Hello Blog Friends,
A quick note- Another storm enveloped the city this afternoon and we lost power during the gale force winds, but it is back on now, so here is today’s post -Better late than never🙂.
Today’s post is entitled Sexagesima. In the Anglican Book of Common Prayer this was the name for the second Sunday before Ash Wednesday, you can read about it here. Now we usually just use “Ordinary Time” for the Sundays between the end of Epiphany and the beginning of Lent, but I think the traditional name is much more interesting🙂 .
This week most of my office time has been taken up with general “office worker” tasks. I have made a start on the Lent/Easter issue of CTM’s quarterly newsletter “Networks” and as is often the case, am now waiting for content from some of the Directors of ministries. The Treasurer, Mark, has also needed some help with finding certain files as “Tax season” is underway in Canada. Mark has already sent out income tax receipts to all our donors, which is great but he also has to file documents with both the Provincial and Federal Government tax departments as CTM is a registered charity so of course, like all bureaucratic matters, everything is quite complicated.
I have also continued to badger people in the hopes that more families will register for Season 3 of the Day Camps Cook-Along and on Thursday afternoon I met with Gillian, from the DC Committee to do some brainstorming around plans for the Team Lenten Study Program. All of these activities, as well as Day Camps 2022 need to be advertised in Networks so a lot of virtual cutting and pasting has been going on as I work on that template.
The last couple of days we have been experiencing another major winter storm so I have been back outside shovelling whenever I’m not at the computer as we have received over 20cms of heavy wet snow since Thursday evening.
Tuesday afternoon I pulled out my Pysanky design books and selected the patterns I shall be making during Lent in preparation for my Easter gifts. Ash Wednesday falls on March 2nd this year, a difficult day for me, as it is the anniversary of my Mum’s death. I shall keep busy that day “Changing the Decorations” to the Lent/Easter theme, although it is impossible to every forget such a sad day.
There hasn’t been much more in the way of “crafting” although I did paint a couple of cards and wrap gifts for two special friends whose birthdays are coming up soon. I’ve also made a bit of progress on a spring pullover, the design is taken from a traditional Dutch fisherman’s sweater, a version of the Gansey, worn by fishermen all across Northern Europe.
There have not been any visitors to the house this week, although last Saturday’s lunch with Mae Anne was not too disastrous. I now gauge the success of a visit by whether or not anything was broken; this is quite a “low bar” on which to base things but it represents the current reality of life with Thomason 🙂. My next visitor will be Jessica, who is coming for dinner this coming Tuesday. She has just returned from a trip to Halifax to spend time with her youngest sister, Chelsea, who is studying at Art College there. For several years Chelsea was a regularly part of our house church, the Pod, so I will be interested to hear all about Jessica’s time with her.
I’m planning to do some baking this afternoon but right now I should head back outside to do more shovelling so before I bundle up I’ll just add this week’s recipe.
Last weekend I made this pizza for my Saturday Supper. It was very quick and easy and would also work well on a busy weeknight.
Baguette Pizza
- 1 baguette (preferably homemade 🙂)
- ¼ cup softened butter
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed
- 4 oz. Salami or Pepperoni, cut into small pieces
- 4.oz Mozzarella, shredded
- 1 cup tomato sauce (again, homemade is best 🙂)
- ½ tsp. each dried oregano and chilli flakes
Split the baguette lengthwise and carve out the centre, leaving a ½” shell. (Save the inner crumbs for another use, they freeze well). Place the shells on a parchment lined baking sheet. Combine the butter and pressed garlic then spread over each shell. Bake in a preheated 450º oven for 5 minutes.
Remove and fill each shell with a layer of sauce, followed by salami then the cheese. Sprinkle with herbs. Return to the oven for a further 5-8 minutes then briefly place under the broiler to brown the melted cheese. Serve immediately, Serves 2.