.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Sunday, August 23, 2026

Menu Plan: End of Summer

What a week! Fair is over, and we can feel the winds of change, right on schedule, bringing winter to us. That is sad every time. I wish we had a real autumn here. Every year it has been harder and harder to get volunteers for our community club's booth, and this year was the worst, by far. It was basically us and one other family doing most of the work, with several other people who came to help, but times when we needed four or five people there, and only had two. It was pretty brutal. We aren't quite finished, as there is still clean up, but we are looking forward to a non-fair week.

We have two family birthdays this week, though only one in the house. We still haven't decided on the dessert, so when we have that set, I will update the menu.

Our little garden is still blessing us. Considering that we thought we wouldn't have a garden this year, with all the turmoil, I am so grateful for how well it is treating us. A lot of our meals are featuring produce from our garden. We do have a bunch of repeat meals this week, simply because of how fair schedules went.

We are heading into September, and we are still trying to eat down our freezers. I will do another Shelftember challenge. Our hope is that we can make room in the freezers for a mutton and a steer. We also want to butcher quite a few of our ducks, turkeys, and geese, which will set us up for the year with fresh, healthful meat for our family and church family.

Yet again, I have cause to thank God for our parish family. They have been so supportive and kind, and are helping with the meal this week. Some of the food we are bringing was from another church meal and was in our freezers, so we can just heat it and serve it tonight. This also clears room in our freezer, so I am grateful for that, too.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 12:58 PM 0 comments

Sunday, August 16, 2026

Menu Plan: August 16 - 22

Last week, we were able to take a quick trip down and back to visit Dominic and Shawn for Winnie's first birthday. It was a whirlwind, but delightful. She is taking her first steps and her other grandmother gave her a new set of wheels, pink with light up wheels in the rear. We kind of had to do a stealth visit, because there wasn't time to see anyone else while we were there. Good thing we have a peaceful, quiet week this week! (Not at all).

One of the things we did while we were down there, was to pick blackberries and plums from our dear friends' yard. I am trying not to just eat all the blackberries myself, but perhaps I will make a little crisp or something for us tomorrow. I'm hoping we will get a chance for a longer trip down, both to see the kids again, but also to see other friends and family.

Speaking of tomorrow, fair week officially begins tomorrow. We are all taking our turns on shifts at the fair booth, so it's a bit of a revolving door here all week. A few people t home, a few people at fair, then trading places. Because of our trip, we missed the last window to put in most fair entries. However, we will be entering some baked goods and plants and herbs, though.

Jerome's birthday is this week, but with fair, I'm not sure how that will go. Then, next week, we have two birthdays, between Mariam and Shawn. That is now four birthdays in August! With our daughters in law and granddaughters, we now have one birthday in January, two in March, one in May, two in June, two in July, four in August, two in October, and one in December. Birthday season now runs the whole year.

Thank God for our parish family. I knew we would be exhausted from our road trip, and so they took care of the meal at church for us. It was so delicious, and all we did was bring some corn to boil and some butter. This is another exhausting week for us, and I have a freezer meal ready for church next week, but we are still going to be pretty bone weary when that comes. The smoke has lifted a little, so we can breathe a little more easily, but we are a little more stuffed up back home than we were while visiting the kids.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 6:49 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Craft On: Step by Step

I am basically finished with the base on the coffee cozy, but now I am a little worried I won't have enough yarn to finish it. I might have a UFO that I wanted to frog anyway in this yarn, though. If I can find that, I will be fine.

There should be a lot of knitting time for my birthday, because we are going to get quite a bit of driving when we go dancing. I'm super excited for the dance and the time with Rich in the car while I knit and we talk (and he drives).

Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge is sitting on my nightstand, but I am hoping to get inside it tonight. I'm nearly finished with Last Wool and Testament, which is another happy, little, knitting murder and I'm waiting for the library to bring me Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle. I started reading the series before Rich, and now he is ahead of me in this book because he listens to it and got the audio version quicker than I did the print version.


