Tuesday 13 Feb 2024 post begun 0900hrs GMT

American style pancakes made, American pancake syrup (Aunt Jemima and trust me it was not an inexpensive purchase to make here in the UK!) ready to be warmed. King Cake beignets piled high on the sideboard...

LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULER! (Let the good times roll!) 

Mais oui, cher! (But yes, cher!)

My daughter has been honing her King Cake skills, sending me photos of beautifully decorated cakes so inspiring I decided to haul out the baking equipment and make our favourite gluten-free King Cake Beignets (cake tends to either be gobbled up in an hour out of the oven OR let to dry out so I make cake doughnuts instead - easy to make more if scoffed quickly OR bagged and put in the freezer should there be a surplus). 

Dinner tonight will be Cajun fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and sweet corn. Beignets for afters. 

Mardi Gras WINNING!

Meanwhile, knowing Lent begins at midnight, I have already suspended my eBay jigsaw puzzle searches - yes, that's right, I am giving up eBay for Lent this year. 

 

I'm not a 'giving up chocolate' kind of Lenten observer, I tend to focus my Lenten sacrificing on genuinely bad habits - profanity, procrastination, and forgetting God loves everyone including (especially) people I could happily never have to cope with ever again.

 

However, I usually do make at least one 'sacrifice' of something best described as 'secret guilty pleasure' and this year it is eBay browsing. Browsing that almost always becomes 'OOOOOH I have SO got to have that!' as an auction bid or a 'buy it now' indulgence. 

I knew from Epiphany (6th January) I would be giving up eBay for Lent so I planned ahead - comprehensive stock-take and carefully budgeted top-ups/replacement of things like blankets, kitchen tools, craft supplies, etc. A few of my items are still in transit but for the most part the house (and my craft cupboard) are now restocked. I have been on a mission to find non-electric household goods, in part to reduce our energy costs but also to mitigate the problems my mild Rheumatoid Arthritis and worsening Essential Tremor causes. 

 

For example, I love a good silicone coated balloon wire whisk - I have several in various sizes. But the arthritis has been 'flaring' more often since having Covid - whisking leaves me with rather painful hand and wrist ache - and the ET has progressed to the point I have had some difficulty keeping the whisks in the mixing bowl. 

Days long browse sessions of several 'foodie' sites plus several discussion threads on my ET forum site tipped me off to an interesting kitchen gadget that acts like a whisk but only requires a light grip and 'pogo-stick' bouncing the tool around the bowl...lol, bouncing this tool just seemed tailor made for a person with ET! 

Oh WOW, where has this been all my adult life??!! So easy to use (as long as the bowl is deep enough:) and no hand-wrist ache. Honestly that gravy recipe has never come up so smoothly as when I gave my new kitchen tool a go the first time. A quick kitchen brush rinse then into the dishwasher had my lovely new gadget back in the drawer next to its brothers (I do buy multiples for spares) for next time.

 

I wouldn't want to try mixing a cake or cookie recipe using this thing but I make a lot of sauces, gravies, and egg recipes so this tool is a marvel of off-grid efficiency.

 

More than anything else, my Lent 2024 observation will primarily be used to pray. I hope you will join me, if not for the entire Lenten period, at least for Holy Week which runs from Palm Sunday (24th March) through Easter Morning (31st March).

Now more than ever the world needs prayer. 

Peace be with you.

posted 0959hrs GMT