Family Food for Feast and Feria

This morning, Shawn Tribe who founded The New Liturgical Movement blog visited us at church with my friend David Clayton from Thomas More College in Merrimack, NH. We went out with fellow parishioner Phil Crotty before Shawn had to head out to the airport to head home.
So, having arrived home I went over to see the latests posts on the NLM blog. One of them is on resources for cooking and festival foods. One I had mentioned earlier, but the post below is a great survey of several books dealing with cooking and the liturgical calendar.

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Liturgical Year reading and cooking is one of my favorite things to do. I admit my focus has changed somewhat since our sons’ food allergy diagnosis, but I still love reading the traditions and foods connected to the liturgical feasts and seasons, otherwise known to me as “liturgical cooking” (but just to clarify that I’m not cooking or creating “liturgy” but being inspired by the liturgy).

Why do I do liturgical cooking? Because I can incorporate symbolism, culture, history, and catechesis in all different varieties through the foods I serve at the table. Meals are natural conversation starters. They are the perfect place to start discussing the liturgical season, saint or feast of the day, the connections with the food and the liturgy of the Church...

read the rest over at Family Food for Feast and Feria.

Summertime bobagandistic thoughts about the August Oklahoma Food Coop order
Summertime. . . and the living is HOT!

Bob Waldrop's been an online friend for years; his justpeace.org web site is a treasure trove of good stuff on the social teachings of the Church. But working for the poor, as Bob has done, always brings you back to thinking about food. And so his latest blog is about the Oklahoma Food Coop. His most recent post starts off below:

It’s August in Oklahoma, and as we all have no doubt noticed, it is HOT. It was 91 degrees at 11 PM last night on our outside thermometer. Today Oklahoma City seems to be getting a bit of a break, thanks to that cold front that moved through early this AM. We won’t break 100 today, yee haw. It will “only” be 95 degrees or so....

All of which is a rather round-a-bout way to getting to the point of expressing appreciation for our farmers and producers who don’t have the luxury of staying inside with the AC during this critical season on the farm. Just as they brave the freezing winds and ice storms of the winter, our farmers and ranchers continue to keep faith with their land and their animals and their production during the heat of the summer...

Read the rest of Bob's thoughts on local food, home canning, refrigerator and hot-canned pickles, etc at Bobaganda.

No dispensation for this Friday (St. Joseph) is needed

From Canonist Ed Peter's web site In Light of the Law:

That the general law of abstinence from meat on Fridays (c. 1251) does not bind on "solemnities" (like the Solemnity of St. Joseph, per c. 1246.1 and the Gen. Norms for the Lit. Year and Calendar) is so obvious that few commentaries bother to say "If the Solemnity of St. Joseph falls on a Friday, even in Lent, one need not abstain from meat." Nevertheless, the exemption from abstinence on solemnities is patent, and one need not bother pastors or bishops for a dispensation before enjoying a pepperoni pizza this Friday. Nuf said.

Read the rest at his blog, with a bit of commentary.

Hot-Stuff Shrimp Soup

Another cold, rainy late February night last night. So, to help warm things up, and help my wife Laurie clear her sinuses, I thought I'd experiment and try a spicy shrimp soup.

Ingredients

• 1 pound shrimp, raw
  
• 3 cups water
  
• 1 Tbs oil
  
• 3 scallions, diced
  
• 4 cloves garlic
  
• 2 dried chili peppers
  
• 1 sweet potato, peeled & cubed
  
• 1 zucchini, cubed
  
• 1 large carrot, peeled & diced
  
• 1 Tbs Southern BBQ rub
  
• 4-5 sprigs cilantro, minced

Put the shrimp and 3 cups of water in a sauce pot to boil.

When the shrimp is done, drain the water but save it...this will be the stock for the soup.

While the shrimp is coming to a boil, dice the scallions, peel your garlic, and in a second pot begin sauteeing the scallions, garlic, and chili peppers in the oil. After 2 minutes or so, remove the chili peppers, and add in the zucchini, carrot, and sweet potato, along with the water from cooking the shrimp, which should be done at this point.

While this is simmering on low heat, peel the shrimp and toss in a bowl with the BBQ rub. After the soup has been simmering about 12 minutes, put in the shrimp and let simmer another 5 minutes or so. Add in the minced cilantro.

