Sunday, October 26, 2025
Menu Plan: October 26 - November 1 (All Hallow's Eve and Feast of All Saints)

We are entering the three day observance of Hallowtide. While there is fun with Halloween (Hallow's Even), we also remember those of our Christian brethren who have gone before us and are praying at the throne of God on the Feast of All Saints. We pray for the souls of all who have died and ask God to save them on the Commemoration of All Souls (on Sunday, November 2). The dates for these are different in the East than in the West, but that difference was observed even when the Church was unified.
We have had an extended fall here, so while we still have mornings below freezing, our daytime temperatures are still liveable, and our trees didn't get suddenly frozen before they could change colors. I am trying to appreciate that. Fall is difficult for me here, as it is a reminder of the impending misery of winter.
Because of that extended season, though, we have been able to continue putting more food up than we normally can at this time of year. That is a blessing. It is good to remember those blessings. In honor of that harvest time, we are hosting another Melting Pot-Luck as our way of propagating positive interactions with our neighbors. I'm not making the German food this time, just the Arabic food: Waraq 'Ounab, Baba Ghanooj, Khoubz Araby, Duqqus, and maybe Basbousa.
Jerome will be with some friends a state over this weekend, so we are a little freer to make foods with gluten and that don't need to be easily eaten by someone on a no-chew diet. I am also getting ready for a long trip. It is the longest I've ever been away from the kids and longer than Rich and I have been apart since we were married. I'm super excited, though sad that we couldn't manage to bring everyone. Anyway, I'm preparing the house, meal planning, showing Rich how I do the shopping and why, as well as trying to have things ready for the kids while I am gone. I will be home for Christmas, but Rich is taking care of a lot that I normally do. We are having our Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday before Thanksgiving, because of the preparations I need to make for my trip, though. Please pray for safe travel, for my family while I am gone, and that all goes well for everyone.
- Sunday
Breakfast: Breakfast Burritos, Plums, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Eggplant and Lamb Casserole with Yogurt Topping, Baba Ghanooj and Tamis, Sides/Salads/Desserts from Parish - Monday
Breakfast: Granola Bars and Yogurt, Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Leftovers, Pineapple - Tuesday - Feast of Saints Simon and Jude
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Sausage, Toast, Grapefruit Halves, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Beef, Pepper and Eggplant Stir Fry, Jasmine Rice, Fruit Plate - Wednesday
Breakfast: Tomato Toast, Grapefruit Halves, Tea and Coffee
Dinner: Zaalouk*, Rice, Sliced Watermelon - Thursday
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Spinach and Cheese, Home Fries, Plums, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Arabic Beef and Vegetable Soup, Tamis, Pluots - Friday - Vigil of All Hallows' Eve
Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast and Honey, Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
Dinner: Roasted Cauliflower and Eggplant, Mount Athos Tomato Rice, Pluots - Saturday - Feast of All Saints
Breakfast: Apple Bourbon French Toast, Sausage Patties, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Pepperoni, Pepper, Pineapple, Olive, Red Onion and Tomato Pizzas (GF Pizza Soup for Jerome) and Leftovers from our Melting Pot-Luck
Labels: All Saints, Church Year, Family, Homemaking, Menu Plans, Prayer Requests, Tales from the Kitchen
Saturday, October 25, 2025
Recipe Round Up: Sumac Onions, Three Layer Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake
These are so simple to make, and delicious! They make a good side dish, salad, or topping for sandwiches.
1 large red onion, sliced paper thin
1 bunch parsley, finely minced
2 tablespoons good olive oil
juice of one lemon, strained
1 1/2 tablespoon ground sumac (plus more, if you like)
salt, to taste
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses (optional, but wonderful)
Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl and toss to blend. Let sit for 2 - 3 minutes.
Taste, and season with more ground sumac, if necessary. Cover and set aside for about 30 minutes before serving.
Three Layer Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake

