Jump to content
An Old School Catholic Message Board

Best/worst In Convent Food


dominicansoul

Recommended Posts

I love reading about each community's food traditions! I know the servants of the Lord make homemade pizza every friday evening.  It's a tradition that goes back to the community's earliest days in Argentina.  The community I'm discerning with has a particular love for ice cream sundays.  Every time I visit, they buy 8-9 different cartons of ice cream with an impressive array of toppings. The novices joked that they were so drained at the end of the day during postulancy that sometimes the postulant mistress just told them to have ice cream sundays for dinner :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love reading about each community's food traditions! I know the servants of the Lord make homemade pizza every friday evening.  It's a tradition that goes back to the community's earliest days in Argentina.  The community I'm discerning with has a particular love for ice cream sundays.  Every time I visit, they buy 8-9 different cartons of ice cream with an impressive array of toppings. The novices joked that they were so drained at the end of the day during postulancy that sometimes the postulant mistress just told them to have ice cream sundays for dinner :)

We had a sister visiting us from a very poor country, and her community can only afford to eat ice-cream once a year. We occasionally have ice-cream on feast days, but when we found that out, plus how much she loved it, a huge number of unexpected 'feasts' cropped up right in the last couple of weeks before she left!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We had a sister visiting us from a very poor country, and her community can only afford to eat ice-cream once a year. We occasionally have ice-cream on feast days, but when we found that out, plus how much she loved it, a huge number of unexpected 'feasts' cropped up right in the last couple of weeks before she left!

That is adorable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my previous community my worst meal, purely down to my taste, nothing was wrong with it per se, was really cheesy macaroni cheese. There were too many good ones as the superior had spent a year as an au pair in France before entering, though one of my favourites was nut stuffed peppers, yum! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have eaten at at least 60 different convents in the US and Canada, and few men's houses, as well. Most of the food is serviceable and somewhat institutional, especially in places where hundreds need to be fed. But the Religious of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana had some amazing Cajun food. 

Almost every place I have been does have a salad bar these days, which can compensate for a lot of limitations in the hot food department. :)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

sr.christinaosf

Every five weeks we get 'chili hotdish' here, where they mix leftover chili with leftover egg noodles.  It's interesting, I must say.  

After six days on the road and at workshops, I have a renewed gratitude for regular food.  

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What in the world are nut-stuffed peppers?  Please share.  I'm trying to give up most meat and I don't eat fish and am allergic to shellfish.  That leaves poultry and protein from other sources.  The peppers sound very intriguing .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What in the world are nut-stuffed peppers?  Please share.  I'm trying to give up most meat and I don't eat fish and am allergic to shellfish.  That leaves poultry and protein from other sources.  The peppers sound very intriguing .

mushroom-walnut-and-tomato-baked-peppers

I hope the link has appeared as on my mobile all that shows is an icon.

They are the large bell peppers. The recipe is not the one my previous superior followed but from the BBC website. It looks good and seems to have good reviews. If you do try it let me know what it's like.

I don't really cook myself, I'm afraid I'm one of those for whom it has no real interest. It really would be a penance for others to suffer my cooking;). I used to dread Tuesday mornings as I assisted in the kitchen and felt totally out of my depth:(.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

This was always one of my favorite threads and I just got really hungry after reading it again (probably not smart when all you can eat after tonsillectomy is bland, soft food).  Anyone else have anything to add?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hated lambs fry and bacon when I went in had a hard time getting it down my throat, could not get enough of it after I left - and it is now one of my favourite main meals. :idontknow:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The community I'm discerning with has the most delicious food! They don't have meat except for poultry on Sundays and feasts, but they can make fish taste good (and usually I don't like fish). I think the worst I've had there is grilled cheese with American cheese, simply because I don't like American cheese. The best... is hard to say. There were some good fish tacos once, and a homemade Chinese food dinner with chicken on a feast day once. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reading the thread, I think the story of brother Junipero that FFI Griswold was referring to was this:

"

