A dinner with 'out takes' and preparing for a storm

I had dear friends over for dinner last

Thursday night...

I kept looking at the table in puzzlement,

thinking to myself,

all the food is there, but what is missing?

Potato with fried onions and goat cheese,

another ginger lemon chicken...

Salad (brought by friends!), orange juice and honey glazed carrots,

my 'Theophany dishes'...

It was not until a few minutes that I realized

that I had wine in the fridge to put out

and I got my answer!

drinking glasses! I forgot them!

And napkins :)

Phew, that explained it all!

It was a lovely meal with such

good friends and gentle, worthy and real conversation. 

There, with glasses. :)

All better...

*

Well, Cleo and I are preparing for the snow storm we 

are said to be getting.

She's preparing by making daring and funny leaps 

onto furniture...

*

Actually she did the funniest thing last night, 

too bad I did not get a picture...

Mr. Husband and I were eating a lovely meal of 

the left over ginger lemon chicken, 

with some mashed potatoes (with butter and soup cream!)

and salad and there was Cleo on the

very top of the seat back of our chair by the kitchen island counter

standing as tall as she could looking down at our meal

with great interest, her eyes as wide as can be.

Mr. Husband, knowing her to be a sneaky thief of food,

and now seeing her so blatantly looking,

gently but quickly stomped his foot and she scurried away...

a bit behind my dining chair, still looking!!!

So funny.

*

Anyway, I am doing lots of wash

at present and am planning on baking bread soon,

making this week's smoothie, 

watching the weather (all window shades are open in my living/dining area!) 

and praying.

I am also planning on getting out our blessed Candle-mas candles that 

are for times of trouble, strife or storm.

I won't use them until the snow really hits...

*

Meanwhile, I also have to relight many of my lampadas,

but do have some candles faithfully burning meanwhile.

*

My only request for this storm is two fold:

1. no injuries or death of anyone

2. that power does not go out.

*

Please join me in prayer for this and for all those who are 

suffering today!

{baking bread} ~ First time making cranberry orange bread in our new home

My new measuring cups are getting lots of 

good use!

This is the bread that I baked

last week when I went to practice

highway driving for the second time.

The yeast bloomed well and rose nicely!

And I remembered to score the tops!

Mr. Husband and I enjoy this toasted

with jam.

I froze the second loaf in preparation for a friend

coming to tea.

Recipe here and here.

"You should blog this"

So last week I made bread.

Some plans changed on us and
a lot of the bread went to things other than what
was planned.
One was to church yesterday.
I had the surprise of one of my fellow parishioners saying
this bread is so good, like Jordanville bread.
I commented, as I was sitting by her table,
that I had brought it and that it was one I baked
and that it was so easy.
I was pleased and surprised,
as the bread was simple and some of it even tore as
I got it off the pizza stone.
Anyway, here is the recipe and method for it
for anyone who wishes to know or be reminded.

Mr. Husband and I's portion of the
vegan brownie cookies are gone.
Mr. Husband loves them.
Folks, I have found a winner.

I love our weekend meals.
Cozy and lovely.

A salad, a few carrots, some bread, PB for me,
bananas.  Typical fare at our house.

We love our bread toasted.

I also made a curry last Thursday which
we then enjoyed all weekend,
with some alterations for fasting Friday.
By Saturday Mr. Husband told me about this curry
that "you should blog this."

It had half of cup of cream.

I made papadums in the microwave.

So the curry was a scrimp curry.

With lots of rice on the side.

It was very simple.

From this cookbook.
Combine spices (the mustard I used was grey poupon, grainy).
Heat oil (I used more than 3 tbs corn oil,
pretty much covered the
bottom of my cast iron fry pan), I did not have mustard seeds.
I fried the garlic and ginger,
added spice paste (spices with 2 tbs water), fried quickly
(about 15 seconds),
added the lone tomato I had...
I think I put this all on low; I did not have spinach;
I added the scrimp after Mr. Husband got home, added the cream at the end;
I know it was more than a half cup liquid at the end;
I am wondering if the scrimp had water in them
which made more.
Mr. Husband loved it.
Mr. Husband used to live with Indian roommates and
has a taste for Indian food.
So when he told me that I should blog the recipe/about
this curry, I knew that I had made a successful curry.
Now the question is if I can make it again!

So much going on.
Our prayer list keeps growing as the days
go on...
*
I am hoping to go to a monastery this weekend.
Then lots of family visits and such things will be happening.
I think it fair to say that both Mr. Husband and I
are still a bit anxious about falling ill again,
esp. as I was ill from Feb-August with mono.
Asking your prayers as we all go into a busy season...
*
(reblogged today as the pictures failed to load properly yesterday)

Thursday Already

I made my first batch of
bread from refrigerated artisan bread
yesterday.

I saved my flour/corn meal from last time since
it seemed such a waste to not do so.

The dough did not look like much
but the bread was pretty good.

It looked nice and real, I love how golden it got.

Autumn and red lampadas.
So many to pray for right now...

My three tiered tray, with butternut squash
waiting to be made into soup!

My two crock pots with the bone broth
being made over several days. 

I am making a list for everyday
to use and most often I get much of it done.

Today I may get a little less done;
had some really severe insomnia last night
and am still quite tired... 

I got our monthly calendar up on a new wall.
It kept falling where it was and
needed a new and different hook to hang from.

