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Fat Tuesday is just around the bend friends. Will you be "observing" the holiday?
King Cake
(click here for recipe)
Considering the modern reputation of Mardi Gras, I'm not surprised that most people under the age of 30 don't even know that Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday, which of course is the first day of Lent. Growing up, we always called it "Fat Tuesday" and knew it was our last chance for anything tasty until Easter Sunday. Yes, Lent. Those 40 (or so) days of self-deprivation immediately following the big fat party we call Christmas-New Year-Superbowl-Valentine's-Mardi Gras.
Getting ready for Lent was like getting ready for a drought. If you knew you weren't going to get any rain for 6 weeks, you'd make sure everything was good and watered too.
As a young girl, too young to understand the deep meaning of the season, I remember my mother offering this completely inappropriate explanation of Lent - Lent was Jesus' way of helping us take off the 'winter weight'. Oh yes she did. Probably didn't scar me for life or anything.
Breakaway to the tennis match in my head:
Angel on the right shoulder: Don't eat those cookies. Jesus wants you to look good in your summer clothes.
Devil on the left shoulder: Jesus would not want those cookies to go to waste. If you don't eat them, somebody else will have to.
I'm sure none of that has anything to do with what's wrong with me today. ;-)
So, in memory of my crazy mother, I think I will follow Janice's lead (click here) and bake these wonderful cookies for the office next week.
Think SPRING, everybody!
LOL!
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