This triple layer cake is one of a few cakes I rotate through for my birthday cakes. It is a perfect mix of flavor and texture. This cake combines multiple types of dessert in one: Vanilla cheesecake, chocolate mousse, and a gorgeous ganache. Making it is really a matter of timing, but doesn't take too much time, even so. To make things easier, make the cheesecake and crust on one day and the mousse and ganache on the next day. Cheesecake lasts longer than mousse. Refrigerated, this cake will last up to 3 days but is best eaten the day it is made.
Crust:
1 1/2 cups very finely crushed chocolate cookie crumbs (one sleeve of Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers or equivalent amount of chocolate graham crackers) - you can pulse in a food processor to crush
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon espresso powder (optional, but it does intensify the chocolate flavor)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
Filling:
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract or paste
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
Make Crust: Pre-heat oven to 400˚F. Set aside a 9-inch springform pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together the cookie crumbs, sugar and espresso powder until blended. I do this by pulsing the sugar and espresso powder into the food processor bowl. Drizzle with melted butter and mix (or pulse) until well blended and crumbs are evenly moist. Turn out the mixture into a 9-inch springform pan and press evenly onto the bottom and about 1 inch up the sides of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes and set on a wire rack to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 300˚F.
Make Filling and Bake: Mix the sour cream and vanilla in a small bowl. Set aside.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and salt until very smooth and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl and paddle frequently (and with each subsequent addition). Add the sugar and continue beating until well blended and smooth. Beat in the sour cream mixture until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until just blended. (Don't overbeat the filling once the eggs have been added or the cheesecake will puff too much). Pour the filling over the cooled crust, spread evenly, and smooth the top.
Bake at 300˚F until the center barely jiggles when nudged, about 45 minutes. Turn off the oven and let rest for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. The cake will be slightly puffed, perhaps with a few little cracks around the edge. Let cool to room temperature on a rack, then refrigerate until well chilled, at least a few hours, or overnight for the best texture and flavor.
Chocolate Mousse:
6 ounces semisweet baking chocolate, chopped (use good chocolate)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons espresso powder (optional)
3 eggs, separated
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup cold heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl, and place over a saucepan containing barely simmering water, use a double boiler, or heat in the microwave for 2 minutes. Melt the chocolate and butter together and stir with a whisk until smooth. Add in the espresso powder. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Add the egg yolks to the chocolate, one at a time, beating with a whisk until incorporated. Set aside.
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar, and continue to beat. Gradually whisk in 1/4 cup sugar, and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
Beat heavy cream in a chilled bowl with chilled beaters until it begins to foam and thicken up. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and vanilla. Continue to whip the cream until it holds soft peaks.
Gradually and gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it. Then, fold in the whipped cream. Take care not over work the mousse but make sure you blend in the cream well. Place the mousse on top of the cooled cheesecake while still in the springform pan.
Cover the mousse covered cheesecake with foil, being careful to not let it touch the mousse.
If making the ganache immediately, place mousse covered cheesecake in the freezer as you make the ganache (the cheesecake should NOT be in the freezer for more than 30 minutes). If making the ganache later, place the cheesecake in the refrigerator for a few hours. Either way, the ganache must be cooled before it can be poured on top of the cheesecake.
Ganache:
2/3 cup heavy cream
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon vanilla extract or fruit liqueur (I like to use Chambord)
Either heat the cream with the chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler, or in a microwave for about a minute and a half. Allow to melt the chocolate without disturbing at first (if using the microwave, you will have to stir a little to see if the chocolate is softened, and if it needs more time, use 30 second increments, so as not to burn the chocolate). Whisk the mixture when the chocolate is entirely soft, and keep whisking long past when you think you have ruined it. It will appear like a wet mess at first, then granular, then it will become glossy and thick. Add vanilla extract, or flavored liqueur at this point and whisk it in as well. Allow to cool almost to room temperature (at least 15 minutes). Pour over chilled mousse covered cheesecake. Chill until ready to serve.
To Serve: Unclasp the pan's ring, remove it, and run a long thin metal spatula under the bottom crust. Carefully slide the cake onto a flat serving plate. Run a thin knife under hot water, wipe it dry, and cut the cake into slices, heating and wiping the knife as needed. I like to serve this with raspberries.
Labels: Homemaking, Keeping the Feast, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Craft On: Finishing, Finally!

It was Amelia's third birthday this past weekend, and I was able to give her her sweater, and she loved it! It made me so happy to see her enjoy it. She told me the bows on the cuffs were like butterflies! There are pictures of her in it which show the scallops better, but I loved her impish delight in this picture (I have permission to share her photos here, and limited permission to share pictures of Winifred - just so you know why the photos I have shared are oriented the way they are).

