Welcome to Lent 2023. I wish I could say welcome to the first photos of pysanky but this year I am having so much trouble sourcing white eggs I’m not sure what to do. For a number of years white free-range eggs were available at a Middle Eastern grocer near to my house but the store has moved to another neighbourhood and would be quite a long way to walk. A friend kindly offered to check at a local super market when she was doing her shopping but reported back that all the free range eggs like the organic ones that I buy, were brown. Ethically I refuse to buy eggs laid in cages by battery hens as I believe it is such a cruel practice that should be against the law however it is beginning to look as if I might not be able to draw pysanky this Lent after following that practice for over 30 years. Sigh.
But on to Day Camps news :-
Let’s see, this week has been very full. We received the first application form from a host community in Alberta (woot! woot!), choreography for the liturgical dance is starting to take shape, a draft schedule has been created for the Lenten mini-Retreat and am delighted to have allocated all the craft samples to a group of 6 volunteers, leaving myself to bake the Eucharistic Bread as my task in preparing samples.
There have also been daily badgering messages to various people in the hopes of having them register for the retreat and Tuesday an ad for the Information Webinar was published in the diocesan e-news (still no responses).
A “Wednesday Words” post about Season 5 of the Day Camp Cook-along was published this week; I hope that blog readers enjoyed a glimpse into that group of happy campers J. Wednesday also brought the last piece of content for the 2023 Program Manual and Jessica has promised that the first draft of the document will be ready to go to the proofreaders this weekend.
Away from my laptop there has, of course, been plenty of shovelling. Thursday and into yesterday we received another 15cms of snow and strong winds blew into some epic drifts. After our early walk each morning I have put in an hour or so with the shovel in order to keep on top of it since, if one waits until the snow stops it is sometimes too deep to get the back door open, which is essential for clearing the back walkway and the large garage roof deck.
This morning I worked against the clock to shovel and complete the Saturday “Bake” before being joined for lunch by Mae Anne who came for a visit after worship practice at her church. That’s why this post is publishing a bit later than usual, as I also wanted to share a photo of our lunch table. We enjoyed bowls of Chicken and Wild Rice soup with Cornmeal Scones followed by fruit & shortbread. After an unusually large lunch I think an omelette will be sufficient for dinner tonight J.
All of which makes a good segue into this week’s recipe. I have recently been replenishing the freezer with baked goods and made a pan of chocolate chip and coffee shortbread. It is a delicious treat for an afternoon tea break or as dessert with a cup of coffee.
Chocolate & Coffee Shortbread
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1¼ cups unbleached flour
- 1 Tbsp. finely ground coffee beans
- ½ cup icing sugar
- 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
Place the butter, flour, sugar and coffee in a bowl and work together with fingertips until the butter is incorporated and the mixture looks like fine crumbs. With lightly floured fingers, gently press the dough into an ungreased square pan. With a sharp knife, lightly score into 16 equal squares.
Bale for 20 minutes in a preheated 325ºF oven. Cool briefly then rescore the lines then allow to cool completely before cutting and removing from the pan.