I knew what he was going to say as soon as he walked into the room. He was holding a pen and a post-in note pad. With an ear to phone, I asked my sister to hold for a minute. Tom was getting ready to write me a note, but said it instead.
Portillo’s
Tom and I both grew up in traditions of meatless Fridays, especially during Lent. Old habits die hard – not that I’m trying to kill them off, mind you. I appreciate setting aside a day without meat or a time for fasting and I respect the tenets that honor this.
Tom’s Lenten Fridays were more in the tradition of salmon patties. Mine were of lentil soup. I always have been interested in what others had for dinner on Fridays. In fact I still am. A simple supper of tomatoes on a platter with hard-boiled eggs, some Feta, a drizzle of olive oil and some crusty bread work for me. Smelt fried in batter with a bit of lemon were a treat growing up and, once on my own, I made a pretty good tuna casserole.
What do you serve if you observe no meat on Friday? Do you do a fast for communion or a spiritual cleansing? What is a quick dinner for you or a favorite vegetarian meal.
I would often make peppers and eggs on Fridays, tucked into some good Italian bread, especially when our girls were around Lately, Tom and I have enjoyed a quick trip for lunch to an area hot dog/Italian beef chain come Friday.
Portillo’s.
Like many eateries in the Chicago area, they serve pepper and egg sandwiches during Lent on Fridays.
We each had one today!
I ‘observe no meat on Friday’ or the other days either. :<) (couldn't resist, sorry!)
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Ha! I know you don’t, Nan. I also know you post some of the tastiest recipes around.
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This is so funny. I hadn’t thought of smelt in years, and today I remembered a memorable meal with friends during college in which we pigged out, so to speak, on fresh smelt, deep-fried. Oh, they were delicious!
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They’ve come up in a few conversations of mine lately, Teresa, so I must be thinking a bit about having them. They are delicious. My dad would fish for them off of a Lake Michigan pier in early spring with nets. I remember him going out, very early in the morning, still dark, with fishing pals, and coming home with with buckets of fish. We were allowed to eat them, bones and all, and I can still see my grandmother standing at the stove, frying them.
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That pepper and egg sandwich looks delicious, I can almost smell it! But I’ll bet you’re childhood lentil soup was even better! I’m a vegetarian so meatless Fridays don’t mean much to me, but I’ve given up my morning Everything bagel for lent!
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Oh, it was, Janet. I can see my grandmother, the head cook in the house, sitting and sorting the dried lentils and I knew what we would have for supper. I will often order lentil soup at a restaurant, and know which ones make it like Yia Yia did. The Grapevine in La Grange is close to her recipe. Good for you for giving up that Everything bagel.
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Around here everyone goes to the Depot for fish. Buffalo, catfish, fillets, etc. It has little to do with meatless Fridays any more. It is just what people do. Some of us go to the Depot, some go to a place called County Line, The Approach, River Crossroads, River View. It doesn’t matter the name of the place, it is always some delicious, unhealthy deep fried kind of fresh water fish. It is just something country folks do.
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I imagine you get some of the best fish meals down there, Janet, and even more so when the fish are biting for Fishin’ Pals. Here’s to country folks.
As I mentioned above to Teresa, my dad would go fishing for smelt in early spring, bringing home buckets full. Yia Yia would fry them up and we kids could eat as much as we wanted, bones and all, because they were so small. Oh, dear, all this talk about fish and smelt are leading me down a path of gluttony I fear.
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Sounds delicious. I no longer eat red meat at all. Yesterday I made courgette fritters with feta and egg, and they were scrumptious.
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We call courgettes zucchini here, Juliet (I looked it up) and my mouth is watering just thinking about those courgette fritters. The bounty of summer there in New Zealand. We often had those same fritters in late summer as a child and they were so delicious with my grandmother’s skill. She also made fritters out of pumpkin. Enjoy this bountiful season.
