Hello Blog Friends!
We have already come to the last Sunday before Lent. It seems I only just packed up my carved wooden crèche and… BAM… here we are on the road towards Easter!
It’s not that I do not love Easter, but it is sobering to think of how much still needs to be accomplished on the Day Camps front plus we STILL have only received one application form from a host community.
The week has. been very full. At the start I finished putting together the opening pages of the Program Manul and began reaching out to several former committee members to see if anyone knew how we could approach desktop publishing. There were several helpful conversations and I’m still waiting to hear back from a couple of people.
We now have all three Cook-Along chefs (woot! woot!) in place but definitely need to find more children interested in attending the sessions. This morning, I sent off notices to a number of families and do hope they bear fruit. The first episode airs just one week from today and I do hope and pray some more families will sign on.
Tuesday, in the late afternoon, the monthly Diocesan Council meeting took place and I was praying that the laptop would hold up throughout the 2 hours of the Zoom call. Thankfully, it did and, after spending Wednesday and Thursday evenings labouring over the Minutes, was able, yesterday, to send them off to the Synod Office.
Today, there are 2 short meetings to attend, the first will be planning meeting for the Alumni Mini Retreat and the second is about the Games Chapter of the Program Manual, which, currently, needs a bit more tweaking.
One morning, Jillian also visited (with baby Clara) and transferred the SIM card from my older iPhone to the newer one. I decided that being careful with a cracked screen was easier to deal with than not being able to make or receive phone calls! Of course, what I did not bargain for was losing a bunch of Apps in the transition, including the Office Mail, 2 Instagram accounts and even my beloved NYT Food App. EEEK!!! Jillian is either going to return, in person, early next week OR we will schedule a FaceTime tutorial to, hopefully, rectifying this situation.
Today, as thw meetings are not until later this afternoon, I got stuck into the Bake ,following the prerequisite 45 minutes of SHOVELLING!!I It is a smaller bake than usual, as I was short on ingredients but had to make the bi-weekly GF loaves, for my friend and also 2 more, small “Boules” from a new recipe. So I had better wrap up this post and turn the oven on.
Last weekend, when Steven was visiting, I made an adaptation of a chowder recipe and it was so tasty, it seemed a good to share it, with all of you, for these bitterly cold and snowy February days.
Smoked Salmon Chowder
- 1Tbsp butter
- 1Tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion, thinly sliced
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
- 1clove garlic, minced
- 1large, potato, cut into small cubes
- 1tsp dried thyme
- ¼cup unbleached flour
- 2cups chicken stock
- 1bay leaf
- 2cups whole milk
- 4ounces smoked salmon, flaked
- ¾cup heavy cream
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Chopped chives, to garnish
Melt the butter with the oil in a large pot, over medium heat. Add onion and carrot, cook until the vegetables have softened. Add the garlic, potato and thyme, and cook until the garlic is fragrant, 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetable mixture and stir to combine, then cook, stirring often, for approximately 5 minutes, making sure not to scorch the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken stock and bay leaf, and bring mixture to a simmer. After 10 minutes or so, stir in the milk, and return to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are tender, approximately 25 minutes. Add the salmon and stir gently, allowing the fish to warm but making sure that the mixture does not boil. Remove the bay leaf and discard. Add the cream, then stir to combine and heat through. Season to taste with pepper and garnish with chives.