Mardi Gras

Today is Mardi Gras, which is French for Fat Tuesday - also called Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday. We've come to the end of the season of Carnival, which starts on Epiphany (January 6) and ends at Lent. Fat Tuesday is always 47 days before Easter Sunday.

Agenda Today:

1. Journal queries

2. Make carnival corn soup

3. Make a screen mask

4. Spring cleaning progress

1. Journal queries:

Tomorrow is the start of Lent. At Lent I spend time each day in focused study and prayer, I choose something to fast from, and I also observe Lent as a time of creative action. By now I have some idea of what my theme for study and action will be, but today I will pin it down.

What is the big thing I want to learn and attend to this season? How do I want to grow? 

What is a good symbolic thing to temporarily reduce or cut out of my life, as a reminder of how I want to grow?

From my journal: I'm attending to the land, my garden, and the plant and animal people. And to awareness of awareness (wake up!). I want to grow in rootedness and awareness, and take some more steps down the path of being an Earth-Quaker.

2. Make carnival corn soup with dumplings:

You can see three dumplings in the center of the bowl.

One place with a fantastic Carnival season is Trinidad and Tobago, an island republic in the southern Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela. They celebrate for a month, with calypso music, steel band contests, limbo competitions, and fêtes (French for parties), and finish with street parades on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

This is a favorite Trinidad carnival food, served by vendors outside of fêtes and street parties. It is one of the most delicious soups I've ever eaten.

Ingredients:

• 1 yellow onion
• 1 stick of celery
• 1 Tbsp. fresh thyme
• 1/8-c. fresh cilantro
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 medium potato
• 1 carrot
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• red pepper flakes to taste
• 4 c. vegetable or chicken stock
• 1/4-c. dried yellow split peas
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• can of cream-style corn

Dumplings:

• 1/2 c. flour
• 1/4 c. cornmeal
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• pinch of salt
• pinch of cayenne
• 2-3 Tbsp. water

Yield: about 6 servings-

1. Chop the onion, celery, fresh thyme, and cilantro. Mince the garlic. Also, peel and dice potato and carrot.

2. Heat oil in a soup pot. Add onion, garlic, carrot, and red pepper flakes. Sauté 3 minutes. Add the celery, potato, and thyme and cook five minutes more.

3. Add stock, yellow split peas, cilantro. and salt and pepper. Simmer partially covered for about 1 hour.

4. While the soup is simmering, make the dumplings: Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, a pinch of salt and a pinch cayenne, then gradually stir in just enough water to make a stiff dough. Knead until smooth then let sit for 10 minutes.

5. When the split peas are tender, add a can of cream-style corn.

6. Roll the dumpling dough into a thin log, and pinch off small pieces to roll into fat, short worms. Drop them into the soup, and wait until they rise to the surface. If the soup is too thick, add a little water.

2. Make a screen mask:
The Cajun celebration today in rural Louisiana is called the Courir (pronounced Coo-REER) de Mardi Gras, or the Mardi Gras Run. It’s a begging ritual, similar to Halloween; people ride around the countryside on horses, wearing masks and costumes, and beg for ingredients to make a gumbo.

My students with their screen masks.

The traditional disguise is a painted wire screen mask, a conical capuchon (pronounced cap-e-shon) hat, and a raggedy fringed shirt and pants. For instructions, look here.

4. Spring cleaning progress:

In March I take the first steps of spring cleaning / maintenance - those big jobs that get put off through the winter months.

The big job I've started this week is to scrape, patch, and repaint the bathroom ceiling. Yesterday I took off the fan cover and patched the big hole in the plaster.

Today I hope to sand the patch, and add a smooth layer of spackle.