The bear paw mittens are made (again) and I think they are finally the way I want them. I will work on the claws and pads this week. This is the fifth or sixth iteration of the mittens, though. I will use the same dark brown wool for the claws and pads as I did in the sweater. (That giant flower is one of three from a centerpiece I won at a work related dinner with Rich last night - we also came home with ten! bottles of wine from that dinner).
I began both Al Qidyssat Katrin min al-Iskandaria (Saint Catherine of Alexandria) and Prettyish Wilderness this past week. Well, I restarted the first, and began the latter. I really like the gray of Katrin. It is purple based and has some beige and tan and a little pink in it, so it isn't so one dimensional. The pinks and champagnes in the yarn for the shawl is quite feminine and delightful. Both of these are intended for some of my extended family members. The mittens should be finished by this weekend, I think, and then I will focus more on these two. Prettyish Wilderness will be my evening and weekend knitting.
I read The Rushworth Family Plot and enjoyed it, with the same issues I have had with the other books. She slams modernism into the story, and dithers about whether or not using the words slave and slave holder is too triggering, while missing things like how calling a woman Mrs. Caroline Allerdyce (or Mrs. Fanny Bertram, etc.) would be presenting her as a divorced woman in that time. Even though there were people who dissented from the moral and social norms of the regency era, we know that they did not speak and act the way she portrays. The author simply does not trust her readers to come to the "right" conclusions so has to stop story telling to lecture. She simply cannot help herself, it seems, and also tends to force modernist thinking into all the stories. It constantly takes you out of the world she is creating and the time she is representing, so you never fully forget you are reading a story, and never simply become a part of it. All that said, I still do enjoy the intertwining of the characters from Jane Austen's novels, the futures we get to imagine in these books, and especially the characters of Juliet Tilney and Jonathan Darcy (though I think the autism angle is a bit over the top and forced, much like the rest of the modernist ideals she overlays on the story elsewhere). These books are fiction, and supposed to be stories rather than sermons. I wish modern authors spent as much time on the story telling as they do on moralizing. It is quite possible to get the moral across without being didactic.

Linking to Unraveled Wednesday
If you would like to receive updates and early notice of new patterns, beta knitting opportunities, and great discounts (plus pictures of new yarns, new tools, fun places, neat hints, book ideas, recipes and more) each month, please subscribe to 1,001 Knits. My best, and sometimes my only, discounts go to my subscribers.
Labels: Books, Design, Family, FOs, Homemaking, Knitting, WIP, Yarn Along
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Menu Plan: October 19 - 25

We have a fun beginning to our week, with Amelia's birthday. The rest of the week is full of school and housework and eye appointments. Such is life. The cold is setting in, and I am trying to accept that with peace.
Since Jerome is still on his soft food, no chew diet, and I'm trying not to make entirely different meals, we are also eating mostly soft foods (though we eat our fruit whole, and have parts of meals which are different than his). It looks like, if all goes well, he will be able to eat more normally by Thanksgiving. We are praying for no more set backs, and he is being especially cautious because of having had to go back into the hospital for another surgery once. This is one prayer concern. Another has to do with a family member in trouble. God knows the trouble, but in your mercy would you pray for this person in our family, as well.
The harvest season is basically over here. We are putting up what we can, and enjoying the end of the harvest. We've already had a week or more of temperatures below freezing in the mornings, and I'm trying to bear it. Please pray for me.
In the meantime, Rich has been working on our oven and stove, so it is all working correctly again. The folks at church have taken over the meal for tonight, which is wonderful. I certainly appreciate their generosity.
- Sunday
Breakfast: Potluck Trapeza, Bring Chicken and Rice, Grapes
Dinner: Green Chile Chicken Posole, Tortilla Chips, Lime and Cilantro, Sliced Watermelon - Monday
Breakfast: Granola Bars and Yogurt, Nectarines, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Sauerbraten, Sour Cream Egg Noodles, Pluots - Tuesday
Breakfast: Cottage Cheese, Chopped Tomatoes and Cucumbers, Kalamata Olives, Toast, Plums (Applesauce for Jerome)
Dinner: Thai Style Ginger Chicken with Eggplant, Jasmine Rice, Pluots - Wednesday
Breakfast: Tomato Toast, Grapefruit Halves, Tea and Coffee
Dinner: Persian Eggplant Stew, Rice, Sliced Watermelon - Thursday - Feast of Saint James of Jerusalem
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Spinach and Feta, Home Fries, Plums, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Macaroni and Cheese (GF Cheese Sauce over Baked Potato for Jerome), Sliced Watermelon - Friday
Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast and Honey (Strawberry Yogurt for Jerome), Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
Dinner: Vegan Mahshi, Rice, Duqqus, Plums - Saturday
Breakfast: Turkish Menemen, Shawerma Spiced Sausage Patties, Toast, Pluots, Mint Tea with Honey and Coffee
Dinner: Arabic Beef and Vegetable Soup, Baba Ghanooj, Tamis, Sliced Watermelon
Labels: Church Year, Family, Homemaking, Menu Plans, Prayer Requests, Tales from the Kitchen
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Craft On: Mostly Finished

