Hello Blog Friends!
Thanksgiving Blessings, to all of you, whether or not you are a Canadian! It has turned COLD here, and some parts of the country have already experienced a killing frost. A quite prevalent custom, amongst Canadians, is to wait until after Thanksgiving Day to turn on one‘s furnace. It is, presently, a brisk 17°C in my house, so, despite the cost of heating, I am looking forward to next Tuesday, when it will be time to hit the “on” switch.
It has been a full week around here. Last Sunday afternoon was the Ordination, held at Christ Church Cathedral. It was a very beautiful Service, starting at 4pm. As a friend, who is a Lay Reader, had offered to give me a ride, it was necessary to be downtown before 3:30pm, since he had to robe. Then, after the Service, there was a reception, meaning that I left the house around 3pm and only got home around 7:30, quite a marathon, although lots of sock knitting got done both before and after the liturgy!
Monday morning, I hit the ground running and took a deep dive into more editing of the website, replacing the Team Gathering flier, with a new one for the Alumni Advent Study Program. Then it was over to the MailChimp platform to do some intensive work on the Harvest/Thanksgiving issue of CTM’s online Newsletter, Networks. That afternoon there was supposed to be an online meeting about the Advent Program but my fellow committee member was not well so we postponed until Tuesday, giving me time to finish the day by putting elastic in the waistbands of, two pairs of culottes I had sewn for myself. At dinner time a friend and her daughter arrived, each with a pair of trousers in need of hemming, so that task got added to the sewing list, just as the culottes were crossed off!
Tuesday the schedule went off the rails again, as another committee member, who was coming to lunch, messaged to say she had come down with a nasty cold. Fortunately, the table had not yet been set, nor had food prep begun so, instead, lots more work was done on the newsletter and Cook-Along info was circulated to all the families who, in a couple of hours, will be joining for Episode #1, of Season 12-“Thanksgiving Treats and Traditions”.
Wednesday, Jillian had been supposed to come for lunch, but she had misread her teaching schedule, and so we postponed to Friday, which gave a bit of wiggle room to, almost, complete the newsletter before eating a hasty supper and logging on for the DC committee meeting. Sadly, two members were not able to join but we still managed to cover a number of topics and Sharon provided an excellent reflection, based on the story of Martha and Mary, which is one of the Daily Themes in next summer’s Luke Street program! She had also sourced a lovely painting of the story by the contemporary Chinese Artist, He Qui, whose work I much admire.
Thursday, most of the morning was devoted to struggling with the newsletter, as it had to be published BEFORE Thanksgiving and time was running out. Junior Youth Camp had a video which they had asked to be embedded but it first had to be uploaded to a suitable platform. In the end it was necessary to create a private You Tube Channel in order to complete the upload. Success came after many miserable false attempts, ARGH!!! The rest of the day was devoted to follow up from the previous evening’s meeting, including composing and sending the monthly Prayer Concerns email to the DC Prayer Support Group, as well as sending a few badgering emails in other directions.
As mentioned above, yesterday, Jillian came for lunch, woot woot!!! We had not visited since mid-August, just before she returned to her teaching position at a private, Francophone elementary school. Some schools extend Thanksgiving to a four-day holiday weekend and so, on Friday, she only had to work a half day. Earlier in the morning, a video call with former committee member, Gillian, in Halifax had been scheduled, but sadly, her whole family has been dealing with a bout of COVID, so there was a last minute cancellation. We had hoped her 2 older children would be able to join today’s Cook-Along episode, but it is now unlikely they will partiicipate, this afternoon, maybe next Saturday.
The only Christmas crafting this week has been the interminable sock knitting, although I did also, manage to complete four fabric hairbands, destined as a gift for a small girl. Hopefully, Monday’s holiday will give some time to start a few of the other Christmas projects, still on my “to-do” list.
After an early start this morning, mowing the lawns, there was a quick lunch with a friend who had kindly sourced some obscure groceries for me and it is now almost time to start the Google Meet for the Cook-Along! As today was looking pretty packed, I did a small Bake late yesterday, instead of trying to fit it in this morning, so at least that, weekly task is completed. Now we need a recipe; in honour of Thanksgiving Day, when all things “pumpkin” are on many peoples’ menus, here is a yummy recipe for…
Pumpkin & Ginger Harvest Scones
- 2¾ cups unbleached flour
- 1/3 cup raw cane sugar
- 1Tbsp baking powder
- ¾tsp sea salt
- 1½tsps pumpkin pie spice
- 8Tbsps unsalted butter, cold
- 1 to 2 cups candied ginger, chopped
- 2/3cup pumpkin purée
- 2 large eggs
- Raw cane sugar, for topping
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. Work in the butter just until the mixture is unevenly crumbly. Stir in the ginger. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin and eggs until smooth. Add the pumpkin/egg to the dry ingredients and stir until evenly moistened. Line a baking sheet with parchment and dust with flour. Scrape the dough onto the parchment and divide it in half. Round each half into a 5″ circle (if you haven’t incorporated any add-ins); or a 6″ circle (if you’ve added 2 cups of fruit, nuts, etc.). The circles should be about 3/4″ thick. Sprinkle each circle with coarse white sugar or cinnamon sugar. Using a bench scraper, that you’ve run under cold water, slice each circle into 6 wedges. Carefully pull the wedges away from the centre to separate them j there should be about ½” space between them. Place the pan of scones in the freezer for 30 minutes, uncovered. While the scones are chilling, preheat the oven to 425°F. Bake for 22 -25 minutes, or until they’re golden brown. If you pull one of the scones away from the others, the edges should look baked through, not wet or doughy. Remove the scones from the oven, and serve warm. Wrap any leftovers airtight, and store at room temperature or freeze. Makes 1 dozen.