Pancake Day

Today was the Tsunami Appeal raffle at work, not actually organised by us but by one of the companies that share premises with us, a children's home charity. I gave 1 1/2 bottles of wine and managed to win back one of them! I was quite pleased as most of the other presents were unwanted gifts. I also won some rose-scented drawer liners, the kind of thing my Mum used to use.
There were some funny prizes such as Jordan's autobiography (claimed by Martin, to thunderous applause), a belly dancing kit (won by Debbie, but she doesn't know it yet) and best of all a pink bottle of Chardonnay in a pink fluffy slipper!! I was hoping to win that to give to my gay friends, they'd have loved it, but Sarah from the Brewery won it instead, also to much applause.
Bill had forgotten Pancake Day, and I couldn't get hold of him on the phone to ask him to go to the shops. I just about had time to get pancake mix ingredients from Marks and Spencers in Guildford before catching my 'connecting' train, but Bill dashed out for yet another CAMRA meeting before I had time to make them! Probably just as well, for they turned out to be a bit of a disaster. I was intending to use Delia Smith's recipe but I had forgotten to get butter. Instead I had to make do with buttermilk spread which tasted fine in the pancake mix but was useless to fry with. So of course the first pancake stuck firmly to the bottom of the pan making it impossible to toss even with a skillet. Result - a soggy mess! Next I tried frying a pancake in vegetable oil which resulted in a neat but slightly chip-tasting pancake. A case for loads of sugar and freshly squeezed lemon, but somehow I didn't fancy a third one. I hope Bill has better success with them when he comes back from the pub ;-)