In New Orleans they call it Fat Tuesday and do the whole Mardi Gras thing, in Pennsylvania we call it Fastnacht Day and eat lots of donuts-like pastries with no hole in the center. Here in the UK, it’s traditional to eat pancakes.  Excellent! I love pancakes and what better an excuse to eat them.

So for Shrove Tuesday we  had some friends over and I made a big batch of American style cinnamon raison pancakes. (I have yet to try the the British version of pancakes which are halfway between crepes and the American fluffy version). It was my first time making pancakes from scratch (normally we’d just buy the box mix and add milk and an egg) but they turned out fabulously if I do say so myself! I never remember to take pictures of these things so you’ll just have to imagine it. Plus my food tends to taste a whole lot better than it looks!

Despite moaning about how much of a pain it is to measure and find ingredients in the UK sometimes, I have really gotten into cooking lately. It’s definitely a hobby I never really saw myself taking up! So far my favorites have been Peanut Pad Thai, eggplant (or aubergine) parmesan, mango ginger frozen yogurt, honey-balsamic grilled chicken, peanut satay chicken..now I just need to find a recipe box!

I get most of my ideas and recipes off AllRecipes.co.uk and tweak them to my own tastes and what we have in the fridge..where do you get your cooking inspiration?