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.

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Any time you click on a book link, it gives me the opportunity to earn a few cents for our family.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 8:50 PM 0 comments

Sunday, July 19, 2026

Menu Plan: July 19 - 25

They say it's your birthday! It's my birthday too, yeah!

My 50th birthday is this week. Rich wanted to do something big for it, but we are both so exhausted, and it just sounded like a lot of work, no matter how fun it might end up being for me. So, instead, he took the day off for my birthday, and we are going to go to a salsa dance on the beach and spend some time window shopping at cute, kitchsy places, and having a fun, easy going time. I'm not huge on big gifts or big parties for my birthday, I really just want people who know me well to remember and wish me a happy birthday.

This week begins with a neighborhood picnic where we will grill all sorts of meats and delicious things and share with our neighborhood. Besides my birthday, though, we have a fairly low key schedule, which is much needed. There is so much to catch up on here, with all the extra things going on in our lives. Please keep us in your prayers, still. It's been a little discouraging lately.

A set of friends from church is coming with pizzas for us this week, as they said they could see we needed blessings and rest. God bless them. We are grateful for all the support we've had. We are all so exhausted from all these challenges, and it feels like we are always tired.

Again, I have reason to bless my parish family this week. One family is taking care of the bulk of dinner for church, and the rest of the parish are bringing things to go with that meal.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:50 AM 2 comments

Sunday, July 05, 2026

Menu Plan: July 5 - 11

It is another family birthday this week. We have to postpone the party so we are having a smaller family dinner this week.

A lot of this past week was quite upside down, as we had the granddaughters while their cousin was born and coming home. It's been quite a while since we had two little people living here, and we are tired. It was delightful to have them here, but we are well aware why it is that young people have babies.

Because of that shift in our week, we moved some meals to this week, and some to later times this summer. Sadly, we won't have the girls here most of this week, but we will go back to our frequent visits, rather than having them live here with us. The recipe round up will be finished this week.

There have been a few disappointments this week, with the other issues going on, and that has been a little discouraging. We continue in prayer, and try to remember to give our burdens to God whose yoke is easy and burden is light.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 7:09 PM 0 comments

Sunday, June 14, 2026

Menu Plan: June 14 - 20

I don't know why I plan any meals during airshow week. We always end up with leftovers from volunteer meals or events in the evening or other things like that and don't really eat at home. I shouldn't even buy groceries for that week. Even this week is laden with leftovers from last week that can either last in our fridge or are in our freezer for later this week.

Aside from the exhaustion and busy-ness of airshow this week, we also had some other important events. Unfortunately, they didn't go as we would have wished, and so that was disappointing and exhausting in its own right. Rich's birthday is this week, and we were hoping for good news for his birthday. Please keep praying for our family.

Our parish family has been coming through for us in amazing ways. Tonight's dinner is provided by them, we are only bringing some melons I picked up on my unnecessary grocery trip last week.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:59 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 10, 2026

Menu Plan: Week of the Ascension

Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Christ has Ascended! From Earth to Heaven! Alleluia!

The Paschal season is winding down. We have Rogation days this week, the Feast of the Ascension, then the novena to the Holy Spirit begins on Friday. We are going to try to fly a kite and find a higher spot to eat for the Ascension. Please pray with us. We begin the normal fast after Ascension Day, then we will have the celebration of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church.

Today is Mother's Day and all I wanted was rest and not to be responsible for everything. So, Rich and the kids are putting together a brunch for me, and cleaning it up, too. We have evening church and dinner after that. I meant to order myself a new knitting tool as a treat a couple weeks ago, but forgot, so we will do that tonight.

