February 11, 2024 In Recipes

A special, soulfull week ahead!

Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday, or “Fat Tuesday” to the New Orleans side of my family! Traditionally, Christians feasted on pancakes the night before Ash Wednesday because it was the best way to use up their eggs, milk and sugar before the Lenten fast. Bourbon Street fans refer to it as Fat Tuesday because it’s the last day of indulgences before the first day of Lent. At our house, we are giving “Pancake Tuesday” a French spin. French crepes with Nutella and bananas is our family favorite. You can find the recipe below or in SOULFULL p.211) When I was working in Paris eons ago, I would buy a crepe outside the Solferino Metro station on my way home from work! A simple joy! Surprise your family with pancakes for dinner on Tuesday!

 

Wednesday is Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday! If you are in Nashville, I hope you will join me from 11-1 at Veronica Beard for a soulful Valentine’s event. There will be fun drinks, chocolate, gifted copies of Soulfull, and the extra special treat of Tilly Goose “stitching hope” on t-shirts, jeans and other special clothing. The best is that 15% of proceeds will go to The Evelyn Dieckhaus Shining Light Fund. I will be excited to meet you, read from SOULFULL, and answer questions! Let’s  fill up our souls.

 

This Wednesday is also the first day of Lent. The invocation on Ash Wednesday, “from dust we come, and dust we shall return” reminds us of our mortality. Our stay here on earth is much shorter than we believe. All that we are and love hinges on the Easter promise of eternality.Traditionally, Lent is the 40 day wake-up call for Christians to prepare their minds, bodies, and spirits for the miracle of Easter. Lent is a 40-day journey mirroring the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert in preparation for his divine mission on earth. Following in Jesus’ footsteps, Lent offers us the opportunity to draw closer to God and embrace the divine within and all around us.  Yes, we are dust, but we have the opportunity to prove we are so much more!

 

Next week, I will begin a 6-week Lenten series at Bread and Honey entitled, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come!” In response to a season of great loss for so many of us, I am choosing not to focus on what we should be giving up, but instead how we can experience more of the divine and sacred in our lives. I believe the Holy Spirit is our connector to God in earthly time and space. I am hoping over the next six weeks we will become more open and aware to its wondrous presence in our lives. Once you see that God is in fact giving you nudges, putting special people in your path, and gifting you courage to meet another day, it changes everything. We see we are not alone here. God always has us. Maybe, like me, you need to hear that truth again! Join me for an Ash Wednesday service at 6pm at Woodmont Christian Church, Nashville, TN. Following is a simple prayer to prepare our hearts and minds for Lent.

 

Dear God,

Where am I?

Where are you?

Please close the distance.

Amen.

Print

Crêpes

Course Dessert
Cuisine French

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 2 Tbsp melted butter
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 1/3 cup milk (of your choosing)
  • 3 bananas, sliced thin
  • 1 jar of Nutella

Instructions

  1. Whisk eggs, vanilla, salt, sugar and melted butter.

  2. Then slowly add flour, blending.

  3. After all is blended, add milk.

  4. It should be a thinner pancake batter.

  5. I dip a paper towel in butter and brush over the pan.

  6. Pour 1/3 cup of batter in your warm pan making sure you coat the entire pan with batter, let cook for about 2 minutes until you can start to lift sides with a knife or plastic spatula to flip.

  7. Cook for another thirty seconds and then begin your crêpe stack on a plate. You can usually make around 12-15 crepes with this recipe. 

  8. We fill our crêpes with sliced bananas and Nutella, maybe a little powdered sugar if we are feeling French-fancy!

DON"T FORGET! YOU ARE INVITED!