By Kate Hodges
15th February 2023
EVENT, RECIPE, DO FLIPPING OUT
Shrove Tuesday falls on February 21st this year – next Tuesday. Pancake-flipping races take place in squares and down streets across the UK, but things are a little different in Scarborough. The town celebrates Skipping Day on the town’s picturesque Foreshore Road. Groups of adults and children leap over single or double long ropes, some dressed in costumes. The 100-year-old tradition originated from Ball Day – a public holiday for apprentices and servants. Why not try some skipping? Learn the basics here, some fancier tricks here, or even go Double Dutch!
Pancake-wise, why not try something a little different? Banana pancakes with sweet lemon drizzle, carrot cake pancakes or chinese vegetable pancakes. If your children are keen on making their own, try our super-easy recipe for raisin and lemon versions. And finally, find pancake-flipping tips and videos (plus a few disasters) here.
DO AND RECIPE MARDI BUMS
If it’s Pancake Day here, then in New Orleans, Italy and Brazil, it’s Mardi Gras! Why not jazz up the start to Lent with a themed party at home? We love the ideas here; make gloriously over-the-top costumes in green, purple and gold, decorate your house using streamers, and create doubloons; cardboard coins painted gold to look like treasure.
Mardi Gras is all about the food. The gaudy King Cake is actually more like a cinnamon roll, and traditionally a tiny model baby is hidden in it. Find out more about its history and cultural connotations plus a recipe here. Or make a pot of warming gumbo; find Martha Stewart’s vegan take on the dish here
EVENT PARASOL PARTY
This weekend and into next week, Hastings comes alive to the sound of every kind of music under the sun, it’s time for the Fat Tuesday festival. Sunday’s Umbrella Parade fills the streets with colour, live music, dancers and lots of umbrellas as well as a brass-band play-off, while on Saturday and Tuesday, bands race around the town, carrying their gear and playing at a series of venues, big and small. Find out more here
EVENT PIE FACE
Love clowning? Or black and white films? Head to Bristol for a weekend of custard-pies-in-faces, silly faces and lots of falling over. The Slapstick Festival combines film screenings – think Laurel and Hardy classics with a live music accompaniment, celebrations of classic comedy – kids go free to a screening of Mary Poppins, Harry Hill pops up to chat about his short film series and there’s a programme of silent classics starring the likes of Harold Lloyd and Charley Bowers. Full line-up here. Ticketed.
Find tips for making your own slapstick films courtesy of Aardman here and in more depth here, and suggestions for classic silent films to watch online here.
EVENT OUT EAST
London’s Whitechapel Gallery is a hotbed of cutting-edge art and installations. Such a super-cool place could easily be intimidating, but the Gallery’s very, very family friendly; there are great baby-changing facilities and you can pick up an activity pack for kids from reception. This Saturday it’s running one of its regular Family Days, this month artists Gaby Sahhar, Amy Leung and Kane Stonestreet host drop-in craft and creative play worskhops, read stories that represent BIPOC and LGBTQUAI+ themes and respond to the Escape The Slick exhibition (entry is free today). Free, but arrive early to avoid disappointment.
WHAT WE’RE EATING BANANA DOSAS This is one of the first Indian desserts I made when I started my blog says Dan Toombs, The Curry Guy. My youngest daughter and I would whip these up all the time. It was our bonding time and I loved it. She’s now a teenager and isn’t so interested in making banana dosas with her old man anymore. But sometimes I still make these and surprise her after dinner. Banana dosas are good on their own but are also nice with kulfi or ice cream. Find the recipe here
WHAT WE’RE READING ‘We create changemakers’: the new UK college dedicated to climate crisis: The lecture theatre was once a cowshed, the study centre is an old farmhouse living room and the classrooms are mostly outdoors: welcome to the newest higher educational college in Britain. The former farm that is Black Mountains College campus is a core part of an insurgent institution that is the first entirely dedicated to adapting to the climate emergency. Read more here