We are slowing back down to ordinary time. In just two weeks, we will celebrate Pentecost (the second highest feast of the Church year), and have another fast free week. Then, it is back to the quotidian. I'm not sorry for that.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 12:43 PM 0 comments

Sunday, March 22, 2026

Menu Plan: Passion Sunday and Feast of the Annunciation

We are nearing the end of the fast. Properly, this Sunday is called Passion Sunday, was the beginning of the final week of Lent, with Holy Week being its own separate and distinct observance. Passion Sunday gave the general overview of the last days of Christ's life on earth, while with Palm Sunday, we enter into each day of that final week with Him quite specifically. Unfortunately, in the West, this has largely been relegated to a footnote to Palm Sunday, rather than its own observance. So, right on the heels of celebrating the Hosannas of Christ's triumphal entry, we often slide into the Good Friday narrative. This is a shame; it is jarring, and robs parishioners of the real walk of that final week of His life with Him during Holy week, from Palm Sunday, the first, celebratory, day, the instructive events of Holy Monday and Tuesday, with the fig tree and the annointing with perfume and oil, through His betrayal on Spy Wednesday, His Last Supper and the institution of the priesthood and the Eucharist, His arrest and trial, on Thursday, His crucifixion on Friday, and His rest in the tomb, as He harrowed Hell to free those captive to death on Saturday. We live through the events of that week each year. It seems to me that the modern church seems to think it is too much to ask of her people to take that walk with Him for one week each year. Meanwhile, our calendars and prayer books still show that this is the historic practice and we preserve it in this way only. We will keep His final days in mind this week, meditating on His words and actions, as we prepare for the hard Via Dolorosa we will embark on next Monday.

Passion Sunday marks the last week of Lent, as a summary of what Christ did to rescue us from sin and death, as we ready ourselves to walk each day of the way of sorrow with Him and, in the East, ends with Lazarus Saturday, the first resurrection which points to the greater one. We have begun observing it ourselves, as one of the commemorations that is significant to the life of the Church. Jesus raised Lazarus in anticipation of His own resurrection - and ours. One tradition for Lazarus Saturday is to make sweet, little breads shaped like a man wrapped in linens (Lazarakia). Another is to permit the eating of caviar (fish eggs) as little eggs, before we get to have eggs again on the Paschal feast.

This is the last week of Lent before Holy Week for the West. We end this week with Lazarus Sunday, the small resurrection, before we begin the great journey of Holy Week. Saint Lazarus lived for 30 years more after being raised by Jesus and became the first bishop of Cyprus - he had more work to do. We especially love how Jesus shows us that death is still our enemy with Lazarus. Even though He was about to raise him from the dead, He still wept at Lazarus' death. There was no nonsense about how he had gone to a better place or how he was somehow free of this mortal coil (which is gnostic heresy). He wept. This is because death is the enemy of all and Christ never wanted anyone to die. Raising Lazarus was His last major act before walking the Via Dolorosa of Holy Week, which is why Lazarus is remembered on the Saturday before Palm Sunday.

This week also holds the last major feast before the end of Lent, the Annunciation. I love that the Annunciation closes the week begun by the feast of Saint Joseph, that the heads of the Holy Family are celebrated so closely together. It is Elijah's birthday, and we were always so glad to have everyone celebrating with him on his day. We have always thought about Saint Joseph and the Blessed Virgin taking special care of him.

We have reached the point in Lent that fake cheese seems like a good idea. It isn't, but it seems like it. Until this week, we hadn't bought any fake food, but we caved and got fake mozzarella for some pizzas. They were not great. Besides that, we have only bought some oat milk, which should run out just in time for us to have real dairy. Two more weeks of fasting to go! All joking aside, God has really been growing us this year. We are held in His hands and know that we are not alone. It is teaching us to lean on Him more and pray. It is revealing our own weaknesses and where we need to grow in faith and discipline.

