mardi gras

Today we celebrate le mardi gras;
Mardi  Tuesday
Gras    fat
or fat Tuesday in English.  Mardi gras
sounds so much better.  While
I knew about mardi gras (I'm Catholic, eh?)
I did not know that the French explorer,
Iberville brought this celebration to America,
just south of New Orleans, in 1699.
Marci Gras History   Of course Catholics
stole this feast from the Romans who probably
celebrated it as a fertility festival.

Speaking of celebrating, food and drink, parades
or carnivals and of course, masks usually mark the feast
before the fast.  This recipe for a french pancake
calls for honey beer (pale ale will suffice).

http://www.thegoodlifefrance.com/french-pancake-recipe/

Move over pancakes because Blinis, tiny yeast pancakes,
 are traditionally eaten here
for mardi gras.  Check out food gypsy's blinis recipe.

http://www.foodgypsy.ca/recipes/post-french-blinis-2/

Speaking of Catholics, mardi gras ushers in Ash
Wednesday, le mercredi des cendres which
begins the season of lent, le carême;  a time of prayer,
fasting, doing good works.  "We Catholics
don't make  new year's resolution, we have lent!"
(I can't remember where I read that).

But enough about fasting, tonight is for feasting.