Orthodixie

As we begin our shared journey to our Lord’s Passion, I fall down before you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, asking your forgiveness and wishing you all a spiritually profitable Fast.

Forgive me. Pray for me.
Unworthy Priest Joseph

With the Great Fast (Lent) starting Monday for Orthodox Christians, the following suggestions come from St Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church, Wichita, Kansas. Recipes, using the ingredients (or substitutes), to follow.

Noodles … Be careful of packaged noodles, most have part of egg or milk in them. Replace noodles with pastas or vegan noodles.

Mayonnaise … Most brands have milk, egg, or both.

Margarines … If you really want to fast, check your margarines for whey products. A soy margarine is always free of whey. Some vegetable oil margarines are also lacto-free.

Eggs … If absolutely necessary, use an egg substitute. It tends to make recipes more difficult; you may wish to just get a better recipe rather than determine how much egg substitute it takes to make your recipe work.

Cheeses … Placing a small bowl of shredded cheese on the table for the [pre-fasting aged] children is an acceptable way to make their meals more appealing to them; as well as adding to the lack of calcium that a vegan diet inherently has.

Broths … Meat broths can be replaced with vegetable broths. If you use bouillon cubes, remember not to add any salt to your recipes, as the cubes are very salty.

Gelatin, Jello & Marshmallows … While these products were once considered animal, the process to create these removes the finished product so far from the animal make-up that Orthodox Rabbi’s consider it Kosher for non-meat uses. This seems good enough for most Orthodox Christians. (Vegetable based gelatins are also available.)

Peanut Butter & Tahini … what can I say?

Chocolate … is really Milk Chocolate and can be replaced with Cocoa or Carob (chocolate chips can be replaced with carob chips).

Alcohol … Apple Cider is a great substitute for white wine, and sometimes sherry or red wine.

Desserts … As a host during lent, remember that many people give up desserts and sweets. So keep fresh fruit in a decorative bowl or basket on your table for your guests. The diabetic guests will also appreciate this.

With the Great Fast (Lent) starting Monday for Orthodox Christians, the following suggestions come from St Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church, Wichita, Kansas. Recipes, using the ingredients, to follow.

To stock a Lenten Pantry you will need …

+ dried fruits (raisins, currants, apples, cranberries, apricots, prunes, coconut flakes)
+ fresh fruits and vegetables
+ candied peels, mixed
+ dried beans (black beans, soy beans, navy beans, red kidney beans, great northern beans, mung beans, etc)
+ dried legumes (red lentils, green lentils, brown lentils, chick peas, black eyed peas, split peas, etc)
+ seeds (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, poppy)
+ nuts (almonds, cashews, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, walnuts)
+ herbs & spices (peppercorns, old bay seasoning, mint, others to your taste)
+ herbal teas
+ flavored coffees
+ frozen juice concentrates
+ carob (chips, chunks and powder)
+ nondairy creamers (liquid & dry)
+ nondairy whipped topping
+ rose water
+ baking cocoa
+ lenten flavored baking chips
+ non-alcoholic wines & sparkling waters
+ canned fruits and vegetables
+ tomato juice, sauce, paste (& V-8)
+ canned beans & legumes
+ a variety of pastas (check labels for content)
+ lenten breads (purchased or homemade)
+ soy products (soy milk, tofu, tempeh, soy sauce, etc)
+ lenten bouillon cubes (vegetable, mushroom, onion, etc)
+ vegetarian gravy mixes
+ curry powder
+ ketchup, mustards, pickles, relishes, chutneys
+ lenten mayonnaise (no eggs, no whey)
+ asian sauces (black bean, garlic, peanut, etc)
+ taco sauces and relishes
+ lenten margarine (no milk, no whey)
+ egg replacer (no whites!)
+ tahini (sesame seed paste), peanut butter
+ flavored vinegars (apple cider instead of alcohol)
+ vegetable oils (sunflower, soy, peanut, sesame, walnut, etc)
+ honeys, jams, maple syrups, corn syrup
+ barley, cornmeal, oats, wheat germ, wheat
+ rices (brown, cracked, whole, wild, etc)
+ flours (rice, bleached, wheat, all-purpose, etc)
+ vegetarian chili (canned)

The strange thing about the Michael Jackson trial is that the supporting actors are more interesting than the star. The weirdness of the King of Pop is so overexposed that no new revelation can shock. Either Jackson is a complete lunatic who slept with young boys and didn’t fondle them or he’s a complete lunatic who slept with young boys and did.

Oh wait. Maybe it’s this one …

“Is it true that your father used to say you had a fat nose?” Jackson theatrically averts his head at the ghastliness of this memory and then says with a half-weeping snicker: “Yeah . . . You want to die. You want to die. . . . God. It’s hard.”

You could argue, I guess, that the Fat Nose memory is the Rosebud in Jackson’s life, inducing him to internalize self-loathing racial stereotypes to the point that he ended up bleaching his skin, straightening his hair like Morticia in “The Addams Family,” and hiding the offending proboscis beneath a surgical mask even after its many surgeries had turned it into a pencil point.

Nope. No, it’s gotta be this one …

An interview with Jackson’s ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley by Chris Heath in Rolling Stone in April 2003 would support the “secretly sane” theory. “I was always saying [to Jackson] people wouldn’t think I was so crazy if they saw who the hell you really are,” Presley told Heath. “That you sit around, and you drink and you curse and you’re [expletive] funny and you have a bad mouth, and you don’t have that high voice all the time. I don’t know why you think that works for you, because it doesn’t anymore.”

Then again …

Ms. Presley, to be sure, has a reason to portray Jackson as less bizarre than people assume. Marrying someone most people regard as an extraterrestrial freak didn’t do a whole lot for her image.

One more …

If this were true, of course, it would also mean Jackson is just a plain old garden-variety ped, albeit one who instead of hanging around public playgrounds built his own at Neverland.

And the winner is …

Harder to figure out is the behavior of the alleged victim’s mother, who handed over her sick kid to sleep in the bedroom of a previously accused child molester.

All of these are found in the Tina Brown piece in today’s Washington Post.

Thanks: Drudge

For Orthodox Christians the Great Fast (Lent) begins this year on Clean Monday, March 14th … leading up to Pascha (Easter) on May 1st. The traditional fasting rules have been posted on the Antiochian Archdiocesan website for handy reference. As always, those with questions and concerns about the Fast should speak with their Priest and/or Spiritual Father.