It’s almost Lent, and I have a problem.  I hate seafood.  It hasn’t always been this way, though.  I have vivid memories as a child of eating salmon croquettes for supper.  Also, our family shared a small cabin on a near-by lake with another family for part of my youth.  There we often ate lots and lots of shrimp.  Unfortunately after one incident in which I indulged in practically an entire bucket, I got violently ill.  Since then I  haven’t been much on shellfish or fish in general.  It’s all so – you know – fishy.

During Lent I try to follow the Church’s guidelines for fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday coupled with abstinence from meat on Fridays.  Growing up Episcopalian, I understood the point of reining in our appetites, food and others, during this special season.  In the past I sporadically have given up candy, cokes, and chocolate and have even taken on positive habits in some years,  like trying to pray more and not criticize people so much.  But now as a Catholic Christian, I whole-heartedly want to embrace the disciplines that the Church puts forth to help us get ourselves under control, so to speak.

Faced with seven Fridays where meat and fish will not be options, I need to come up with some good recipes that I can fix at the end of each week.  Scanning my recipe notebook, I notice a couple of things. First, I eat entirely too much chicken.  Second, quiche is too fattening, and my family won’t eat Vidalia Onion Strata.  So what is a fish-hating Catholic supposed to do?

I think the answer is to eat pimiento cheese, the most versatile menu item ever invented.   Yankees may not be able to find it in their grocery stores, which is just another reason to live in the South.  Hey, down here in my hometown, they even sell it at the Ace Hardware store! Maybe some future Lenten season I’ll try to get reacquainted with fish.  I understand that a lot of it tastes like chicken.  Until then, God bless the first person to ever combine grated cheese, mayo, and pimientos.

Chick “B”

For all you fellow fish-haters, try this pimiento cheese recipe on the first Friday of Lent!

Pimiento Cheese on White Bread with an 8 oz. bottle of Coke

Pimiento Cheese- courtesy, Paula Deen

1 8-oz package sharp cheddar cheese

1 8-oz package shredded white cheddar cheese

1 4-oz jar pimientos, with juice

1/2 c. mayonnaise

salt and pepper

Mix the shredded cheese together with the pimientos.  Stir in the mayonnaise.  With a metal spoon (pimientos will stain plastic or wood), stir until the mixture is well blended.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Keep covered in the fridge until ready to use.