Pancake Tuesday.

For whatever reason, a lot of Americans think they're hilarious when they say things to me like, "Oh, well you wouldn't understand that because you're Canadian." Or if they find something I say strange they love to say, "Must be a Canadian thing, hardy har har." Most of the time, the subject matter is universal and has nothing to do with being Canadian or not - they just love looking for windows to make degrading Canada jokes. I say this sounding as if I'm very offended by it all, when in actuality I think it's... odd, rather than offensive. Odd that people think they're very clever in making these jokes, odd that they believe they're the first to think them up, odd to assume I'd find it funny. For the record, lest I not make myself clear, having lived in the States for most of my life, now with an American husband and subsequent American family members and friends - I don't harbor any ill will towards my fellow countrymen. You are well loved America, even if you do make the same tasteless jokes, without cessation, about the great nation of Canada.

And today I had a rare taste of truly highlighting my Canadianness by mentioning that it was "Pancake Tuesday" (known here as Fat Tuesday) and receiving quizzical looks. This resulted in my having to utter that dreaded adage that it "must be a Canadian thing." And it is. Although it's also a British/European/Australian thing. So who's the odd one out now America?!?! Huh???

Anyhoo, this immediately made me want to make a pancake breakfast for dinner (i.e. brinner) but knowing that Tim is not a brinner fan, I figured my chances of celebrating were slim. However a compromise was reached with the suggestion of potato pancakes. So I'm going with this recipe and pairing it with some bison burgers** that we picked up at the Westside Market.

** being a former vegetarian, I can't help but find it shocking and somewhat disturbing that in the course of about two years I've gone from refusing to eat anything that has "eyes or a mother" to full on carnivorous tendencies (I blame it on getting pregnant.) In my defense, I rarely eat red meat and the only reason I'm going for the bison is because there are claims that it's cancer-fighting. Sold.