We truly appreciate all the support and prayers from people. We cannot express how much we are being upheld by them. Our church family has been helping with Sunday meals, and doing so much more for us. We are grateful to God for placing so many wonderful people in our lives.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:25 AM 1 comments

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.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 8:50 AM 0 comments

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Menu Plan: July 20 - 26

It is the busy time for those of us who preserve right now. All the fruit and vegetables are coming ripe, and we have a lot to do. It is a lot of work, but I love it, because it means that when the produce isn't in season, we can still eat it from when it was at its peak. I did get stock canned last week, and I would like to make some more to can this week. We dried more apple slices and made cherry jelly. My experiment with cherry butter tastes fabulous, but I am still undecided about the texture. If we like it well enough, it will go into Christmas gift packages this year. If the texture is not quite what we like, I will use it in baked goods. Either way, it is a win.

Our gleaning club has provided us with so much in the way of eggplant, zucchini, peaches, and apricots. We are eating a lot in our meals this week and fresh, as snacks, but I am also going to be canning peach and apricot halves for the winter. This week, I have caponata planned, but will make double or triple the amount to put some in the freezer. I'm not sure how well it would can. Maybe I will put one jar in the pressure canner with the stock and see how that goes. If it turns out well, I will know for next year.

We are cooking a lot from our freezer and from the fresh foods that are ready in our area now. Our goal is to empty the freezer enough to butcher quite a few geese, ducks, and turkeys, and to make room for two or three butchered lambs, perhaps one sheep for mutton. We had no luck finding piglets this year, so we will have to buy pork in the fall, unless we can get one or two to butcher from a 4-H kid at the fair.

Since my birthday is this week, I am making something special with some of our ducks that I've wanted to make for a while. An Arab Instagramer shared a recipe for duck shawerma, and I am really looking forward to that. I will be making that and a three layered cake of cheesecake, chocolate mousse, and ganache. Rich thought I wanted to go out for my birthday, but I just wanted to have the food and cake I wanted. He's getting me a practical gift that I really need, and it will be a good day.

The weather this week is mostly cooler than it has been, with a couple hotter days, like on my birthday and the following day. It has been a rather pleasant summer, with not too many really hot days, but not particularly cool, either. I hope this means we have a longer fall this year.

Our church family is providing jerk chicken tonight, which I think will go really well with the food we are bringing. We are so blessed to have a parish of great cooks!

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 10:52 AM 0 comments

Sunday, July 06, 2025

Menu Plan: July 6 - 12

We have four of the kids out of the house this week. I am already anticipating that we will be pushing aside several of these meals because I don't know how to cook for only four people. Yasmina is at camp for her birthday, which delights her, but makes me a little sad to miss her on that day.

It is also Vacation Bible School week, so I will be shuttling back and forth to that. It also means that I won't have lunchtime for eating up leftovers, as they serve lunch there.

Aside from all that, I will be trying to catch up on decluttering, stock making, and canning. With most of the kids gone from home this week, it will be quiet here, but I hope that allows me some rest and work that I really need.

Our church family is really wonderful. All I had to provide for dinner tonight, after a challenging week, which included me cutting off part of the tip of my left index finger, and loads of extra cooking, was a simple, slow baked beef dish. Everyone else took care of the rest. I cannot express how grateful I am for how they take care of us.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 10:02 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

55 Things I Love About Rich

I didn't get a chance to take a birthday picture because of our super busy schedule this week, but I wanted to share 55 wonderful things about Rich for his birthday.

55 Fabulous things about Rich

Labels: , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:53 PM 0 comments

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Menu Plan: Good Shepherd Sunday


I could not decide between this ancient icon and a more modern one, so I have included both. That this is Eastern and the other Western makes it even better. The other is at the bottom of the menu plan.

In the West, it is the Sunday of the Good Shepherd. In the East, it is the Sunday of the Paralytic. In both, He shows His care for us, that He cares for the individual, regardless of how weak or insignificant. That is my meditation this week.

It is another birthday week here! Nejat is turning 12 this year. Since we technically don't have to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays during the Paschal season, we are going to serve her choice of dinner on her birthday, without regard for day of the week.

