Hello Blog Friends!
The leaves are falling thick and fast around here as we move into the second half of October. Each sunny morning I head outside just after 8am, following a 40 minute walk with Thomason, and try to put in an hour of raking before sitting down at my laptop. My “raking hymn” of choice is “For All the Saints”, a seasonally appropriate option, with the added advantage of having about 8 verses!
But there has been plenty to do in the world of Day Camps, so for a good portion of the day I can be found at the computer 😊.
Early in the week I decided to send individual reminders via text, Instagram message and email to some of the families who have been regular participants in the Cook-Alongs. This elicited a small flurry of responses and we now have 4 or 5 families registered for Season 4, which begins on Saturday November 5th.
There has also been quite a bit of work on all the documents relative to the grant application. I’m pleased to report that we have finally agreed on the text for the answers to the seven questions posed on the form so that portion of the grant is completed. Wednesday evening I met on FaceTime with the CTM Treasurer and we did some more work on the 2023 Day Camp Budget, which will also need to be included with the application. My feeble attempt was done in Word and Mark is a pro at Excel spreadsheets so he gently suggested that he transfer everything over to Excel and I readily complied 😊. Thomason managed to sleep well through our usual “end of the evening” walk time so I was happy we pushed through and made some good progress on the budget.
Thursday morning I sent Mark some of the 2019 Financial Statements as we want the budget to have a comparison to a “normal” year and 2019 was the last time the statements reflect “normal”.
Having got a few positive responses regarding Cook-Along attendance, I then turned my attention to badgering for the Alumni Advent Prpgram and have now started a list of participants, which I’m hoping to grow over the next few weeks. This program does not start until the end of November but it will certainly take a lot of badgering to gather a group of keeners 😊. Thursday I was also able to send off a notice to a bunch of potential “presenters” who I am hoping might agree to record videos for our third annual Carols & Cocoa. I had been holding off on the email as we needed to establish the date for the deadline to submit videos but Jeff, who will be editing this year, thinks that 2 weeks ahead of the date should be sufficient so we have settled on November 25 as the deadline and can update that if things get too hairy. C&C is planned for December 10th.
Outside of the office, other than raking and continuing to slowly close down the garden, there has been little crafting time. I did decorate the glass containers in which plan to give the biscotti I’ll be baking at Christmas time and good progress has been made on the first of a second pair of Swedish socks, also for the Christmas stash!
Yesterday afternoon I did a small bake of 3 kinds of biscotti and this morning have already put in two hours in the garden but right now I am preparing to welcome committee member Mae Anne, who is joining me for lunch following Worship practice at her church.
So it is time for another “October Muffins” recipe. I thought this week I would share some savoury muffins that have always been a favourite around here. They are especially good with cheese or with a hearty soup like Borscht.
Rye and Cornmeal Muffins with Caraway Seeds
- 1 cup rye flour
- 1 cup whole-wheat flour
- 2 tsps. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ¾ tsp. salt
- 1/3 cup cornmeal
- 2 tsps. caraway seeds
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 Tbsps. molasses
- ¾ cup plain yoghurt
- ¾ cup whole milk
Whisk dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in another. Combine and fold together using a side spatula. Use an ice cream scoop to fill pre-lined muffin cups. Bake in a preheated 375ºF oven for 20-25 minutes. Makes 1 dozen. These freeze well 😊.