If you don't have a plan for dinner tonight yet (and I'm amazed I actually do, since "meal planning" hasn't existed in my house since before Linus was born), may I suggest making the ever-delicious Pasta Carbonara? This is a dish I first tried when I visited Rome in college, and I looked up the recipe as soon as I got home. It's a perfect dish for Mardi Gras, as it uses so many of the ingredients that were traditionally forbidden during Lent: eggs, cream, cheese, and bacon (!).
This is the recipe I use, though I typically reduce the amount of bacon, because - and this is not something I ever say - there's simply too much bacon.
Fettuccini Carbonara
|
 |
Submitted By: Sarah W. Lennox
Photo By: mobiousz
|
"Bacon, shallots, onion and garlic, cooked in a thick creamy sauce, and tossed with fettuccini."
Ingredients:
5 teaspoons olive oil
4 shallots, diced
1 large onion, cut into thin strips
1 pound bacon, cut into strips
1 clove garlic, chopped
|
1 (16 ounce) package fettuccini pasta
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
|
Directions:
| 1. | Heat olive oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Saute shallots until softened. Stir in onion and bacon, and cook until bacon is evenly browned. Stir in garlic when bacon is about half done. Remove from heat. |
| 2. | Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente. Drain pasta, then return it to the pot. |
| 3. | In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks, cream, and shredded Parmesan. Pour the bacon mixture over the pasta, then stir in the cream mixture. Season with salt and pepper. |
*****
Some Lenten practices we're going to try as a family this year:
Keeping the house sweet-free: no candy, cookies, juice, etc. during Lent (except Sundays!). But if we are out of the house, and someone offers the kids a piece of candy or something, I'm just going to let it go. I'll be reminding the kids why we're doing this, but I have a feeling that the first week or so will be filled with some whining and complaining.
Printing out Lenten calendars that the kids can color in each day as we get closer to Easter. Catholic Icing has a good one, or check out the one at Pondered in My Heart if you follow the traditional calendar (it includes Ember Days, Passion Sunday, etc.).
A crown of thorns to use as a sacrifice-counter. This is a very similar idea the manger that our kids add "pieces of hay for baby Jesus" to during Advent. Except in this case, each time they make some sacrifice during Lent, they will get to remove a "thorn" from the "crown of thorns." I bought a grapevine wreath for $5 at Michael's, and we'll stick some toothpicks in it to represent the thorns. I'm not certain whether the kids are quite old enough to really get this one yet - baby Jesus did not, as it turns out, have a very cushy bed by Christmas morning! Either way, it will make for a good Lenten centerpiece on the table.
Stations of the Cross. We say a family Rosary every night before the kids go to bed. On Fridays of Lent, we'll switch to saying the Stations of the Cross, using the The Way of the Cross by St. Alphonsus Liguori (the booklets only cost a couple bucks, and are definitely worth having). We also have a couple new Stations of the Cross chaplets, which I'm looking forward to using with the kids (similar to this).
Baking pretzels! Pretzels are traditionally a Lenten food (and the recipe contains only Lent-friendly non-animal ingredients), and can help teach kids about the meaning of the season. This one is still my favorite recipe.
That's it, so far. Every Lent, I think about how the focus is meant to be on "prayer, fasting, and almsgiving." And I always struggle to know what to do with the almsgiving part, especially with the kids. If you have ideas, please share them with me!
What are your families doing to observe Lent this year?
We are on the EXACT same page, my friend (like, down to the stations of the cross on Fridays and crown of thorns)! We go meat free, too, but I told the kids (well, John Paul was the only one who was concerned) that if we're out at someone's house and they're offered meat, that's fine. I'm trying to figure out almsgiving with the kids, too - they tend to save any money they have for the collection at church already (including John Paul's prized $2 bill!!!) so I'm not sure what would be meaningful for them...
ReplyDeleteWe are on the EXACT same page, my friend (like, down to the stations of the cross on Fridays and crown of thorns)! We go meat free, too, but I told the kids (well, John Paul was the only one who was concerned) that if we're out at someone's house and they're offered meat, that's fine. I'm trying to figure out almsgiving with the kids, too - they tend to save any money they have for the collection at church already (including John Paul's prized $2 bill!!!) so I'm not sure what would be meaningful for them...
ReplyDeleteWe have had the kids give alms in the past by making a small sacrifice, canceling Netflix say, and telling them how much money that saves us and giving them that amount for the collection plate. It's hard to tell how much that sinks in for them, that this $15, or whatever, would have gone to Netflix, but will help the poor instead. I'm sure they understand a bit more each year.
ReplyDeleteI'm considering making it an 'internal' lent this year. I haven't worked it out in my mind yet, and I still need to talk it over with my husband...um, tonight I guess? But I want to just put the penances and the sacrifices to the back burner and just work on my interior life you know? Prayer and peace. We lost a baby last week, which I only mention because, man, I knew that of course things like this change your whole life for a certain amount of time, but I was not prepared for how little motivation I would have for even such seemingly unrelated things like, giving up chocolate for example. I don't know if I can deal with all the added stuff, and I think that my energies might be better spent just concentrating on the prayer aspect, but I need to figure out if that's just me making excuses. We will at least be doing some extra projects with the kids. They love Stations of the Cross.
We love starting up the Stations of the Cross on Lenten Fridays also! I don't know why we don't just do them all year...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recipe. Might have to try it out!
Have you heard of Operation Rice Bowl? They are a great organization. Many churches use them in their parishes during Lent. They also include a page of recipes from the different countries that they help so that your family can try different foods. We enjoyed making them last year. Normally, in our house, we sit an almsgiving jar in the center of our crown of thorns for all spare change and extra alms. We used to donate that to our Church's food pantry, but we have moved Nd are in a new parish so I'm not sure where our money will go this year...I'll have to check with our Priest to see where it could be used :)
ReplyDeleteWe also use operation rice bowl. :) The recipes and videos are great, though your kids may be a bit young yet. It is great for the almsgiving part, and I encourage my kids to do little chores to earn money for the rice bowl too. We also have a crown of thorns...I make ours out of salt dough, but I really need to buy one. we keep a bowl in the middle for the pulled thorns. And this year, my two year old kept climbing up on the table and putting the thorns back IN the crown, ha! Well, the poor crown couldn't take it all and fell apart the first week of Lent.
ReplyDelete