Traditions: Lent? For Non-Catholics?

   Lent.  What is it?  If you're above a certain age, you'll think of people spending a Wednesday in February with a cross of ashes on their foreheads, not eating meat on Fridays (if at all) and otherwise a high level of austerity for several weeks.  A bit mysterious, it might seem. That was largely the way of it, for Catholics, for many years.
   After Vatican II (the counsel held in 1964), many aspects of Catholic life changed.  One of the more significant, I suspect most people old enough to recall would say, was that change away from such specific regualtions about Lent.  Now, people both within the Catholic church and many non-Catholic Christians choose to keep Lent in some way.
   Mostly, from my experience, there are special devotions available, many churches have mid-week meals and prayer services that aren't held the rest of the year, and some people individually decide to give up something in their lives for the duration of the Lenten season.  I grew up with some observation of Lent at our PC-USA church, but not doing it at home with giving anything up.  We now are members of an Orthodox Presbyterian Church congregation but attend a Nazarene church right now because of the lack of an OP congregation near enough. (Confused yet?)  At any rate, it seems that some people we know have given something up and some haven't. 
   This is the second year my family has done this, and it is seeming to be a good decision so far.  My husband has given up soda, I've given up the silly series books I read*, and the children are substituting their usual cookies in the afternoon with crackers or applesauce.  These are tiny sacrifices to make, to remind us that this is a time set apart to remember the biggest sacrifice anyone ever made, when Jesus gave up his life for His people.
  
*I'm one of a surprisingly large group of adults who are Babysitters Club fans!  Unlike some fandoms, we don't define ourselves by the BSC, and many people don't even know about it!

Traditions: Washington's Birthday

    Well before my memory, Lincoln's Birthday (February 12) and Washington's Birthday (February 22) were celebrated widely, and separately.  Alas for our historical knowledge, we've lost that in the shuffle of creating three-day weekends and Monday holidays.  More's the pity. But that hasn't stopped us from maintaining one old tradition!  Purportedly, George Washington was particularly enamored of gingerbread.  It's served for the occasion at Washington's Crossing State Park in NJ.  I always make a pan of it for our family.  
   Last year in a group of recipes a friend gave me was a different gingerbread recipe, and it has supplanted the one I'd used for many years.  This recipe follows:


1 3/4 c flour
2 t ginger
1 t cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 allspice
1 t cocoa powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3/4 c molasses
3/4 c sugar
1 stick butter, melted and cooled
1 egg
1 c buttermilk, at room temperature.
    Grease 9" square cake pan.  Whisk together flour, spices, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
   Beat molasses, sugar, and melted butter together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until combined, about 2 minutes.  Beat in egg, then beat in buttermilk, scraping down bowl and beaters as needed.  Add dry ingredients, increase the speed to medium , and beat until batter is smooth and thick.  Pour batter into prepared pan and sooth the top.  Bake until skewer comes out clean, about forty minutes.
   

Tradition: Shrove Tuesday pancakes

    A common tradition in many communities and churches, is a pancake supper on Shrove Tuesday.  This is the only year I recall going to an actual supper at a church, but usually I make pancakes at home for the family.  Because my husband is working tonight, I decided not to do it at home.  A church down the street (walking distance, yay!) is putting on a supper, so the children and I are going there. (A little bit funny that I'm writing this ahead of time!)
   I seem to recall that my paternal grandmother ("Nan" Barry) was enamored of pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, but I could be remembering it a bit more than was really the case.  At any rate, if you've had pancakes or doughnuts or otherwise observed this last day before Lent begins, do comment.

Traditions

   Still being very new to blogging at all, I'm often hard-pressed for something to write about.  I think as they come along in our lives, I will try to post about the many traditions we have. 
   A lot of people think traditions are formal, or have to be longstanding, or cultural.  Not necessarily.  You can establish them for your own household- my mother's joke with me is that if I've done something twice [in the same context], it's become a tradition. They can be serious or silly, recurring every month, year, or as they arise (such as weddings, births, moves, promotions, etc).  They can be anything you want, as long as you find them important in your family's and friends' lives.  
   Oh, yes- there are also the Cottey traditions.

Italian cooking

     My parents have a style of cooking that doesn't really fit any description: my dad makes things up as he goes along and usually ends up with something more-or-less German or Pennsylvania Dutch.  My mother cooks quite by the rules and in a variety of styles. 

     I, on the other hand, tend often toward Italian food. 



  Is this the result of being married to a partly Italian man?  Is it the result of being best friends with a fully Italian guy who also just happens to be a chef?  Is it because Italian food is accessible to make with a flair?  I think it's all of the above!
 
    Now, to anyone who knows me well, and/or knows what Cottey College is, you'll not be surprised at my mentioning the Cottey College cookbook as a source for wonderful recipes.  Earlier in the week I made an Italian recipe from the book, namely Bruschetta Cheese Toasts. 
 
    The original recipe calls for garlic bread slices from the grocery-store freezer section.   Rather than that, I took slices of the very good bread my husband makes, and turned them into what I call "cheat" garlic bread.  This means I buttered them (in this case on both sides) and added garlic powder and a tiny bit of parmesan cheese.  Then they went into the oven until toasted on each side. 


    From there, I followed the recipe far more closely, adding grated mozzarella cheese before another go in the oven, and the tomato mixture once the bread was all cooked.  It was quite good!

Fashions in Food

    It seems a bit funny, at first, to think of foods having changing fashions the way clothes do.  But when you stand back and look at what people eat, what they avoid, and how those change, you can see them.    It becomes that much more evident when you look at older cookbooks.
   Two things I've noticed about former fashions, based on 1950s cookbooks, and those are dates and nuts.  Many, many, recipes call for these.  Many cookie and brownie recipes include nuts.  Chocolate-chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, and various other recipes, even to using walnut halves as garnish.  We've made candy that includes nuts, too.  However, right now the nuts in question are pecans, because I received two pounds of pecans as a Christmas gift.  Yes, as a gift!  For an enthusiastic baker, that IS a good gift.
   Dates are quite uncommon as an ingredient nowadays, and aren't the most evident item in the grocery store. In our commissary they're on the top shelf above where raisins and such are; things that are in low demand are always shelved above eye-level.    Still, the 1950s books have a large number of recipes using dates.  One Junior Cookbook recipe upcoming is a Date-Marshmallow log.  It's quite sweet, as I recall from having made it previously, and uses whipped cream and graham cracker crumbs. We'd never come up with these combinations now, but it's worth trying the old fashions!