Hello Blog Friends!
Here we are at the close of the first full week of Lent and at the beginning of a new month. It is still extremely wintery around here. We had a big dump of snow on Tuesday, which entailed 2 full hours of shovelling on Wednesday morning and last evening another storm hit, resulting in additional shovel work this morning, sigh. Meanwhile a dear friend who lives in the UK sent me a photo of her young daughter lying outside in bed of primroses- ARGH!!!!
It has been quite a full week. Last Sunday I was able to begin my annual Lenten discipline of writing Pysanky, which will ultimately become 2023 Easter gifts for friends and neighbours. Unfortunately I have not got back to them since as all my spare time has been devoted to the “Changing of the Decorations” (as you will have seen by the photos above 😊).
March 1st was the deadline for CTM Board Members to send in their Annual General Meeting reports as well as content for the Lent/Easter edition of our quarterly online newsletter. Most people have respected the deadline although there are still a couple who have asked for an extension. Since the AGM will be held on April 16th the reports should be sent out along with an official notice one month prior to the meeting and that means March 16th,thus assembling the documents will need to happen by next week at the latest. Meanwhile the newsletter should go out around the same date and it first requires quite a lot of formatting and layout using the Mail Chimp platform.
Wednesday evening we held our monthly Day Camp committee meeting. There was plenty on the agenda as lot of work is currently happening in preparing the summer 2023 program. Sadly we still have only had one host community application and early in the week I heard from a long time coordinator that her church is no longer able to host a camp. Of course I continue to keep sending messages to prospective churches and community groups, although it is hard not to feel discouraged as we begin another month with only 4 potential Day Camps on the radar screen.
Besides discussing details of the program we also looked at plans for the upcoming Alumni Lenten Mini-Retreat and gave thanks for a great Season 5 of the Cook-Along. Last Monday I had a text message from the Mum of one of our young chefs. She told me that she and her children were going to bake muffins and her 3 year old had said, “could we call the people to bake with us?” Isn’t that just the sweetest 😊? Although Season 5 was very well attended I don’t think we will plan another series until next autumn, as families want to spend more time in outdoor activities once the weather warms up.
The DC committee has also scheduled an information webinar for mid-March but so far no one has registered. This is very disappointing as we hoped to attract some new potential communities that might have questions or concerns about hosting a Day Camp. I guess there is still a chance some people might sign up, but time is running out.
As noted above, there has not been much time for crafting this week, although I have been asked by an acquaintance to do some sewing for her and so will need to get started on that project this coming week. And all the felt appliqué pieces have been cut out for my two Godsons birthday crowns so I’m anxious to get on with those too.
Just a small “bake” today as there was a late start due to the shovelling, two gluten free loaves for my friend Sue, an apple crisp, some CricKet BisKets and a dozen Bavarian Pretzels.
As it is now almost time to take things out of the oven, we had better close off with this week’s recipe. I have made soft pretzels many times but this recipe (an adaptation of one found on the New York Times food app) has turned out most successfully. They make a great cold weather snack and are also perfect with soup or charcuterie.
Bavarian Pretzels
- 1 Tbsp. dark brown sugar
- 2 Tbsps. softened unsalted butter
- 2 Tbsp. yeast
- 6 cups unbleached flour
- 1 heaping Tbsp. sea salt
- 1/3 cup baking soda
- Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling
Combine 2 cups warm water with the sugar, butter and yeast. Stir and leave a few minutes until foamy. Add half the flour and the sea salt and beat well. Add the rest of the flour and bring the dough together in the bowl using your hands. Turn out onto a clean surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and shiny. Cut into 12 equal pieces and leave for 5 minutes. Roll each piece into a 22” long rope, lift both ends, twist them around each other once, then bring ends back and press them on either side of the pretzel and gently round out the shape. Place the pretzels on a large parchment lined baking sheet and allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes then transfer to the fridge for at least one hour or overnight. Preheat the oven to 425ºF and heat a large pot of water to a simmer. Stir in the baking soda then place one or two pretzels at a time in the pot flipping as soon as they float to the surface. Only keep in the water for 10-15 seconds! Return pretzels to the baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake for 15 minutes until well browned. Yum😊.