Feast + Fast - Holy Tuesday

For each day of Holy Week, Christina Rees offers a reflection for our hearts and minds, and a recipe for a simple meal to nourish our bodies. All these recipes and many more can be found in her book Feast + Fast: Food for Lent and Easter

Tuesday 7^th April 2020

 

For some of us, being in lockdown doesn’t seem to have freed up a lot of extra time. It may have changed the pattern of our days and how we work but it hasn’t removed the pressures and stresses of life as it used to be before COVID-19.

It seems as if I’ve been having even more meetings. They may now be on Zoom or Skype and not require hours of travel and getting dressed in work clothes, but they still demand that I keep on top of the papers, the work and all that is going on.

I’ve also been taking time contacting family members and friends and, in turn, getting emails and phone calls from many of them, reaching out to find out how I am and to share stories of how the virus is affecting them.

The son of my oldest friend in the States has just qualified as a doctor and he’s been put on paramedic duties in New York City, the place in the US worst hit by the virus. My friend writes that he is ‘seeing horrors’ and is having to deal with enormously difficult things, like having to decide who gets taken to hospital and who has to stay at home. He is also clearly in personal danger. Any fantasies he may have had about starting his practice in a pristine surgery, with a stethoscope draped casually around his neck have been well and truly blown out of the water. He is out on a front line fighting an enemy he can’t see, that behaves with a ruthless disregard for human life.

There is a long practice of turning to the Psalms in times of fear, despair, confusion, grief – or joy, relief and gratitude. In the Psalms we find the whole rollercoaster of human emotions, from the depths of suffering to the heights of ecstasy. By reading the Psalms we can find a sense of solidarity with the writers, who express for us our often inchoate feelings, and in their heartfelt words we can be helped to face our darkness and to trust that God is with us. I often turn to this English translation of a modern Japanese version of Psalm 23, with its somewhat different take on the well-known words:

The Lord is my pace-setter, I shall not rush;

he makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals, he provides me with images of stillness, which restore my serenity.

He leads me in the way of efficiency, through calmness of mind; and his guidance is peace.

Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day I will not fret, for his presence is here.

His timelessness, his all-importance will keep me in balance.

He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of activity, by anointing my mind with his oils of tranquillity: my cup of joyous energy overflows.

Surely harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours and I shall walk in the pace of my Lord, and dwell in his house for ever.

For today’s recipe from Feast + Fast – Food for Lent and Easter, I suggest a simple quiche. You can always adapt the topping depending on what tinned vegetables you may have in the cupboard.

RECIPE

The Guru’s Quiche

Contributed by JENNY STANDAGE

This is recommended as a good thing to eat before a session of prayer and meditation. It is very satisfying and filling. It also has the advantage that all the ingredients except the eggs will keep for a long time, so if you cannot get to the shops but you keep chickens, you can still make the Guru’s quiche!

Serves 6

2 cups brown flour

1 cup sunflower oil

2 tablespoons milk

a pinch of salt

14oz/400g tin evaporated milk or 14fl oz/400ml ordinary milk if preferred

14oz/400g tin asparagus spears

4 eggs

4oz/115g grated cheese

salt and pepper

You will need a large 12"/30cm ceramic quiche dish. Preheat the

oven to 325ºF/170ºC/ Gas mark 3.

Mix the flour, oil, milk and salt in the dish itself. Stir with a spoon and press to the sides to completely cover the bottom and go up the sides a little way. Use your hands to get an even base. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile take the evaporated milk and whip it up in a large bowl. Open the tin of asparagus, pour off half the asparagus liquid into the evaporated milk and whip again. Add the eggs, whipping in one at a time. Spread the cheese over the base and arrange the asparagus spears like spokes. Pour the egg mixture over the top and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 30 minutes until set (test with a knife or skewer and when this comes out clean, the quiche is ready).