Wednesday the 20th: Food of the Week

*I forgot to get a picture before I ate, but on Sunday we had lasagna, salad, and Fazoli breadsticks. Lasagna is one of the few recipes I almost always make without a recipe. This one includes the noodles, homemade meat sauce, mozzarella, cottage cheese, and parmesan. 

*Monday Big C made a packaged meal from Aldi's of Korean BBQ and Udon noodles.

*Tonight we're having chicken strips and Asian salad kit.

*Friday we'll have pasta with leftover meat sauce.

It's musical week, so we are just surviving here.

 

 

Tuesday the 19th: Baking

 I start baking for Christmas the first week of October. I bake one treat a week for 12 weeks, and then there are few things I do right at the end because they don't freeze well. I started a little behind this year, but so far we have cranberry bread, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, Butter Pecan breakfast bread, gingersnaps, shortbread, butter cookies, and cardamom biscotti. These are the gingersnaps; it makes a large batch, and they are both strong on the ginger and very snappy. Myself, I would probably prefer a softer ginger cookie, but Big C and my mom both love these.

 

 

Monday the 18th: Saints of the Week

 *Today in the USA has two different optional memorials; I always choose St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, a French/US saint from the East Coast that dedicated her life and her prayers to the Louisiana Purchase missions, particularly the Native Americans. She spent about 18 months in Kansas with the Pottawatomie as they were being moved on the Trail of Death; she was unable to learn the language, though, and returned to the motherhouse in St. Charles, MO to pray for those she was unable to serve in person. She was given a Pottawatomie name that mean "Woman Who Prays Always."

*Thursday is the memorial of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple. This is based on an apocryphal story that Mary was educated in the Temple, but we have no historical or contemporaneous accounts of this. At the same time, we honor this day to recall Mary's dedication, purity, and holiness.

*Friday is the memorial of St. Cecilia, one of the virgin martyrs mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer. A young Roman noble pledged to virginity, she was married to another to agreed to virginity as well. She was supposedly martyred after burying other Christians, first by attempted suffocation and then beheading. She is the patron of musicians for supposedly hearing heavenly music during her wedding.

*Saturday has three optional memorial choices. This year we'll do St. Columba; he was a Benedictine monk born in Ireland and died in Italy; he served as a missionary; he was criticized for incorporating Celtic practices into worship and way of life.

(Picture of bronze statue of St. Rose; picture taken by Harry Weber, found on Pinterest)

Friday the 15th: Skeleton yard art

 I do love some good skeleton art. Husband thought this looked liked the Pieta, but I would respectfully disagree.

 

 

Thursday the 14th: Music of the Week

 *Well, it's the week of the musical, so it's all musical, all the time. I'm actually practicing the music less because I'm playing it more for the practices with the kids, and my arms can only take so much.

*Two Masses this weekend, one on the new organ, so that will be nice.

*Hanon exercises proceeding apace; I should finish the F major scale in 4 octaves next week.

Wednesday the 13th: Food of the Week

 *On Sunday we made (pictured below) strip steaks, baked potatoes, and frozen veggies (California blend). The steaks were maybe just a touch dry but they were delicious. 

*Yesterday I made Wild Rice Chicken Soup. I made the rice separately, put everything else in the crock pot, and added the rice at the last minute before eating. It needed some extra salt but otherwise was quite nice. It does make quite a bit and there's not a good way to reduce the recipe.

*Tomorrow night I'm making tacos; the recipe lives in my brain, depending on what I have in the fridge and the cupboards.

 

 

Tuesday the 12th: Controlled Chaos

 It wasn't enough that I have the musical going on; this is the year for OCP to send out completely new accompaniment sets, so I'm in the middle of comparing and collating to see what's new and what's the same. I've made it to the letter S and that doesn't include psalms or Mass parts, so I'm about half done.