This past week seems to have involved a gazillion emails flying back and forth. Early in the week we heard that the Worship Leader’s guitar had been stolen following last Sunday’s Crossroads Youth Service. This necessitated many emails and phone calls to establish the possibility of an insurance claim etc. and took up a fair amount of my pseudo-“Office” time!
But I was also able to send out REMINDERS-reminders of our Day Camp Committee Meeting , reminders to those writing Program materials that we would need reports at said meeting, reminders to 30 Churches and Communities that it sure would be nice to receive Applications from them, for Day Camps 2014! You get the idea.
The meeting agenda was also compiled and sent out, and I’m happy to report that Jillian plans to come over early on Monday and start sorting through mountains of sheet music and acetate files as we do a grand clear out of dated and unused songs.The menu for Monday’s dinner is set (more on this next week) so it looks as if weare good to go.
On the home front, Matthew and I had a good “Art Evening” last Monday as we explored various Printmaking materials and Matthew was able to continue amassing Christmas gifts as he even printed red stars on some tea towels!
Happily, that evening,I also squeezed in the completion of Malachi’s birthday gift, a knitted Viking Hat, I’m really pleased with the way it turned out!
Tuesday included a long session at Diocesan Council, which entailed typing of Minutes on subsequent days. And of course there was plenty of raking. We really are seeing the end of the leaves now and have been blessed the past 2 days with extraordinarily warm and sunny weather so everyone in the neighbourhood who has not raked before is now out doing major clean-ups.
My friend, Linda and her husband have taken a long weekend to go and visit their son and his family in North Carolina so I have been on cat-sitting duty. At the last moment she also asked me if I would be willing to do her garden clean-up so yesterday afternoon Wil and I headed over to her house and spent almost 3 hours raking, bagging and pruning in her front and back gardens.
And then, what do you know, yesterday morning the BRICK MASONS showed up! So now the front of the house is swathed in dropsheets and buttressed with scaffolding. I am sure hoping they can finish today because I have promised to lead the children at St. Stephen’s tomorrow and have no intention of staying home as by Monday the weather is supposed to change to wet and cold. Sigh.
Victoria has also,rather unexpectedly, joined me for the weekend as she had to drive down from Ottawa to attend an AGM. At the moment she is presenting on-line at a “virtual Synod” and needs to keep slogging away at her Master’s Thesis paper (see previous posts) this evening.Thus I’m not quite sure what I will be serving for dinner. Mercifully there are several possible choices in the freezer but since she is currently “unmuted” on her laptop in the kitchen I cannot go in and interview her about which she would most enjoy!
Victoria has also,rather unexpectedly, joined me for the weekend as she had to drive down from Ottawa to attend an AGM. At the moment she is presenting on-line at a “virtual Synod” and needs to keep slogging away at her Master’s Thesis paper (see previous posts) this evening.Thus I’m not quite sure what I will be serving for dinner. Mercifully there are several possible choices in the freezer but since she is currently “unmuted” on her laptop in the kitchen I cannot go in and interview her about which she would most enjoy!
Soon I must head out on another Wil walk and pick up a few supplies over at Isaiah 40 for tomorrow’s children’s activity. I know there are boxes and boxes of brass paper fasteners and I have a plan for using them! More on this as part of my Sunday Reflections.
As for a recipe….
I think it would be nice to share this one for Swiss Chard Calzones which I baked this week and enjoyed very much for dinner one evening.
Swiss Chard Calzones
Filling:-
- 1 bunch Swiss Chard, roughly chopped and
steamed - 3 cups grated zucchini
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp oregano- ½ tsp fennel
- 3 cups shredded mozzarella
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
Dough:-
- 2 cups unbleached flour
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 ½ cups warm water
- 1 Tbsp. yeast
- 1 egg, beaten
In a large bowl place the 2 flours and salt. In a small bowl proof the yeast in the warm water with a pinch of sugar. Make a well in the flours and add the proofed yeast mixture and the olive oil. Mix well ,then turn out on a floured surface and knead until smooth. Place in a clean,oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and let rise for 1 hour. Meanwhile, saute the onion in the olive oil until soft, add the herbs and zucchini and sauté for another 5 minutes. Turn into a large bowl. Add the steamed chard and cheeses. When the dough is risen, punch it down and divide into 8 equal balls. Roll each one into an 8” round . Divide the filling between the rounds,fold them in half,after dampening the edge with water .Crimp the edges to seal. Place on a large,parchment lined baking sheet. Brush each calzone with beaten egg and prick several times with a fork to allow steam to escape when baking.Place in a preheated 400F. oven and bake for 20mins.Serve hot accompanied with a bowl of your favourite Italian tomato sauce, for dipping. Serves 8.