The First Thing I Ate After Lent…

The First Thing I Ate After Lent…

posted by Erica deVeer, Writing & Editorial Intern (Spring 2013) on Friday, April 19th, 2013

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The First Thing I Ate After Lent…

Being a born-and-raised Catholic, each year I participate in the forty day fast that comprises the Lenten experience. Also being a self-declared “sweet-aholic,” those six and a half weeks of fasting every year are a time for me to put down the cupcakes and step away from the Twizzlers.

This year, I decided to abstain from another favorite food item of many—meat.

You must be thinking, “This girl is cray-zee.”  

I agree. I wasn’t sure how long this fast would last.

But, Lent being a time of sacrifice, I figured eschewing all mammalian flesh—no matter how juicy, how tender, how fatty and succulent—would earn me some points with the Big Man upstairs. Plus, Jesus ate mostly fish, so I could too!

Anything from the sea was fair game (oysters, shrimp, fish, scallops, crawfish), which, living in Louisiana where seafood abounds, might not seem like such a sacrifice. At times, eating foods such as crab-stuffed red fish, dripping in garlic butter from Riverside Inn in Broussard or freshly caught and boiled crawfish felt more akin to a spring indulgence than a Lenten immolation.

 

[A list of a few of the Editorial and Writing Interns’ favorite bacon obsessions: SwineSwag, Bacon Chocolate Peeps, Chocolate Bacon Bars, Chocolate-Covered Bacon at Renaissance Festival, Spreadable Bacon, Bacon Tape, & Mr. Bacon’s Big Adventure Board Game]

When stopping to pick something up at Wendy’s, I had to opt for the Premium Fish Filet sandwich instead of my normal Quarter Pound Hamburger. And when my boyfriend and I made homemade pizza, pepperoni and sausage did not dot the melted layer of mozzarella cheese but, instead, shrimp (which actually was quite delicious, though I had been skeptical).

Because those forty days leading up to Easter are used for fasting and abstaining, for me, Easter Sunday is a day to satisfy those longings for chocolate and nougat and caramel.

And this year, I added meat to that list.

Every year, my mom plans out the menu for all the big holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. She lists every course, down to the bread that will be served with our dinner. During Holy Week (the week before Easter), I talked with my mom on the phone about our upcoming meal.

“So what’s the menu for this year?” I asked, hoping for a juicy, fatty standing rib roast or a golden brown, smoked turkey with all the fixins. My mouth was already salivating in anticipation.

[I had never gone so long without meat.]

“It’s going to be really yummy. We’re having a seafood Easter!”

[Silence…]

“Oh.” I paused. “But Mom, I haven’t had meat in, like, 47 days,” I reminded her, immediately feeling like an ungrateful child.  

She had already planned a trip to Joe Patti’s Seafood in Pensacola and created multiple grocery lists with ingredients categorized by the store where she would likely find them. After realizing that my comments might have hurt my mom—who had so excitedly announced this nouveau style of “the big holiday meal”—I commenced damage control.

“So, what kind of seafood?” I asked, conciliatorily.  

My mom listed off homemade marinated crab claws for our appetizer, Oysters Rockefeller Soup from Brennan’s in New Orleans, and Trout Payton (named after the New Orleans Saints’ head coach, Sean Payton) inspired by Impastato’s in Metairie, LA, along with grilled vegetables, mashed sweet potatoes, and Sister Schubert dinner rolls.

Needless to say, once I heard this menu, I wasn’t so bummed about the no-meat-for-Easter-dinner-thing.

My mom—being the wonderful woman that she is—made a concession and decided that we could have steaks on Holy Saturday, the night before Easter, just for me!

[Fear not! Lent technically ends after Holy Thursday, as the Easter Triduum, a three-day liturgical season, begins, so this steak did not break my fast.]

Pictured: Sirloin Steak with Herb Butter at Clearly Delicious (recipe here).

And let me tell you, that medium-rare sirloin steak was marinated just perfectly with a slightly crisp exterior where the open flame of the grill had seared the meat.

It was worth the wait!

–Erica

To read about my first taste of chocolate after Lent along with some of my mishaps along the path to sweet satisfaction, read my post here.

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Erica deVeer is a recent graduate of Louisiana State University, with a Bachelor’s degree in English – Creative Writing with minors in French and History. Erica will be attending the University of New Orleans’ Master of Fine Arts program — the Creative Writing Workshop — to study and to write contemporary fiction beginning in the Fall. She also recently won the Undergraduate Fiction Award at the Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers Conference in April 2013 for her short story, “Summer.”

Brought up in a family of Louisiana foodies, Erica loves all things delicious, spicy, and, especially, sweet.

Contact: erica [at] clearlydeliciousfoodblog [dot] com

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