Crossandra is finished! Well, I still need to weave in ends and block it. When I can share a picture of Amelia in it, I will.
The bear paw mittens are knit, but I might have to make them a touch longer, so they will fit her in the winter, before making the paw embellishments and claw embroidery. In fact, I might just make a whole new pair of mittens, and save these for another baby at another time.
I'll be casting on Saint Catherine of Alexandria again tonight or tomorrow. If you are interested in beta knitting this design (which is a regrade for women's sizing of the pattern I made for babies and children), please let me know. I will have a beta knit as soon as I have the sample made and the pattern back from my technical editor. Because of when I want to release the pattern, the beta will not require you to make the entire garment, but there will be bonuses for those who do.
I've finished 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is, of course, a subjective list, and certainly not inclusive of all things which we've lost or which have changed, but her insights into what is gone and how it has changed our world is the best part.

If you would like to receive updates and early notice of new patterns, beta knitting opportunities, and great discounts (plus pictures of new yarns, new tools, fun places, neat hints, book ideas, recipes and more) each month, please subscribe to 1,001 Knits. My best, and sometimes my only, discounts go to my subscribers.
Labels: Books, Design, Family, FOs, Homemaking, Knitting, WIP, Yarn Along
Sunday, October 12, 2025
Menu Plan: October 12 - 18

We have another busy week ahead of us. Tuesday is the anniversary of our first date, and Rich and I will have our own celebration. It's been 31 years! There is also a set of meetings Rich has out of town, and I will be coming with him for the day and get some knitting time in as well as running errands in places we don't have here. Sadly, one of our events this week is the memorial for a dear man who was involved in the air show here. He is missed by all who know him.
Harvest season is wrapping up here, and we are so blessed. I've made and canned enough salsa for us for about three months, and I will be making more this week. The weather has turned, though, and we wake up cold now. I'm trying to appreciate that we had such a long and beautiful fall, but the winter is creeping in now.
We attended the Anglican Diocesan Synod and returned yesterday in time to attend our pregnancy resource center dinner. What an inspiring speaker we had! We are so encouraged and continue to pray for those in crisis pregnancies.
We so appreciate your prayers for Jerome. This surgery was much less complicated and went more smoothly, but it is still surgery, exhausting, and comes with its own privations and difficulties. Please pray for him any time you think of us.
- Sunday
Breakfast: Yogurt and Jam, Cornbread, Grapes, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Hot Chicken Salad, Parish brings Sides/Salads/Fruit/Desserts - Monday
Breakfast: Granola Bars and Yogurt, Plums, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: H'ejazi Mqalqal, Roasted Cauliflower, Rice, Duqqus, Sliced Nectarines - Tuesday
Breakfast: Salatat Battatas ou Bayd, Tamis or Persian Barbari Bread, Strawberry Yogurt for Jerome, Plums, Milk, Tea and Coffee
Dinner: Saleeq, Steam Sautéed Carrots with Garlic and Dill, Nectarines - Wednesday
Breakfast: Tomato Toast, Fruit Plate, Tea and Coffee
Dinner: Tomato Dal, Spiced Roasted Cauliflower, Basmati Rice, Sliced Watermelon - Thursday
Breakfast: Sausage and Vegetable Breakfast Hash, Plums, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Split Pea Soup with Ham, Tri-Colored Braided Bread, Fruit Plate (Apricot Sauce for Jerome) - Friday
Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast and Honey (Strawberry Yogurt for Jerome), Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
Dinner: Persian Eggplant Stew, Rice, Sliced Watermelon - Saturday - Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist
Breakfast: Yogurt and Jam, Toast, Fruit Plate, Milk and Tea
Dinner: Green Chile Pork Stew, Rice, Plums (Applesauce for Jerome)
Labels: Church Year, Family, Homemaking, Menu Plans, Prayer Requests, Romance and Relationship, Tales from the Kitchen
Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Craft On: Much Progress!

After starting and restarting the bear paw mittens over four times, I finally got a grip on the sizing and increasing/decreasing. I hope to have them mostly finished by this weekend.
Crossandra is also almost finished. We have a church synod this weekend, and I should have a lot of knitting time there, which will be great for all that i-cord I need to make on the sleeves. It needs to be finished by the end of next week, ends woven in, washed and blocked, all of it, for Amelia's birthday.
Technically, I have begun Saint Catherine. However, I am not happy with the fabric, so I will be restarting it with smaller needles. That will also require recalculating the numbers for all the different sizes, though.

One more reminder, that since I finished Saint Patrick, I am seeking beta knitters. If you are interested in beta knitting this shawl, I would love your help. Please e-mail me for more information.

