Here we are on the eve of All Saints Day with Advent only a few weeks away. It has been a cold and blustery week outside with the leaves quickly being stripped from the maple trees, although some are still bravely hanging on!
In the small world of Day Camps plans are coming together for both our Team Alumnae Advent Program and for “Carols & Cocoa- Coast to Coast”. For the latter event, emails have been sent to 5 potential musicians and 2 have already agreed to play, which is a good start. I’m hoping to hear back soon from the others although I may need to do some badgering!
Mikaela, from the DC committee has agreed to badger Team Alums about participating in the Advent Program. For the last 2 years she was our “Team Gatherings Badger”, with a very official looking Google Docs spreadsheet so she seemed the ideal person to badger for this program, which is sort of taking the place of Team Gatherings as such in-person events are currently out of the question.
Still no concrete news regarding the new Blog site but Thursday evening Brenda and I were able to chat on FaceTime and she has encouraged me to continue creating duplicate draft posts over on the WordPress site. I had started doing that in August when I thought the transition was imminent but gave up after a few weeks so now I have to go back and recreate those drafts a rather “fiddly” and time consuming task.
On days when it is not raining I have devoted a couple of hours to raking and sweeping the leaves. One of the three large Norway Maples on our property is now almost stripped but the largest tree is still hanging on to a lot of leaves. The challenge now is to be able to get the final clean up done before we have a snowfall. Temperatures at night are falling below freezing so it won’t be long before the snow comes and I really want to plant a few bulbs and spread compost before it is too late!
Yesterday afternoon I went to collect my winter CSA box from Nora and Jamie, the farmers. This will be the last box EVER from them as they are retiring this autumn. We have been part of their CSA program for close to 20 years and it was so sad to say good-bye. I always take a basket of Christmas baking when I go to pick up the winter veggie box so yesterday I took a parcel of Pennsylvania Dutch Chocolate Cookies for them. Because it was the last time I also knitted a pair of Newfoundland Trigger Mitts for Nora. I do hope she likes them.
Now the mittens are completed I have turned my attention to knitting some newborn size overalls forJillian’s sister Joanne’s second baby who was born a week ago. The three Agustin sisters have all been very involved in various CTM ministries, although Joanne was never on Travelling Team.
After the usual raking stint this morning the rest of the day will be devoted to baking. I need to continue stockpiling Christmas Cookies plus Thomason needs another batch of “Cricket’s Biskets” his new organic favourite treat!
Before I head to the kitchen let’s close off with this week’s recipe.
As it is now definitely the season for lots of winter squash dishes I recently made this yummy one.
Crusty Roasted Squash Wedges
- 1 small winter squash
- 1 cup dry bread crumbs
- 2 Tbsps. olive oil
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 1 tsp. Herbes de Provence
- salt and pepper to taste
Halve the squash vertically and scoop out the seeds. Cut into 3/8” thick wedges. Arrange in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Mix together the crumbs, cheese, herbs and salt and pepper.
Brush each wedge with oil and sprinkle generously with the crumb mixture. Pat the topping onto each wedge. Roast in a 375º oven for 30 minutes or until the squash is tender. Serves 2 as a main course with a green salad.