Hello Blog Friends and Happy Thanksgiving!
It seems that summer is barely over and yet we are now deep into autumn as, here in Canada, we celebrate Harvest Festival/Thanksgiving weekend.
As is usually the case, it has been quite a full week around here. Monday and Tuesday I worked on follow-up from our final episode of the Day Camps Autumn Cook-Along, sending out recipes and receiving photos from our Happy Campers 😊 This coming Wednesday I plan to publish a special “Wednesday Words” blog post, celebrating the Cook-Along, so watch for it coming soon!
I have also been working on my “TED Talk” for the upcoming Children’s ministry event, which will be happening next Saturday. I guess you can expect a late post that day! I think I have mapped out the core of what I want to say and just hope I can polish it up during the coming week.
I have also been going through Day Camps files and changing the footer on them to include the new blog address. There are a lot of documents on which the “Blogger” address appears so it is best to make a start now that the blog has officially been migrated over to WordPress.
Thursday evening there was a short meeting for the presenters of the Children’s Ministry event and then immediately afterwards we launched into the monthly Day Camp Committee meeting, quite a marathon 😊.
At our DC meeting we discussed the Cook-Along and are already looking ahead to a possible “Season Three” over the winter months. The Autumn Day Retreat for Team Alumnae was also on the agenda. Several people have shown interest but as yet there have not been any registrations. Sigh. With Carols & Cocoa coming up in December we spent some time considering who might be approached to serve as our MC. At present we have 2 potential performers but we need several more so next week it will be time to start another round of badgering!
Afternoons I have been doing some watercolour and pen & Ink sketching as a friend commissioned me to create a piece incorporating a favourite Tolkein quotation as a gift for her husband’s birthday. I’ve done 2 versions and hope she will be pleased with them. Jessica also asked me to do a full size poster of The Jesse Tree as an extra illustration for the e-book. She has two weeks of vacation coming up and will generously be spending some of her holiday time pulling together the book layout.
This week we have had several sunny days so I was able to mow the lawns and prune some more of the perennials. Soon it will be time to plant spring bulbs but I usually wait to do that until after the last of the leaves are raked. There has not yet been a killing frost but once that happens the leaves will fall quickly.
Today I’m going to be making a start on Christmas baking! I want to test a recipe for Cranberry & Orange Loaf as there are half a dozen families to whom I always give a baking treat at Christmas and I hope the loaf will turn out to be a good choice for this year’s gifts.
“Soup Month” continues and today I’m sharing another favourite-
Czech Fish Soup with Dumplings
- 3 strips bacon, diced
- 1 lb. fresh white fish, boned & diced
- 1 Tbsp. smoked paprika
- 6 cups fish stock or water
- 3 firm tomatoes, chopped
- 4 potatoes, peeled & grated
- 1 tsp. marjoram
- for the dumplings-
- ½ cup flour
- 1 egg, beaten
- 3 Tbsps. milk
- pinch of salt
- 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
Fry the bacon until golden then add the fish pieces and fry for 1-2minutes, being careful not to break up the fish. Sprinkle the paprika over the fish then add the stock or water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, potatoes and marjoram. Cook for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile make the dumplings by mixing all the ingredients. Cover and leave for 5-10 minutes. Drop spoonfuls of the dough into the simmering soup and cook for 10 minutes. Serves 4.