Hello Blog Friends!
Tomorrow will be Gaudete Sunday, when we will light the “Joy” candle, Advent is flying past! Last Saturday’s Carols & Cocoa was very lovely. Not a big turnout, but everyone there let us know how excellent the program was and how much they had appreciated the concert. There was such a wide variety of talent and Janice was a super MC.
Sunday, we also had a lovely time at the Advent Study Program. A quiet and reflective hour, each week in the midst of Advent busyness. This week I have been finishing up a number of Christmas gifts and sewing furoshiki, in which to wrap them. In fact, wrapping is on my list for this afternoon. At this time of year, one is never quite sure when a friend will drop by with a gift and so I like to have mine all ready to do an exchange. One evening, I also cut out some gift tags from gold cardstock. So, this afternoon’s project shouldn’t take too long to accomplish.
This week has also included a couple of Diocesan meetings, which meant a certain amount of anxiety as my laptop is still in a very tenuous state. Each time I have to log on to Zoom or Google Meet, I hold my breath, praying that everything won’t go black. So far it has held up but I know I’m living on borrowed time until the device can go to the Apple store for proper repairs.
With the CTM office closed over the Christmas Holidays, I still rely on my laptop for watching special Services and concerts so I am really hoping a convenient time can be found for my friend to take it to Apple for me, otherwise I guess I will be doing a lot of reading and hoping that my temperamental CD players holds up so I can listen to some beautiful Christmas music.
Of course, as is always the case, this close to Christmas, there is no point trying to contact clergy or Day Camp coordinators all; of whom are very overworked and not thinking about next summer’s camps. I just need to be patient and prepare some draft messages to send out in early January. I have prepared a flier for the Candlemas Team Gathering (January 30th) but cannot post it, as we have not confirmed a Speaker, there are 2 possibilities but neither person has yet got back to me.
Over the past few days, we have had quite a lot of snow and I have had to log in many hours of shovelling. Thursday morning was particularly unpleasant as, the previous night, we had received 20cms of snow but, by that morning. it was combined with wind gusting to 60kms, making shovelling very hard going. By yesterday the winds had abated so I only had to spend an hour or so redoing some of the areas where drifts had piled up. It was still -20ºC so I worked as quickly as possible and, afterwards, made a cup of espresso to warm up!
Today’s Bake will include my annual batch of Porcupines, Sue’s GF loaves, some Digestive Biscuits and a couple of sandwich loaves, as I expect to be having a few Tea Parties over the holidays. So, I had better get into the kitchen, especially if I’m going to get the gift wrapping finished this afternoon.
For this week’s recipe is really great, if you are pressed for time. It is based on one I saw in my NYT Food App., and was so quick and tasty.
One Pot Mac & Cheese
- 1lb elbow macaroni
- 1lb broccoli, stem and florets coarsely chopped
- 2½cups whole milk
- 2tsps sea salt
- ½tsp garlic powder
- 8oz coarsely grated old Cheddar
- Black pepper
In a large pot or skillet, combine the macaroni, broccoli, milk, salt and garlic powder. Add 3 cups of water, and stir to combine. (The pasta may not be fully submerged, but that’s okay!) Bring to an active simmer over medium-high. Reduce the heat to medium to gently simmer. Cook, stirring often to ensure even cooking and to keep things from sticking to the bottom of the pot, until the pasta is tender, and the liquid resembles heavy cream and coats the noodles, 8 to 12 minutes. If the liquid evaporates so much that you don’t see any between noodles, add ½ cup water. Adjust the heat as needed to maintain a gentle simmer. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese, season with pepper and eat! Serves 4