Friday the 17th: More Food

 First is a stuffed acorn squash. It was really really good. The second is shells with cauliflower and nuts and cheese and parsley. The cauliflower is roasted on a sheet pan and adds really nice flavor.

 

Thursday the 16th: Food of the Week

 *Saturday and Sunday we prepared Shredded Barbecued Beef, half on the grill, half in the oven. We also made the Cook's Illustrated recipe for barbecue sauce; it needed longer to simmer to an appropriate thickness, but it was delicious. I made mashed potatoes for a base. We actually cooked the beef the day before and then put it in the slow cooker on Sunday. 

*Sunday and Monday we finished off Mocha Butter Balls and Almond Butter Cookies, our first two cookies for the Christmas baking season. It's the same basic dough with additions. Both are good, but the mocha cookies are the most addictive.

*Potato, Broccoli, and Cheddar Soup is a Martha Stewart recipe we prepared on Monday. The real treasure for me of this recipe is the cheesy garlic toast that you make with it. The soup is fine! Very good even! But I love the toast.

*Blue Cheese Salad was prepared by the Son from our 30 Minute Cookbook. It's a strong vinaigrette, lettuce, blue cheese, croutons, and then we added some cut up chicken strips. We loved it.

*Soup and Ravioli and Taquitos: This was all premade things that I warmed up. We are about a month away from the musical so most of my energy starts going into learning and maintaining the music for that, and suppers need to get easier. 

*Moonlight Madness in downtown Shawnee will provide tonight's supper as I will be getting home after 6 from a Mass with students at Unbound for their preachers.

*Cheese Manicotti is planned for our Friday meal; I might make the filling and sauce today so it's easier to assemble tomorrow.

 

 

 

Wednesday the 15th: Music of the Week

* Short one today because it's a busy day. We are inching closer to the concert and closer to the musical, but between now and then we have planning to do for three Masses, two offsite. Two are planned and packets made; one still needs to be confirmed but should be done by the end of the week.

Tuesday the 14th: Puzzle done!

 We finished this a little bit ago, a new purchase when we went to Chicago this summer. The reflective side of the puzzle was so pretty, and we had a great time pointing out the places we saw and toured this summer. I know it's sideways, but blogger is not good at letting me edit pictures!

 

 

Monday the 13th: Saint of the Week

 The saint tomorrow is St. Callistus I, a pope of the 3rd century. He is a martyr, patron of cemetery workers, and was known for allowing schismatics to re-enter the church after appropriate penance.

 (Picture found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Callixtus_I)

 

Friday the 10th: Book of the Week

 I have finished two of the books in rotation, so I've added two more. One is a book that was left on the giveaway pile at work: Treating Explosive Kids. I've heard decent things about a previous book by the authors so we'll try this out to see what I can learn.

 

 

Thursday the 9th: Food of the Week

 *Sunday we grilled a lemon chicken, butterflied, with some rice and green beans. I made a deep-dish apple pie that I will probably not make for another 10 years. It was very delicious but also a lot of work.

*Monday we had grilled reuben sandwiches made by the Son. He did a pretty good job and learned how to use the panini press as well.

*Tuesday we had poached chicken with a pumpkin seed mole. The linked recipe is different than what I used but similar. We used leftover rice from Sunday, and it was gentle but delicious. The poblanos I used for the peppers were not very spicy.

*Wednesday we had a lemon pasta with arugula and almonds and browned butter. It was a new recipe to me and came together pretty quickly. I think it was tasty; we added some leftover chicken from Sunday and that was really helpful to have some extra protein.

*Thursday, tonight, I'm making a beef barley soup. However, I need to buy more barley as my pantry moths didn't get just my flour but also my beans, rice, pasta, and nuts. A lot of pantry items went to the compost last night.

*Friday I'll be tired and we're having leftovers! 

 

 

Wednesday the 8th: Music of the Week

 *We are "locking in" to the concert music, 21 days out. I am up to playing three of the musical pieces every day and about halfway through with that; by the end of the week I should be up to four pieces a day. We have one piece today that is really not coming together yet but I'm hopeful the students will pull it together.

Tuesday the 7th: Date night

*With our son moving back home for the forseeable future, we are trying to be intentional about date night and spending time together. During a recent work night for him we went to Grunauer near Union Station. I had the schnitzel; all of our food was just lovely and delicious. We even got some extra pastries for breakfast in the morning.

 

 

Monday the 6th: Saint of the Week

 *St. Denis was a martyred bishop of Paris. There is a long standing story that after martyrdom he picked up his severed head and carried it to the place of his baptism. The site linked below has an interesting story on how that myth may have come about.

 (Picture found on Pinterest, traced to https://uk.tourisme93.com/basilica/between-paris-and-saint-denis.html)

 

Friday the 3rd: Book of the Week

 I finished this Route 66 book today. It's okay, but I have a sneaking suspicion it was written by AI. I think I gained a few new things to see and stay at to add to my master list, and I'm grateful for that.

 

 

Thursday the 2nd: Food of the Week

 *Sunday was grilled brats-peppers-onions-buns with homemade applesauce, spaetzle from a bag, and a frozen cherry-frangipane tart. Aldi's contributed substantially to this meal. It was really good.

*Monday I made pork chops with vinegar and sweet peppers. It was a Cook's Illustrated recipe so a little involved but also pretty good.

