I was browsing a tournament cookbook that the wonderful Ariane of Renaissance Food had sent me - I was trying to create a menu for an event that followed my new dietary restriction. So what is that new restriction? I'm still figuring it out. Non-militant vegan? Loosely vegan? Vegetarian? Well rather than struggling to define it with a blanket term, let me break it down for you here. When I order the vegetarian pho at my favorite pho joint in town, I don't sweat about the broth probably being watered down chicken broth. When my friends lovingly roast a beautiful chunk of meat and veggies, I'll eat the veggies and avoid the meat. Cross contamination happens and I don't really want to ruin all the effort someone put into cooking for me to grill them about the content of the food. When I cook for myself, I do try to avoid the animal products because I just don't buy them. When I'm cooking for a tourney and people with diverse dietary needs, I'll keep it vegetarian and vegan if possible. Seems pretty simple to me.
I wanted to compile a list of recipes but thought it rather selfish to keep them all to myself, plus I needed the motivation to try them out prior to just throwing them together at an event and then serving them to my friends for dinner. Thus, Lenten Everyday was born.
While I am not religious and Lenten is a religious observance that occurs about 6 weeks before Easter, Lenten fasting does involve abstaining from meat, eggs, and dairy. Sometimes fish was allowed. According to this Tournaments Illuminated article on Recreating Medieval Lent, the fasts were broken on Sunday, which is something I will not be doing. Coquinaria also has a nice summary of Lent here.
The goal is to experiment with 2-3 recipes per week at minimum, translating and redacting them (if necessary), preparing them, and feeding both my willing and unwilling friends and family. I'm not limiting the recipes to certain time and place, just generally pre-1600s.
I wanted to compile a list of recipes but thought it rather selfish to keep them all to myself, plus I needed the motivation to try them out prior to just throwing them together at an event and then serving them to my friends for dinner. Thus, Lenten Everyday was born.
While I am not religious and Lenten is a religious observance that occurs about 6 weeks before Easter, Lenten fasting does involve abstaining from meat, eggs, and dairy. Sometimes fish was allowed. According to this Tournaments Illuminated article on Recreating Medieval Lent, the fasts were broken on Sunday, which is something I will not be doing. Coquinaria also has a nice summary of Lent here.
The goal is to experiment with 2-3 recipes per week at minimum, translating and redacting them (if necessary), preparing them, and feeding both my willing and unwilling friends and family. I'm not limiting the recipes to certain time and place, just generally pre-1600s.
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