[Sca-cooks] Keeping Lent

[Lonnie D. Harvel]

Well today is the first Sunday of Passion Week: Palm Sunday. The season 
of Lent is over. (Not that it matters for our purposes.)

Last week I had little time for cooking, so I just avoided meat and 
dairy products. 

On Monday, I ate at a Lebanese restaurant, they had a vegetarian platter 
that fit the bill, I just had to ask them to leave the feta out of the 
salad. Tuesday, I ate left over veggies (butter beans, squash and 
onions, green beans) from what I cooked over the weekend. Wednesday was 
dinner at church. I skipped the meatloaf and just had the white, 
paste-like substance that was supposed to be mashed potatoes and field 
peas. The mashed potatoes were not good enough to have any real dairy in 
them, but if they did, they constituted their own penance. I am fairly 
sure that there was some ham used to flavor the field peas, but that did 
not occur to me until afterwards.  Thursday I was meeting with a large 
number of my students. It took some repeating, but I finally got Papa 
Johns to deliver a thin crust veggie pizza with no cheese (along with 
the other pizzas.) I figured I would have the leftovers, but it was 
devoured.  Friday I ate at a nice new Italian restaurant in 
Lawrenceville. I had eggplant sauted in olive oil and served with lemon 
and capers (the special that evening). It was served with a salad (no 
cheese) a side of sauted spinach and garlic, and a side of spaghetti 
with a tomato and basil sauce.  Yesterday I finished off the veggies 
from last Sunday.

Lunches varied from salads to fruit, with hummus and pita bread taking 
the place of my occasional cheese and crackers. I did play with some of 
the salads and dressings provided in the Saxon cooking book I got via 
the SCA bookstore. Very tasty. I had hoped to make the vegetarian 
cabbage soup that I based on recipes in the Domostroi, but ended up 
without the time. Oh, on Friday afternoon, a friend was defending his 
thesis. His family and friends provided home made Vietnamese food. One 
dish was chopped shrimp molded around sugar cane sticks and grilled. I 
couldn't remember what the decision on shrimp was, with regards the 
medieval observances, but I went with the modern interpretation that it 
was fish, and thus acceptable. (It was VERY acceptable! )

Under the recent traditions, I gave up fried food during the season of 
Lent, with the intent (encouraged by my doctors) to continue limiting 
them from here on. I was amazed how many things I never considered were 
fried. (by which I mean deep fried, though that is a bit of a silly 
distinction.) Tortilla chips were one that I had not actually considered.

Cheers!
Aoghann

ranvaig at columbus.rr.com wrote:

> Several people said they were going to keep Lent, during the last 
> week.  Sunday is a feast day, the fast starts tomorrow.  What are you 
> planning to cook?
>
> Ranvaig
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks