Oh my what a zooy week!!
As previously reported, this was my week on “Godmother duty” looking after my three young Godsons from Ottawa, Monday to Wednesday. Those three days are still a bit of a blur, but overall the time did go well, with only a few tears and some really sweet moments.
I even managed to get in at least an hour’s office work each day and to (just!) keep my head above water. I spent some spare moments listening to more Christmas Songs, still hunting for the perfect liturgical dance piece for the 2018 Day Camp Program. Several friends have made helpful suggestions but I’m not quite ready to make a final choice.
Thursday was packed with a ton of catch up jobs as well as a lot of housework such as fishing Lego pieces out from under the furniture and collecting stray marker pens 😊. That evening, Jessica, Jillian and I had a little celebration in thanksgiving for a visit gone well. We watched another Hayao Miyazaki movie “Totoro” while eating Tuna Buns and oven fries, served on trays!!
Then yesterday there was plenty of office time to seriously prepare the template minutes for tomorrow’s Board Meeting and to print off agendas both for that meeting and for the Day Camp committee happening on Monday.
The CSA farmers, Nora and Jamie, had emailed earlier in the week to say they were switching the delivery date of the winter vegetable boxes from November 23 to the 17th. It was such a blessing that Jillian was home yesterday afternoon and was able to accompany me to the stand since there was a huge box plus FIVE BIG BAGS of vegetables to pick up as well as my monthly meat order from the other farmer, who had also switched his drop-off date to be there. Whew!
It was a lovely sunny afternoon so the two of us (escorted by an excited Wil!!) managed to haul everything home in one trip as, thankfully, the stand is in a church parking lot only 2 blocks from home. After we unpacked everything we wrote out a big list of all the veggies and then, with mugs of tea at hand, browsed through a huge pile of cookbooks looking for ideas for our bounty.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon so the two of us (escorted by an excited Wil!!) managed to haul everything home in one trip as, thankfully, the stand is in a church parking lot only 2 blocks from home. After we unpacked everything we wrote out a big list of all the veggies and then, with mugs of tea at hand, browsed through a huge pile of cookbooks looking for ideas for our bounty.
Today the weather has turned very dark and dreary and the forecast is calling for some serious freezing rain overnight so our Board meeting may need to be postponed. I’m super glad that I made time to bake today as one never knows if the power will go off when freezing rain hits. Ugh!!
This morning I went out early to rake, yet again, but I see the storm winds are bringing down yet more leaves, they have stayed on the trees such a long time this year. At the end of the coming week it will be time to transform the house for Advent/Christmas, always a bit of an added challenge when I have a boarder in residence but Jillian does go to her family home on the weekends so it will all work out. Next Saturday’s post may actually end up being published Sunday as changing to the Advent and Christmas decorations is even more intense than the other seasons 😊.
Well I see the timer is about to ring calling me back to the kitchen to continue baking. So we had better close with a recipe.
Wednesday evening we always eat early and in a bit of a rush as Jillian goes out to a Bible Study, this week we enjoyed this main course salad. I adapted the recipe from Green Well Salad found in “Bread and Wine” a great book I read recently, written by Shauna Niequist.
Autumn Salad
1 large Spanish onion, thinly sliced- 2 Tbsps. butter
- 4 cups mixed salad greens
- 2 pears, cored and sliced
- ½ cup red grapes, halved
- ½ cup each dried cherries and chopped walnuts
- 4oz. Feta, crumbled
- ½ lb. cooked chicken, julienned
- Dressing: –
- 1/3-cup olive oil
- 2 Tbsps. each Balsamic vinegar and Dijon
mustard - Salt and pepper to taste
First caramelise the onions by placing them and the butter in a cast iron skillet and sautéing them for approx. 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until a rich dark brown.In a large salad bowl combine all the salad ingredients, including the caramelised onions (it’s okay if they are still warm!) Whisk together the dressing and toss gently with the salad.
Serves 2-3, with a crusty loaf J