Keep Saturn in Saturnalia

[LawMonkey]

Personally, I want to keep the Lupercalia in St. Valentine’s Day.

[Loach]

@armedmonkey

Cyros and Loach, please believe me when I say that the reason the Freedom From Religion Foundation annoys me has nothing to do with zoning laws. It’s crap like this:
How can you read that and not want to smack the guy? Which would, granted, be much more of an “assault” than the freakin’ sign.

Even though I am very non-religious I am annoyed by those who are supposedly on my side when they get too shrill. And maybe that group would annoy me if I looked into them more. But I think the saying on the billboard is a funny way of making the point.

[Wolf333]

@aruvqan

We have decided to turn Christmas into Saturnalia at the farm this year and are having
garlic/herb cheese stuffed black olives, isicia omentata[shrimp meatballs in sauce] and lucanian sausage[fresh not smoked] as the appetizers, Pernam [jokingly called Pig Newtons because it is a pork butt cooked with figs] a mixed green salad and asparagus and for dessert a patina of pears [a cooked custard with pears embedded in it, with honey and black pepper] and the kitten Five is going to be the little furry Lord of Misrule.

Io Saturnalia!

And now I’m hungry.

[aruvqan]

@Wolf333

And now I’m hungry.

Then my job here is done!

<cue theme music and swoosh out in a cloud of sparkles>

[Ferret_Herder]

@aruvqan

We have decided to turn Christmas into Saturnalia at the farm this year and are having garlic/herb cheese stuffed black olives, isicia omentata[shrimp meatballs in sauce] and lucanian sausage[fresh not smoked] as the appetizers, Pernam [jokingly called Pig Newtons because it is a pork butt cooked with figs] a mixed green salad and asparagus and for dessert a patina of pears [a cooked custard with pears embedded in it, with honey and black pepper] and the kitten Five is going to be the little furry Lord of Misrule.

Pernam sounds worth it just for the nickname.

I’m fond of the phrase “Axial tilt is the reason for the season,” myself. I mean, I celebrate Christmas, but it’s just insane to turn it into some crazy 2+ months’ long homage to capitalism and who can make their house look like a craft store threw up on it and outdoing the other mommies with Pinterest boards of what their Elf on the Shelf is up to and don’t anyone fucking DARE suggest that there might be other holidays anywhere in sight (not even Thanksgiving or New Year’s) to the point that even the lowliest retail peons better not slip up and say Holidays or that other people might just be a tiny bit sick of hearing about Christmas.

[aruvqan]

@Ferret_Herder

Pernam sounds worth it just for the nickname.

.

I make it differently from most people who play with the recipes - I use a raw picnic butt, not a ham. I am working on the assumption that the translation of ham could simply be the same issue as how a couple of languages use foot and leg interchangably. It makes more sense to cook a fresh hunk of pig for a feast instead of a dried salted one.

The recipe calls for it to be boiled in water with garum, bay leaves and dried figs then the fell/skin peeled off and the meat wrapped in olive oil/flour dough and then baked. It doesn’t mention deboning it, or that there is a leg bone in it at all, which there would be in a preserved ham but not in a butt. The pieces of fell are marinated in honey and studded on the dough so the fat bakes out and they turn into cracklings. When I originally plated it I cut finger sized slices, reduced the cooking liquid into a sauce and spiced it up with pepper, asfoetida, celery seed and carraway, and added a couple of the cracklings and some stuffed dates.

[CrazyCatLady]

@aruvqan

the kitten Five is going to be the little furry Lord of Misrule.

That seems kind of redundant.

[aruvqan]

@CrazyCatLady

That seems kind of redundant.

Well, normally we don’t give him cat nip so he is getting a catnip fuzzy bean toy We figure he is going to be zonkers so we might as well make it official:D