Can we talk about Fundies and food?

[Lurky]

My heart hurts for all the Fundy girls who are told slenderness is close to Godliness, and that they're sinning if they're not willowy-thin, because some women just aren't built that way.

I absolutely loathe Jill Rodrigues feeding her children Plexus weightloss (double doses for Big 22 Month Old Nursing Baby Sofia), and Zsu for literally starving her poor baby because she couldn't be bothered to get the tongue tie surgery she knew was causing her issues - but I think the worst one is poor 13 year old Heistheway White, who not only is being forced to diet, with her parents equating her body size directly to her morality, rather than to being a growing teen/taking after her large-framed father over her petite mother, but also making her write  book about it, so if she ever puts the weight back on (or even grow up to have a different build than her mother wants for her), she'll feel even worse. 

 

[EmiGirl]

I've never heard of appetizers  before an in home meal. I've seriously just thought appetizers were a thing when you eat out.

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

Before regular meals - no.  At holiday gatherings and entertaining - yes. At least in my practice and experience

[PennySycamore]

@Red Jumper,  you sound like me!  I not only like to eat good food, but to cook good food, too.  As the Penzey's Spices motto says,  "Love People.  Cook Them Tasty Food."  If I were the same height as Julia Child,  I wouldn't mind carrying a few extra pounds.  At 6'3", a woman carrying a little extra weight is statuesque.  At 4'11",  you're just plump.  

Eating is meant to be a social and pleasurable  experience.  It starts out that way in infancy and is meant to remain that way.  

[Red Jumper]

 @PennySycamore I can here you, I'm just 1.5" 'more statuesque'

and you know: 'We aren't short. We are concentraded awesome'

 

[smittykins]

Good things come in small packages! 

(I realize he wasn't fundie, but Jack LaLanne was supposedly quoted as saying "If it tastes good, don't eat it.")

ETA:  According to Google, it was "If it tastes good, spit it out."

[Seahorse Wrangler]

On 5/19/2017 at 11:43 AM, EmiGirl said:

I've never heard of appetizers  before an in home meal. I've seriously just thought appetizers were a thing when you eat out.

I've been known to make appetizers as part of a multi-course meal simply because I enjoy cooking good healthy food for the family. I probably do it every 6-8 weeks and nearly always on holidays.

[closetcagebaby]

21 hours ago, Seahorse Wrangler said:

I've been known to make appetizers as part of a multi-course meal simply because I enjoy cooking good healthy food for the family. I probably do it every 6-8 weeks and nearly always on holidays.

Yep, me too. I love a good charcuterie board! And it's good excuse to buy cornichons and use my fancy cheese boards...

[BlackberryGirl]

I do appetizers before every holiday meal, any time we have guests, and occasionally Sunday dinner. 

Last night We had our traditional once a year (usually) Sunday night supper of Strawberry Shortcake.. Just strawberry shortcake, plus milk for the kids, coffee for us. All you want, with whipped cream of course.

[SrMaryEloquentia]

Re: Meatless Fridays

I never got that one. Living 700 miles from the sea, I always felt like fish and seafood are a luxury, not some sort of sacrifice. 

In my region, though, there is a traditional Friday dish, "Maultaschen" (think big hearty ravioli) - they're supposedly meatless, but well, noone can look inside... That's why they are referred to as "Herrgottsbescheisserles" ("Cheating the Lord"). 

[NakedKnees]

On one hand, I agree that it's sad and scary that these fundie women (especially under IBLP) are under so much pressure to stay thin for their husbands.

On the other hand, I think that at least some of their thin builds have to come from stretching food budgets really thin.

On the third hand, I do think that many fundie women are more physically active than we assume (not that physically active=thin build). Sure, they're often bound by skirts and have older kids parenting the littles, but they're still on their feet lifting things and working with their hands quite a bit. Never underestimate how sedentary secular US culture can be. 

[PennySycamore]

@BlackberryGirl,  I'd love to come to your Strawberry Shortcake night!  That sounds heavenly!

[Red Jumper]

@SrMaryEloquentia "Servus" from east! I'm "only" 500km from the sea.
We need to keep in mind that back then (pre-industrial food production) fish was not that much more expensive than meat like it is today. Both were really expensive for the many people. During the warmer months the probably did not eat fish anyway. The rule "no fish in months without 'r'" (as in English that is May to August) is obviously based on the lack of cooled long-distance transportation. 

People always cheated:
- Not everything we consider meat today was "officially meat" in the sense the RC twisted the rules. At the time when you had like 250 meat-free days a year
a) all animals living partially in or near water were "fish".  This included animals like goose, duck, beaver (was still eaten here in the 18th century), turtles (I have a regional (!) cook book with recipes from the middle 19th century which contains at least one recipe for turtles), frogs (same), snails (same),...... That's the reason why some regions here eat goose on Christmas evening (my family is in the other 50%-group: fried carp or go hungry).
b') meat from young animals were "fish". So veal is OK on Friday. Tough not many people could afford to slaughter an already expensive animal with more potential to grow. Some couldn't even afford a cow.
- So many regions developed some "ravioli-type"-dishes: 'Maultaschen' for you; I recommend 'Kärtner Nudeln' (="Corinthian noodles" are traditionally filled with curd+potatoes and mint), 'Schlutzkrapfen', and Tirteln.
- My home region is famous for it's many sweet (main) dishes (example with explanation Wikipedia: Buchteln or "Krautfleckerl" which is small square pasta mixed with cabbage which due to cooking and the caramelized onions tastes sweet: picture). So we basically ate soup+dessert on many a Friday. 

