Pancakes

Dear Friends

This has been a busy couple of weeks at St Columba’s. With everything opening up again, we have been able to so some of the more “normal” things – as a consequence I have found myself making pancakes, a lot of pancakes!! It always makes me smile that people get so excited about pancakes. I made them for 4 different groups this year and I didn’t hear anyone say “no thanks, I don’t like pancakes”, they seem to be a universally acceptable food. Of course, there is always a difference of opinion about toppings, but generally everyone likes a pancake.

Pancakes are such a simple thing though. Flour, eggs, milk – nothing special there; and cooked in butter, all basic stuff. What is it about pancakes? I could easily make them any time, and yet only ever make them at this time of year.

My theory is it’s the memory that goes with them. Food always brings back memories of times past, like when I remember my mother’s mashed potato with little black specks (“they aren’t burnt, they just caught on, charcoal is good for the digestion”) – and certainly pancake day was one of the times when I was young that we ate together, and brought our friends sometimes too. My own children have similar memories, of me standing in the kitchen cooking pancakes and trying to outdo each other by eating more than their siblings.

The last time I did pancakes at St Columba’s was just a few weeks before the lockdown that none of us foresaw and was followed by the “Lentiest Lent” we ever knew. This year, I hope, will be different. We look forward now to a more normal Lent, followed by everything that Easter brings – and spring is just around the corner. I hope this year brings a lot more opportunities to eat joyously together, in fellowship.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship,to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Acts 2:42

Love

Ann