They say "curiosity killed the cat", and in this case, I can corroborate with that.

It all started on Ash Wednesday when I went veggie shopping. I was bound and determined to put in different vegetables than our usual fare, in accordance to my pursuit of Lenten abstinence.

I had my eyes set on one particular vegetable that I'd been seeing in GIANT, a little red cabbage like thing called a radicchio. Going off of the description in the store, it was supposedly good in salads or cooked in pasta dishes.

Oh, and it also said it was bitter.

I had originally intended that the radicchio be sliced and put in the salad. One mini-bite caused immediate regret and decided to spare even myself from that torture.

Hence, it was tossed in a plastic bag until the next Wednesday.

Looking up the vegetable itself, I discovered that it was more like an endive rather than a cabbage and that cooking it helped with some of the bitterness. And that it was prevalent in Italian cooking, for some reason. Pasta salads seem to be a favorite pairing, so I thought about that.

And then I looked in the fridge and discovered...celery-flavored pasta, mac and cheese, and two different styles of spaghetti, in addition to some leftover pasta from a casserole I had made for a Meal Train meal. All from the last week or so.

Clearly, there needed to be a break in the pasta regime.

So, it was time to go recipe hunting. I concentrated on radicchio recipes and came up with this one: https://www.kitchenkonfidence.com/2016/07/baked-cheddar-polenta-grilled-brats-radicchio. By sheer providence, I discovered I had all of the ingredients, as long as I subbed out the brats for some Bob Evans ground sausage, and regular cornmeal for the polenta.

I started on the polenta first. I've made stove-top polenta before and remember how time consuming that was. And so I was looking forward to trying this oven method.

I will admit, it did take more than one stir before it really set up well...contrary to what the recipe says.

I will say, I much prefer this oven method to the conventional method. Doesn't quite require as much scrutiny.

Stirring the polenta. It looks pale because of all the milk but it did get nice and yellow later Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn

Wilting the rest of it in the pan with the sausage grease. Not that it helped much. Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn

The complete meal

Looking back at the recipe, I realized that I made several mistakes. One was that I should have tossed the radicchio in lemon juice....which may have eliminated some of the bitterness. I also forgot to add the cheese and the finishing ingredients to the polenta mixture. Although, I don't think it really needed it that much - the fresh garlic helped flavor it just fine. It had enough dairy in it as it was, actually.

All in all, the radicchio experiment turned into a bittersweet disaster....and not one that I plan on repeating any time soon. I mean, the only good I see in this vegetable is that it could be a suitable penance-food and that's it. And even an abstinence-lover like me draws the line at this one.

Now it is your turn! What is the most unusual vegetable you've eaten? What sort of foods have you tried that you've heartily despised? Chat with me in the comments! 

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine

Hey y'all,

When I converted to the Catholic Church, I discovered many many friends. And I don't mean just the friends that I interact with on this Earth. I mean the heavenly friends, the saints.

I mean, why not make friends of those in heaven? If we ask for friends to pray for us while we're here on Earth, how much more would heavenly prayers be?

Out of all the thousands of saints that I've learned about, I've found many that have parallels to my own life. And for this Faith post, I'd like to highlight those saints :)



St. Megan (St. Margaret Ward) - Megan is my baptismal name. Megan is the Welsh form of Margaret, and so while any St. Margaret would be correct (and believe me, there are a lot of them!) the name St. Megan is often attributed to St. Margaret Ward who was an English martyr.

St. Timothy - Being born on his feast day, I guess you could call him my "natal patron saint". St. Timothy is also the patron saint of stomach problems, and since adolescence, I've had my fair share of those.

St. Catherine Laboure - My confirmation patron saint, and the namesake that I took for my pen name. When I first converted, I had a huge devotion to the Miraculous Medal, and to St. Catherine. I credit both of them (and Our Lady and Our Lord) for helping along my conversion process. I do feel a special affinity to St. Catherine personally, as she is also a country woman.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton - She is hugely special for me, ever since I found out that she was an Episcopalian convert. I've been to her National Shrine in Emmittsburg before and will be making a trip again there soon. I've since placed the conversions of my mother and brother into her hands.

St. Philomena - Patron saint of the Junior Sodality of Our Lady of Good Success, of which I was inducted as a member when I was 15. Not much is known about her, but it is proven by other saints that she is a powerful intercessor in Heaven!

St. Michael the Archangel - I would be remiss if I did not mention my family's patron saint! I invoke St. Michael a lot for spiritual warfare concerns, and I hope to name a son for him :).

St. Raphael the Archangel - I knew about St. Raphael's intercession for single people, but he is also interceded for healing, traveling and other causes that I've been struggling with. I have a holy water font with his image on it.

St. Thomas More - The whole Tudor period is fascinating to me, but St. Thomas More is one of my favorite saints from that period. His balance of being in the world and not of it, is something to emulate. It may or may not have to do with the movie....

St. Bernadette Soubirous - Yet another saint I was introduced to by a movie! I love stories of visionaries as well, and that whole story of Lourdes is so powerful :)

St. Mary Magdalene - As someone who struggles with impurity and melancholy, I look to her as an example of repentance. I hope to dedicate The White Rose, my debut novel, to her intercession.

St. Joan of Arc - Being of a militant spirit, I am hugely drawn to St. Joan of Arc. I'm not fond of the cross-dressing aspect of her life, but she is such a fascinating study of fortitude and confidence that I hope to emulate.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha - She stuck out to me when I first learned of her, because I am actually have a small claim of descendency from the Mowhawk tribe. Being that my Protestant grandparents have heavy Native connections due to their business, there are often arguments as to which native customs to engage with, as many are laced with naturalism and paganism - both of which I cannot support. I'm encouraged by St. Kateri's example who rejected those beliefs and prayed for the conversion of her people.

