Orthodox Lint Project

Hey!  Orthodox Lent is just beginning!  Just in time for my new idea for a Lint project:

Mashed Potatoes and Meditation!

Yes, that’s right.  From now until Orthodox Easter (known as Greek Easter to my family) on May 5, I will meditate every day and also eat mashed potatoes every day.

Why?

I have a sneaking suspicion that my insomnia might be tied to a lack of meditation and I want to test that theory.  Plus, meditation is good for me and I’ve fallen away from it.  As for the mashed potatoes, my favorite local actor, Andy Lee-Hillstrom (U of Idaho graduate!) ended his bio for the play The Velvet Sky with the following: Andy’s a sucker for a good montage, the sound of fingernails being clipped grosses him out, and he could eat mashed potatoes every day of his life.

When I related to Matt that I too could eat mashed potatoes every day of my life, he didn’t believe me.  So I’m eating them every day of Orthodox Lent.

2010 Mardi Gras

As stated before, the Unitiarian Universalist church isn’t so into Lent. Which means that I can do fun things with Lent, like revamping my wardrobe. This year, I am going to revamp my eating habits a bit. I am going to only eat dessert or junk food that I make myself.

I got the idea from Michael Pollen in the book What to Eat, which is a delightful book to check out of the library. It is full of fun advice such as: Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself. The idea is that if we all had to fry up the french fries or donuts ourselves, we wouldn’t be that into eating them. If we had to bake the cake or the cookies, we wouldn’t make them that often.

Helping me with my Lenten goal is my go-to book of tiny desserts. When the mood for cookies strikes me, I don’t have to make four dozen. I can just make six. If I want a layer cake, I can make a tiny one. Because I learned long ago that when I bake a whole cake, I eat the whole cake.
At this point, the thing I don’t have the ability to make myself is ice cream. So on this Ash Wednesday, I had my own Mardi Gras and treated myself to Ben and Jerry’s ice cream with hot fudge. Delicious.