We have a repeat from this past week, but it is because we had extra grape leaves from the jar and I want to use them. So, we are making more waraq 'ounab on Saturday. We had our first asparagus run with our gleaning group, so there is a lot of asparagus being eaten and a lot to pickle. A friend also gave us a ton of rhubarb, so I am making lots of rhubarb desserts, and I think I might make some vanilla rhubarb jam to can for the winter. I have a recipe from Baking with Julia for a Hungarian shortbread with vanilla rhubarb jam, and I will likely make that, too. This blog shows a way to do the grating of the shortbread dough with a KA attachment, which I will be trying.

Last week we had two not so great dishes. They weren't bad, but just not that great. The spicy Thai red curry chicken and rice casserole was not spicy, first of all, and I used about twice as much of the red curry paste that the recipe recommended. Also, it didn't have enough salt, even with the curry paste and fish sauce. Besides that, it really could have been better if the chicken had been browned just before it was put in the casserole, and if the whole thing were covered with foil for most of the cooking. It was fine enough, the flavor was good, but we had to add hot sauce, and that browning (maybe even of the onions) would have made it infinitely better. It was a great weeknight meal, because you literally just layered everything, including the rice, and baked it. So, you could throw it together and leave it to do other things while it cooked. In that sense, it was a success. However, it kind of fell flat. The Nutella mousse sounded like a simple approximation of a real mousse, but it was not as good as it ought to have been. It was worse, because the night before we had a real chocolate mousse with cherries. The contrast probably made it taste even worse. Basically, it was Nutella whipped with heavy cream. It was okay - just okay, though.

As it is Mother's Day here in the US today, and I am honestly not that big on gifts for the sake of giving gifts, Rich and the kids snuck flowers into the house for me this morning, all at different times, so I have beautiful flowers all over the house. Rich made omelets for me, exactly as I wished, and I think I'm getting a Mexican Coca-Cola from one of the kids this morning. I woke up to Amira folding the laundry without me asking, which is also a huge gift to me. When they asked if I still didn't really want just stuff, I told them that what I wanted was not to have to direct people to do things. I love thoughtfulness, remembering without my reminding, consumable gifts and experiences. So, this is perfect for me. Also, Rich got me actual incandescent bulbs for our chandelier, and I am so happy. I bought myself a sundress I really liked, and though it was supposed to arrive yesterday, it is coming tomorrow, and I think that counts, too. I had tried it on at a shop while we were on the West side, and they didn't have my size, but I was one size away, so I looked online, and found it. The shipping was free, and since it was being sent to my home, it had lower sales tax, and I was able to use a coupon, so it was a little less expensive than it would have been in the shop, too.

Anyway, I am still far behind on posting recipes, but perhaps this week I will get to it. We do have asparagus to pickle, too. And I have a big design deadline looming. No promises.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday (this may be later this time because of our holiday feasting and rest).

Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:43 AM 0 comments

Sunday, March 23, 2025

Menu Plan: Third Sunday in Lent and the Annunciation

This week holds the last major feast before the end of Lent, the Annunciation. I love that the Annunciation closes the week begun by the feast of Saint Joseph, that the heads of the Holy Family are celebrated so closely together. It is Elijah's birthday, and we were always so glad to have everyone celebrating with him on his day. We have always thought about Saint Joseph and the Blessed Virgin taking special care of him.

I had such a whirlwind at the end of last week that I didn't get a chance to post the recipes, so I will be doing that this coming weekend.

Next week begins with Laetare, and that will be a precious break for us before the final push in Lent and Holy Week. It has been a challenging time all around us, both in our family and in the world of those we love. We are, again, trying to focus on simpler meals this week, but especially to focus on the internal life that we need to nurture.

Please pray for us, and we will pray for you. May your Lent strengthen you.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:47 PM 0 comments

Sunday, March 09, 2025

Menu Plan: First Sunday in Lent

There are many beautiful icons of the Temptation of Jesus, but this painting by Duccio captures the essense of our Lenten journey with Christ in the desert. After being driven to the desert to fast for 40 days and be tested (not as a trick or pop quiz, but to model for us and to teach the way we make our spiritual battle), He commands Satan away, with the angels waiting to attend Him.