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Oh I remember no meat Fridays! In the novitiate we .. once in a blue moon.. were given a “free day’.. prayers in private and free to do as we wished all day! Oh bliss! Sr Janet and I decided, regardless of the rain, to find something in the big walk in ‘fridge’ for lunch and take it like a picnic down the wild gully amongst the arum lillies. We sat, in our raincoats, rain dripping off our dimities, munching on cold sausages. Bliss. Then we remembered.. it was Friday! What to do. We decided it would be wasteful.. so we ate them. How strange it was when later the church changed the rules. Somehow our universe altered and we learned things that always seemed inviolate could be questioned.,,
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Oh, Joan, you paint such a wonderful scene with Sr. Janet, the sausages, the lilies and the rain. All those rules we grew up with and then all the changes that came about, making me wonder and question these things. Here in Chicago, St. Patrick’s Day on March 17 with its corned beef and cabbage is a very big thing. It’s always a hoot when it falls on a Friday and dispensation is given to eat the corned beef.
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In the UK there used to be a tradition of eating only fish on Fridays. I suspect a religious reason but am not certain… it might possibly be connected with your ‘no meat on Fridays’?
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Your fish on Friday tradition is likely connected, Cath. I think, for most, it is a religious observance, but, I suspect it originally came out of necessity. By the time the lenten season rolls around, there was less meat to be had, but the hens would likely be laying, beans and such would have been stored – natural reasons for fasting.
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I didn’t have a very religious upbringing, Penny, but I remember that my mother always insisted we had fish on Good Friday. DH and I don’t eat much meat at all nowadays and today I will be making carrot and lentil soup with home-made bread for supper, having had mixed salad with beans for lunch.
if I remember rightly, the Orthodox tradition has always been known for the severity of its fasts, with no flesh of any kind during Lent in the past, though that may have changed nowadays.
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Oh, your supper sounds wonderful, Perpetua. My mouth is watering just thinking about your lentil soup and home-made bread.
Yes. Orthodox fasts are stringent and I don’t think have changed much, except where medical conditions apply. No meat, poultry, dairy products, etc. and nothing after midnight for a morning communion. One year, as a teenager, when I was quite pious and full of myself, I decided to fast for communion for an entire week. I was being more stubborn than religious, but, I did it. I never did it again, however, I did find other ways to be full of myself.
One of the most beautiful Greek Orthodox services for me, to this day, is the midnight Easter service when the lights are dimmed, candles are lit, and all proclaim in an ancient chant that Christ has risen.
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Oh, I love the Easter Vigil too, Penny, with the lighting of the new fire and the candles and in our tradition the singing of the Exultet. Talking of the Easter vigil one of my favourite choral works is the Rachmaninov Vespers, written for this service. It is so beautiful.
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I am sure I would love the Rachmaninov Vespers, Perpetua. I must see if I can find a recording. I am sure I would find great expectation and peace in your vigil service. Thank you.
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I just listened to a few recording of the Rachmaninoff vespers. Beautiful, beautiful choral works.
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I remember those delicious pepper and egg sandwiches and, right now, wish I could eat one (we do have a loaf of Italian bread . . .hmmm)! Since we’ve been at the church we are at, we have observed a corporate fast during January. While this has been great new tradition, I have been missing the Lenten traditions, especially this year. Not that we can’t do both, but they end up falling so close together that we haven’t done so.
Will you make some briammi?
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Not hard to make, Katy. I’m sure you have some peppers around and some eggs and I’m thinking Pat would enjoy a sandwich as well. I think your corporate fast is so wonderful and it leads up to Lent and It is not too late to incorporate some of the other traditions.
Hmmmm. I just may have to do that, Katy. Lots of tomato sauce, vegetables, herbs, and bread. Oh, dear child, you now have me hungry for this tasty dish.
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I love those treats we get used to over the years, Penny. Portillos’ sandwiiches sound lovely!
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It is a Chicago institution, Kate, with parents shipping their hot dogs and beef sandwiches to their kids in college. We like our food here in and around the City of Big Shoulders (and windy politicians).
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Penny, I must make a point to have MTM take me to Portillos the next time we’re up that way.
