Last night I sat down with three weeks' worth of menu-planning sheets and started trying to map things out for just in case I'm actually able to make everything I want to between now and Easter, and as I looked back through past years' plans for Lent and Holy Week, I realized how disappointing it was that I have a bunch of Lenten posts from 2013-2016, but my search terms brought up nothing from last year. Yes, I'm busy, and always tired, and it's hard to find time to write... But it's so good to have this record, too! And I know that I'll feel badly about it later if I continue to do such a poor job of posting. So, here is my "probably more wishful thinking than realistic plan" for this home stretch of Lenten observance (with feast days thrown in):
Saturday, 17 Mar: St Patrick
We are talking about St Patrick and Ireland in social studies this week; for supper, I'm planning Guinness moose stew with Irish cheddar biscuits, and my friend's mom's recipe for Guinness chocolate cake!
Sunday, 18 Mar: Passion Sunday
It's the annual "why do I suddenly have no purple fabric??" day! Time to cover all of the statues, icons, and religious art in the house. Unless I am actively in labor and thus am not home, this will definitely happen, because Little Bear has been excited about it for weeks and will happily help Matt take care of it.
Monday, 19 Mar: St Joseph
Instead of an Italian meal for the Solemnity of St Joseph, as we've done in the past, I'm planning a supper that Matt particularly likes (since we treat the day as a patronal feast day for him as a husband and father): chicken salad on homemade pretzel buns. Possibly a dessert; I haven't thought that far yet. No one would complain if I said they could have ice cream, though I'd like to do something more creative/intentional.
Sunday, 25 Mar: Palm Sunday (and Annunciation)
I know, I know; the Annunciation gets moved to after Easter so that it can be celebrated on its own instead of being overshadowed by the celebration of Palm Sunday, but we will definitely still be talking about how March 25 is exactly 9 months before Dec 25. I figure it won't hurt to use foods for both celebrations that day, either; chocolate waffles for breakfast, and psari plaki (Greek baked fish) for supper.
(Tuesday, 27 Mar is my due date... I've never yet had a baby wait until their due date, so the rest of this is fairly unlikely to actually happen...)
Wednesday, 28 Mar: Holy Wednesday
The day Judas betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Hopefully, we'll have Jidase buns with supper.
Thursday, 29 Mar: Holy Thursday
Persian lamb with almonds for supper. Holy Thursday is also the day we make Hot Cross Buns. If I'm on top of things, we will hopefully hard-boil and dye eggs as well. Probably not making the traditional red dye out of onion skins this year, though!
Friday, 30 Mar: Good Friday
Hot Cross Buns for breakfast. I grew up with potato soup for supper every Good Friday, but I love potato soup so it's not at all a penitential meal for me, and Matt particularly dislikes it... anyway, we don't have a traditional Good Friday supper yet. I tried for a couple of years to make lentil soup our traditional supper, and it did not work out. Maybe tuna salad or egg salad this year?
Saturday, 31 Mar: Holy Saturday
No promises, but the Italian Easter Bread that I always bake on Holy Saturday may be possible this year; it's always been a knead-by-hand-forever recipe, but the new stand mixer will definitely be able to handle the dough on its own, so there's hope!
What are your plans for observing the upcoming feast days and holy days?
Saturday we eat with John's parents. So St. Patrick’s day will be whatever Mom is making! We typically do Irish beef stew and soda bread.
ReplyDeleteSunday we're having our St. Joseph table because I have a co op meeting on Monday. We usually freeze extra pizzelles at Christmas to have at the table. I've made lemon drop pokes before, too. But I don't think they freeze very well. We skip desserts in Lent, so that's tricky.
I have always wanted to do something for spy Wednesday and always forget! What is your recipe?
Holy Thursday is usually hummus, pita, carrots, celery, and grapes to remember the last supper.
Good Friday is usually just simple food, as is Holy Saturday. I do my prep work on Good Friday for Easter.
We do a big Easter brunch for Easter. We get a sample blessed on holy Saturday I make lemon bread, ham, asparagus, lamb meatballs, grapes, and other stuff I can't remember right now. Lol. Eggs! We make eggs! Haha.
I make a bat here of cinnamon rolls for Christmas. I usually gift some to Mom, Dad, and Grandmom. We eat some Christmas morning. And we eat some Easter Monday! I originally though they would be good for Easter, but we have plenty of food and sweets! So it's something easy and special to extend the celebration.
We haven't covered our image sin the past, but is something I would like to do. But it involves buying fabric. And planning ahead.
We'll celebrate the Annunciation on April 9. I'm not sure how yet. Angel food cake with blueberry topping?
I'm sorry for all the typos! It's hard to proofread on my phone!
DeleteFor St. Patrick's day I made a. Irish steak and ale pie topped with puff pastry. Joey got me a cookbook from our favorite authentic Irish pub/restaurant years ago, which I like using on St. Patrick's day. I made apple crisp for dessert because we had a bunch of slightly bruised apples and it seemed kind of Irish-ish, lol.
ReplyDeleteSince St. Joseph's feast day is Joey's name day I always let him choose what we eat. We had tacos/burritos and Girl Scout cookies for dessert 😂
I want to make hot cross buns sometime during holy week, but since I really enjoy them I feel like maybe not for Good Friday? We don't have a consistent tradition for Good Friday dinner,but I'm thinking Spanish tortilla and tomato soup.
Holy Saturday is a day of mental conflict for me. I'd like to keep it more solemn and wait to celebrate till Easter itself,but this is when Joey's family has their Easter celebration. We will make bunny bread (sweet cinnamon bread shaped like bunnies, decorated with icing and jelly beans...) and order Chinese food for dinner so that no one has to cook. This year Lucy's boyfriend is being received into the church during Easter vigil,but I think we'll have to drive home before that because T is not one of those magical kids who sleep through evening Masses. We'll go to morning Mass on our own and probably eat ham, applesauce, potatoes, and asparagus. I probably won't cook dessert because we'll have candy from our baskets.