However, most popular is fried fish (we are part of the overfishing problem of plaice). All diners/pubs offer it as main course of the Friday meal. Even some university (state funded) cafeterias and some small foreign cuisine eating places f.i. Chinese keep with custom. I call it a custom as the majority of people attends mass/service only at weddings, funerals, baptism and confirmation

Now I'm drooling over all the sweet dishes that I didn't share with you. I hope i can contain myself at the grocery store . There is no need for waiting until Friday for going meat-free, right? Riiiiiiight????
 

[LadyCrow1313]

20 hours ago, BlackberryGirl said:

I do appetizers before every holiday meal, any time we have guests, and occasionally Sunday dinner. 

Last night We had our traditional once a year (usually) Sunday night supper of Strawberry Shortcake.. Just strawberry shortcake, plus milk for the kids, coffee for us. All you want, with whipped cream of course.

Let us know when your next Sunday Strawberry Shortcake extravaganza will take place; we'll even bring extra strawberries!   

[Jellybean]

How funny - I'm making strawberry shortcake as we speak (lucky husband)!

@Red Jumper those Buchteln look amazing! My brother lives in Vienna and they have a fabulous cafe there that specialises in them. Just a teensy bit jealous of brother for that.

I haven't come across Krautfleckerl before, but I'm definitely interested. Can you recommend a recipe?

[Hane]

@Red Jumper, when my father-in-law was a college student in the Midwest back around 1930, he told us that turtle qualified as "fish" on Fridays.

[Seahorse Wrangler]

13 hours ago, Red Jumper said:

@SrMaryEloquentia
a) all animals living partially in or near water were "fish".  This included animals like goose, duck, beaver (was still eaten here in the 18th century), turtles (I have a regional (!) cook book with recipes from the middle 19th century which contains at least one recipe for turtles), frogs (same), snails (same),......
 

Darn it...now I'm hungry again.

 

The first time I went shopping in Montreal I came across frozen frog's legs and both frozen and tinned snails and was shocked. I knew they were traditional French dishes but seeing them readily available was ..discomforting at first.

I have had escargot but frog's legs ...Nah! Just can't bring myself to try them.

 

[Jucifer]

1 hour ago, Seahorse Wrangler said:

*snip*

I have had escargot but frog's legs ...Nah! Just can't bring myself to try them.

 

There is a food market here downtown. I've been there a few times. The coffee is so-so. There is a pastry shop that is awesome.

The last time I went, there was a kiosk selling fresh frog legs. I almost fainted.

[Red Jumper]

@Jellybean i will post a recipe in the fj food forum...just not today and perhaps not tomorrow.. i got some extras in real-life this week (party, work late, party....) but i will let you know. i found a couple of recipes online but none is what i do, so i have to rewrite/simplify them

[pamplemousse]

15 hours ago, Seahorse Wrangler said:

The first time I went shopping in Montreal I came across frozen frog's legs and both frozen and tinned snails and was shocked. I knew they were traditional French dishes but seeing them readily available was ..discomforting at first.

I have had escargot but frog's legs ...Nah! Just can't bring myself to try them.

Frog legs are delicious. They do taste somewhat like chicken. A few of them breaded and fried...yum. Just sayin'.

[SrMaryEloquentia]

@Red Jumper You're right, people cheated all the time.

Also, in old timey Bavaria, there was beer !

When the monks started brewing big time in the Middle Ages, they wondered, how much beer per monk per day was okay. St. Benedict 's rules only mentioned wine. So a barrel of beer was sent accross the Alps to Rome. The Pope didn't like it much and declared: drinking beer is penance, so you can have it any time.  Hence the honorable tradition of very strong beers in Lent!

[Seahorse Wrangler]

19 hours ago, pamplemousse said:

Frog legs are delicious. They do taste somewhat like chicken. A few of them breaded and fried...yum. Just sayin'.

I think it's probably something I may once eat in a restaurant as I'd have no idea how to cook them at home.  it's only been 17 years since I moved here so there's still plenty of time.

[LadyCrow1313]

On ‎5‎/‎23‎/‎2017 at 9:02 PM, Seahorse Wrangler said:

The first time I went shopping in Montreal I came across frozen frog's legs and both frozen and tinned snails and was shocked. I knew they were traditional French dishes but seeing them readily available was ..discomforting at first.

I have had escargot but frog's legs ...Nah! Just can't bring myself to try them.

 

First time I went into a new Oriental grocery store (that opened up in my area about 5-6ish years ago), I walked past their live seafood area. In addition to various fish types, they also had boxes of live frogs & turtles, & that threw me way off. I do realize, of course, that different cultures have different foods/etc, and I truly have no problem with that. It was just shocking to me to see the live animals waiting for purchase.  

In the times that I've popped back in the same store, I've noticed that they don't have those boxes out anymore (so I don't know if they've gotten complaints about it, or maybe keep them in the back & out of view).

Mom used to love both escargot & frog's legs, but I could never try them. But that's ok; it's more for those that do like them. 

[ViolaSebastian]

There's a Catholic Chirch here that has been making turtle soup during Lent for decades, in lieu of the traditional fish fry. I'm going to try it out next year. 

[Candydandy]

Food and fundies interest me due to the size of the families. Lots of kids means lots of food. I run out of interesting ideas for dinner with my 3 kids, I cant imagine with 12 or more. I also wonder why the Rogrigi dont show more family meal types of posts. Whats more wholesome than a large family giving thanks for a homecooked meal? I guess the pink drink takes preference.