St. Mary's Catholic Church

March 24, 2006

Community Fish Bake in Marian Hall
St. Mary's Catholic Church
6853 S. Prince Street, Littleton, CO
Cost: $10/adult, $4/child - all proceeds go to charities
Fridays March 10 - April 7
http://www.stmarylittleton.org/

This isn't your typical lenten fish fry. In fact, it's a fish bake and not a fish fry at all, but the Knights of Columbus are doing it up right. On the menu is salmon, potatos, ziti and cheese, corn, grilled cheese sandwiches, applesauce, cole slaw, raw veggies with dressing, dinner rolls, and ice cream. To drink there was tea, lemonade, water, wine (no extra charge), and coffee.

The salmon is baked with lemons and black pepper and other seasonings. I would have liked a little more seasoning in my opinion, but I'm not complaining because it was very good and... it was salmon, for goodness sake. Also there was salt and pepper at the table, so no problem. No macaronie and cheese would do as a side to that fish, so ziti in a parmasean cream sauce was offered instead. The ziti was cooked just right and not overcooked at all. In addition to the cream sauce, there was grated parmasean on top. If I'd had more room, I'd have gone back for seconds on that. Yum! The potatos were baked potato wedges. I noticed some had more herbs on them than others. Mine was void of herbs, but still good. The corn was off the cob and seasoned with diced bell peppers of different colors. I even tried the grilled cheese, which wasn't bad. It was you're typical grilled cheese, there to satisfy kids who don't like fish. There was even what looked to be an appetizer of some sort next to the grilled cheese. It appeared to be tuna fish on saltine crackers. (Do kids love that?) The applesauce was good - it wasn't homemade or anything, but it was there as a side to the grilled cheese, and as such it was just right. The cole slaw was the downside of the meal. It was too creamy and tasted like that served at fast food restaurants. There were four differnt kinds of dinner rolls from Great Harvest offered: white, light wheat, honey wheat, and nine grain. Also offered were raw carrots and celery, along with ranch dressing. In addition to the dressing, condiments included butter (for the rolls), a mustard dill sauce, and cocktail sauce.

When we first drove up to the church, we commented on what a nice large complex it was. To get to Marion Hall, you first walk in to the large entry way of the church, which is beautiful. The hall itself is downstairs and you can either take the stairs or the elevator (fancy!) The hall was a large room which was about half full when we got there shortly after the dinner began. There were people of varying ages enjoying the dinner. We chose an empty table at which to sit, but were soon joined by a friendly St. Mary's paritioner and later his friends. I felt very welcomed. There were very young Boy Scouts serving as bus boys who, once they got over their initial shyness, were quite attentive. There were also kids serving coffee to tables and towards the end off our meal, they came around to serve us Neopolitan ice cream. In addition to the ice cream, there was a bake sale which we strategically sat near, and I got a piece of cherry pie for seventy-five cents. Delicious.

I am looking forward to going to this fish bake again next year. And heck, if it wasn't so far from my house, I'd even start doing my banking there! (On the way out, we discoverd the St. Mary's Credit Union.) This church has it all.

I give this Lenten fish bake four out of five Ichthus.