(Day 6) without Cleo: Church, a touching gift, great food and a holiday weekend

Church this morning...still in blue for the Mother of God,

as the Feast of her Dormition is still ongoing. 

I loved these heart shaped cookies in Ottawa... 

I remember I had a friend over for tea 

with these cookies and strawberries...

I felt that the cookies were better in Ottawa 

but no matter, it was nice to have again.

The store bought blini with strawberries, French Vanilla Ice Cream and a dusting of cocoa...

so so good! I love this treat! 

Granny Marigold asked about blini and if I make this...no, I never had...but I used to 

make crepes which I find are similar though this blini is so wonderful, 

so paper-thin, I totally want to buy this again! 

I had leftover (frozen) chicken gravy...

And leftover turkey from Thanksgiving...

And wide noodles + a small bag of mixed (organic) vegetables...

I cooked up the noodles, defrosted the gravy,

got the turkey ready and mixed the noodles, vegetables and turkey together.

I had to switch to my white casserole dish as my blue one,

which I was going to use, was too small! 

I added the chicken gravy on top and baked at 425 for about 20 minutes

and then lowering the temp to 300 or so as the top was just beginning

to burn!  It was so good!

I made cranberry sauce while that was baking!

(1 bag cranberries, 1 cup water with 1 cup sugar

brought to boil and then add cranberries and bring to boil again

and then simmer for 10 minutes and you are done!)

It was like a simple Thanksgiving Meal! 

So good! 

Tomorrow I hope to remember to add some French-fried onions 

on top...Mr Husband reminded me of this! 

A dear friend, S., gave me this small planted cutting.

It is from an older cutting of a plant that her priest

in MA has in his house, for many years.

It's an Angel-Wing Begonia and she gave it to us

in honour and in memory of Cleo Cat.

I was really touched but felt like I could not respond in words

very profusely as I did not want to start crying... 

I really hope we are able to keep this dear plant alive and well!

We plan on doing research on it tomorrow...  

One of the many similarities between Mr Husband and I are 

that we are both Dutch in heritage and collected Dutch Delft pottery!

My Husband has 2 of these cute little sleeping kitty cat pieces

so I put one on the sewing table where I could see it... 

my Angel-holding-the-kitty is there too...

***

So here' a super cute picture of Cleo...I need to find the blog post

that it is originally in so that I can get a jpeg of it so I can print it... 

the photo below of it is a .png and is not as clear for any picture beyond

wallet size.  It's super cute though, so I will do the work to find it...

I know it's in our first apartment and probably in 2013 or early 2014 so

it won't be too hard to find, I hope :)

This one really captures Cleo's cute side I think :)

Boy, I sure miss her. 

I almost made it without crying today 

(would have been the first day since I learned she is dying) but

I was looking through pictures, Mr Husband went to bed and 

the tears came.  But I think that's good.

We talked earlier tonight about how one of our favourite times

of the day is when I read the Tolkien letters while Mr Husband listens

and he commented how Cleo would always join us for that

and how we are not a family of 3 any more...

Yeah. Our dear Cleo... we miss you Cleo! 

***

Well... I sure am blessed with so much support... thanks everyone 

for your comments, etc... 

***

I have a cooking question: 

for the Slava I hope to make the yummy 

red-wine-onion-beef dish:

Beef Bourguignonne

Here's the question as I put earlier on social media: 

Cooking question: Beef Bourguignonne -- Ruth Reichl's early book calls for 3 cups red wine - Julia Child's does too - but Ruth's is 2 lb beef chuck cubed and Child's 3 lbs beef chuck cubed. Ruth's calls for 1 cup beef broth, Child's 2-3 cups beef broth. I want to do 4 lbs of beef (.5 lb/person for 8 people). Should I use just 3 cups wine + 2-3 cups beef broth and call it good? Ruth's marinades the beef (with wine + onions, carrots, parsley, bay leaf, 1 clove garlic, 10 black pepper corns and 1 tsp salt) for TWO days. The beef broth in Ruth's recipe is added when you cook it for 3 hours at 300F at the end of the recipe. With added 1 lb meat, should I add more wine for marinade (I easily could, I was given a double sized bottle of red wine a while ago). I would be doubling the amount of beef in Ruth's recipe. Should I double the carrots and onions? garlic? Thoughts, opinions, etc?

***

Would love any of your thoughts on this also! 

***

Well.  It is time for bed now. 

I did not have the best sleep last night.

Lots of dreams about Cleo.

And then I fell asleep in the (1+hr) drive to church this morning...

and I dreamt that our priest there was praying

and censing the church because Cleo died...

it was comforting

(of course I know that this is not actually what the Orthodox do,

it was a dream).... 

***

I see so many many ways that God is being good to me in this time of loss.

And I am so glad I can write about it as part of my life that I share here.

I really value this and all of my blog friends who have come

along side me throughout the years! 

***

I pray that each of you finds yourself protected, upheld, and comforted

no matter what is going on for you in your life...

God bless each of you!