Our first full week of Lent is upon us, and it is good. The bright sadness has begun. Last week, we were able to take a tiny, overnight, road trip to visit a priest friend and his wife, while Rich did some work meetings. It was great to bring most of our kids with us and just break up the monotony of life right now. Since Rich's meetings didn't start until later in the morning, we could ease into the day and start with morning prayer with them, as well, before we all went our different directions. Spring is springing much more on the west side and it was such an encouragement to our spirits.

Spring is starting to catch up here, too, and Rich is working hard to finish pruning the fruit trees before he loses his chance. I've rearranged some things on the menu, and will post the recipe for the bisilla on the blog this week. Also, this week, we have the first birthday of the year in our household. The kids keep growing up, and it is bittersweet. We love to see the adults they are becoming, but miss their little faces and voices.

Please pray for us, and we will pray for you. May you have a holy and blessed Lent.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 7:03 AM 0 comments

Sunday, October 06, 2024

Menu Plan: October 6 - 12

We are still putting up apples! And peppers. And tomatoes. The freezes have meant that everything is coming in to be prepped for winter. We are supposed to have a carrot glean, and i am looking forward to that, because they store so well without a lot of extra effort on our part. Also, we had an opportunity to buy two 50 pound bags of onions for less money than the three to five pound bags are costing at the grocery store, and we use a LOT of onions. We are hoping for a potato glean. We live in prime potato growing country, and potatoes are usually plentiful. Unfortunately, the flies and black widows are also trying to prepare for winter, so we are killing a ton. We are seeing more black widows in our area than is the norm, which is probably because of our milder winter and weird summer.

Because of our church schedule last week, we were just too tired for our bonfire and Michaelmas dragon, so we did it last night. We had the dragon guts with an almond crumble for Jerome, so he could avoid the bread. We have a family birthday this week, but it is for an adult son who is out of the house, so, we will see what their plans are.

My experiment with freezing the falafel mix and also freezing some of the falafel shaped, then frying them worked beautifully. Both worked equally well, but freezing them shaped and frying from frozen means less work at the fryer. So, now we have a plan of attack for the kebab fest next year.

We are still cooking our way through our freezers and pantries and making room. Also, thank God, saving some money because of this. We hope to stock our freezers with some geese and are filling it with peppers and other lovely ingredients for the fall and winter and early spring. Now that I am not afraid of my pressure canner, I have been canning any new stock we make and using the frozen stock to empty the freezers. This gives us shelf stable stocks to use in our cooking, and frees up even more space in our freezers for other things.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 8:59 AM 0 comments

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Menu Plan: August 25 - 31


"Holy Spirit, inspire me. Love of God, consume me, on the true path, lead me. Mary, my Mother, look upon me, with Jesus, bless me. From all evil, from all illusion, from all danger, preserve me."

"Always remember to love your neighbor; always prefer the person who tries your patience, who tests your virtue, because with them you can always gain merit."

"The proud person is like a grain of wheat thrown into water: it swells, it gets big. Expose that grain to the fire: it dries up, it burns. The humble soul is like a grain of wheat thrown into the earth: it descends, it hides itself, it disappears, it dies; but to revive in heaven."

"It is sweet to think of Jesus; but it is sweeter to do His will."
~ Saint Mariam Baouardy (Mary of Jesus Crucified) ~

We have two birthdays this week: Mariam and Shawn. We won't have Shawn with us this week, and I suspect it will be a little more subdued than normal. Please offer all the prayers you can for her this week. Not only is it a birthday week, but it is a nameday week, as well. The feast of Saint Mariam Baouardy is also this week.

I'm not a superstitious person, generally speaking, though I do roll up my car windows to make sure it won't rain. However, that whole troubles come in threes thing has come twice, and now we have had three other challenges/difficulties, and at this point, I am hoping that is the third set of three, and that we will be set for a while.

