It begins again! Today is the first day of Lent. Once again, what that means for me:

1: Meat only one day a week (traditionally this is Sunday, but spending weekends with Caitlin often means Saturday makes more sense.)

2: Seafood doesn't count as meat.

3: Animal fats and stock don't count as meat, sort of. The idea here is just that it would be silly to let stock I already have on hand go to waste, or to empty my deep fryer and replace it with vegetable oil instead of the lard-tallow mix.

Yesterday's Lenten prep included soaking beans, soaking chickpeas for falafel, starting a new batch of kimchi, and starting a big pot of mixed southern greens (collards, mustard, carrot, dandelion, spinach, watercress) which continues to simmer as we speak.

Because Lent is somewhat early this year (it will be even earlier next year), it follows right on the heels of Maine shrimp season, which is nice - I have a few pounds of shelled shrimp frozen, and a couple batches of shrimp stock.