Serve this with bread and a salad.

Soup and Bread Suppers

Our usual fare during Lent has become soup and bread suppers, since I started following the older Latin and current Eastern discipline of removing not only meat but also dairy and eggs from the menu during Lent. In a shocking concession to weakness, I have, after the first go at it 3 or 4 years ago, allowed oil (but not olive oil) in the kitchen during this season, but the flesh is weak.

For the past year and a half, I've been meeting on Monday nights, when my wife is working a late shift, with my organist friend Fred for supper and vespers. And last Fall we included a new companion, Robert, in our weekly meals and prayer. So, this week they got treated to a typical Lenten meal, Canadian Split Pea Soup with bread and salad. I cheated on the bread, and used a garlic cibatta loaf from the local supermarket, but the soup is home-made, from a recipe in the Horn of the Moon cookbook.



Ingredients

• 8 cups water
  
• 2 cups uncooked yellow split peas
  
• 1 tablespoon sunflower oil (or safflower, or canola)
  
• 4 large cloves garlic, minced
  
• 3/4 cup chopped onion (2 smallish onions)
  
• 3/4 cup sliced carrot (1 large carrot)
  
• 3/4 cup sliced celery
  
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  
• 1 cup chopped, unpeeled potato
  
• 1 cup chopped, peeled turnip or rutabaga (or double the potato)
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
  
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
  
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Bring water to boil in a 4-quart soup pot. Add split peas, lower heat to a simmer, and cover loosely. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour, until split peas are tender.
Meanwhile, set a 10-inch fry pan over medium heat. Add oil and when hot, add the garlic, onions, carrots, celery, and thyme. Sauté until tender. Add sautéed vegetables, potato and turnip to the cooked peas; continue to simmer. Add the salt, vinegar, pepper, and parsley. Cook the souop 30 minutes more, covered, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the peas have dissolved.

Shrove Tuesday
Our family has been keeping the tradition of pancakes for supper on the night before Ash Wednesday for many years. Even though all the children are away from home now, Laurie and I still kept up the tradition this year. Since we could indulge our more adventurous tastes, I made baked apple & pecan pancakes, based on a recipe from The Inn Cookbook.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Mix:
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Add 1 - 1/3 cups milk
3 eggs, beaten

pecans (about 1/2 cup)

peel, core and slice two granny smith or other tart apples

heat a cast iron skillet on the stove, add 2 Tablespoons butter, and brown half the apple slices. Add half the batter, then pop in the oven for 7 minutes. At the end of the 7 minutes, turn out on a plate, then slide back in the pan to cook on the other side for another 6 minutes.

If you have two cast iron skillets, you can do both pancakes at once. Otherwise, put the finished pancake on a warming plate and cook the second one.

Sprinkle the finished pancake with brown or demerara sugar and serve with maple syrup.

We added Canadian Bacon to the meal in honor of the Olympics this year : )

And that will be the last of eggs I eat until Easter!

Easter Feasting, pt. 2

The day started early; I rose at 5 a.m. to start the dough for hot cross buns (which we always have on Easter morn) and challah bread, which I frequently make for feast days. Then while the dough was rising, I chanted Mattins and then enjoyed my first cup of coffee since Mardi Gras, because I gave up coffee for Lent. Then on to baking the hot cross buns and challah bread, and making the deviled eggs which I wrote about last year.

We picked up my sister Cindy on the way to Mass and spent a little time after Mass visiting with friends there, before heading home to finish dinner preparations.



We had three guests for dinner, my sister Cindy, my friend Fred, and a former co-worker Margaret. After enjoying the Easter deviled eggs and antipasto, we sat down to a dinner of baked ham, lasagna, baked-stuffed potatoes, asparagus, carrots & peas, and a new recipe for this year, Maple Bourbon Sweet Potatoe Casserole.

Mashed Maple Bourbon Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

• 6 pounds sweet potatoes
  
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced (or orange, pace many commenters)
  
• 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
  
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
  
• 3 tablespoons bourbon (or Irish Whiskey?)
  
