Yay! Its Pancake Day again- and there was plenty of mouth-watering, mind-boggling fillings on the Breakfast with Hector show today!

First, chef extraordinaire John Brady spoke to Hector on How's the Country this Morning and although he will be making pancakes at some stage during the day, John has other things on his mind - like organising a pop-up restaurant called A Local Flavour in Galway in St. Mary's restaurant at 7.30pm on Saturday 25^th February! He and a group of local chefs are planning a 7 course menu all in aid of the Galway Hospice - there will be room for 100 people and there will be a live band! The whole pop-up restaurant concept was perfect for the initiative as it suits something on a short-term basis rather than having to come up with a long term plan. There is a facebook page called A Local Flavour so get involved - it's all for a good cause!

BWH had its own Pop-Up Pancake Maker this morning in the form of Christine O'Sullivan who brought in the hotplate and the frying pan, and made pancakes for us live in studio! The former Masterchef contestant joined us this morning to impart her knowledge on pancakes - she gave Hector her recipe for the ultimate pancake mix - one cup flour, one cup of milk and one egg. Then we heard the sizzle of the pan and Christine had whipped up a batch of the most delicious pancakes! Check out Christine's blog here.

Dave O'Flynn once again triumphed and truly put Knockadoon on the map this morning successfully taking on challenger, Shane Finn from Ballinabrackey in Co. Meath. Although his fact about Knockadoon wasn't exactly worthy of PYTOTM- a fact of Waterford GAA football team training there! However he came back with the fact that his house is built on a copper mine! But young Shane had some stellar facts on Ballinabrackey also with a GAA and mining theme - last year the local GAA team won the Leinster Junior Championship for the first time and the cement factory claims the largest limestone quarry in North West Europe! However, these facts were not enough to gain Shane the title - although a sporting Dave gave him his prize of The Hot Press Music Show tickets on this weekend in the RDS!

It's Tuesday so of course that means Medium Sized Town, Fairly Big Story with the main man from Mullingar, Ronan Casey! Potholes were the first thing on his list, and a council meeting in Kanturk, as reported in The Corkman. Cllr Timmy Collins knows of potholes in Meelin wherein an ostrich could hatch a baby ostrich and afterwards have a swim around in it! Meanwhile the Carlow People reports on an invitation to astronauts to train in its potholes by Cllr. Roadie Kelly, so large are they. Then it was on to a spooky photo in the Galway Independent, an image of the ghost of a 19^th century Claddagh nun, which is terrifying! (See below!) She's looking directly at the camera and she put the fear of God into Ronan! But she's not the only ghost this week; in Limerick there are strange orbs passing through the Milk Market, which is perplexing manager David O'Brien, who is baffled by the images. The Limerick Leader asked a local fortune teller, Tina Scully, who said the orb is a manifestation of spirits caught in a time warp. A local security guard, however, has known about this for years, but has been afraid to talk about! Checkout Ronan's blog here. 

The ghostly nun of the Claddagh taken by local photographer Jonathan Curran

Moving orbs as featured in The Limerick Leader

Well done to Ann Widger from Dublin who is the Tuesday qualifier of the Cheltenham Trail Day at Naas Racecourse competition and wins a champagne lunch for two people including racecards and admission to the racecourse. She is also in the draw on Friday to win a luxury VIP day at Naas Racecourse and a break at the four-star Killashee House Hotel! KHL Ann!

David O'Hara ended his short-lived reign as Put Your Town on the Map champion as young Aaron Lloyd had little difficulty in taking him on, and so winning a six month subscription to Netflix! KHL Aaron - return tomorrow as Class Act champion!

And finally some pancake recipes below!

Hectors Breakfast Pancake

Pancakes with grated apple, crispy bacon and maple syrup!

Ingredients:

Pancake batter:

120g of self-raising flour

240g of milk

1 egg

pinch of salt

2 Pink lady apples grated

knob of butter

1 packet of streaky bacon

Maple syrup

Method:

1: To make your pancake batter, put your eggs milk and flour with a pick of salt into a large mixing bowl and whisk until thick and smooth. Then add in your grated apple to the pancake batter.

2:: Grill or fry your bacon until crisp and golden and keep warm in the oven while cooking your pancakes.

3. Heat a non-stick frying pan with a knob of butter. Once the pan is nice and hot add two small ladle fulls of your pancake and apple mix. once nice and golden flip the pancake to fry on the other side. Place your pancakes on a plate and layer with the crispy bacon and drizzle with maple syrup!!

Cinnamon Crepes with bananas toasted hazelnuts and chocolate sauce

Ingredients:

100g of flour

70g of sugar

pinch of salt

4 eggs

300ml of milk

30g of butter

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

veg oil for frying

2 Bananas

100g of Hazelnuts lightly toasted

100g of chocolate (70%)

Method:

1: To make your batter place all your ingredients into a food processor and blend until combined. Pass this mix through a sieve and set aside until ready to fry.

2: Melt your chocolate in a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water and set aside.

3. Heat a non-stick frying pan with a little veg oil and once pan is nice and hot add a ladle full of your pancake mix and swirl pan until the mix has nicely covered the base of the pan, loosen the edges of the pancake and then flip until golden on the other side. Lay the pancake on a plate scatter with sliced banana and hazelnuts, fold and finish with a drizzle of melted chocolate.