Hello Blog Friends!
I’m stretching a point here, since the Feast of Epiphany actually happened yesterday, January 6th but, as many churches will be transferring it to tomorrow, I thought I could get away with using the title today 😊.
This week has brought a slow return to regular office and Day Camps work, although schools and many businesses have remained closed and will reopen this coming Monday. Tuesday evening we held our monthly Day Camp committee meeting and had productive discussions on a number of topics. We rehashed Carols & Cocoa, settled on dates for the next Cook-Along season, finalised plans for the upcoming Epiphany Team Gathering, reviewed progress on content submissions for the 2023 Program Manual, discussed the possibility of a springtime web event for prospective host communities and even chose a suitable date for an Alumni Lenten Day Retreat. WHEW!!! quite the meeting 😊.
At various points during the week I set aside some blocks of time in which to return to Blog editing. As mentioned in a recent post, I did FINALLY complete the mammoth task of reformatting close to 900 posts, going back to 2011 but part way through I had realised that it would also be necessary to check the links in all the posts and redirect any that linked back to the old “Lamb on Day Camps” Blogger site, which we hope to eventually disable as it takes up space on our server.. Fortunately the majority of links are to external URLs and I am not rechecking those, although no doubt some of them are defunct after up to 12 years.
Lots of time has also been spent in the “Changing of the Decorations” as the house is transitioned from Christmastide to Epiphany/Winter décor. As of today things are about 90% completed and hopefully the last bits will fall into place by tomorrow so that, by Monday, the whole house will be in order. Although I always enjoy the changes for each Liturgical season, saying good-bye to the Advent/Christmas décor is always rather sad.
We have also had some VERY nasty weather over the last few days with a dumping of snow, ice pellets and freezing rain. It is virtually impossible to shovel this mixture as it is terribly heavy and I worry about the weight on my garage roof as well as the amount of water that seeps through the various leaks. Early on Thursday morning I spent over an hour hacking at the accumulation of ice pellets and spreading some eco-friendly de-icer but there is still a mess outside and the sidewalks are virtually impassable!
This past Monday I had a short visit with Janice, her husband Matthew, sister Joanne and brother-in-law Chris. They were all on the way to a family function so it was just a quick “hello” but I was able to give Janice the Swedish badger I had crocheted for her daughter Maddie. Then yesterday morning I was happy to finally welcome Emmanuel for our monthly breakfast together, which had been postponed for a week due to his needing to work a double shift. I’m not sure if we will be able to fit in a second breakfast this month as yesterday’s was really the December one, but we are going to try 😊.It was so good to visit and we exchanged some Christmas gifts for each other, which was very special.
Today I am skipping my weekly “bake” as yesterday Emmanuel and I enjoyed the Toad –in-the-Hole planned for last week’s aborted visit. Since I needed to have the oven on to bake that dish I popped Sue’s GF loaves in immediately afterwards and so got the essential baking taken care of, freeing myself up for the final bits of decoration changing today. It was just as well that I pushed through and completed most of it late yesterday as this afternoon I am pulling together an impromptu tea party since my Godsons and their Mum are driving down from Ottawa so that I can present them with their Christmas gifts and they never come to Auntie Valerie’s house without receiving substantial refreshments, so a Tea Party is definitely in order😊.
As is usually the case when the house is temporarily turned upside down, I have been relying rather heavily, this week, on the freezer for dinners. Last Sunday evening I did pull together a Mini High Tea, which included a generous slice of the Jelly Roll made for the recent Spanish Inquisition. This recipe comes from my Mum’s handwritten cookbook and always looks impressive, although it is really quite simple to make, do give it a try 😊.
Jelly Roll
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 Tbsps. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¼ cup cold water
Grease and line a 10”x15” jellyroll pan with parchment paper. Grease again and dust generously with flour, shaking off the excess. Set aside. Beat eggs for at least 5 minutes until thick and pale. Gradually beat in the sugar and cold water. With the beaters turned to low, slowly add the flour mixture. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan and bake in a preheated 375ºF oven for 12-15 minutes. Meanwhile lay a tea towel on your work surface and dust with icing sugar, as soon as the jellyroll comes out of the oven flip it onto the prepared tea towel and carefully peel off the parchment paper. With sharp knife, trim off the crusty edges (they make a tasty snack!) and roll the cake (from one of the shorter ends) in the tea towel. Place on a rack and allow to cool, then gently unroll, remove the towel and spread with a filling of your choice. Jam, jelly or lemon curd are all delicious as is a chocolate spread. Reroll the cake and place on a serving dish. Dust with icing sugar and enjoy!