The weather has turned much more “Fallish” around here this past week with temperatures hovering around 10°C most days. However I have been grateful for sunshine yesterday and today after several dark and rainy days.
Fortunately Jessica’s laptop has finally been repaired so she was able to send me copies of the Day Camp Planners in a format that I am able to edit. Now comes the task of combining the content of the Travelling Team Planner with that of the Community Planner in order to create one cohesive document that will help churches and communities lead Day Camps on their own with both ease and confidence.
All of this is rather daunting and I want to take time to get everything “right” but also know that there is a long list of smaller documents that will need similar attention. Ah well, I am never bored!
There is also a CTM Board meeting coming up a week tomorrow so I had to prepare a draft agenda, run it by our President, Chris, and then send it out to the Board Members.
Outside of office hours there has also been quite a lot going on. I completed another set of Liturgical silk masks for the Bishop of Québec and have orders from 4 friends for cotton masks. Another friend for whom I sometimes cater has asked me if I can prepare dinners for herself and her husband as they are both back at work full time. I made a list of menu suggestions and will be preparing meals once every two weeks for the foreseeable future. An added complication is that I am still unable to dash up to my local organic grocer if I find I am missing an ingredient as they have very restricted shop hours plus only 5 people can enter the store at any given time. I am continuing to rely on a system of pickup orders, sent via email, and occasional deliveries if the order is too much to carry. All of which means one has to be super careful not to leave anything out when composing the grocery lists!
Tuesday afternoon was a (via Zoom) meeting of Diocesan Council. The Clerical secretary was unwell so I had to be extra careful in taking minutes although the Vicar General did record the meeting, which is helpful if one gets stuck on a name or knotty point of discussion. By yesterday morning the draft was complete and I sent it off to my clerical counterpart, as she is great at spotting any typos or weird formatting issues.
As well as baking a few things today the plan is also to make either pear marmalade or pear butter with the pears that Jessica and her husband Tyler picked last Monday at his grandparents’ farm. The pears were not quite ripe enough to deal with immediately but are ready to process now so that task is on today’s list, along with the inevitable sewing of masks!
Thursday was CSA vegetable pick up day so I also have a large quantity of tomatoes to deal with this weekend (I think I shall make soup), a large bunch of fresh basil to turn into pesto plus Mandu needs a batch of homemade cat food. Oh my! That is quite a big list, maybe we should have a recipe now and I’ll then be free to head to the kitchen.I made these for dinner one night last week and they were super yummy!
Spicy Tofu Burgers.
- 1 block extra firm tofu
- 2 Tbsps. tomato paste
- 2 Tbsps. Sriracha
- 2 Tbsps. fresh mint, chopped
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
- ½ a small onion very finely minced
- 1 Tbsp. grated lemon rind
- 5 Tbsps. unbleached flour
- 1 tsp. salt
Press the water out of the tofu by laying a heavy pan on top of it for 20-30 minutes. Mash the tofu using your hands until it’s crumbly. Mix in the remaining burger ingredients. Form into 4 patties. Preheat the oven to 350°. Fry the burgers in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil to get the outsides nice and browned, then transfer to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the burgers are firm to the touch on the outside. (You can throw some peppers and onions in the pan with the burgers if you want to cook them up at the same time.) Serve on toasted buns with sriracha, mayo, roasted onions & peppers and fresh lettuce.