IT'S almost time to mind your kitchen ceiling and make sure small children and pets are safely out of the way - Pancake Day is approaching.

I love Pancake Day, or more accurately Shrove Tuesday, in no small part because it is one of those occasions which resolutely refuses to lend itself to a crass marketing campaign that starts three or four months in advance (hello Easter, hello Hallowe'en).

There's no clearing of unsold Christmas puddings from the supermarket shelves on Boxing Day to make room for packets of flour.

This may simply be because when it comes to blatantly commercial and pointless celebrations, St Valentine's Day has February sewn up.

But it is rather more likely that those who will seek to peddle any old garbage in the name of 'love' instead cast a cold corporate eye over Shrove Tuesday and declare: "Flour. Eggs. Milk. Nahhh. It's just not sexy enough."

Because let's face it, there's not a lot you can do to make displays of the former ingredients eye-catching. Even the finished product itself cannot lay any claim to inherent culinary beauty.

And long may Pancake Day stay this way. Let's just keep buying the ingredients and doing it. It's as simple as that.

And devastatingly effective too. Because something magical happens when you combine all the ingredients and get whip out the frying pan.

And once freshly tossed and on the plate, a whole universe of mouthwatering possibilities opens up.

I must confess at this point I tend to view with the utmost contempt those who carry out the whole pancake making ritual, only to decorate the finished article with (whisper it) savoury or vegetable toppings.

What on earth is that all about?

If we cleave to the belief that pancakes are made on Shrove Tuesday in order to use up all the richer, fattier foodstuffs ahead of the beginning of Lent then really, there shouldn't be a vegetable anywhere near the kitchen that day.

And the same goes for savouries. I've come across far too many pancake fillings suggestions that include cheese, bacon, ham and chicken to be confident that the tradition is in good hands.

For me, pancake fillings/toppings have to be sweet. And that means honey, treacle, ice cream, chocolate spread etc. Maybe all of these things at once. With perhaps a squeeze of orange juice to sharpen things up a little.

I realise there are some people out there who will feel as if their teeth are rotting simply by reading this. But it's only for one day - live a little.

For those who pay heed to such things of course, Shrove Tuesday is followed by Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent and several weeks of fasting.

Many folk, Christian or otherwise, like to give up something, very often a favourite food, for Lent. I have been frowned upon mildly in the past for scoffing at such sacrifice, but I take part every year.

As Ash Wednesday dawns, I simply give up Lent.

That doesn't mean however, that it's pancakes all the time round at ours. Some treats are special enough to wait a year for.