Jackson Free Press

With three feet of snow and ice piled up in a gruesome combination of fresh snow and filthy sludge left over from the last blizzard, Lent in New England is a miserable prospect. The wind chill ensures that it never feels warmer than 20 degrees, and you've given up the prospect of meat on Fridays along with your comfort foods, which used to be one of the only consolations you had.

Lent in the South is a blast!

OK, maybe not. But it is a marked improvement: The sun starts shining a good two months earlier, and the glories of temperatures in the 60s and 70s can kick in as soon as the second day of fasting (e.g. last Thursday) to boost your mood.

Whatever the weather, however, if you observe Lent you still have to give up comfort foods and occasionally even meat. Of course, if you don't observe Lent, that's fine. Enjoy your freedom. Live it up. Run around naked smeared with ice cream for all I care.

I've given up my main purpose in life—eating ice cream—as part of my Lenten ban on sweet treats. You probably think I'm exaggerating, but I seriously cannot convey forcefully enough my attachment to frozen dairy goodness—just trying to explain it brings tears to my eyes. My boyfriend Dave has given up his treasured Martini Mondays in an embargo on alcohol. To paraphrase the Beatles, it's going to be a long, long lonely Lent(er).

Temptation and force of habit are everywhere, so we cannot be too careful. To wit: Dave arrived home on Ash Wednesday evening and said, "Wait, did I give up beer, too?" (And I assure you that no O'Doul's ever has or ever will cross our threshold). The next day, I reached for the Godiva chocolates my mom had sent us for Valentine's Day and had to slap my own hand away to stop myself. That Friday, I wanted to eat some of our rendition of Dave's mom's cheesy potato casserole for lunch, but remembered just in time that the cream-of-chicken soup that makes it melty and delicious contains meat.

Fortunately, there are still some wonderful, tasty and logistically safe dishes you can eat during Lent (and all year) without destroying your resolve. The first is a smoothie inspired by a small café that opened in my Pennsylvania hometown when I was in elementary school. Everywhere else, smoothie-makers seemed intent on thickening my drinks with orange sherbet or frozen yogurt, which always added an unappetizing and unnatural sweetness. This place used fruit, juice and nothing else, and the product was perfect. Bananas are a perfectly sufficient thickener. Later, when Gettysburg College bought the place and hired their chef to run the campus café, I had to start experimenting and making these concoctions for myself. This proved even easier when I moved out of my family's house and away from my mom's 30-year-old blender.

The other is a delicious melt, inspired by the ciabatta bread they sold at Rainbow Grocery when I first moved here and by a lack of coherent ingredients in my refrigerator. A bunch of seemingly plain and boring foods sure do liven up when you pile them together and melt cheese on them. I recommend the pain au citron from the bakery section at Rainbow or Broad Street's sourdough, but most anything will do nicely to add your own personal flair to the sandwich. This is also a great recipe for when your bread has started to get too stale for regular use but is still too edible to waste.

In case you're not adhering to any Lenten restrictions, you can easily modify them to include the magic of meat, alcohol or refined sugar. The smoothie is a great vehicle for rum, vodka or vanilla ice cream. (If you take the vanilla ice cream route, I would recommend eliminating the orange juice—and possibly the banana. Hell, just blend strawberries with vanilla ice cream and you will be good to go.) The melt is tasty when you add some protein in the form of canned tuna or sliced turkey. These recipes are great for adapting to your own tastes and restrictions, so experiment and enjoy yourself. But not too much, guys—it is Lent after all.

ALL-FRUIT SMOOTHIE
1 quart-sized package of fresh strawberries
(or go visit the strawberry man at Colonial Mart or the farmers' market)
4-oz. package of fresh blueberries
1 banana
Orange juice

Wash the blueberries and strawberries. Cut the tops off the strawberries and cut them in halves or quarters, depending on how big they are. Place all ingredients in a blender. The
more orange juice and less banana you use, the thinner the smoothie will be. The less orange juice and more banana you use, the thicker it will be. Pour into a glass or two and enjoy your daily allotment of fruit.

VEGETARIAN MELT
Your favorite local bread
Avocado
Tomato
Red onion
Salt and pepper to taste
Sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice bread (if applicable) to the thickness you want and toast lightly in a toaster oven or toaster so it doesn't get soggy. Place the bread on a foil-lined cookie
sheet (sometimes the melting cheese gets a little unwieldy and is a huge pain to clean off the sheet). Slice the avocado, red onion and tomato (or you can mash up the avocado if it's too soft for slices), and stack them on the toasted bread in that order. Add a couple shakes of salt and pepper, and place thick slices of cheddar on top of the whole thing. Put your open-faced sandwiches in the preheated oven until the cheese looks almost melted through (about 5-8 minutes), and then switch the oven to broil so the cheese gets bubbly and the bread gets crusty.