Pancakes and the Pioneer Woman
Happy National Pancake Day! I may not have been able to come up with anything clever for “Twos-day,” but I knew just what to do for National Pancake Day! But I wondered… why in the world is National Pancake Day on a TUESDAY? Shouldn’t it be, oh, I don’t know… the first Sunday in March or something like that? Turns out National Pancake Day is always on a Tuesday, and there’s a reason for that- today is Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins. The tradition of having pancakes on Shrove Tuesday began because people were trying to use up their sugar, eggs, and milk before possibly giving them up for Lent. Who knew? Well, I’m sure a lot of people knew that, but I didn’t. Now, I did make pancakes today, but the picture at the top of this post is not a picture of my pancakes- it’s from The Pioneer Woman’s blog. Strangely, I’ve become obsessed with Ree Drummond’s show lately- I’ve been binge watching it on Discovery Plus. I say “strangely” because Ree- the Pioneer Woman- lives on a cattle ranch and I’ve never seen her make a meal that doesn’t feature meat. Once she told the story of how she used to be a vegetarian, but when she met her husband he fed her a steak and she realized what she had been missing all those years. As a vegan, I should probably be horrified and repulsed- but I can’t help liking her. She’s always so cheerful, yet genuine. She seems like a truly kind person- and she’s funny. And in spite of all the meat, I love watching her prepare food with reckless abandon. Every salad begins with iceberg lettuce. (No, no! Everyone knows you’re not supposed to eat iceberg lettuce! Where’s the arugula? The frisee? What about some microgreens?) I’ll watch in fascination as she happily chops up a head of iceberg lettuce, then adds cucumbers and cheese. The dressing (naturally) starts with a cup of mayonnaise. I can’t even count how many dishes start with a stick of butter. Every soup contains bacon and heavy cream. Every main dish has meat- usually beef. If she uses chicken she’s slightly apologetic- her husband and kids prefer beef. As she likes to. point out, they live on a cattle ranch! I think what intrigues me so much is the idea of creating meals purely because you like the way they taste. For a moment I’m in a parallel universe where no one is concerned with nutrients or getting enough fiber. It seems like I’m always struggling with how much, and what, to eat. It would be a relief to just enjoy food without worrying about it for a change. No- I’m not going to move to a cattle ranch and start eating meat! But watching Ree’s show is inspiring me to embrace the fun and delicious side of cooking a little more. Since I’m watching old episodes of Pioneer Woman right now, I decided to go to Ree’s blog to see what she’s up to currently. I was interested to see that she had an article about how she lost weight for her daughter’s wedding. She said over the years, weight had crept up on her, and this past year she lost 55 pounds. She showed a before and after picture, and she did look heavy before. So it just goes to show you… no one’s life is perfect. She probably had some struggles of her own over the years. Oh, and here’s my pancakes! Not as pretty as The Pioneer Woman’s. I used oat flour, ground flax seed in place of egg, and stevia instead of sugar. But I put in orange zest and pecans, and they were yummy! Are you a pancake or a waffle person? – Normally waffles for me, but I had to make pancakes today! Do you struggle to find a balance with food?- If you have any words of wisdom, I would love to hear them.