It’s late in the day to begin this post but the “Baking” had to come before the “Blogging” this Saturday as I set myself an ambitious list of Retreat Week baking on top of some essentials for our immediate consumption!
It has been a good week in terms of Day Camps. The best news was from Rev. Vicki who has once again, lined up Camps in the three First Nations where she Pastors. We also had news that two Ontario communities were on board after some initial hesitation 😊
Then a Police Check arrived from one of our two Team Members applying from Toronto plus reference letters for both girls. This means I can now set up a Skype interview with Lauren (the newbie) and hopefully get acceptance packages sent out next week.
Jessica sent in more documents to add to the humongous zip file of Pdfs we will be sending to Henry as the job of assembling the Team Leaders Binders continues. Mid-week, as I was looking over the list I realised that because I had recently retooled the Clergy and Coordinators Planning Guides it would be necessary to do the same for the Team Leaders and Members Guides AGH!!!!! So Thursday and Friday much time was spent this extra job. I’m not quite done yet but should be able to add those refurbished files to the “Henry” list on Monday or Tuesday.
I also got the lyrics of the Liturgical Dance transcribed into a file, printed it and am in the process of drawing in the dance notation before scanning it back into the computer, ready for printing. I know I’ve said it many times before but it is really challenging to pull together every single tiny (but VITAL) component of this program. It is just as important to bake enough blueberry muffins for a Retreat Week breakfast, as it is to make sure the dance choreography is accurate or to design special Team Crosses or to type up a host church’s invoice. Fortunately I’m a huge fan of multi-tasking and do find moving from one type of work to something completely different is actually quite invigorating 😊 Mind you starting my Saturday (the first day of APRIL) with an hour of snow shovelling is not the sort of invigorating work I’m thinking of!!!!!!!
Meanwhile, afternoons I’ve sewn a few new spring tunics for myself, the Pysanky were all completed and the challenge of crafting some sort of baskets to give them in is now a high priority. Three “Bunny Nuggets” have been knitted along with a dozen eggs for the Godsons and their siblings and that is just as well since, despite the fresh snow, we are now only two weeks away from Easter.
Tomorrow’s “restful” Sabbath has morphed into another super crazy CTM Sunday- Morning House Church with a visitor from the Synod Office (EEK!!) Lunch with Chelsea, followed by the long anticipated “Wedding Outfit Try-on” with Jessica and her Mum. And while we are doing that in the studio a Senior Camp Staff meeting will be happening in the living room with supper for the Huyer family rounding off the day!
Before I head back to package up all the baking for the freezer we need a recipe. At our AGM I had a request for the recipe for the Soft Pretzels and Mustard Dip I had made. Since it is quite a long process I’ve decided to put that up as a separate bonus post (sometime this week ) and end off today with a recipe sent to me by my dear friend Michelle. Although she and her husband and four delightful children now live in Exeter Devon, a couple of years ago they spent several months living in Kyoto. Last evening I realised I happened to have all the ingredients on hand for this delicious dish; although I did substitute a trout filet for the salmon.
Here is the recipe in her words, because they make me smile 😊 Do try it; it is simple, quick and VERY yummy!!!!!
Michelle’s Japanese Salmon Dish
My culinary triumph is modest but the kids were watching Japanese children’s television in the afternoons and one time there were some kids cooking a dish, which I have successfully replicated. SO simple and delicious.
Here it is:
Ingredients:
- Salmon fillet
- Rice
- Soya sauce
- Vinegar (I used apple… another vocabulary triumph as I asked a random lady in the supermarket where the “su”
was… turns out it was an entire section in front of my nose) - Greens (these are long greens something like long spinach, but I guess spinach would work)
- Nori (those small strips.. I should send you some..)
- Toasted sesame seeds
Boil water in a frying pan, and put the fish in it until cooked. Take it out and flake it. Boil some more water, chop of the bottom and hold the stems of the greens in for a count of ten (I show off and count in Japanese), then stick the rest in just to wilt them. Plunge them in cold water, and squeeze them out. Chop them up and mix them in with the fish. Mix some soya sauce and vinegar in a small bowl, and pour over the fish/greens. Turn a small bowl of rice out onto a dish, and top with the salmon mixture. Top that with a bit of nori and sprinkle on sesame seeds.