I cleared off our window buffet of the
many wonderful cards we had.
Slowly getting ready for Thanksgiving!
I also made more bread dough yesterday,
including some with rosemary
for our Monday meal... 

 

I am so glad that we have prayer and the Saints to take care of us!
Wishing you all a blessed day!

First loaf of Artisan Bread

Last week Thursday
before my first knitting class...

I (finally) made the artisan bread!

So easy!
Add flour, yeast, salt, water...

So simple... all starts with the flour...

I mixed it all together...

Put it in a container for two hours.
It expanded a lot!

The recipe said if it was one's first time
using the recipe,
not to use the dough without it being
in the fridge for at least two plus hours.
Well,
I needed that bread for the next day,
for the rummage sale we were going to,
where I found my dishes,
and so I happily ignored this
and used the first fourth of the dough
to make this small loaf,
which rested for 40 minutes and expanded...

Added corn meal to the bottom of the

pizza peel and floured the top...

I discovered that my big spoon rest worked
perfectly for doing all of this.

I made the bread into a neat loaf 

and floured the top

for easy scoring of the top...

It worked well.

And it baked up to be a lovely small loaf
of bread!
It could not of been easier
and cleanup was a breeze!
I am looking forward to more
and experimenting with
various bread flavours! 

Another Wednesday but what to show for it...

I have another loaf rising
right now for lunch.
*
I am making a bag for my knitting class
but it is so slow and does not look like anything
but a long pile of stitches, so
I did not yarn along post today.
I can say that I am slowly getting the seed stitch down
but wish I was faster at it.
Pictures from Princeton a week or so back...

A beautiful old church
but one that was made into a new contemporary one.

They kept some of the beauty
but then inside
the praise band and big screen.
When I went to BC I was reminded
of the sincere love of God that the protestants have.
I saw it deeply at the reunion.
But the jettison of all beauty,
what a great and true loss,
not to mention many other things they
do not know that they lost along the way....

Where ever Mr. Husband and I go,
our icons come too
and they make the room alive, comfortable and
well, real and blessed...

 

I just love our Cleo Cat.
She's so funny.
I kinda got out of rhythm
or forgot to be thankful,
you know one of those upside down inside days
but yet, God is so good and
I was reminded again
of how we need to just be with God everyday
and to serve where I am.
*
The chicken broth is still slowly cooking away
and it smells so good;
it's going to add a lot of flavour to the butternut squash soup
I plan on making this weekend.
Question for those who cook soup:
I have two recipes in my new to me thanksgiving cookbooks,
both say you can do this soup up to three days in advance.
One uses half and half and the other cream itself.
For doing it three days in advance,
which would you do?
*
I finished the book the help and
I am still pondering it.
It deserves a post of it's own.
I am reading a book about a midwife called
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
and so far it is quite satisfying.
I am finally reading more books, now that I am not glued to FB all the time.
Been meaning to write a post about that too,
why FB was interfering so greatly with things
and the gains and losses in not using it.
Well, I guess I should just do this now.
*
Really it is quite simple.
FB was sucking my life, my time,
my attention away from me.
It became an addiction, and I knew it as such for years,
ever since I was at a family reunion in MI
before I even knew Mr. Husband and
relatives were talking about their addiction to it,
though in a light-handed way,
as if addictions do not matter, so long as they are not
to drugs, or such things.
I could not deny it then and lived with it for years.
When I got mono it was even worse and
I turned to FB because I was so lonely,
not having the strength to leave the couch
and most often with no one but Mr. Husband to visit me
(not that I am discounting Mr. Husband who
is one of the greatest blessings in my life!).
And years before, it was a great help to me also,
when I was in Ottawa in-between jobs.
*
But in the end I realized that when I would be done with scanning
FB, I would feel so inwardly disheveled,
I would feel more lonely, not less
and my sense of isolation instead of being decreased
the minute I left I felt it was worse.
Then Mr. Husband emailed me an article
about how the more one uses FB, the worse one feels
and that depression can often result.
Then came that day right before we went to Ottawa.
I realized I had gotten nothing done that day;
no book read, no knitting, no baking, nothing but one and off the computer.
Not that I am not on it now, writing this.
But that was it.
I knew I had to change.
I told Mr. Husband the computer had to move into the office
and I needed my living and dining room free of it.
*
I needed to live,
I needed to have my time back.
*
Well that was the end of FB for the most part.
I still have it and
I still use it a bit, but no more than 5 minutes a day
and often just to check up on a certain person or people.
The loss of using it is that many of my dear
friend are on it and I don't know how they are doing that day.
That is a real loss.
Something I had to accept;
just because I stopped using FB, it does not mean
that anyone else did and I had to face it.
*
Yet, I had to break free of it.
It was high time I did something about it.
So now I read, bake and look at cookbooks,
call friends, email on real topics,
and continue to blog.
Since I quite FB I've either listened to or read about 5 books,
with another 5 in the works.
*
I've been able to have a better routine to my day.
While I still can feel lonely at times,
it's not as bad.
*
Since then I've talked to people
and found they too have not read books like they used to
because of FB or even that they do not spell well,
of all things.
*
I cut down even on blog reading though I still enjoy many
and comment on them.
*
Well, I am off to bake bread for Mr. Husband and I's lunch
and do other things, like ironing and listening to
an audio book...
*
Life is a process and even on mixed up days,
I am so glad for God's mercy in it all.