I'm about 40% through 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet. Since each chapter is a short essay on that one thing we have lost, it is a pretty quick read, and easy to pick up and put down at night. What I appreciate the most is her reasoning behind what we have lost and what it has done now.

If you would like to receive updates and early notice of new patterns, beta knitting opportunities, and great discounts (plus pictures of new yarns, new tools, fun places, neat hints, book ideas, recipes and more) each month, please subscribe to 1,001 Knits. My best, and sometimes my only, discounts go to my subscribers.
Labels: Books, Design, Family, Homemaking, Knitting, WIP, Yarn Along
Sunday, October 05, 2025
Menu Plan: October 5 - 11

This is yet another busy week for us. Jerome heads in to surgery again, not as extensively, but still rough. Alexander has his birthday this week, and the diocese for our Anglican parish is holding its synod this week.
We will be back to a no chew diet for Jerome, which is hard, but we hope this will be the end of the surgeries. Since he and Rich won't be here for dinner tomorrow night, I am making something that Jerome can't eat and something that Rich won't like, but the rest of us will like. The meals for the rest of the week are all either suitable for Jerome's diet or adaptable to it.
Again, we welcome your prayers, and hope you have a wonderful week.
- Sunday
Breakfast: Waffles and Cider Syrup, Bacon, Plums, Coffee, Milk and Tea
Dinner: Cottage Pie, Parish brings Sides/Salads/Fruit/Desserts - Monday - Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle
Breakfast: Tomato Toast, Fruit Plate, Tea and Coffee
Dinner: Guiness Beef Pot Pie, Salad with French Herb Vinaigrette, Theodore Roosevelt's Clove Cake - Tuesday
Breakfast: Rice Pudding with Raisins and Cinnamon, Fruit Plate, Milk and Coffee
Dinner: Slow Cooker Cauliflower, Bacon and Cheese Soup, Plums - Wednesday
Breakfast: Potato Breakfast Burritos (Hash Mashed for Jerome) with Salsa, Fruit Plate, Tea and Honey
Dinner: Tomato Dal, Roasted Cauliflower, Basmati Rice, Sliced Watermelon - Thursday - Feast of Saint James, Apostle, son of Alphaeus
Breakfast: Salatat Battatas ou Bayd, Tamis or Persian Barbari Bread, Strawberry Yogurt for Jerome, Plums, Milk, Tea and Coffee
Dinner: Split Pea Soup with Ham, Tri-Colored Braided Bread, Fruit Plate (Apricot Sauce for Jerome) - Friday
Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast and Honey (Lemon Yogurt for Jerome), Fruit, Tea with Honey
Dinner: Cuban Black Beans and Rice, Salsa, Fruit Plate - Saturday - Feast of Saint Philip, Apostle of the 70
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Cheese, Toast, Fruit, Milky Tea
Dinner: Green Chile Pork Stew, Rice, Plums (Applesauce for Jerome)
Labels: Birthday, Church Year, Family, Homemaking, Menu Plans, Prayer Requests, Tales from the Kitchen
Friday, October 03, 2025
Craft On: Winnie's Baptism!

She was beautiful, of course! I finished the gown in time, and even found the right buttons for it. I started a headband for her based on the gown pattern, because I knew I wouldn't have time to make a bonnet, but didn't get her head measurement in time and just guestimated, so it was too small. It is on Shawn's wrist in that photo.

My other projects are the bear paw mittens (which I have started 4 times!) to match the bear sweater, and finishing Crossandra, which is nearly there. I am finishing off the second sleeve with its box pleat and scallops, then will work the neck and make the little bows on the sleeves. I keep trying to make the mittens too large, but I think I have them at the right size now. The bear sweater and mittens are for Winnie at Christmas, and Crossandra is for Amelia's birthday. I do also want to start both my re-graded Saint Catherine of Alexandria and the Prettyish Wilderness Shawl.

Just a reminder, since I finished Saint Patrick, I am seeking beta knitters. If you are interested in beta knitting this shawl, I would love your help. Please e-mail me for more information.
My reading is slowing down right now, but I am enjoying a book recommended by a friend, 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet. It is a bit nostalgic, a bit revelatory, and has prompted me to think of those things I would reckon as lost from that time before.

Linking to Unraveled Wednesday
If you would like to receive updates and early notice of new patterns, beta knitting opportunities, and great discounts (plus pictures of new yarns, new tools, fun places, neat hints, book ideas, recipes and more) each month, please subscribe to 1,001 Knits. My best, and sometimes my only, discounts go to my subscribers.
Labels: Books, Design, Family, FOs, Homemaking, Knitting, WIP, Yarn Along


