March 7, 2011

Pancake flipping time!

Tomorrow is a very special day. The kind of day that keeps children awake at night in anticipation. Ok, perhaps that's just me....but seriously, I love tomorrow. Why? Because tomorrow is pancake day (or Shrove Tuesday to be strictly accurate). Also known as the day when I can justify eating oodles of my absolute favourite food with next to no guilt!

For those that are curious how pancake day orginated, I found this little snippet on wikipedia: Pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent because they were a way to use up rich foodstuffs such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent. The liturgical fasting emphasized eating plainer food and refraining from food that would give pleasure: In many cultures, this means no meat, dairy, or eggs.

OK, so these days the only thing I personally give up is chocolate, but why break with tradition!

In honour of pancake day, I decided to conduct a little survey of the onefinestay team's pancake preferences.

Favourite pancake fillings:

Me - Crepe Suzette (Orange, Lemon & Grand Marnier)

Greg - Lemon & sugar

Tim - Lemon, sugar & raisins

Matthew - Grand Marnier

Alasdair - Nutella & bananas

Tom H1 - Nutella as a standard Parisian street corner winner with a nice banana in there

Tom H2 - Nutella, just nutella

Usamah - American diner style blueberry pancake stack with a core of melted butter, and maple syrup.

Tiffany - Ice cream, nutella and strawberries on crepes, maple syrup on fat pancakes, although lemon & sugar also good

Evan - Bacon, cheese & syrup ala the Upstairs Pancake House in Amsterdam

Andrew - Icecream and chocolate sauce

For anyone seeking a bit of inspiration, the Times published a fantastic list of recipes last year which you can find here. I'm planning on trying the cinnamon with praline cream and chocolate tonight!

And whilst we are on the topic of cooking, here at onefinestay many of our homes have cooking facilities lovely enough to give almost any chef kitchen envy.

Here are a couple of my favourites, just perfect for some pancake flipping action:

1. Check out this delightful farmhouse style kitchen in the equally delightful St Mary's Gardens. We adore the big picnic-style table and the extra-large range cooker - what more could you want for that cosy supper in?

2. Only a kitchen this big, bright and airy would do in a house as grand as the lovely Aberdare Gardens in South Hampstead. Sleeping nine this really is the ultimate family home and surely this is also the ultimate family kitchen...complete with breakfast bar for those hungry mouths to perch at whilst you cook up a storm!