matzoh and lamb
I'm not sure I ever realized before how many holidays are around April. Forget Christmas, I'm having a hectic holiday season now! ;)
Granted, my brother's birthday (16 April) and my mom's (1 May) are not exactly national holidays, but that does mean two of my weekends are taken up with short trips home; the intervening weekend is completely absorbed by a LONG trip to Boston. First time to NEFFA, it's gonna be intense!
May Day is a slightly more common holiday, where 'common' means 'common among my ritual dancing friends'. Since the festivities are, of course, around sunrise on May 1, the practices gear up during April. e.g., this week, I have ritual practices 4 days out of 7 -- two garland, one longsword, and one rapper. Yes, I'm doing every type of ritual dance available to a woman in the Philadelphia area. :) Too badFortunately, there's no womens/mixed morris or molly side...
To top it all off, there are the religious holidays. Thus, when I wasn't at home this past weekend, I was in church for the Triduum. The religious holidays of this year's April, however, are particularly notable for the food entailed. I didn't have quite as sophisticated food as ceciliaregent had, but there was a lot of it, and it was hearty and homemade. :) Even if I'm not trapped by a college cafeteria anymore, it's still wonderful to have good homemade food.
After rapper on Thursday, chlomar brought me home with her for the second night of TOJ's family Seder, hosted at JtW's house. It made me feel special that Joanna thought of inviting me! :) A bunch of the crossover dancing crowd were there, and I briefly met TOJ's mother and sister. Since the table was already crowded, though, Chloe and I had a 'kids' table' in the kitchen; I was certainly less irritated to be at that kids' table than at most I've been forced to during my life! Anyway, there were two turkeys, a MASSIVE pot full of matzoh ball soup, popovers, broccoli, cranberry sauce, and two kinds of stuffing -- potato & onion and apple (the latter was amazingly tasty, and I don't even like apples). For dessert there was sponge cake, matzoh cake made from a whole box of matzoh, chocolate mousse, and nuts and chocolate. TOJ's mother, apparently, cooks for, like, an army. Jenny's had to host a couple parties to finish off all the food, hee! I spent the night there and briefly went into work with chlomar the next day, all of which was pleasant.
For the Great Easter Vigil, I went back to St. Mark's, where last year naamah introduced me to that kind of service. (For a Stations of the Cross service on Good Friday, and Easter morning mass, I went to my new interest, Old St. Joseph's. Perhaps I'll get around to a different entry on the services, but clearly, don't hold your breath.) Afterwards, there was a dinner. I'm endeavoring to stop eating so late at night, but...but...there was lamb! (I am really fond of lamb, and I just never have it very often -- my whole family doesn't like it, it's not as common on all menus, it's expensive if it is a choice, etc.) It was just baked, so nothing earth-shattering, but fine. There was apple&raisin salad, lettuce salad, this rice with some sort of sweet but savory spice blend that was earth-shattering (I observed the reaction jgracie had, which was the same as mine -- ::takes bite of rice:: blah blah YUM!!!), lemon bars made by the aforementioned, and cake in honor of the lady who was baptized.
Oh, and best of all? Wine at both those meals. :)
Granted, my brother's birthday (16 April) and my mom's (1 May) are not exactly national holidays, but that does mean two of my weekends are taken up with short trips home; the intervening weekend is completely absorbed by a LONG trip to Boston. First time to NEFFA, it's gonna be intense!
May Day is a slightly more common holiday, where 'common' means 'common among my ritual dancing friends'. Since the festivities are, of course, around sunrise on May 1, the practices gear up during April. e.g., this week, I have ritual practices 4 days out of 7 -- two garland, one longsword, and one rapper. Yes, I'm doing every type of ritual dance available to a woman in the Philadelphia area. :) Too badFortunately, there's no womens/mixed morris or molly side...
To top it all off, there are the religious holidays. Thus, when I wasn't at home this past weekend, I was in church for the Triduum. The religious holidays of this year's April, however, are particularly notable for the food entailed. I didn't have quite as sophisticated food as ceciliaregent had, but there was a lot of it, and it was hearty and homemade. :) Even if I'm not trapped by a college cafeteria anymore, it's still wonderful to have good homemade food.
After rapper on Thursday, chlomar brought me home with her for the second night of TOJ's family Seder, hosted at JtW's house. It made me feel special that Joanna thought of inviting me! :) A bunch of the crossover dancing crowd were there, and I briefly met TOJ's mother and sister. Since the table was already crowded, though, Chloe and I had a 'kids' table' in the kitchen; I was certainly less irritated to be at that kids' table than at most I've been forced to during my life! Anyway, there were two turkeys, a MASSIVE pot full of matzoh ball soup, popovers, broccoli, cranberry sauce, and two kinds of stuffing -- potato & onion and apple (the latter was amazingly tasty, and I don't even like apples). For dessert there was sponge cake, matzoh cake made from a whole box of matzoh, chocolate mousse, and nuts and chocolate. TOJ's mother, apparently, cooks for, like, an army. Jenny's had to host a couple parties to finish off all the food, hee! I spent the night there and briefly went into work with chlomar the next day, all of which was pleasant.
For the Great Easter Vigil, I went back to St. Mark's, where last year naamah introduced me to that kind of service. (For a Stations of the Cross service on Good Friday, and Easter morning mass, I went to my new interest, Old St. Joseph's. Perhaps I'll get around to a different entry on the services, but clearly, don't hold your breath.) Afterwards, there was a dinner. I'm endeavoring to stop eating so late at night, but...but...there was lamb! (I am really fond of lamb, and I just never have it very often -- my whole family doesn't like it, it's not as common on all menus, it's expensive if it is a choice, etc.) It was just baked, so nothing earth-shattering, but fine. There was apple&raisin salad, lettuce salad, this rice with some sort of sweet but savory spice blend that was earth-shattering (I observed the reaction jgracie had, which was the same as mine -- ::takes bite of rice:: blah blah YUM!!!), lemon bars made by the aforementioned, and cake in honor of the lady who was baptized.
Oh, and best of all? Wine at both those meals. :)