Hello Blog Friends!
So sorry this post comes to you later than usual. We have had a 10 hour power outage in our neighbourhood, lasting from 7am-5pm. The Hydro Québec Website simply referred to it as a “planned outage”, affecting 320 households. It is now just after 5pm and I can finally begin my SaturdayBake. At least the outage did not affect the completion on the décor change!. AGH……
Another precious week of summer has flown by and with it, the final Day Camp of 2025! First Filipino Baptist Church had a super week, averaging 50 campers per day, and with a strong team of local leaders.
Next Wednesday, or possibly the following one, I hope to publish the compilation post with snippets of 6 camps (you can find the stand-alone post about the Promised Church Day Camp here.)
The week played out with both celebratory and disappointing happenings. On Monday a friend was supposed to be joining me for supper but ended up having a medical test that was way longer than expected. We messaged back and forth while they were still at the hospital and finally concluded that it would be best to cancel the visit (happily, we have rescheduled a late afternoon cup of tea, tomorrow, after church!). Meanwhile I was part of an exciting text thread as my dear friend Jillian was in another hospital giving birth to her second daughter. The baby arrived safely close to midnight and they were able to go home on Wednesday.
Of course, all these undercurrents of life happen as I’m dealing with annoying things such as one of the Junior Camp police records checks being returned as the SPVM found the date, entered by the applicant, to be illegible, thus causing another wearisome exchange of emails as I wait for the young man to submit a fresh form, sigh. Also, at the same time, DC committee member, Mikaela who has been the Coordinator at the FFBCM Day Camp, was sending photos of all the happy campers, involved in various activities! To quote my special friend Michelle, this type of scenario is referred to as- “a quiet afternoon at the Taylor’s”.
Tuesday, after work, I had my last “official” visit with Alex, the young postulant whom I have been mentoring for over three years as he will be ordained as a Deacon on September 14th. I am honoured that, at the Service, he has asked me to present him to the Bishop for Ordination. Thankfully, Victor (husband of Jillian) has agreed to sit with Thomason for that event. At present, there are still no volunteers for sitting with Mr. T when I need to attend the September meeting of Diocesan Council, I’m praying for a solution to that problem.
Today’s post may come to you quite late, since, on Tuesday, Anna was in touch to ask if it might be possible for herself and older son, Nathanael, to stay, next week, for a few nights. Her father is not doing well and, as Nathanael was at Cadet Camp when she and Elijah came two weeks ago, Nathanael would like to see his grandfather and, with the school year just about to start, this is really the only opportunity. My original plan had been to “Change the Decorations” on Labour Day weekend- August 30th-31st but, as they will be arriving on the 28th and leaving on the 31st a decision was hastily made to tackle this HUGE job this weekend, instead.
Thursday evening, I made a start and fitted in a chunk of work yesterday but today will entail the bulk of the job. So “Saturday Bake” has been postponed tothis evening! (not quite sure to when!!)
However, one cannot end off without a recipe so here is one I tried, this week, for the first time. When Jessica indicated that she would not be able to join me for dinner, as she was still testing “positive” for COVID, I decided to still have a whitefish dish as I was already thawing some filets. The following is an adaptation of a recipe on me fave, NYT app.
Whitefish with Tomatoes and Mushrooms
- 4 slices bacon, diced
- 8ounces cremini mushrooms, quartered
- ¼ cup red onion, diced
- 1cup chopped fresh tomatoes
- 1cup vegetable stock
- sea salt & black pepper
- 4Tbsps Greek yoghurt
- 1tsp dried thyme or ½tsp fresh
- 4 filets whitefish, skin removed
In a large, cast-iron skillet, cook the bacon until crisp. Add the mushrooms and onion, and cook for about 5 minutes or until beginning to brown. Stir in the tomatoes and vegetable broth, season and bring to a brisk simmer. Continue simmering until the sauce is slightly reduced, then stir in the yoghurt. Season the fish filets and nestle them on top of the vegetables, spooning some of the sauce over, so they do not dry out. Turn off the heat and cook for a couple of minutes then place under a hot broiler to finish cooking the fish – 6-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of your filets. Serve with hot, buttered toast. Serves 2-4.