HOW BROTHER JUNIPER ONCE COOKED FOR THE BRETHREN ENOUGH TO LAST FOR A FORTNIGHT

It happened once, when Brother Juniper was in a house of the brethren, that, for some reasonable cause all the friars were obliged to go out, and Brother Juniper alone remained at home. Then the guardian said to him: "Brother Juniper, we are all going out, therefore, by the time we come back, I wish thee to prepare a little food for the refreshment of thy brethren." "Most willingly," replied Brother Juniper; "leave it to me." When all the brethren, as has been said, were gone out, Brother Juniper said to himself: "What superfluous carefulness is this, that a brother should be lost in the kitchen, and deprived of all opportunity for prayer! Of a surety, as I am now left in this charge, I will cook enough to serve the brethren, were they as many more, for a fortnight to come." So he went to the town and borrowed some large pots for cooking; then he got fresh meat and salt, chickens, eggs, and vegetables; he begged wood also, and made a great fire, upon which he set everything together to boil: the fowls in their feathers, the eggs in their shells, and the rest in like manner. Meanwhile one of the friars, to whom Brother Juniper's simplicity was well known, returned to the house; and seeing these great cauldrons on such an enormous fire, he sat down in amazement to watch with what care and diligence Brother Juniper proceeded in his cookery. And having observed him for some time to his great recreation, this friar went out of the kitchen, and told the other brethren that Brother Juniper was certainly preparing a wedding banquet. The brethren took it for a jest; but presently Brother Juniper took his cauldrons off the fire, and bade them ring the bell for dinner. Then the brethren took their places at the table, and he came into the refectory, all rubicund with his toil and with the heat of the fire, and said to the brethren: "Eat a good dinner now, and then we will go to prayer: and let no one thing of cooking for a long time to come, for I have cooked more than enough to last us all for more than a fortnight." And so saying, he set down his hotch-potch before them; but there was never a hog in the Campagna of Rome so hungry that he could have eaten it. Brother Juniper praised his way of cooking because it was so great a saving of time; and seeing that the other friars ate none of it, he said: "These fowls are good for the head; and this food will keep the body in health, so wholesome is it."; so that the brethren were all in admiration at the devotion and simplicity of Brother Juniper. But the guardian, being angry at such folly, and grieved at the waste of so much good food, reproved Brother Juniper severely. Then Brother Juniper fell on his knees before the guardian, and humbly confessed his fault to him and all the brethren saying: "I am a very wicked man. Such a one committed such a sin, for which he was condemned to lose his eyes. Such another was hanged for his crimes. But I deserve far worse for my evil deeds. And now I have wasted so much of the gifts of God and the substance of the Order." And thus lamenting he departed; nor would he come into the presence of any one of the brethren for the rest of that day. Then said the father guardian: "My dearest brethren, I would that every day this brother might spoil as much of our substance, if we had it, as he has done to-day, were it only for the edification he has given us by the simplicity and charity with which he has done this thing."

I'm more of a dominican soul, but I REALLY do love the Little Flowers of St. Francis. Franciscan simplicity and minority are amesome. :nun3:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have had some very good food at the Nashville Dominican motherhouse. I distinctly recall one afternoon during a retreat when we enjoyed some wonderful banana bread and sweetened chai tea. 

On a visit to the Daughters of St. Paul in Chicago, one of the sisters treated us retreatants to some homemade Korean food. I still remember how delicious it was!

When I went on a DSMME retreat, they apparently had lots of beets to use, so they served homemade beet rolls and beet salad (like potato salad, just with beets). I thought they were creative and tasty.

The worst would probably be when I found a small beetle in some cooked rice, but I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I just ate the rice that wasn't touching the bug and then threw the rest out without saying anything about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spem in alium

Worst thing ever eaten in convent: tripe. It was prepared very nicely, and wasn't altogether horrible, but still something I'm not desperate to eat very soon.

Best thing: too many to mention. My sisters are good cooks and are kindly teaching me things!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...