www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall PEEPS!

And I thought we get a little odd on this forum...never knew there were so many things done with peeps...I LOVE PEEPS!

I am so glad they have Peeps in other forms during the year, but none as good as the yellow chik peeps

Anyway, here is the link to the other discussion on Peeps
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=45658

Pani Rose,

We are only approaching the half way point to Pascha. Peeps and chocolate bunnies (or in some cases crosses) don't help keep one's mind on the fast. Next thing, we'll be starting to talk about what we are making for the paschal meal. Too much temptation!

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Father,

Those unedable things don't tempt me. In fact they inspire me to extend the fast. Who wants to eat colored mothballs?

CDL

Dan,

We agree about that. It is just when you see them they are always accompanied by the other temptations that are edible and not fasting.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

You know what is the real crime about lent?

It is phrohy, perogies, however anyone spells them! If you don't have the time to make them you can buy Mrs. T's and fry them slowly with onions, I mean, of course they are not as good, but in a rush

I mean, how can one fast using something they enjoy so much? Now I have to admit, I like them better than peeps

Or frying a head of cabbage with onions and mixing some noodles in with it, I mean now is that really fasting...such simple pleasure - must be a sin :p

Would Peeps be better with dark chocolate on them - perhaps as hot fudge covered Peeps? Inquiring minds want to know.

Peeps: pure sugar delight...I used to love finding them in my Easter basket which, ofcourse, the venerable Easter Bunny himself left!

Peeps don't dissolve in water, sulfuric acid, acetone, or sodium hydroxide... click the link to see what actually can dissolve those toxic little things!

http://www.peepresearch.org/solubility.html

Just looking after your health!

I am sooooooooo glad I have never eaten one of those things. -- John

So Americans are mad about peeps!!!It took a while to work out what they were but it does seem they are everywhere over there.

ICXC
NIKA

Scary test resu;ts...

Reminds me of a cantor who consistently chants "and all your peeps..."

Gaudior, who says to Charles, not even dark chocolate can improve peeps....unless it replaces them entirely.

You know you are a ByzanTEEN when.... you see the word "peeps" and think it means friend or homie.

-Katie g

Peeps make a quiet stand
The Easter Bunny's expulsion prompts a marshmallow defense...

Well I guess Peeps really leave a lasting impression

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/14201071.htm

As an undigestable lump in your stomach.

http://www.keypad.org/bunnies/

Here is a site devoted to "bunny endurance tests," i.e. bunny peeps.

Last year Neil told me that chick peas had no real function as a food--except for being made into humis and I don't believe from how he put it that he liked that either.

I gotta go with the same attitude toward "peeps." I don't think I've ever had more than the first one--and it was two, the first and the last.

byzanTN: There isn't enough chocolate or anything else in the world to cover the taste of "peeps."

BOB

Another good use of chickpeas is in curry! Any lentil curry recipe may use chickpeas in place of lentils, and they're quite tasty!

Dear Bob,

The Greeks salt and bake the chick peas and sell them as snacks. They are delicious!

As for me, I soak the dry ones for at least one day. I then mix a little oil with (maybe) lemon and lots of spices, such as paprika, tumerec, black pepper, lots of salt, and what have you, and then bake them. Great to pick on. Of course you can use canned one's too.

Remember one thing about certain foods... they will never taste good unless they are well salted. Lemon helps some time, especially with Middle Eastern or Greek food. My motto has always been, never give up with any dish, even lentils.

I'm picky, so I prefer Indian lentils. I'll make a curry sauce, and add a little tomato and lots of salt. I found that without tomato and salt, they would still be tasteless.

So don't give up!

Zenovia

At the risk of sounding ignorant, what *ARE* peeps?

Meanwhile, here is one of my favourite Chinese recipes, which I thought I would share as it's quite Lenten!

2-3 large WAXY potatoes
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
2-3 tsp black/brown vinegar
2 tsp sugar
A splash of soy sauce
Several drops of sesame oil

1. Peel and slice the potatoes, then chop the slices into matchsticks.

2. Heat the oil in a wok (or large frying pan) so it gets very hot. Maximum temperature is a goodd idea. It should start to smoke. Add the potato shreds and stir constantly. Fry the potato for about 3 minutes until it starts to get slightly soft, but is still firm.

3. Add the vinegar, the sugar and the soy sauce. Cook for another minute or so, stirring all the time so the potatoes are thoroughly coated. Sprinkle with sesame oil and serve.

Waxy potatoes are essential - starchy floury ones won't work for this. If one wishes, one may add some very thinly julienned red and green peppers and chillies into the mix.

What is the result? A slightly sour-salty and spicy dish of potato shreds. This dish is especially popular in North and West China, and goes very well with rice. If the stir-frying is done very quickly and at high heat, the potato shreds retain their crunch, and ought to have a texture somewhat like that of carrots, making the dish feel more like a vegetable dish than a starch dish.

In grade school we discovered that peeps are things which, when thrown hard, stick to the ceiling. But you had to have a good arm to stick a peep.

Dear Edward,

Thanks for the lovely recipe.

Peeps are little yellow or pink marshmallowy birds that are put into North American children's Easter baskets by the Easter Bunny ( ) .

To see what they look like go back a page and click on to Dr. Eric's link.

Alice

OH I'm going to echo Edward here

djs - I still don't understand

Please people help the non US folk out

What are peeps ?

Inquiring minds really really what to know

Let the education commence [ though after the weekend of Liturgical education I have just had I really don't know if anything else has a chance of sinking in ]

edited in after seeing Alice's comments

Alice dear - if they are made of marshmallow - please explain why they won't dissolve ?

Anhelyna,

Notice that I said 'marshmallow y'!!!

(In other words, a marshmallow 'type of concoction', just as I have recently found out that McDonald's french fries are in actuality only a 'potato type' of food! )

Come to think of it, we should ask the Easter Bunny about all of this, maybe he knows! *WINK*

LOL!

Fondly,
Alice
(who laments the passing of real treats and food....)

Dear OLSoL:
I suppose my naughty definition did not help, except perhaps to give a sense of how schoolboys felt about getting these confections in their Easter baskets. Chocolate was preferred.

These are PEEPS!
http://marshmallowpeeps.com/about/index.html

Peeps history
http://marshmallowpeeps.com/about/history.html

Good Grief

Thank goodness our Easter Bunnies usually bring Chocolate eggs and the like .

I will admit quite freely that the dreaded Cadbury's Creme Eggs are far too sweet and sticky and sickly for me

But those PEEPS - <shaking head > ---- words fail me

Okay, okay Anhelyna...we know that peeps are terrible, though as children, we loved them--but as you said those sickly sweet Cadbury's creme eggs are no culinary treat either! :p :p

If it makes you feel any better, when the Easter Bunny hops over the pond to North America, in addition to the dreaded 'peeps' he also adds lots of small chocolate eggs and a chocolate Easter Bunny for the kiddies to eat too!

(...and do you think that the kiddies then partake of any of the real Paschal food feast which has been lovingly prepared, or any other real food for the rest of the day after that feast of sugar....NO! Perhaps parents need to petition the Easter Bunny about this...hmmmmm....)

Alice

OH ALICE - now here you are showing one of those sad deficits in my education - over here [ certainly among the Latins - and remember I was one of those until last year ] we do not have such a thing as the Paschal food feast.

OK - typical Byzcath - it's the Great Fast and once more we are discussing
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FOOD

how on earth do we do it so easily ?

Dear Anhelyna,

Ofcourse you must have a feast!

While we Greeks never deviate from lamb, American Protestants (and Roman Catholics) eat either lamb or ham on Easter Sunday.

When the children were little, we had friends who were a mixed couple of Greek Orthodox/Irish Roman Catholic. The wife did not convert, though she took the children to her husband's Orthodox church. Anyway, because of the East/West Calendar differences for Pascha/Easter, they celebrated two Easters. We were invited to one of the 'American' Easter meals, which was a traditional American Easter lamb dinner...the only difference with the Greek Easter meal (which was two weeks after that) was that the Irish-American wife did not cook it well done like the Greeks do, and that she served it with mint jelly rather than olive oil, lemon and oregano like the Greeks do!!!

Anyway, I am sure that Scotts sit down to some kind of a meal on Easter Sunday, don't they?

Whatever that would be, wouldn't that constitute a 'Paschal feast'?!?

Love,
Alice

You know Alice - you are going to be scandalised here ....

They do not feast on Easter Sunday - honestly - not the way it's done in the East anyway.

There's no real tradition of that - after all most of the churches do not really prepare for Easter the way we do.

RCs do have their Easter Vigil of course and after that most Churches will serve tea/coffee and in Scotland what is called a "wee refreshment" :p but then later that day /or the next there is often a family meal - but not really a very festive one .

Sorry to sort of depress you in that.

Anhelyna

I really am surprised by that....

Even American Protestant and Catholics have some kind of special meal on Easter Sunday, and traditionally, they dress up for the day too.

Something called Easter Brunch has now become popular in restaurants too.

Whatever--the idea is a festive family meal to celebrate the holiday.

Ofcourse, since I have Episcopalian cousins, I do know that describing an Easter feast is relative.
How my cousins loved to visit our 'yiayia' on her Easter...because the buffet table was full of Greek specialties.

If I am not mistaken, don't Ukrainians and other Slavic Christians prepare an Easter basket of yummy food to be blessed on Easter morning? --(a lovely tradition if there ever was one, I must say!)

Love,
Alice

Easter or the chocolate eating orgie as it is for most here does not get much in terms of special foods. My parents always took the feast from the Church to the family table. My sister who live in Melbourne (that other Greek city) adds Greek festal breads etc to the table. Also having a Russian and Ukrainian population some of their festal foods also end up gracing the same table.

My Mum has taught my sisters to make an English Simnel cake for Easter.
http://www.chippingnorton.net/Features/simnel%20cake.htm

ICXC
NIKA

Aaahhh, you mean to tell me that dark 'Dutch' processed (processed with alkalie) chocolate, made with no milk products is not a fast food..??mik ..seriously...

Simnel cake - ah yes , now that is something - but it's not an Easter cake .

That was the cake baked and taken home by girls in domestic service on Mothering Sunday [ NOT Mothers Day ]

Mothering Sunday is/was the Sunday of Mid-Lent and traditionally Serving girls were given the day off to go home - with a posy of flowers and a Simnel cake. The fast was lightened for this and these cakes were extremely rich fruit cakes [ but not as heavy or as rich or as alcoholic as Christmas cakes ] , baked with a layer of marzipan in them and then covered after baking [ and cooling] with Apricot jam [ always apricot never anything else as far as I know - perhaps Incognitus knows better ] and another layer of marzipan with 11 little balls of marzipan round the edge as decoration.

Why the 11 wee balls of marzipan - well think of the significance there

Now this was when there was a bit of feasting - in the houses as daughters returned home for the day.

Now however feasting , if it is done , is purely commercial with restaurants offering special menus etc - but it's not really because of the idea of Easter and celebrating after the Fast and its culmination in the Glory of Easter.

One curious factoid coming up now

After Easter in France they start advertising for Pentecost - the butchers must really make a killing here - everyone apparently eats veal for Pentecost - the advertising slogan is "Le veau de Pentecote "

Anhelyna

Maybe this will help:

The Paska bread in the Easter basket is the reminder of Christ as the Living Bread. The ornamentation that decorates the top of the Paska; crosses, twists, rosettes, letters, pine cones are done with great love.

http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/easter.htm
http://www.agapeicons.com/site/1286684/page/796121

A funny story about PEEPS,
My Priest absolutely hates them and so during the blessing of the Pascha baskets one of the teens (i've done it once) manage to slip some peeps into his basket. They are now blest and he has to eat them!

In Christ,
Katie g

Or burn them?

Mmm - toasted Peeps! Nothin' better on a cold Southern California night!

Served on a stick, toasty warm and soft, hmmmm, they actually may be edible? :rolleyes: They also if burnt well enough could be the modern day whole burnt offering.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+