Thursday, January 15, 2015

8th day of Christmas... (a beautiful dinner, a farewell and prayer requests)


On the 8th day of Christmas 
I baked and baked...


Did a roast chicken this way:
butter under skin with garlic cloves,
one small onion in quarters, fresh organic sage and half a zested lemon in the cavity,
French Lemon & Ginger infused extra virgin olive oil over the skin,
with salt, pepper, dried ginger and lemon on top...
450F for about 2 hours... I think next time I will take the chicken out a bit 
before 2 hours.... it was great though and I trussed the chicken 
for the first time (did not want the cavity onion and lemon falling out!)


I made two casseroles 
from a cookbook I got before Christmas:


 Potatoes with goat cheese a gratin 
and carrot casserole (with onion, cheddar cheese and bread crumbs).


From the same cookbook I baked for dessert,
stuffed peaces with raspberry sauce.
I only had half the amount of canned halved peaches...
I made the full amount of the mascarpone cheese sauce...
next time I will half the half cup of sugar...


Of course it was super fun to use my Christmas dishes.


Peaches baked and then mascarpone cheese with sugar
and raspberry syrup on the bottom (under the peaches
as they baked at 375 F for 20 minutes) and slivered almonds on top
of the cheese...
*
And so I made what was the farewell dinner for 
my friend, the Mother of our Goddaughter, and our
Goddaughter as they leave for TX at the end of the week.


She is 4 months old now and very healthy, with a cute smile.


She wore a cute Christmas reindeer outfit for the occasion! 
It was a lovely dinner and I thank God for this time.
*
So as I mentioned earlier it's hard to see them go.
I am pretty sure the grief part of this (they were one of the two
main first couples in our book club, some of our first
new friends as a couple here) is why I am not sleeping well.
*
Also a family friend who is prominent in my families life
is in hospital with pneumonia and possible other complications
and a family member is waiting for a biopsy at the end of January
(it was postponed).
*
And my friend's son is still in hospital with unexpected complications...
 *
So that's a few difficult things.
I ask your prayers
and I thank God for them!

7 comments:

Paula said...

Mmmm, supper looks good. Do you have a digital meat thermometer? I love mine, it's the best. Never over-cook meat again. I got mine at No Frills and they are only about $17. They are a definite must-have for home-grown birds because they cook faster than store-bought.

Sending up lots of prayers for your loved ones and you too.

Lisa said...

Yes, I'll remember your dear ones in my prayers.

Reinventing Mother said...

Many prayers my friend!

Nancy said...

Praying for your friends. I take it you'd recommend your casserole cookbook. My parish kindly gave me at Nativity an Amazon gift certificate for directing the choir, I'm looking for things to buy with it

elizabeth said...

Nancy ~ thank you for your prayers. I do like that casserole cookbook; not much fasting recipes (cheese in the veggie ones) but very good and a well written and fun.

another one you may really love is this one

http://www.amazon.com/Continual-Feast-Celebrate-Throughout-Christian/dp/0898703840

elizabeth said...

to continue on above comment... I love the continual feast one as it has some Orthodox recipes (st. Basil's bread, things for Pascha) plus lots more in both East/West feasts for cooking. I hope to use it more...

the casserole one I read about on a blog somewhere and ordered it in Dec. So far what I've made of it (esp the two veg casseroles) are really good. It can be a bit time consuming and has some special ingredients sometimes but fun. A foodie casserole with some really down-home recipes too!

thanks everyone for your prayers, you have NO IDEA how much they mean to me!!!

Elizabeth @ The Garden Window said...

My prayers and best wishes for your loved ones' needs.