Bella is flipping through a novena to St Gerard and wandering the living room, saying, “Hail Grace, womb Jesus; hail grace, womb Jesus; now and at death Amen; hail grace, womb, Jesus.”
Sophia is getting very good at getting that thumb into her mouth. She’s a thumb sucker for sure. Which is not a surprise because she was sucking her thumb in one of the ultrasound photos.
I always have trouble with the fact that fish is permissible on Friday during Lent. In New Orleans, that meant fish fries—usually all you can eat—which CERTAINLY wasn’t penitential. Most of my life, I have felt that I would ALWAYS prefer seafood of various kinds to meat. So yeah, I’m right with you on that one! There’s an Italian feast of multiple fish dishes that is traditional on Christmas Eve, hailing from the days when the eve of a major feast was a day of abstinence. It is illustrative of the way Catholics have generally turned a penitential occasion into a celebration—particularly Mediterranean Catholics, I have to say. . . I’d like to try that feast sometime! (Viva Food Network!) There’s a fish soup that I love at Whole Foods that I’d love to try to replicate, but I can’t remember the name. (it’s been too long since our last trip to Austin.) Do you have the Twelve Months of Monastery Soups cookbook? You would like it!! My strategy for Lent is to use canned tuna as “fish” when I can. . . One year I gave up shrimp. People around here can’t understand that, since it’s not much of a fish town—er, state. You know?
Mmmm fish fries. Definitely not penitential, but I’m sure very tasty. and in New Orleans they know how to cook fish too.
Actually we did a simplified version of the Sicilian custom of the “Feast of Seven Fishes” on Christmas Eve (Dom’s dad is Sicilian). We had four fishes: boiled lobsters, shrimp cocktails, stuffed clams and stuffed crabs. All orchestrated by Dom who made a last-minute run to our local fish market. Maybe this year we can do all 7.
I know we have some monastery cookbook, not sure if it’s 12 months of soups or not. i tend to go through cookbook in cycles. I “discover” one for a while, make a bunch of dishes, and then don’t pick it up for years.
Oddly, though Texas is not a fish state, the first time I ever had lobster was in College Station. I went with my dad (who owned a Catholic bookstore) to do a book fair at A&M.
Very cool! I don’t remember much of what I heard about the feast, but the traditional dishes made my mouth water. I don’t know the Italian side of my family (Viglia). I missed out on so much—like learning how to make fig cookies! Yum!