I think the chef there today is on some kind of appetite-enhancing mood-altering substances.

"Mac's Flax Jacks", as they're called at our house. Yummy. :9

Took me 47 years, but I found the secret to making good pancakes.

today is "Flag Day (M)" where's M?

Pronounced Poonch-key. They're these fried donut things with creme or fruit filling. 600 calories and 25 grams of fat. Mmmm

Those are called "pancakes" in Berlin (and Berliners in other German regions, hence the infamous Kennedy myth).

I didn't know that Detroit has imported Polish traditions.

Do you mean "Ich Bin Und Berliner" (sorry for any mis-spelling) was his way of saying he was a 'pancake man' or was it a way of exulting the excellence of german cooking?

Maybe political analysis of JFK's international speeches has been completely mis interpreted!

Kennedy said in Berlin "Ich bin ein Berliner", "I am a citizen of Berlin", to show the people in Berlin that he would support them. That was a perfectly correct and adequate way to say it, and it instantly made him a hero in Berlin.

However, as "Berliner" is the name of the pastry in other parts of Germany, the myth was created that Kennedy misspoke, saying "I am a pacski", or "I am a jelly dough nut".

tomorrow Ash Wednesday. Always thought it must be named after all the burnt kitchen disasters of the previous day when well-meaning traditionalists OD on pre-1945 recipies reminiscent of Carvival Time.

Favorki:

1 packet flaky pastry (don't know what it's called in the US; it's the one used in the UK for pies/pastries that is NOT shortcrust pastry)

Vanilla essence

Powdered icing sugar

Roll out pastry really thin and sprinkle with vanilla essence (little dots here and there as it's very overpowering)

cut into strips 4inches long by 1 inch wide

cut small line in centre - about 2inches long max

pull one end of pastry through this vent so it looks like a knot
(don't know how else todescribe this procedure)

drop into pan of hot cooking oil and cook for 2 - 3 mins until golden brown and puffed up

remove and drain on kitchen paper

cool and dust with icing sugar

There are about 10 boxes of the suckers in the kitchen if anyone wants one.Help yourself.

"Welcome to Wakeup News. There's a nuclear war going on in Asia, Martians landing in Prague, all hell breaking loose all over the place... but first...live team coverage from National Bakery!"

They then go on to explain that the word is indeed pronounced "POONCH-key," and that is a plural, but that is the only time you'll hear that used correctly. It becomes "poonchkeys" from then on.

On edit: I'm in Milwaukee.

Must have been a bad paczki moment to stage an entire COUP D'ETAT on pancake day...

NB paczki (without the cydilla under the a) means litle packets
paczki with the cydilla -not available on this keyboard) is a diminutive of pacz which means bud/litle bud

Which basically means it's Donut day. There is recipe for a special donut you're suppose to eat for the day.

Sounds a lot like the German Carnival ("Fastnacht"). And the Berliner/Kreppel/... is the traditional pastry for it.


PS: Oh Pennsylvania; I guess there are many ethnic Germans.