Fall weather is definitely here. Wind and rain, much cooler feeling air, and I even wore a sweater yesterday - with long wool socks. We still have temperatures in the 70s at the height of the day, but our evenings and mornings are feeling frigid. In a couple months, we will long for temperatures in the 40s, but for now, they feel quite cold. The air conditioning units are still in the windows, in a nod to a slight superstitious hope that I will keep the alleged heat spike predicted for the end of the week at bay, but our windows are almost all closed, and the fans have been off all this past week.

We have so many ducks and geese to butcher! We are still cooking mostly from our freezer, and cooking it down so we will have room for them. When it is cool enough, there will be a couple weekends of pretty significant poultry harvest. Our Gleaning Club and even our garden are keeping us well stocked in beautiful produce. Except for potatoes and onions, we haven't had to buy produce in a few weeks. We are using what is fresh and in season, and it is delightful. This is one of the bright lights in our challenging time.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 12:14 AM 0 comments

Sunday, August 18, 2024

Menu Plan: August 18 - 24

God has been so good to us over these past few weeks of hardship and sorrow. He has sent so many people to bless us and taken care of even our simplest needs. We are looking for those lights in what feels like a rather dark time right now.

Our gleaning group has definitely been one of those lights for us. The folks running it have really looked out for our family and been generous and thoughtful. There is an abundance of fresh produce in our home, and we are eating such tasty fruits and vegetables.

It is Jerome's birthday this week, which means that we only have four more birthdays left this year. Mariam and Shawn are later this month, then Alexander and Amelia in the fall.

We are going to be saying goodbye to Dominic and Shawn this week, and that is a little sad, but they have great support and a fabulous church family at home.

Last night the winds of fall already blew. It usually comes like clockwork on the Monday after fair, but wind and rain came while fair was still going. I hope that doesn't mean that we will have an even shorter summer, though I wouldn't be upset if we had a longer fall. Fair was so strange this year, with no booth to work, and then a few scary incidents. I am looking forward to a week of rest.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Rejoice, O Virgin Mother of God, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee! Blessed art though amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast borne the savior of our souls.

Dominic said that when we pray this prayer, or any other Marian prayers like the Hail Mary, which are based on the text of Luke, we are placing ourselves in the prophecy from Mary's own lips: "For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed" Luke 1:48

Labels: , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 9:27 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Craft On: They Say It's Your Birthday!

Sometimes progress is ripping something out of a project. That's how it went this week. However, I have one mitt completed the way it ought to be and one back on track now.

We still need to pick a book for reading with the kids. Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages became a bit much for me again this week. It has been a hard week. It feels like a whole week happened in the past three days. So, now I am reading another happy, little murder, and that is about what I can handle some of the time.

Today is actually my birthday, but it is much more subdued than even we normally do things. Rich made me a lovely breakfast, we are getting fish and chips for dinner, and he is taking me to see the new Despicable Me movie. You know what I said up there about how sometimes progress is ripping out? Well, that is what it feels like right now in life. We have had a family emergency come up (everyone is safe, marriage is solid as a rock), and between a cold bug starting and the adrenaline and cortisol that shot through me on Monday, I am well in the depths of sickness. Please pray for our whole family.

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: , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 9:43 AM 0 comments

Sunday, July 21, 2024

Menu Plan: July 21 - 27

It's another week of simpler, faster, cooler meals. Also, several that use things we have in our freezers to make for quicker preparations. It's still supposed to be hot this week, though not as hot as two weeks ago.

We have a little hope for Jerome's diet. There was a genetic marker that helps us figure some things out, and so we are doing some treatments with vitamins and waiting on a particular allergist to do more testing. We hope this might actually mean that he can process all foods properly and not have to worry about their effect on his skin, sleep, and so on.

My birthday is this week, and we are going to have a dinner to celebrate it. I don't know if there are any suprises planned, like there were last year.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: , , , , , , ,


// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 12:56 AM 0 comments

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?