Enchiladas are always a little bit of a chore, but we made a full pan and had them with bagged salad. Aldi uses kale and cabbage in a lot of their bagged salads, and it seems to hold up longer in the fridge than bagged lettuce. These were beef enchiladas (ground beef) with a red sauce.
*With our concert choir, today we're working hard on the first page of Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning, arranged by Dr. Andre Thomas. This is not our choir recording, but it's a nice one to see the piece. It's lovely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7T3-yjVhBE
This morning I put together slow cooker meatballs, and we'll have instant mashed potatoes with them tonight. I change it slightly by putting rice in in place of some of the breadcrumbs to make them porcupine meatballs. The Husband grew up having meatballs and mashed potatoes as a regular meal, but I've struggled to recreate it in our married life (got a recipe from the mother-in-law but it's never quite worked). This one is pretty tasty.
Sometimes I do a good job and have a full meal, with a meat, a side, a salad, and even rolls. Honestly it happens more when we have lots of leftovers! This was mustard sheet pan chicken with carrots and potatoes.
*St. Hilary of Poitiers is today's optional memorial. He is labeled the "Doctor of the Divinity of Christ" and considered the first doctor of the Latin church. He lived in what is now Poitiers, France, in the 4th century. His writings focused on the Trinity and combating Arianism. He is a patron against snakes and snake bites.
Lovely quote from him, found at catholicsaints.info:
“I am well aware, almighty God and Father, that in my life I owe you a most particular duty. It is to make my every thought and word speak to you.
“In fact, you have conferred on me this gift of speech, and it can yield no greater return than to be at your service. It is for making you known as Father, the Father of the only-begotten God, and preaching this to the world that knows you not and to the heretics who refuse to believe in you.
“Impart to us, then, the meaning of the words of Scripture and the light to understand it, with reverence for the doctrine and confidence in its truth. Grant that we may express what we believe” (HoP, Sermon on the Trinity)
(Picture traced from pinterest to http://hillary-365alive.blogspot.com/2013/01/day-14-11413-celebrate-feast-of-st.html)
We always stay at my parents for holidays, but we celebrate half of them with the husband's family. So this Thanksgiving, I set the table at my parents, but then we ate in Hutchinson. I made salad from my sister in law's recipe, and my sister in law made brisket, ham, potatoes, corn, and other goodies for the meal. She's also an excellent baker so we had beautiful pies.
*Today is FINALLY the first day of school, but we are doing 35 minute classes so we can see everyone, so not much singing today. This is the only piece I have so far that we are for sure doing this semester:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev6OsvKMKs0
Originally, today was going to be Salad Kits with crispy chicken because it was supposed to be the first day of school for me.
Then school got cancelled.
Ergo, a fancier recipe that was going to be for tomorrow: Yuletide Brochettes but reimagined as sheet pan dinner. I am halving the recipe; the chicken is marinating right now; everything will go together on a sheetpan in a hot oven for 20 minutes, and it will be delicious.
At least, my sister thinks these are the best. Our friends the Bauers always made beautiful cookie trays, and spritz cookies were one of our favorites. I have their recipe and have tweaked it slightly, and I think these are great. The nieces and nephews love the green ones but are always a little disappointed that they don't taste differently from the pale brown ones.
*Happy New Year! As a part of retweaking and reducing my personal chore list, I'm going to try limiting some of these posts. Instead of the saints of the week, I'll just cover the saint of the day.
*St. Andre Bessette is a Canadian member of the Congregation of the Holy Cross who died in 1937. He simply worked as a doorkeeper at the college in Montreal, but he became known for his devotion to St. Joseph and the face that God seemed to answer Br. Andre's prayer frequently, sometimes even miraculously. His devotion led to a shrine to St. Joseph being built in 1924 that today is a world-class shrine.
One of my favorite quotes from him:
“These quarrels are like a room with a draft through it. It takes two doors to make a draft, and if you close one of them it stops.”
“If you ate only one meal a week, would you survive? It is the same for your soul. Nourish it with the Blessed Sacrament. A nice table is set there for us with something good on it.”
(found at Catholic Saints.info) (Picture found on Pinterest)