St. Catherine of Siena - If I had not chosen St. Catherine Laboure, this woman would have been the other choice for my Confirmation namesake. I have placed her in patronage of a small writers group that I've created through NaNo. Her example, especially in her apologetic works, really inspires me in learning how to heal divisions while sticking to orthodoxy. An example that should be employed today too....

St. Padre Pio - I'm fascinated by mystic priests in general, but I really like Padre Pio because of his stance on purity and modesty. He also has the best philosophy - "pray, work and don't worry"! I had the priviledge of venerating a glove of his during a retreat one year.


Those are my "main" saints, though there is a giant list of others. I've been reading more and more about the saints this Lent, due to my daily reading of Butler's Lives of the Saints. It's one of my favorite spiritual readings. 

What "heavenly friends" do you know and invoke? Chat with me in the comments below!

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine

Hey everyone!

Normally I don't bring work up in my blog posts, nor do I usually rant about things anymore but today I'm making an exception. After working in the food service industry for about 6 months now, my eyes have been opened to...well a lot of things. And I feel that other people really need to know some of this stuff.

So, for someone on the other side, here are 8 things to make your waitress's life easier.


1. Keep the Change

I know there are some people out there who like to give the exact 15% tip, and there are some that don't have bills on them, and there are some that just do it for the kicks. But we waitresses HATE change.

To put it simply, it's easy to loose it. It makes our aprons heavy and it's noisy. And then there is the question of where to put it. I finally had to get coin rolls because I would have so much change rolling around in my tip jar.

So please, round up to the nearest dollar. Make it easy on the poor girl.


2. Gently Remind Us about Stuff We Forget

We may be there to serve you, but there are other things we're responsible for too. Like stocking dishes, salad bar, and other food items, for example. If we don't keep up with that, things get fouled up because then someone needs it and it's not there and then you gotta play the game of "let's go get it and hope the food stays warm".

And it's very easy to get sidetracked as a waitress between people flagging us, people needing this, or what-have-you. And if we're understaffed, sometimes we get pulled to do a host or a KP's duty to help keep things moving. We get pulled in a lot of directions and so it's no wonder that a little thing like extra salad dressing or refills might slip the mind every once in a while.


3. Stack the Dishes

Most waitresses have to bus their own tables, and bussing is usually the one thing that a waitress will get behind on.

So, if you stack dishes by size and put them towards the end of the table, it actually saves the waitress a lot of time - she can just throw them on the tray or bus bin and go rather than stand there and gather everything.

And if you really want brownie points - scrap the food scraps into one plate. We're required to do as much as we can before sending the dishes to Tank. Dishwashers tend to get mad when we don't.




4. Be Mindful of the Time Spent

Restaurants are great places to talk, but do be careful. We're not allowed to actually kick anyone out due to closing, surprisingly. I've had customers stay a full hour past close simply because they lost track of time. It really puts us in a bind because we'd like to clean up and cash out and go home ourselves.

And there'll be sometimes when customers hang around and their waitress is getting ready to go off the clock. Since in our system she can't check out until her last table is cleared, it really puts the waitress in a bind because she's stuck with the choice of waiting around, or transferring it to another person and losing the tip.

Not that I don't want to discourage talking and socializing in a restaurant, because I've done it. Most of the time, it's not a problem if you do. But a little courtesy never hurt.


5. Be Generous

Not many people are aware of this, but 80% of our earnings comes from what you leave on the table or credit card. The standard base salary is $2.83/hr, which is just enough to cover the taxes from the declared tips (which, by the way, are taxed at 8%).

Now, I do understand those people like seniors and college kids that leave lesser tips because of their financial situation. But what really irritates me are those big tables (like 6+) that leave $5 for a tip. I mean come on! I know those bills can get large, but please don't skimp on us. We get the short end enough, especially on slow nights.


6. Go the Extra Mile to Ensure We Got Our Tip

I'm not like some waitresses where they'll find out how much people tipped them on the system, but I personally find it a relief when people tell me the tip is on the credit card. It seems trivial, but as someone who has been skiffed before, it makes a HUGE difference.

I also love those people who will seek me out and give me their cash tips before they leave. Believe it or not, there have been multiple cases of people (customers AND other employees!) stealing cash tips. Remember how I said that bussing can get behind? Yeah. Even though I try to make sure I pick up the tips as soon as I can, sometimes money sits there. Not good.




7. If You Need Multiple Things - Tell All at Once

Okay, I know people sometimes forget about the stupid things (remember #2?), but it is kinda a little annoying to be making multiple trips back and forth to the serving line and back. And me personally, I remember it better when there is multiple things to get.


8. Don't Shoot Us if Something Goes Wrong

The expression is "don't shoot the messenger" but it should be "don't shoot the waitress". Unfortunately, a lot of customer anger gets directed at the waitress whenever they are forced to wait a long while or something doesn't turn out right. And usually, these things happen on a busy night, when the kitchen is overwhelmed with orders (one cook often has to feed 30 people at a time, do you have any idea how stressful that is??). So on top of dealing with angry customers, we get to deal with short-tempered cooks too. And heaven help us if the manager has to get involved.

A waitress's favorite customers are those who can keep their composure and sweetness even if the entire restaurant is crumbling around them. It really gives a whole 'nother meaning to "Blessed are the meek." While we DO make mistakes in placing orders, not everything going wrong is our fault.

On that note, a little reassurance is a godsend to a harried waitress. Kind words really are worth gold to us. So is a sense of humor. Some really good stories can come out of funny mistakes like accidentally sending a burger out without the patty. (that happened recently, LOL).


Okay, that's enough ranting from me. What about you? What are somethings that you wish people knew about your work? Feel free to chat (or rant!) in the comments below! 

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine