The Fatness of the Earth

Ermelinda and Cecílio for dinner, so good to catch up. We got out the fondue set donated to us ages ago by colleagues leaving Portugal, and I made a cheese fondue, turned out great. And, for dessert, chocolate pie, also great, if I do say so myself. Of course, I forgot a photo until we were serving the pie, and only took one, they were enjoying the pie, honest.

Fondue, as you probably know, was invented by shepherds at the end of the summer transhumance, chucking hard bits of cheese and dregs of wine and grappa into the pot, and dipping their stale bread into the melted mixture.

Which goes well with Capon, ch3, "The Burnt Offering", where he's discussing the difference between ferial (ordinary) and festal dining, and the creativity required to make a little go a long way, but that both modes of eating should be delectable, and eaten with gusto, and that if you need to lose weight, you should fast, not diet:
Herewith, therefore, a little prayer for the return of sanity to our tables...
O Lord, refresh our sensibilities. Give us this day our daily taste. Restore to us soups that spoons will not sink in, and sauces which are never the same twice. Raise up among us stews with more gravy than we have bread to blot it with, and casseroles that put starch and substance in our limp modernity. Take away our fear of fat, and make us glad of the oil which ran upon Aaron's beard. Give us pasta with a hundred fillings, and rice in a thousand variations. Above all, give us grace to live as true men* - to fast till we come to a refreshed sense of what we have and then to dine gratefully on all that comes to hand. Drive far from us, O Most Bountiful, all creatures of air and darkness; cast out the demons that possess us; deliver us from the fear of calories and the bondage of nutrition; and set us free once more in our own land, where we shall serve thee as thou hast blessed us - with the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Amen.


*Nb. Remember, this was written in the sixties.