Hello Blog Friends!
This week, we hit a milestone in the world of Day Camps as, Wednesday morning, I was finally able to submit our 2024 Grant application 😊. Regular readers will know that the DC committee began work, last July, on this (side!) project so it was a huge relief to hit the “submit” button.
With that task behind me it was back to the “here and now” as first, on Monday, the follow-up emails for the second episode of the Cook-Along had to be sent out and then Wednesday, the equipment and grocery lists for Episode 3. My goodness, the Cook-Along flies by so quickly as today will mark the end of another series!
It is really just as well since our minds are now turned towards the Alumni Advent Study Program, and the Carols & Cocoa event, both happening in December. There is also the next issue of CTM’s quarterly newsletter “Networks” to pull together as it will be published in time for the first Sunday in Advent.
Wednesday evening we held our monthly committee meeting and made some good progress in planning those activities as well as discussing various aspects of the 2024 Day Camp program especially updates in the various components of the Program Manual. Sadly, Mae Anne was unable to join the meeting, due to a poor WiFi connection, since she is normally in charge of sending out the prayer concerns to our prayer support group it fell on me to take on that task, which I got done straight away on Thursday morning 😊. We so value the dedication of this group in praying for the Day Camp ministry and it is super important to keep them informed of current thanksgivings and petitions.
Friday Jenna joined me for our monthly (8am!) breakfast visit and she brought along her violin as she had very kindly agreed to record a couple of carols as a contribution to the program at Carols & Cocoa. I warned her that I could not guarantee a “barkless” recording environment and ,as predicted, Thomason was in a very barky mood so Jenna will need to record her setting of “The Seven Joys of Mary” from the quieter surroundings of her own home, sigh. I had hoped that, in some area of Thomason’s brain, he would remember Steven’s viola playing during the months of his puppyhood while Steven was boarding with us, however it was not to be.
Monday morning we awoke to a couple of centimetres of snow, EEK! but, thankfully it soon melted off and so I was back to raking millions of Maple leaves. This morning I have been out dealing with this daily chore and am now back in the kitchen getting the Saturday Bake in hand. Once the last baked goods are out of the oven the next item on my list will be Mr. T’s afternoon walk, after which it will be time to log-on for the final Cook-Along episode, do watch, next week, for a “Wednesday Words” post all about Season 6 of the Cook-Along 😊.
As we enter this new month I thought it might be nice to feature a month of scone recipes, as they are nice to have on hand in colder weather with a cup of tea or alongside a bowl of soup. To get us started, here is a very yummy recipe for:-
Pumpkin Oat Scones
- 2¼ cups unbleached flour
- ½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- ½ cup raw cane sugar
- 1 Tbsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp. ground ginger
- ¼ tsp. each ground nutmeg and ground cloves
- ½ cup frozen unsalted butter
- ¾ cup thick pumpkin purée
- 2 large eggs
Whisk the flour, oats, sugar, salt, baking powder and spices in a large bowl. Using a box grater, grate the frozen butter into the dry mixtures and then toss with your fingertips until combined. Mix the pumpkin and eggs and add to the mixture. Gently bring the dough together then divide into 2 evenly-sized balls. Line a large baking sheet with parchment and sprinkle with flour. Place a ball of dough at each end of the sheet and flatten each into a 6-inch round. Chill for at least 30 minutes. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425ºF. cut each round into 6 equal pieces and gently move them on the sheet, until they are about 1” apart. Sprinkle each scone with a few rolled oats. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a rack. These also freeze well.