"cooking Up" A Vocation...?

[Feankie]

As another fervent cook looking for some new recipes for this winter that never seems to end......PLEASE post the recipe?!

[AnneLine]

mmmmmmm I was thinking the same thing!!!!!   :eat:

[MarieLynn]

I was part of an active/contemplative community, whose charism was nursing, and our meals were nourishing and plentiful. There was always meat at the midday meal, potatoes and veges, and usually a pudding e.g semolina, sago or rice, with stewed fruit. Sausages and gravy on major feastdays for breakfast, otherwise it was cereal and fruit with toast and coffee. The evening meal was always soup, followed by a a savoury dish of some description. Bread and butter was only put on the tables for the evening meal, and a basket of fresh fruit passed around. Morning and afternoon break was a cup of tea, supper was a cup of milky cocoa.

As a postulant I rapidly gained weight, and was asked to practice self restraint, our postulant mistress was always encouraging us to eat well, as they didn't want us fainting thru lack of food, but when I went to the Novitiate, I lost quite a few pounds which was not altogether surprising, as we did more manual work then, than we did as postulants. Even tho' we mini fasted on 4th Sundays as postulants, we were not introduced to major fasts until we were novices - 8 days in July, and 4 days in December. During those times we did not have desserts, and meat was substituted by fish or eggs, potatoes were substituted by pasta or rice. I was never a pasta fan, and found the days we had pasta quite a challenge, but one I had to conquer, as fussy eaters were not encouraged, and would be given a second helping, if it was observed that anyone passed the dish on without serving a moderate amount onto her
plate. Those were the days!!

[brandelynmarie]

I'm really enjoying this thread...Max, I'm really surprised that there wasn't bread during fast periods in your former community. Was this particular just to this community? When I think of fasting, I do tend to think of having bread! ;)

[maximillion]

Our bread ration was restricted during the long fasts (we had the same fast periods as Carmelites), so there WAS bread, but only 6oz (125grms) per day, and you could choose which meal you ate it with, so if you had it at breakfast (most did) there was none for the rest of the day.

 

I will look out the recipe and reproduce it here.