No Woman's Land

Here we are, at a point of historic convergence. In  2021, Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras are separated by only 24 hours.

And we all know what that means. The cheapo supermarket chocolates you pretended to be thrilled by yesterday are now sharing the kitchen with the makings of your Fat Tuesday feast.

I figure it's all good for at least five pounds.

Ah, Mardis Gras. Carnevale. Farewell to the flesh. Time to finally thaw those steaks you ordered online last December, because it'll be awhile before you can make them for a relaxing, end-of-the-week Friday dinner again. Actually it's a good time to clear out the whole freezer- I bet there are a few mail-order Chocolate Volcano Cakes in there somewhere. Get rid of 'em before Lent, people!

Lent used to be so much tougher. Fasting every Friday, no food between meals. "Did you just do that? DID YOU JUST PUT A JELLYBEAN IN YOUR MOUTH? Get over here! Spit that out!"

And when dinner time finally did roll around, well, sometimes you got lucky with plain cheese pizza, or shrimp chow mein. Not too often, though. Pizza was way too much fun for Lent.

Living in the Midwest as I do, I have been introduced to the concept of a "casserole" (or "hot dish," as we say in Minnesota).  As far as I know it's usually made with ground beef, but there are canned tuna varieties. One protein, lots of noodles, some kind of creamy soup from a can and a topping of something crushed, like potato chips or cornflakes.  

Or Tater Tots.

My first week in Minnesota a couple of teenagers came rushing up to me in the freezer ailse of the local grocery store. It was around 5 o'clock, also known as last-minute dinner shopping time. "Excuse me ma'am can you tell us what we need for tater tot hot dish?" What? Tater Tot Hot Dish? What thehell was that? I was completely weirded out. When I told them I didn't know what TTHD was, they were weirded out. It was a mutual weirding out. Those poor kids, I wonder if they ever got dinner that night.

In heavily ethnic New York / Long Island , we didn't do casseroles.. On meatless Fridays Italian kids had soups made with pasta and beans, and Irish moms like mine attempted to copy them. Spinach and bean soup is cheap, filling and delicious, if you use the right amount of garlic and maybe a sprinkling of parm. There was never a mention of "casserole." For years I thought "casserole" sounded exotic. Possibly French.

Which gives me an idea. I'm going to haul out the old Julia Child books and see if she has anything to say about "casseroles." Who knows, maybe she was a fan.