Welcome to February!
It has been a pretty productive week around here. We received two Day Camp Applications from host communities and have had emails assuring us of several more on the way. YAY!!
The push will soon be on to start recruiting Team Members in earnest. It’s all very well that a number of young people have indicated they plan to apply but that’s a far cry from actually holding completed forms in my hands! In recent years we have also had to move back the date by which we need to submit documents to the Montreal Police Department for screening of Team Members. New Members must come to the office and fill out these forms and that really needs to happen by the end of March so time is running out already. Oh My! That seems crazy as I sit here looking out at a very wintery landscape, but summer will (eventually!) come. 😊
This week I’ve also FINALLY decided upon a song for the 2018 Day Camps Liturgical Dance. Some years a piece has sort of fallen into my lap months before it was needed and I thought this year would be a breeze as I drenched myself in Advent and Christmas music but nothing seemed to be exactly right. Several helpful friends sent me links to tracks, all of which I dutifully listened to but none really spoke to me. Then I found an Advent EP by “TheBrilliance” and had an “AHA” moment when “Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming” was played. So the choice has been made, the album purchased (you can listen to the song on iTunes, I can’t find it on YouTube, sorry) and now choreography is swirling around in my head while I do more prosaic things like kneading bread dough. 😊 The goal is to have the piece completed next week, one more small item checked off a VERY long Day Camps to-do list.
Yesterday Jillian came for lunch! She and Victor have been back from their honeymoon for the past week so it was lovely to reconnect with her and hear about newlywed adventures! We are going to try to do lunch every Friday while they are living just a couple of blocks away. During the summer they will likely move to another area of the city, but it is so nice being neighbours for the present!
So as you guessed, today is a Bake & Blog Saturday. Sue gave me some sourdough starter so I’m trying yet another recipe. There have been some successes and failures around here with sourdough; maybe this “boule” will be a triumph. I’m also baking hazelnut chocolate cookies from the Avoca Café cookbook, given to me a couple of years ago by an itinerant Irish theologian who boarded with us for a while at the request of our then Bishop. It is a lovely cookbook and the cookies
sound super nice, who can go wrong with chocolate and hazelnuts?
sound super nice, who can go wrong with chocolate and hazelnuts?
Amazingly, apart from household matters there are not many other obligations this weekend, although some final planning for the Sunday Gathering of The Pod also needs to happen later this afternoon. Next week I shall be adding to my various “extra” jobs the task of going daily to feed the two cats of my friend Linda. She and her husband are travelling to China for three weeks so those kitties will be pretty lonely. Linda suggested I might take my laptop over to her house a few times and work from there to keep them company and since they are both on friendly terms with Wil this might prove an option.
The boule has just gone in the oven so in 45 minutes I’ll know if it gets added to the success or failure list and once it is on the cooling rack Wil and I shall head out for the afternoon perambulation. Although currently quite sunny it is bitterly cold with snow predicted overnight so I’ve placed the shovel “on alert” in the front porch.
Before we head out it’s time for a recipe. I think the Avoca Café cookies would be a good choice. However, as I discovered to my cost THEY SPREAD in the oven, so make sure to use a baking sheet with a rim and be prepared to have to cut them apart once they have baked! This is an Irish recipe so some of the ingredients are by weight, you will need a kitchen scale.😊
Chocolate Hazelnut Biscuits- Avoca Café
- 11oz. butter
- 5-½ oz. sugar
- 1 lb.4oz. All-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp. baking soda
- 6oz. finely ground hazelnuts
- 1 lb. chocolate chips
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and blend until fluffy. Add the flour, soda and nuts and blend until combined. Add the chocolate chips and pulse a few times.Remove to a bowl, cover and refrigerate several hours.
Roll out ¼ thick and cut into large circles (4″-5”) or cut smaller with a regular round cutter. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets and bake at 325º in a preheated oven. 25 minutes for the very large cookies, 15 minutes if smaller. Makes one dozen large or two dozen small cookies- oops “biscuits”!
Ps –The Boule was a SUCCESS!!!!