• 8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
  
• Pecan Crumb Topping, optional
  

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

Place the sweet potatoes on a foil lined baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until very soft to the touch. Remove from the oven and let cool 20 minutes. When cool enough to handle, peel them by hand and put the flesh in the bowl of a mixer. Using a paddle attachment, mix in the lemon zest and juice, maple syrup and brown sugar.

Place the bourbon in a small saucepan and place over high heat. Let it come just to the boil and then tilt the pan slightly towards you to set it aflame*. Add to the potatoes along with the butter. Mix well. Add salt and pepper and transfer to a 13 by 9-inch oven-safe casserole dish. (Recipe can be made to this point up to 2 days before, refrigerated.) Sprinkle topping over potatoes and bake for 20 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Alternatively, you may simply sprinkle the top of the casserole with a little bit of brown sugar and 1/2 cup chopped pecans.

*This method does not "burn off" the alcohol.

Pecan Crumb Topping:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
  
• Pinch dried thyme
  
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  
• 5 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into bits
  

Mix the flour, brown sugar, salt, pepper, thyme and pecans together in a small bowl. Add the butter and work with your fingers until a crumbly mass forms.

Lenten Fasting, Easter Feasting

It has been a long, thorough! Lent this year. Except for the solemnities of St. Joseph and Annunciation and Sundays, it's been no meat, eggs or cheese since Ash Wednesday.

I spent Holy Saturday splitting my time between church services and preparing for tomorrows dinner. An Altar Service at St. Athanasius in the morning, followed by preparing the chapel for tomorrow, was preceded and followed by preparing dishes for Easter dinner.

I went to the Easter Vigil at the chapel of the Sisters of Jesus Christ Crucified, near our home. I had a little extra time, since my friend told me the service would start at 5:00 p.m., and I got there at 4:15 p.m. to help set up and prepare to serve. But the time was 6:00 p.m., so I spent an extra hour in the chapel praying the rosary, singing Vespers and rehearsing the Exultet (which I didn't have to sing, as there was a cantor for that).

Tonight, after the Easter Vigil, Laurie and I dined on Indian food we prepared at home. Basmati rice, a chickpea-mushroom curry, potatoes and peas, and kashmiri kofta, a type of lamb meatball.

Kasmiri koftas

• 2 lb. (900 g) ground lamb
  
• A piece of fresh ginger, about 1 1/2 inches (4cm) long and 1 inch (2.5cm) thick, peeled and finely grated
  
• 1 Tbsp. ground cumin
  
• 1 Tbsp. ground coriander
  
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
  
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
  
• 1/8 tsp. grated nutmeg
  
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
  
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
  
• 1 1/4 tsp. salt
  
• 5 Tbsp. plain yoghurt
  
• 7-8 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  
• 1 2-inch (2.5cm) stick of cinnamon
  
• 5-6 whole cardamom pods (take the seeds out of the husks)
  
• 2 bay leaves
  
• 5-6 whole cloves
  
• 1 cup (225ml) warm water
  

Combine lamb with ground spices, salt and 3 Tbsp. yoghurt in a bowl. Mix well.
Wet your hands and form 24 long koftas - sausage shapes, about 2 1/2 - 3 inches long and about 1 inch thick.

Heat the oil in a large, preferably non-stick frying pan. When hot, put in the cinnamon stick, cardamon pods, bay leaves and whole cloves. Stir for a few seconds. Put in the koftas in a single layer and fry them on medium heat until they are lightly browned on all sides. Beat the remaining yoghurt into the 1 cup of warm water. Pour this over the koftas and bring to a boil. Cover, lower the heat and simmer for half an hour. To serve, lift the koftas out of the pan onto a serving plate, leaving the whole spices behind. From Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking.

Laurie and I have done a bit more preparation for tomorrow, including the antipasto plate below which I just finished assembling.



The cheeses are parmesan, cheddar, double gloucester, gorgonzola, and feta. There are two types of salami (one rolled in ground pepper), prosciutto, and cherry peppers stuffed with mozzarella wrapped with prosciutto. The vegetables are green olives, some stuffed with pimiento, others with sun dried tomatoes; kalamata olives; marinated mushrooms; and pepperocini.

