Is it a Pancake or a Crepe? Once Again, I'm so Confused

So, it's Ash Wednesday and so begins the season of Lent. Full of giving up chocolate and sodas and trying to meditate on how we can be better.

But, I'm still confused over Shrove Tuesday (or Fat Tuesday for all you Americans).

In England, they celebrate Shrove Tuesday by eating a lot of pancakes.  Traditionally this was done to use up the butter, sugar and eggs that were considered luxurious foods as they would not be eaten during the season of Lent. What's confusing about that, you may ask?

This is yet another thing that is slightly different in the UK than in the US. Pancakes!!

This all started about a month ago when I made some Yorkshire puddings for dinner and had some batter left over. Ian asked me to save it so that he could make pancakes. I did and at the time I was half heartedly wondering how he was going to make pancakes out of such a thin batter. As Ian's cooking is limited to bacon sandwiches and cheese toasties, I just kind of thought, maybe he was pulling out some sort of rabbit in the hat. Or to be fair I was just really tired and I wasn't really paying attention.

So, the next day when he heads into the kitchen to make the "pancakes" I just kind of sat there waiting to see what concoction would come out of the kitchen. To my surprise he comes out with this thin rolled up piece of dough...a CREPE. It was lovely and really nice, but it was not a pancake.

Now, there are certain things that are English and certain things that are Ian's family's traditions. That's not to say they're not English, it's just that their rules are not the rules that everyone follows in England. Like when his family hid all my birthday presents and cards (that were sent to me in the mail, not the ones they had for me) and refused to let me have them until my birthday. I don't know about you, but when I get cards in the mail I like to open them right away. Mainly because they come from the US and I want to let people know that they've arrived, but I digress.

So, I was all geared up to make pancakes for Shrove Tuesday yesterday and about a week ago I was in the store and I noticed signs advertising "pancake" day with pictures of, you guessed it, CREPES. So, I did what I always do when I get confused because I'm American, I called Sarah. See Sarah is a wonderful woman who is English, but has lived in both London and NYC. So, she's somewhat like my own personal translator (or Yoda) of England English to American English. She confirmed that the "pancakes" in question were in fact CREPES and then so snidely remarked that only Americans eat American style Pancakes (well, fine the rest of the world can stay away from my pancakes then).

So, it was CREPES that I was destined to make. Actually, this was even better. I have these awesome french crepe pans that I never use and you can do so much with crepes. So, Ian and I had Crepe day yesterday. Spinach and Cheese, Ham and Cheese and finally Sweet Crepes for dessert. And they were all fabulous. Ian was particularly fond of the ham and cheese.

My thought is that you have to call them CREPES, because who would eat a Spinach and Cheese filled pancake!!

So, that leaves another thing to mark on the list to teach to Evie. English pancakes are actually CREPES and Americans make the only real pancakes. Oh, and sometimes Daddy does things that are really English.