26 August 2013

Recent Liturgical Planning

Liturgical meal planning, that is. We haven't been doing a whole lot to celebrate feasts and memorials for a while now, but over the past few weeks I've managed to work some slight nods to different days into our menu:

Saturday, August 10: St Lawrence 
Legend has it St Lawrence was martyred by being roasted over a fire and maintained a sense of humor to the end, saying to his executioners, "Turn me over; I'm done on this side." Matt says this makes me a terrible person for having grilled zucchini and sausage for dinner that night... but I'm teaching Little Bear about the lives of the saints! Okay, I'm still a terrible person...

Tuesday, August 13: Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners
Refugiam Peccatorum is an ancient title of Our Lady, dating back to at least St Irenaeus in the late 100s. It has more recently been associated with Our Lady of Laus, a 1600s apparition in the French Alps (approved by the Vatican in 2008), because she asked for the conversion of sinners. With that in mind, we roasted chicken with a blend of French herbs and served it with polenta and a green salad.

Wednesday, August 21: Our Lady of Knock
Irish soda bread, of course, with a hearty soup; I originally planned an Irish stew with Guinness and lamb, but lamb is so outrageously expensive that we wound up with a much less Irish ham-bean soup. 

Friday, August 23: St Rose of Lima
I'm not well-versed in Peruvian cuisine, but we did make something of a production out of dinner that night since St Rose is one of my patronal saints: Parmesan-crusted halibut, spiced carrots, baked beans, and fresh rolls with strawberry-rhubarb jam!

Monday, August 26: Our Lady of Czestochowa 
The Black Madonna! I've always had a devotion to this image of Our Lady, and been fascinated by its amazing history. Polish fare tonight - Polska kielbasa, pierogi, and root vegetables (carrots, onions, kohlrabi) roasted with marjoram and parsley.

Wednesday, August 28: St Augustine
I'm unhappily expecting both Matt and I to still be sick Wednesday, at least me since I got this awful bug last, so I sadly can't count on putting a lot of effort into dinner that night. Fortunately, among his various patronages, Augustine is a patron of brewers: I'm making Italian sausage calzones, to be accompanies by a nice pint of beer (but not for me if I'm still this sick... we will see).

So that's how we've been trying to incorporate the liturgical calendar and the various feasts and memorials into life around here lately. Sometimes it's a bit of a stretch, I realize, but we have fun talking about the feast days and why I came up with what I did, and it brings the saint of the day into our dinner conversation, so that's something, right? 

If anyone has any suggestions for coming feast day meals, I'd love to hear them!

7 comments:

  1. You are far more creative than I...

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  2. I suggest locusts and wild honey for the martyrdom of John the Baptist...

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    1. Tough luck... I think the frost the past few nights has knocked out our locust population. You'll have to catch some down there and let me know how it goes... Maybe Ben wants to come over for dinner on Thursday?

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    2. hey hey, don't invite people over to my house for me :-) and Ben has PDP stuff all evening anyway, so I'll have to eat locusts all by my lonesome.

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  3. I have a note on my calendar to celebrate Thurs Blsd Teresa of Calcutta with Albanian food: hummus, naan, and baklava. No idea where I came up with that menu, but it looks yummy!

    The 12th is the Holy Name of Mary...make pretzels in shape of M A R Y.

    On the 14th I have written "Catholic Culture mentions the tradition that sweet basil grew over the hill where St. Helena found the Holy Cross. In Greece the faithful are given sprigs of basil by the priest. A suggestion is to cook a basil pesto, tomato basil or some other type of recipe that includes basil, and explain the meaning to the family. "

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