Hello Blog Friends!
Here we are in the short space of “Ordinary Time”, which bridges the gap between the season of Epiphany and the season of Lent. It is now less than a month until Ash Wednesday and I know that in some parts of the world daffodils and snowdrops are blooming, whereas here we are still deep into winter. Mind you, I have noticed that the sky is now beginning to lighten when I get up at 615am and it is not quite dark at 5pm when I’m starting to make dinner, so spring will come, despite the mountains of snow that still surround us.
It has been quite a full week. Plans are well underway for Season Three of the Day camps Cook-along. The 3 chefs have now been booked and 3 families have also registered, which is encouraging. I sent a second round of reminders on Monday morning and will continue to badger until March 1st, the registration deadline.
I have also moved forward in preparing for the Team Lenten study program and have chosen 3 good videos in the “Artful” series that will form the core content of the 3 sessions.
Wednesday was bright and sunny so I took the opportunity to hall out 6 Team Banners and photograph them as we plan to put them up on the website in the hopes that communities with a long-time interest in hosting Day Camps will want to purchase a set. I’m not quite sure about the logistics of mailing them out of province but will cross that bridge when I come to it, assuming we will get some “takers” for the iconic banners 🙂
Sadly this week Junior Youth Camp had to cancel their Winter Camp Day that was planned for the last Saturday in February. There are still too many restrictions around indoor gatherings in churches to make it possible and although they did plan to spend the afternoon portion skating and sledding, it is too cold to spend the whole day outside and lunch would have been impossible. I suggested that perhaps some of the campers might like to join the Day Camp Cook-Along sessions and sent a copy of our flyer to the JYC Directors in case they would like to circulate it, we’ll see if they decide to.
Outside of office hours there have been several other meetings on ZOOM and Face Time. Since January I have been very much enjoying a weekly one hour meeting on Mondays with my most special friend, Michelle, who lives with her husband, four children and dog in Exeter, Devon UK. Michelle and I met about 30 years ago when she was a Day Camp Team Member and became close friends. I have written about her before in this blog, she is a very important person in my life even though we have lived over 3000kms apart for the past 20 years! I was overjoyed when she suggested we try and schedule a set time for a weekly meeting, long may it last 🙂
Tuesday afternoon was a Diocesan Council meeting and that meant that Wednesday afternoon I had to type up the minutes. From the perspective of secretary, I was overjoyed that it turned out to be a very short meeting lasting only 45minutes instead of the usual 2 hours, woot, woot!!! There were only 4 pages of typed minutes instead of the usual 6 or 7. 🙂
By Thursday evening I had finished knitting my Rauma pullover and yesterday I wet-blocked it and plan to wear it for the first time tomorrow. I really love the pattern and may well make it again sometime in a different colourway.
Today Mae Anne and I are trying again to meet for lunch after last week’s aborted attempt so I had better wrap up this post and finish setting the table. I also need to take Thomason for an extra-long walk before Mae Anne arrives in the fond hope he will not be so disruptive during the visit if he has had plenty of exercise. Sigh.
A couple of weeks ago I tried a new recipe for a Vegan Pho and have done some adapting with available ingredients. This is the best Vegan Pho broth I have ever made and I plan to use it for all kinds of Phos in the future, if you are a Pho fan do give it a try 🙂
Vegan Pho Broth
- 1 large onion, peeled and quartered
- 1 3”piece of fresh ginger OR 1 Tbsp. powdered ginger
- 3 quarts water
- 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced thick
- 2 oz. mushroom stems (from about 8 ounces mushrooms)
- 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled
- 2 stalks lemon grass, trimmed, smashed with the side of a knife, and sliced
- Salt to taste
- 1 Tbsp. raw brown sugar
- 5 whole cloves
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
- 1 tsp. five spice powder
- 1 3” cinnamon stick
- 1-2 Tbsps. Nuoc mam fish sauce (optional)
Scorch the onion and ginger in a dry frying pan, turning the pieces until they are scorched black in places on all sides. Combine the scorched onion and ginger with the water, carrots, mushroom stems, garlic, lemon grass, salt to taste and 1 Tbsp. sugar in a large soup pot and bring to a boil. Add the spices to the soup. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour. Add the fish sauce if using, and simmer for another hour (2 hours total), Strain through a fine strainer. Taste and adjust salt and sugar.
To make Pho-
- ½ batch Pho broth (the rest can be frozen for another meal)
- 8 oz. white or cremini mushrooms, thickly sliced
- 2 carrots, peeled and julienned
- 8 oz. rice noodles, cooked
- 8 oz. tofu, julienned
- 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
- 3 scallions, sliced
- ½ cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
When ready to make Pho, bring the broth to a simmer and add the carrots and mushrooms. Simmer for 5-8 minutes, add the tofu and red pepper and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the cooked noodles and simmer just until they are heated through. Transfer to serving bowls and garnish with scallions and cilantro. Serves 2-3. Any similar combination of vegetables can be substituted to vary the dish.