Hello! Welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook! I am so glad you’ve decided to join me today!
How did we already get halfway through February? And with Lent just around the corner? I mean, today is Fat Tuesday!!
I remember in my retail days, this was the time of the year I most enjoyed–the holidays behind us and the inventory we’d all labored, stressed and strained our way through at the end of January being only a slightly dyspeptic dream. February was a time of quiet contemplation. Doing inventory would have cleared out a lot of merchandise and gotten things cleaned up, so it was always like starting with a clean slate; it was a time to contemplate what was next and a time to take a much needed deep breath and appreciate the world around us, which was a nice feeling.
Lent is kind of like that. It’s a quiet time of contemplation and preparation when we can sort of clear out the clutter from our day-to-day lives. For Christians, it is a period when we spend time in prayer and meditation focused on Christ’s sacrifices and victory over temptations.
It’s also a time when a lot of folks give up chocolate–or booze–or television. As a child, I would always try to give up something like candy or chocolate. I never was able to go for more than a week or two. My brother was always successful in his Lenten resolutions because he would give up gum, which he never, ever chewed. As an adult, I remember that one year I gave up shopping for clothes. Mr. Stone Soup was delighted until he realized that giving up clothes shopping didn’t necessarily mean that I wasn’t going to shop at all. I swapped one vice for another by shopping for household stuff. Oh well!
Still another year for her Ash Wednesday sermon, our pastor told us that “God doesn’t hate chocolate!” and she urged us to think of Lent as a time of contemplation on what we could do to improve ourselves or our lives, rather than on what we could give up. This struck a chord with me and as I sat in the pew that Wednesday, I thought to myself “Mr. Stone Soup is such a wonderful husband and I love him so much–but I nag him constantly. That’s it! I’m going to give up nagging him for Lent.”
I got home, filled with a deep and abiding love and resolve, and here is what happened that evening: Mr. Stone Soup arrived home late from a long day at his very demanding job. I had made one of his favorite meals for dinner. He walked through the door, groaned and complained about how tired he was and–I swear this is true–he undressed down the hallway, leaving a trail of shoes, socks, pants, underwear and shirt in his wake before putting himself to bed without even saying “hello.”
I wasn’t able to keep my Lenten promise for even a day.
I shared my Lenten promise with Mr. Stone Soup and we both had a good laugh, and it was at that moment that I realized that God, in his infinite wisdom, had also given us the gift of humor–and thank God for that!
This year, as I started to write this post, I took a deeper dive into Lent and Lenten practices. Here is what Wikipedia has to say:
Lent is a period of “prayer, mortifying the flesh, repentance of sins, almsgiving, simple living and self denial.” Woof. Mortifying the flesh?
On some level, I look at Lent as New Year’s Resolutions, The Sequel, with a second, more potent helping of guilt. I have long since given up on trying to make radical lifestyle changes for the New Year, because I usually fail miserably at them, making me feel even worse than I did before making them. Lenten promises kind of feel that way, too–committing to something that you ultimately fail at just doesn’t seem to fill the bill.
As I read the description of Lent, though–one thing resonated with me: the idea of “simple living.” While I’m not entirely successful at it, simple living is something I definitely aspire to. My interpretation of “simple living” is what this blog is all about: embracing what we have in abundance, embracing abundant seasonal produce and embracing the simplicity of living within one’s means.
Therefore, this year, for Lent–and indeed, I hope for the rest of the year and beyond–my resolution is to live simply. And by “living simply,” I mean living abundantly–embracing what is already in my pantry and my refrigerator (not to mention my closet) and to use what I have rather than go out and buy new. This does not mean that I won’t be going to the market to get fresh and novel ingredients. It does mean that I will be planning my menus with more intention, using up what is in my refrigerator. This is not just a way to be responsible to one’s own pocketbook, but is also a way to be responsible to the world around us.
Thus, I begin this Lenten period with a recipe I put together for celery root soup. I rummaged around in the fridge and found not two, not three, but five bulbs of celery root–apparently I was expecting a shortage of a root vegetable that no one has even heard of. In the freezer, I found some pancetta. I always have shallots and garlic on hand, and I had carefully trimmed off the celery root bulb’s shoots and leaves. They were still crisp and fresh and from experience, I know that while fibrous, they have a lot of flavor.
This combination came together in true stone soup fashion and was absolutely delicious. I used it as a starter for a Bon Voyage meal for my dear friend and was a big hit.
It did not, however, use up all of that celery root, so tune into tomorrow’s post to see how I used up another of these bulbs. I’ll also be taking a deeper dive into the celery root itself, sharing some of its “roots” and health benefits.
Until then–
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
