It is hard to look at the above date and not think that today should have been the Saturday at the end of Team Training Week and the day before the start of the Training Retreat. Every summer for the past 40 years life has revolved around Day Camps but this year there is an eerie quiet on my cell and no bustle of last minute preparations in the kitchen, at least I do have the “mini-bustle” of finalising the first Terrific Tuesday” post.
The week began with our CTM Board meeting last Sunday afternoon. At that meeting we heard that our Junior Youth Camp (JYC) had finally thrown in the towel and decided there were just too many pandemic-related obstacles in the way of their mounting any sort of in person program. They do have some plans for online activities, especially during the second week in August when JYC would have been held.
Last Sunday evening I also hosted William Craig, Steven’s dad for dinner on Steven’s last night staying with me before they both began their long drive back to Alberta on Monday morning. We had such a nice visit, albeit quite short, as they wanted to get an early start the next day.
This week Wentworth (our CTM tech person) has completed the temporary site that will host the new version of this Blog. Initially you will still find the blog here but in a few weeks it should have migrated to our new WordPress platform. The plan was to have the Terrific Tuesdays go up just on the new site but it looks as if they will be published in both places as we want to be sure everyone who wants them has easy access.
Thursday evening Brenda (who has worked so hard preparing the new WordPress site) gave me a tutorial on how to write a post on it.She is now off enjoying a weekend at the beach and I’m really hoping I won’t need to bother her as I attempt to recreate this post over on the other site later today. 😊
Outside of Day Camp activities I have also been working on the facemasks for Bishop Mary. She needs a red one for the upcoming Ordination Services and I have ended up making one each in the four main Liturgical colours- Red, White, and Purple & Green. After searching through my stash for suitable pieces I came upon some lovely remnants of Ecclesiastical silk damask. A quick check on Google revealed that silk is an excellent fabric for non-medial face masks as it is breathable, washable and 95% effective in preventing the spread of bacteria. I do hope Bishop Mary will like them. They are not quite finished as I’m waiting for the elastic that she has ordered, but once it arrives it will only take a short time to complete the project 😊
Normally, this would be a “Bake &Blog” Saturday but Sue is not able to pick up the baked goods I will be making for her until Monday afternoon, so I have decided to do all the prep work today but not bake until tomorrow so things will be fresher.
I have been trying to figure out what, if anything, I can do with the various foods I had prepared, last March, for the now defunct Training Retreat. I was given an advance of 200$ for ingredients and have Breakfast Cookies, Blueberry Coffeecakes, Mango Smoothies, Ratatouille and Kamut buns, (all enough for 24 people) sitting in my freezers. It would be best to try and sell them as I would be loathe to keep them for a whole year, and as we also do not know what the future will hold in terms of training Teams in 2021, however few people in Québec are hosting gatherings of that size this summer so I cannot think of anyone who would want to buy everything. Actually, except for the Mango Smoothies, all the foods are packed in containers and so could be subdivided but I still cannot think to whom I could sell them. It is a bit of a problem as it would be great to be able to recoup the 200$, given CTM’s tenuous finances.
I guess that paragraph about food makes a decent segue into a recipe.
One night this week I made Greek Pita Bread and had Tuna Artichoke Gyros for dinner. They make a lovely summer supper 😊
Tuna Artichoke Gyros
- 1 tin Safe Catch Tuna
- 4oz. artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
- 1 large tomato, sliced
- 3 Tbsps. veganaise or mayonnaise
- 2 Tbsps. pine nuts
- 1 lemon
Flake the tuna and combine with the artichokes, pine nuts and veganaise. Place 4 squares of aluminium foil on your work surface and top each with a warm pita.
Divide the filling evenly between the breads and top each with 2 or 3 slices of tomato. Roll into a cone shape and secure the foil at the base by folding it over and pinching the ends together.