Thursday
Mar032011
Mardi Gras, Yeah Baby!
Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 4:00AM 
Our family eats pancakes for dinner on Shrove Tuesday. You may know it as ’“Fat Tuesday” or “Mardi Gras.” “Gras” is French for fat and “Mardi” is French for Tuesday. However you say it, it’s a time to indulge because it’s the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, the season of fasting and abstinence. Pancakes are the traditional food of Shrove because they use up all the foods that are forbidden during Lent…fat, butter, sugar and eggs.
This year we’ll celebrate Shrove New Orleans-style with Bananas Foster Pancakes. For the pancake recipe, I always defer to the granddaddy of them all, James Beard. For the Bananas Foster topping, I’ve created a quick and easy version of the classic.