Pope Benedict XVI's Lenten message focuses on Fasting

At the beginning of Lent, which constitutes an itinerary of more intense spiritual training, the Liturgy sets before us again three penitential practices that are very dear to the biblical and Christian tradition – prayer, almsgiving, fasting – to prepare us to better celebrate Easter and thus experience God’s power that, as we shall hear in the Paschal Vigil, "dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy, casts out hatred, brings us peace and humbles earthly pride" (Paschal Praeconium). For this year’s Lenten Message, I wish to focus my reflections especially on the value and meaning of fasting. Indeed, Lent recalls the forty days of our Lord’s fasting in the desert, which He undertook before entering into His public ministry. We read in the Gospel: "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry" (Mt 4,1-2). Like Moses, who fasted before receiving the tablets of the Law (cf. Ex 34,28) and Elijah’s fast before meeting the Lord on Mount Horeb (cf. 1 Kings 19,8), Jesus, too, through prayer and fasting, prepared Himself for the mission that lay before Him, marked at the start by a serious battle with the tempter.

We might wonder what value and meaning there is for us Christians in depriving ourselves of something that in itself is good and useful for our bodily sustenance. The Sacred Scriptures and the entire Christian tradition teach that fasting is a great help to avoid sin and all that leads to it. For this reason, the history of salvation is replete with occasions that invite fasting. In the very first pages of Sacred Scripture, the Lord commands man to abstain from partaking of the prohibited fruit: "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Gn 2, 16-17). Commenting on the divine injunction, Saint Basil observes that "fasting was ordained in Paradise," and "the first commandment in this sense was delivered to Adam." He thus concludes: " ‘You shall not eat’ is a law of fasting and abstinence" (cf. Sermo de jejunio: PG 31, 163, 98)...

You can read the full message on the Vatican web site.

Interestingly, today while working on the blog I do for work, I came across an article on fasting in the Los Angeles Times. In the article "Running on empty: the pros and cons of fasting", the author, while mentioning the support for fasting in "various religious and cultural practices around the globe", dwells on the possible scientific evidence for fasting's physical benefits. Pope Benedict refers to this theme in his Lenten message, noting that, "in a culture characterized by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one’s body," fasting is looked at primarily for its physical value.

But for Christians, the primary focus must remain on the spiritual aspect of fasting. The fathers of the Church noted that almsgiving and fasting are the twin wings of prayer. Pope Benedict refers to Pope Paul VI's Constitution on Penance Paenitemini, in which the earlier Pope taught:
"in our time there are special reasons whereby, according to the demands of various localities, it is necessary to inculcate some special form of penitence in preference to others.(60) Therefore, where economic well-being is greater, so much more will the witness of asceticism have to be given in order that the sons of the Church may not be involved in the spirit of the "world,"(61) and at the same time the witness of charity will have to be given to the brethren who suffer poverty and hunger beyond any barrier of nation or continent."

Interestingly, of course, there is probably less fasting in the richer nations; yet that is precisely whom Pope Paul VI singled out to be first in such disciplines.

The Boston Globe had an editorial on Farm Aid, Farmers' Markets and Community Supported Agriculture in the July 28th issue. While it's a bit of a cheerleader for Massachusetts, it does highlight the importance of local farms, and the ways that people can support local farmers, particularly Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) clubs.
Natually, I'd rather grown my own vegetables and fruits, but not everyone has the space or the time (my wife would say that I don't have the time!) to do so.

The garden is certainly growing vigorously this year, although we've picked up some sort of blight in the tomatoes (at least the early girls and the plum tomatoes). The cherry tomatoes seem fine and will be huge producers over the next few weeks as they start to ripen.

We've had some good zucchini harvest, but the squash plants are definitely looking pretty sad. Even the cucumbers are already looking worn out, and they've not produced much at all yet. It may be we've had too much rain this summer...July and August are usually pretty dry here on the South Shore, but this year the rain is never far away, and I've spent very little time watering. But that's made up for by the extra time I have to spend weeding!


The green beans are the stars of the garden this year. I've had more than we can eat, and have started bringing some in to share with my coworkers. I have some neighbors that will get the next batch of extra...which should be in a day or so.


The other crops are doing well also. We've harvested some Swiss Chard already, and are getting out Mexican recipes for our tomatillos.