Fat Tuesday

Tuesday morning Sara and I were having breakfast and she asked, "So, what will we do for Fat Tuesday?" Fat Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday is a long standing tradition in many cultures honoring the beginning of Lent. I had never really experienced Fat Tuesday when growing up, but Sara had. She grew up in York, Pennsylvania, and attended the Moravian church there. Each year on the eve of Ash Wednesday the members would gather and have donuts. Yes, donuts. But not just any ordinary donut. Called "Fastnachts" they are a yeasty, potato/flour donut. Traditionally they were made as a way of emptying the pantry of eggs, butter, sugar and other items that were to be given up for Lent. Our conversation got me to thinking about what kind of a family tradition we could start as we readied ourselves to celebrate the beginning of Lent. Fastnachts are pretty labor intensive. Overnight rest, multiple risings, etc. make these Pennsylvania Dutch delicacies difficult for a pastor with a busy schedule preparing for Ash Wednesday worship and the like. I have heard that other traditions made pancakes their Fat Tuesday/ShroveTuesday dinner so I thought, "Why not crepes?"  Perhaps rivaling Fastnachts in Sara's mind they are a fancy pancake (at least I think they are), but they're not too difficult to master. And they can be filled with either sweet or savory ingredients. "Perfect," I thought. I planned to make savory crepes with a cheesy, veggie, meaty filling, depending on what I had on hand in the fridge. I found a great recipe for crepes at Cooks Illustrated (cooksillustrated.com) and knew I had all I needed for our first Griffen Family Fat Tuesday dinner. But then I realized I had NO time to go home and make the crepe batter before I had to be back at church for meetings (I told you I was busy!). And then it hit me: I'll call home, and if Evan (our son) is there he can make the batter. I called. He was home. We began. "Evan, put your phone on speakerphone." "Ok." I read him the recipe. "Take two whole eggs and put them into the food processor." Evan asked, "Do I put them in whole or do I crack them first?" That is when I realized I'd done a lousy job of teaching him how to cook. "Crack them. Add the milk, water, flour, a little salt and melted butter." The key to the recipe and the reason I couldn't do this myself is the batter needs to "rest" for a couple of hours. It relaxes the gluten and makes for a tender crepe. With the batter made and stored in the fridge for a two hour rest I attended my meetings and came home to make our Fat Tuesday crepes.

Family traditions are important. It's why we do them. They bind us together with something, or someone, that is bigger than ourselves. They are the kind of things we can do even when we are far apart. And family traditions almost always include food. Food was important to Jesus as far as I can tell. He was always out eating with someone and it didn't matter to him who that person was. Which is to say ALL people mattered to Jesus. Yes that got him into trouble with the church leaders, but I got the message that food is way more important than simply meeting a dietary need. It's a very human thing too.Which is to say a very humane thing to do. It's the ultimate of hospitality. And wouldn't it be nice if our world became a little more hospitable? I know that in our hurried lives the idea of sitting down for a meal with family is often more of a hope than a reality. Maybe this Lenten Season we can all make the effort to sit down together and share a family meal a little more often. May it be a blessing on our journey.