09/09/17 – Crosstalk Ministries Day Camps

If my Dad were still alive we would be celebrating his birthday today. My Mum would be baking him a Tottenham Cake, his favourite, and I expect he would have requested roast beef for dinner (hey! he was British) but he is not here and despite the fact that I bake my Mum’s Tropic Aroma Cake to remember her on her birthday, I REALLY don’t like Tottenham Cake so today is just a time to reflect on my relationship with my Dad and how that helped to shape the person I am today.

The main thing I’m super grateful for today is that the Feedback Packages have ALL been sent off, as of yesterday. WOOT!! WOOT!!!! That is 31 personalized forms, plus a zip folder of documents that even includes the promo flier for 2018 and a Day Camp Application form. It is a big job to assemble all those things and to check and recheck each form, making sure it says exactly what I believe needs to be said regarding each Camp. I do hope that I have worded things well, that people accept both the praise for jobs well done and the suggestions for making their Day Camp week even better. I work hard to be diplomatic and earnestly hope I have succeeded 😊 Completing that task is like turning a page in a huge fat book and starting a new chapter: – Day Camps 2018. –“One of Us” (dare I say my favourite of our 6 Programs? But I probably say that every year)

Don’t you just love this logo? Josiah Henderson designed it for us and I think it is so powerful in it’s simplicity, if that makes sense?

Next weekend we will have the Praise and Thanksgiving Gathering at which lots of people connected with Day Camps, Junior Youth Camp and Senior Youth Camp, will join together to give hearty thanks for another great summer of ministry, then after that, for me at least, my course is firmly set towards summer 2018! Which does seem a tad ludicrous even to me as I sit outside on my balcony and listening to cicadas on a warm late summer afternoon 😊.

Besides achieving the Feedback goal the rest of the week has been filled with the usual hodgepodge of varied activities- sewing, baking, lawn-mowing, knitting, cooking dinners and packing tasty lunches for my Boarder and on Thursday working my first early morning (think 715am!!!) shift looking after the 3 Brady children (including Godson-Tighe) and walking them to school. I’ve agreed to take on this task approximately twice a week until Christmas and then we will see about the winter months, as I’m really not too keen on the extra 45 minute walk once the temperature hits -30ºC!

The coming week is just about as manic as usual and will need to include preparations for the Praise and Thanksgiving Gathering. That same afternoon we will be holding our September CTM Board Meeting so between the end of that and the 7pm Gathering the Huyers will be here for dinner, all of which means some extra baking needs to be done in the next few days. Speaking of baking, I have recently become obsessed with Sourdough Breads. This past Thursday evening we had sourdough crust pizza, which was pretty addictive. So if you want to try getting your own starter going, here is the info, followed by the pizza recipe.

Sourdough Starter

In a non-reactive (glass) bowl combine ½ cup each of organic rye flour and whole-wheat flour. Stir in approximately 1 cup of filtered water (it must be filtered or spring water), you should have a sort of sludgy texture. Cover the bowl with a piece of thin cotton or muslin and place in a warm area (I use the top of the fridge). It will take about 2 weeks to activate a good starter and during that time you can add a bit more filtered water and stir ii a couple of times if it seems to be getting too thick.

That’s all there is to it. Once you start using it for breads you need to ’feed it” with either a lump of your bread dough (thinned with filtered water) or by stirring in another half cup flour the night BEFORE you plan to use starter for baking. Try to use it once a week or it will become too sour and unusable.

Sourdough Pizza Crust

In a large glass bowl combine 1 cup sourdough starter with 1/2 cup warm water, 2 Tbsps. olive oil, 1 tsps. sea salt and approx.. 2 cups whole wheat or unbleached flour (or a mixture of both) Start by stirring with a wooden spoon and then bring it together with your hands and knead thoroughly until you have a smooth and elastic dough. Place in a clean glass bowl, cover and allow to rise overnight in the fridge.

To make your pizza: –

Heat a pizza stone in a 475ºoven while you prepare your ingredients.

You can use any of your favourite toppings,
I used-

½ cup tomato/basil sauce
2 large heirloom tomatoes, sliced
1 cup shredded mozzarella
4 oz. thinly sliced salami
¼ cup black olives

Once your stone is heated, remove it from the oven and place it on a heatproof surface; quickly assemble your pizza, first sprinkling the stone liberally with the cornmeal. Stretch the dough into a circle then place it on the stone and carefully continue to stretch it until it is about 1” smaller in diameter than the stone. Now add your toppings and bake for 10-15minutes. Yum!