He was reared Catholic and observed no meat on Friday. Leave it to Milwaukee to turn that into a gorge-fest called Friday Fish Fry. We’ve done it a couple of times when we’ve visited family, and I’ve never eaten so much in my life. Finished off with Kopp’s, it verged on the obscene.
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Oh, you must for an Italian beef sandwich or a hot dog. I know, I know, they aren’t good for you, but, you must try one or the other. You probably end up on interstate 294 to Milwaukee – plenty of stops along the way.
Milwaukee does a Friday Fish Fry the best, I’m certain, Andra.
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We grew up with meatless Fridays too. I remember the fish n chip shops would always be so busy on a Friday night with families queuing up for newspaper wrapped packages. My mother wouldn’t let us have fish n chips though, said they weren’t good for us. We had to have an open salad sandwich. I know what I would have preferred!
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I don’t know, but I like the idea of those newspaper wrapped packages, as we never had fish n chip shops here. I would have preferred the fish n chips too, but, your mom was right.
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My husband was raised with more of the meatless Friday tradition than I was and so although it wasn’t part of my upbringing, I’ve tried to be mindful for him. We do eat a lot of good soups, and that with crusty bread always satisfies me anyway! Eggs, too, but peppers and eggs sounds really good! I would like to give that a try! It has been funny a few times when either one of us has observed something particularly dietary for Lent and then we need to accommodate one another’s fast. We never discuss it in advance, and sometimes don’t need to afterwards, but occasionally it has tripped me up! Debra
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All in the rhythm of being mindful of each other, isn’t it Debra? We’ve certainly encountered that over the years, especially when one of us gives something up for Lent. I think it is all good in helping to observe the season of Lent, or any other season of religion or life for that matter.
I love good soups, anytime, even in summer, and yes, oh yes, with a loaf of crusty bread, yum!
Growing up, we would sometimes have eggs and zucchini when they were in season. Of course, now, we can get these vegetables any time of year. Just make sure to saute, steam, or microwave the veggies the add them to the eggs as they are cooking.
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Salmon(mackeral more likely) patties or loaf were our Friday meal when my mother was alive. My sister favored tuna melts. Often I would spend the night with my friend in town to go to a ball game and her mother’s favorite was macaroni and tomatoes. That was definitely NOT my favorite. My choice is probably tuna and noodle casserole – my husband likes fish but I do not. Meatless Fridays really are a Lenten penance for me.
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We had tuna melts on for dinner this past Friday, Joyce. Our neighborhood was full of folks who observed this and I always wanted to hear what they liked. Personal tastes, tastes of spouses, ethnic cooking, what was available, all played, still do, I suppose, into this. I do it now more because I can rather than I have to. I can see how it would be a penance for you.
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We eat a lot of meatless meals, although we’re not as highly evolved as Nan! And I love eggs for dinner — usually a veggie omelet — any day of the week, any season.
Growing up Catholic with a father who hated fish, I always thought I knew what was meant by Friday being a day of sacrifice. When I visited friends where they ate fish (smelt, salmon….) it felt like a Feast instead of Fast-Day!
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Here’s to Nan! I love her recipes and have tried many of them.
We have eggs for dinner often, Sallie, and I think I enjoy them more at dinner than at breakfast. I’m with you on this.
Sounds like you and Joyce, above, did the same kind of penance. How I loved the smelt. I’m hoping to find some in local stores soon for a tasty meal of my past. Haven’t had them in years. I imagine those visits to friends did feel like a feast to you.
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Dear Penny,
I’ve been a vegetarian for over thirty-one years–so no meat, fish, or chicken ever. One of my favorite vegetarian recipes is from the first edition of the Moosewood Cookbook. It’s called Cauliflower Marranca. Another favorite is from a vegetarian cookbook that features soups. It’s tomato-lentil soup.
Peace.
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I think I have that cookbook, Dee. I’ll see if I can find it and if I do I will try that Cauliflower Marranca, but, to me, there is nothing like a good lentil soup.
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