*Tuesday I made vegetarian taco filling for burritos, adding the cheese and avocado inside and using the tortillas from Costco that you can cook yourself. I did the oven at 350 with 15 minutes on one side and 20 on the other. 

*Wednesday I made pork and green bean stir fry with leftover Spanish rice we picked up the night before; I used frozen thin green beans and it worked just fine; I added red bell pepper for the jalapeno and stir fried it in with the green beans.

*Tonight is apple chicken and rice, with celery for the mushrooms because the Son doesn't like mushrooms.  I've been making this dish off the back side of a Rice a Roni box since 2002.

*Tomorrow is a tuna salad with nice Ortiz tuna on crusty bread.

 

 

Wednesday the 1st: Music of the Week

 *I went to my first practice today for pit orchestra and I feel really good about it! It's going to come together slowly but surely, and we have plenty of time to get there. Picture found at https://www.broadway.com/shows/anything-goes/

 

Tuesday the 30th: The Pool

 I really love water, and I love the wave pool at the city pool; however, I'm bad about making plans and getting us to the pool. We made it once this summer, the last week it was open, and the day was actually cold enough we had goosebumps. Who cares? We needed our pool day!

 

 

Monday the 29th: Saint of the Week

 *Today is the feast of the Archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel. It's also my brother's birthday! He's living in Virginia right now but we made sure we sent him cards and presents. This year he got a pepper mill, cupcake pan, cupcake liners, and one other gift from my mom. We usually buy for him together and then ship it to him.

 (https://www.iconograms.org/sig.php?eid=279)

 

Friday the 26th: Book finished!

 * I did finally finish my Tea Shop mystery, so I'm finishing up three magazines that my parents loaned to me before I go to the library again. I'm hoping to go sometime next week, as I should finish the magazines this weekend.

 

 

Thursday the 25th: Food of the Week

*Sunday we went to Homegrown for lunch and got Chinese for supper. For having food poisoning the day before, my stomach has done really well.

*Monday was red pepper soup, about a half batch, made with roasted red peppers from two jars. This was fine, pretty good, but not amazing--and that's okay! 

*Tuesday I made mini meatloaves with brown butter mashed potatoes and a bag of green beans.  These are quite good, better for us made with milk instead of buttermilk. Next time I need to cut down on the mustard in the meatloaves as it's a little too much for us.

*Last night I made a lentil salad with carrots and cilantro that was quite yummy. We ate almost all of it; there's a little bit left, just a half serving. The sweetness of the carrots is nice against the earthiness of the lentils. The Son made some apricot muffins all by himself; they were not the most evenly mixed but were still tasty. 

*Tonight we are grabbing fast food, but on Friday we are going to make Pasta Caprese for the first time.  

Wednesday the 24th: Music of the Week

 We selected a new, different all choir piece this week. The previous piece was a little more syncopated and thus a little too hard for all our choirs; instead, we're going to to "I Want To Be Ready" arranged by Moses Hogan, and I think this will be a great fit for our choirs.

 

 

Tuesday the 23rd: Finding photos

 We've been slowly working on purging, and about a month ago started going through pictures. I found this one of my favorite Bauer, Marie, holding my son. She died not too long after this photo, so I really appreciate that she got to meet him at least a little bit before going to her eternal reward.

The Bauers were actually friends of my parents, four sisters and a brother who lived together and never married. They belonged to the parish my dad joined when he moved to Omaha, and my mother met and then joined the Catholic Church there. They babysat us growing up and served as godparents and surrogate grandparents for us. Their love and dignity was astounding. 

 

 

Monday the 22nd: Saint of the Week

 Padre Pio or St. Pio of Pietrelcina was an Italian Capuchin who lived from 1887 to 1968. I first attended school at St. Frances Cabrini in Omaha, and we had parishioners who had known him. A modern saint but one with documented stigmata, bilocation, and mysterious odor of sanctity, he has a lot to commend us to him today and to help us wonder about the value of these "old-timey" signs of sanctity. The following prayer was one he wrote for after communion.

 

Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have You present so that I do not forget You. You know how easily I abandon You.
Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak and I need Your strength, that I may not fall so often.
Stay with me, Lord, for You are my life and without You I am without fervor.
Stay with me, Lord, for You are my light and without You I am in darkness.
Stay with me, Lord, to show me Your will.
Stay with me, Lord, so that I hear Your voice and follow You.
Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love You very much and alway be in Your company.
Stay with me, Lord, if You wish me to be faithful to You.
Stay with me, Lord, as poor as my soul is I want it to be a place of consolation for You, a nest of Love.
Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late and the day is coming to a close and life passes, death, judgment and eternity approaches. It is necessary to renew my strength, so that I will not stop along the way and for that, I need You. It is getting late and death approaches, I fear the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O how I need You, my Jesus, in this night of exile!
Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all its dangers, I need You.
Let me recognize You as Your disciples did at the breaking of the bread, so that the Eucharistic Communion be the Light which disperses the darkness, the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart.
Stay with me, Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to remain united to You, if not by Communion, at least by grace and love.
Stay with me, Lord, for it is You alone I look for, Your Love, Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart, Your Spirit, because I love You and ask no other reward but to love You more and more.
With a firm love, I will love You with all my heart while on earth and continue to love You perfectly during all eternity. Amen. --

Found at catholicsaints.info