Peony Moss: March 2010 Archives

The Suburban Banshee comes to the defense of corned beef-and-cabbage against the Authenticity Police -- and shares the secret history of Irish cowboys! Who knew?

Of course corned beef and cabbage is primarily an American Irish dish. What do you think the Irish were eating in Ireland back in the 1840’s, before they had to immigrate?

1. Nothing, once the Great Famine started. The potatoes were all blighted, a lot of other crops got too much rain to thrive, and the price of all other foodstuffs went up drastically.

2. Potatoes and cabbage, before the Great Famine started.

As for me, I skip the CB&C, not because it's Insufficiently Irish but because I just can't stand the stuff. I made the Guinness Beef Stew this year. Yum yum!

Deal Seeking Mom brings news of a free download of a cookbook by Rachel Allen ("one of the hottest TV chefs in Ireland", per Harper Collins) (and it's really an abridged version with recipes "selected by Kerrygold", but it's still free.)

The coupon code is KGLD-0319-2010-RACB and is good for the first 10,000 downloads. (Well, only 9,999 at most; I've already downloaded my copy.)

From the Bishop of the Diocese of Arlington to his flock:

I invite you to take part in a day of prayer and fasting on Monday, March 15 for protecting the life, dignity, health and conscience rights of every human person in any legislation that Congress considers. I also invite Catholics to pray and fast for this intention beyond March 15.

In moments of concern and crisis, Catholic tradition through the centuries has unfailingly urged the faithful to turn to the spiritual aids of prayer and fasting in order to draw closer to our Lord and His will. Through these deliberate actions, we communicate a desire to avoid sin and unify ourselves with that which is right and good. I firmly believe that, working together while open to God’s wisdom, the citizens of our nation can respect the dignity of each human person both in law and in practice

The complete letter online

From the prosaic (baking mix, baking powder, mayonnaise) to the esoteric (mascarpone cheese, marshmallows, Kahlua): ingredients you can make at home

The recipe says that chicken planks are "Kinda like Chicken Fingers, ONLY BETTER." Not being a connoisseur of chicken fingers, I couldn't say if these are better, but they are positively GOOD. My husband loved them.

The recipe's here. I tweaked it by marinating the chicken in salted buttermilk and adding a dollop of reserved bacon grease to the frying oil.

YUM. YUM. I might make them for myself for lunch tomorrow.

Elementary school students sound off on the demotion of Pluto

HT Jen.

When Hambet was in kindergarten, he came out of school one afternoon in tears because his teacher said that Pluto wasn't a planet any more. He took that to mean that Pluto had been destroyed! It took a while to reassure him that Pluto still existed and now had its own category. I wonder if kids have a soft spot for Pluto because it's "the smallest."

On Catholic Exchange:

"If you think in terms of... an obsessive-compulsive disorder but add to it a spiritual and, most particularly, a moral component then you have what we call “scrupulosity.”

Scrupulosity is so-called because the Latin word scrupulus means a sharp little stone. Everyone knows what it is like to have a little sharp stone in a shoe. It can be the most expensive pair of shoes in the world, but that little stone ruins everything. You might be able to walk for miles, but it is killing you all the time. It is like having a tiny little speck in your eye. It’s a scrupulus, a tiny, little, sharp stone. Those who experience scrupulosity experience this tiny, little, sharp stone, as it were, in their consciences, in their very beings, which keeps them constantly anxious, constantly concerned and, above all, constantly afraid...

Scrupulosity always involves fear: fear of dying without being able to get to confession, fear of not being forgiven by Almighty God, fear of going to hell."

On Catholic Exchange:

The point of this parable [of the talents] is pretty obvious. Even a child would tell you that it means we are supposed to use the gifts that God gives us. He will hold us accountable for what we do with them. It seems rather straightforward. Use our gifts well and they will multiply. Ignore them and they will stagnate. What happens when this doesn’t go according to plan, however?

As one of my friends pointed out, the story needs a fourth servant. The fourth servant is given his talents and he (or in our case, she) goes out and tries to do all she can with her talents. And she fails, repeatedly. Nothing multiplies. Every effort comes up short. In an economic comparison, she invests all she has in the stock market and the stock market has crashed. When the master returns, she has little to show for her efforts, except a bucketload of tears of frustration. As my friend said this. I nodded enthusiastically. Yes, this is where I fall in this parable. I imagine many other people feel this way as well....

Ah, but the Master has not returned yet!

Our parable isn’t done being written yet. Maybe God has some plan we just can’t see. Maybe our work, our talents, is bearing some fruit we are unaware of.

Sometimes the talents that we think that we're offering to God aren't the talents that God is putting to work. The servant who has not fared so well in the stock market may have learned skills that will be valuable to her next assignment-- for example, learning to set up the castle computer so that she could set up her online trading account.

Another example: think of the church lady who plugs away at a project that seemingly comes to nothing. She thinks she has been offering talents of organization, web skills, industry. She looks mournfully at the empty sign-in sheets and the dwindling treasury, the website with no hits, and think that she has nothing to show for her efforts.

The Master, however, observes how the church lady has mastered the use of the giant old percolator in the parish kitchen (partly out of self-interest, since she is fond of coffee) -- and has become the "go-to" person for percolator lessons. She has also managed to drop hints to some of the other organizations about the better-tasting supermarket coffees out there. (Costco Columbian in the big can) The discouraged church lady thinks that she's squandered her two talents on the flagging project, but the Master is looking at the returns from the percolator project. His flock now have much better odds at getting drinkable coffee at the donut hour -- and at other occasions: there is the two-talent investment with the two-talent return.

The Master is a long-term investor, not a day-trader. He reaps where He does not sow. The fourth servant may be sweating now, but he hasn't been called to the accounting yet. He may enter the chamber and gasp with surprise, "See! I have made five more". The last shall be first. Lord, have mercy on Your bumbling, unprofitable servants.

Feminine Genius Allison posts a terrific recipe for Beef and Guinness Stew. I predict big points from my husband when I make this.

DMC Pharmacy, Northern Virginia's pro-life pharmacy, may be forced to close tomorrow.

If you'd like to help in a last-ditch attempt to keep it open, you can visit

http://www.savedmcpharmacy.org/index.html