About Mrs. Mackerelsnapper, OP

If you’re thinking, “I could never do meatless Fridays all year long,” then join me here, and let’s do the impossible together.

The “mackerelsnapper” part is an old pejorative term for Catholics. The OP part is because I’m a lay Dominican (temporarily promised). The “Mrs.” part is because lay Dominicans no longer use the suffix “TOP,” but instead the OP with the gender-specific prefix (Sr, Fr, Br, Mr, and in my case, Mrs).

What you probably won’t find here:

• Beautiful photography of fine foods: photography is not my forte. Sorry. I’m as disappointed as you are.
• Catholic-bashing: not bashing myself or my family, even for attention
• Peaceful meditations
• Complaints about how awful the old meatless Friday rules are and how they do nothing to foster almsgiving: almsgiving and fasting/abstinence are not the same thing.

What I hope you will find here:

• Ideas on how to incorporate less-meat meals into your family life without busting the budget
• Some hypoallergenic cooking: family allergies/sensitivities include: peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seeds, soy
• An appreciation and exploration of our Catholic roots, especially in regards to avoiding the shedding of animal blood on Fridays

Tools I frequently use:

• Slow-cooker (like, a lot, especially on Fridays when we host our Little Flowers Girls Club meetings), both full-size and dip-sized. I got the latter at a thrift store for $2 and it has paid for itself several times over, in that our main dish can be in the large crock, and the side dish or sauce can be in the smaller.
• Food processor
• Kitchenaid Stand Mixer
• Stoneware baking pan
• Bread machine: mostly we use this for making dough on delay start then forming loaves or pizzas by hand, but it’s also very handy for throwing in a crusty bread recipe first thing in the morning, using delay start, and by dinnertime we have fresh bread and a slow cooker full of soup, all while I was cleaning, running kids around, teaching Little Flowers, what have you.
• Microwave: I am just now learning the value, nay, dignity even, of this much maligned kitchen device