Hello Blog Friends!
It has been another hot and sticky week, here in Montreal, interspersed with a couple of thunderstorms!
As mentioned in the previous post, July 6th -10th saw a Day Camp in the suburbs and I am now in possession of a folder of photos from the camp (see a few above!) The Parish Priest was asked if he might be willing to write, for the diocesan newspaper, a short article about the camp and he has obliged with an excellent piece. Next month, the plan is to create one special “Wednesday Words” blog post with clips from all of the 2026 Day Camps. The final one for this summer takes place August 17th -21st, so watch for that post in the week after.
Meanwhile, every day, there have been messages with changes to the name tags for Junior Youth Camp. I am SO GLAD that I decided to wait until the week before the camp in order to print them as I fear a lot of printer ink and paper would have been wasted if a start had been made any earlier!! It seemed prudent to also purchase some extra printer ink, since the office printer goes, very quickly, through the cartridges, so, Tuesday morning, that was ordered and arrived on my doorstep (free of delivery charges!) Wednesday morning. YAY!!
That same morning there were some more changes to the tags, so all that editing was done and the fresh files saved. Tuesday, also involved the completion of some minutes from a Diocesan meeting, held Monday evening. It was quite amusing to discover, when attempting email them, to the Diocesan Office, that virtually all the staff have taken the rest of this week off and will only be returning on Monday, thus, the Bishop suggested saving the files and sending them when everyone returns! The meeting went on until about 7pm so it was almost 8pm before we sat down to dinner. I had invited the friend who kindly gave me a ride downtown and back, to stay and eat with me, but really had not expected it to be quite so late as the meeting had been called for 4pm!!
Yesterday morning, included a Zoom meeting with the office worker at a large downtown church, who was seeking some help on how to go about taking meeting minutes. I was able to give her some pointers, which one hopes, will prove useful. In the late afternoon, a text arrived from Victoria, mother of 3 of my Godsons. They live in Ottawa but have been in a rental cottage near Sherbrooke (In the Eastern Townships of Québec) while Victoria has been teaching a summer school, law course at the University of Sherbrooke). Due to numerous family difficulties, I have not seen them for over a year and so she was messaging to see if they could possibly stop by, today, on the drive home to Ottawa.
This is the weekend of the infamous Gluten-Free/Vegan Birthday Party, for which I have been catering and this morning was to be dedicated to the icing of the Maple Walnut Layer Cake. Plans also included an intensive garden whiffle, washing of the floors and getting the weekly Bake started- Dutch Rusks, Digestive Biscuits, Lemon Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies and a Breakfast Baked Custard. With the impending “invasion” scheduled for 1pm today, arrangements had to be quickly altered! So, last evening, the floors were washed, a batch of Peach Iced Tea was prepared and, the table set. As I really was not in a space to suddenly produce a full lunch for 4 extra people, it was suggested that they stop by in the early afternoon for “dessert”. After rifling the freezer (thank you, Lord, for freezers!) I found the Basque Cheesecake, baked a few weeks ago for just such an unexpected occasion. Fortunately, I have some strawberries and so made a coulis to top it, with the Peach Iced Tea for the drink.
It is now 11:45 am and a text just came in to say they are running behind schedule (not a surprise with so much to pack up and three teens/preteens to wrangle). The only thing still in the oven is the Dutch Rusks, which are twice-baked, like biscotti, and so will be finished around noon. With the GF/Vegan layer cake safely iced, and in the fridge, there should still be plenty of time to package up the baking and grab some cheese and biscuits to keep me going until 2pm or so!
There has been little space for handwork, although, during the week, some research was done to find a trouser pattern for another “Day Camp Alumni” baby boy, who is due in October. The Alumni are scattered all over North America, and there is already a gift waiting for a baby in the Maritimes, while this latest arrival will be on the west coast of the USA! My Christmas knitting is slowly progressing and, in the next few days, the first pair of socks will hopefully be off the needles.
Before heading off to tidy up, let’s have a nice summer recipe. This dish makes a great hot weather lunch or supper.
Banh Mi Salad Bowls
- 3 Tbsps. lime juice
- 2 Tbsps. olive oil
- 2 Tbsps. rice vinegar
- 2 tsps. raw cane sugar
- 2 tsps. fish sauce
- 1 tsp. dried chili flakes
- 2 medium carrots, rinsed and thinly sliced
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1/3 English cucumber, thinly sliced
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 4oz. sliced ham, cut into strips
- 2 handfuls leaf lettuce, well rinsed
- 1 handful roughly chopped cilantro
- 1 cup saltine crackers, roughly broken into pieces
- Sriracha
In a medium bowl, whisk together the first 7 ingredients. Add the carrots, green onions and cucumber, season with salt & pepper and toss well with a wide spatula. Divide the ham, lettuce and cilantro between 2 serving bowls. Add an equal portion of the vegetables, with the dressing, to each bowl and toss gently. Sprinkle each serving with the broken saltines and garnish, to taste, with Sriracha. Serves 2.