As I start another weekly post it is snowing yet again here in Montreal. UGH!! A friend who lives in the UK emailed me last week mentioning that she had gone for a walk with her little girl and seen daffodils, crocuses and grape hyacinths, AGH!!! It is enough to cause a proud Canadian to pack up and emigrate 😊
HOWEVER, my fellow citizens are obviously determined to believe that summer will eventually come, as there has been a lot of activity on the Day Camp front this week.Yahoo!!
There are already several balls to juggle as the Lent/Easter edition of the CTM newsletter needs to be assembled plus our Annual General Meeting is only 3 weeks away, then of course there is also the small matter of my commitment to begin serious cooking and baking for the Training Retreat.
Oh my! Welcome to the world of Day Camps- 2020 edition 😊
This week has also seen the arrival in my Inbox of the last two sections of the Program Manual, Hallelujah!!! I’ve sent them off to Arnee for proof reading and have already sent a zip folder to Jessica so that layout work can begin in earnest.
Several more communities have been in touch to say they are applying and so the Day Camps Schedule is starting to look much healthier. From now until the summer we will be updating it monthly and posting it on the Churches & Communities tab of this blog, so please click on that tab if you want to check up on where Camps will be happening 😊
Thursday also brought a reference from a potential Team candidate who is applying from California. Leah is the cousin of Mae Anne; one of our committee members and the reference from one of her high school teachers is excellent. I look forward to receiving Leah’s actual form. I also had a call from the York Region Youth Coordinator in Toronto letting me know that her church is applying for Week 2 of Day Camps AND that her daughter, and a friend are both applying for Travelling Team, all excellent news!
Every morning as I bang away on my keyboard the 2020 liturgical dance song is blaring out of the speakers. I think I almost have both the lyrics and choreography ingrained in my brain. Since Dance Recording Day is now less than a month away, this is a very good thing 😊
Today as well a “Bake & Blog” I am working on my first dozen Pysanky, which I started earlier in the week. I should say my first TEN Pysanky because, while working on Wednesday afternoon, a certain black furry bundle of energy suddenly decided to leap onto my lap, causing 2 eggs to fall to the ground.!! Thankfully they were only in the early stages of the dye process so not too much work was lost. I am now taking extra precautions against Labrador invasions before I spread out my Pysanky supplies.
Thursday Jillian was here for a visit and dinner. She brought along her laptop on which she has Netflix and we got to watch an episode of the “Chef’s Table” documentary series, it was fantastic, all about a chef in Istanbul. I had asked Jillian if she could purchase some felt for me as it is the season in which I need to begin sewing Birthday Crowns for two of my Godsons whose birthdays are only 10 days apart at the end of March and beginning of April. I now have all the materials I need and somehow must carve out some time over the next few days to start work.
So I guess it would be wise to wrap up this post and get going on a few of these projects 😊.
I had invited Jillian this week because Tuesday was her birthday and so wanted to make an especially nice meal for her. Because we were going to be watching Netflix while dinner was cooking I opted for a slow cooker recipe and it turned out to be both quick to assemble and very tasty.
Asian Lettuce Wraps
- 1 lb. ground chicken
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 3 bell peppers (I used red, yellow and orange), finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced- ¾ cup Hoisin Sauce
- ¼ cup Tamari
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
- ½ tsp. each salt and pepper
- 2 cups cooked short grain brown rice
- 4 scallions, sliced
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- 1 head lettuce-Romaine, Boston or Leaf
- Sriracha sauce
Brown the ground chicken in a frying pan until no longer pink. Transfer to a slow cooker and add the onion, peppers, garlic, sauces and spices. Cook on low for 2 hours. Add the cooked rice, scallions and cilantro, stir well and continue cooking for another 30 minutes. To serve, arrange the lettuce leaves on a large platter and place a bowl of filling in the centre. Diners build their own wraps, adding Sriracha to taste. Serves 4.Yum.