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Sunday, September 29, 2024

Menu Plan: Michaelmas

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. -- Revelation 12:7-9

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits, who roam through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio. Contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur. Tuque princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.
This week was our first full work of school and, unfortunately, we had a little sickness in the house. Nothing worse than a cold, but it does put a damper on things. We did get most of our peppers frozen that we wanted to freeze and we are trying to decide if we can eat all the rest in time, or just put a few more bags in the freezer (or dry some). This weekend was all about apples. We made applesauce, apple scrap vinegar, and apple pie filling, and we dried loads of apples. Normally I freeze the pie filling, but I am going to try a batch of it canned and see if we like the results. If so, we can free up some more freezer space and have more that is shelf stable and ready to go. So, there will be another apple pie this week. Oh, darn! If worse comes to worst, and we don't like having the apple pie filling pre-cooked as it would be in canning, I'm sure we can find a way to use it in a different way.

Speaking of weekends and freezers, we are going to have to postpone our goose butchering, it sounds like. We had hoped to do it yesterday, but there was a lot needing done in the garden, and a need for a larger scalder for the birds. So, they have a reprieve. And our neighbors don't.

Did I mention that I agreed to provide the falafel mix for next year's kebab fest? They talked about adding falafel to the menu and I said I would only be a party to it if they didn't use a mix. So, I said I'd be willing to mix it all up in advance, and other people could fry it. I will be experimenting this week (and over the next few months) to see if it can be frozen and thawed to make later, and if that is successful, if it can be frozen shaped and then fried from frozen.

We had so much going on with our weekend, and before church today, that we didn't get our Michaelmas dragon made, and we forgot to make waffles with blackberries instead of pancakes with raspberry syrup. So, we might have a belated bonfire and dragon this coming weekend. We will be celebrating Jerome's name day, 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.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 8:18 AM 0 comments

Sunday, September 24, 2023

Menu Plan: September 24 - 30

It is back to reality this week. We have lots of catching up and lots of trying to do our normal routine. We will begin schoolwork for real, dance has been going for a couple weeks, co-op started last week, we are back on track for the fall. This past week, Rich and I were up in British Columbia, in Kelowna, and the fires seemed under control, the smoke was not too bad, and we enjoyed a beautiful and relaxing time while there. Our church family is really caring for us by providing dinner tonight, so all we have to do is bring fruit to share.

Produce is still coming in well, both from our gleaning group and our garden and fruit trees. We will be harvesting turkeys, geese, and some roosters for our freezer in a few weeks. In the meantime, we are eating a lot out of our freezers to make room, and have some rather large roasts and birds planned for church dinners and family meals to make the room we need in there. Because of the abundance of produce, really we are trying to stay on top of all the good things we have right now. There is so much in our refrigerators and pantries that we want to use or preserve before it has to go to the poultry, and I'm keeping a pretty good list of all of the produce to help me with meal planning. This helps me with our annual shelf cooking period, too.

We are drying plums from our trees, and will be canning peaches soon. There is some cherry juice in the freezer that I think needs to become jelly, and we have some sweet cherries in there from a couple years ago that I am thinking of experimenting with to see if my technique for butters and jellies will work with them. That may be a game changer for us.

Autumn has technically begun. It began here in the last week of August, but now the calendar agrees. The mornings are quite cool, but we haven't had any below freezing mornings or evenings yet, which is a good sign. We have already had more than a month of autumn, which is better than the two or three weeks we usually get before we see below freezing temperatures at our house. I will take it. My hope is that we have watered our maple tree enough for it to change color, and that it changes color before the hard freeze comes to kill all the leaves.

We had quite a bit of pumpkin purée leftover from last week, so we are using the last of it in an autumnal breakfast of pumpkin pancakes this morning, and we also are trying the cherry cake recipe I made a few weeks ago, to see if I can improve on it a little. Unfortunately, a lot of kids got a cold that was going around last week, so we had to postpone a birthday party that was already later than the birthday. We also had tons of leftovers from the week, because appetites were low, even in the people who weren't really showing as ill. So Saturday's dinner has been pushed to another week this next month. I am mostly in denial about this cold which certainly did not start making itself be felt and known yesterday. We are taking loads of vitamins, drinking gallons of herbal tea, and resting a bit this weekend.

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.

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. -- Revelation 12:7-9

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits, who roam through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio. Contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur. Tuque princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 3:04 AM 0 comments

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Menu Plan: September 25 - October 1

I cannot believe that we are already approaching October and it is officially fall! Last weekend, we had our first morning approaching freezing, it was 34˚F. This month has gone by so quickly. We are getting ready to start official school work for the year, and to ramp up in our other activities. Next week would have ended our family birthday season, but now that we have added Autumn and she and Alexander are expecting their new little one's arrival at the end of October or beginning of November, we are going to have one more birthday before the year is finished.

Jerome had a little scare with the bananas, but it seems to be settling down, and we think it might have had to do with either the plants or climate near his grandmother's house (he and Elijah and Rich went down there to help her out a bit last week), or the chemicals he was using while sanding, sealing and painting a fence. He seems to be doing well now. Since they were gone for part of last week, I rearranged our meal plan to include things that either Rich didn't care for or that Jerome couldn't have, since it was just us girls and Dominic at home. We had a blast. The girls really wanted to watch a chick flick and do facials and hair and nails, but ballet and life schedules and some exhaustion shut that down, so we are going to try again soon. Rich said he would take the boys somewhere so we could do it.

The blackberry sweetrolls we made for Mariam were fantastic. I should have made the cream cheese a little less sweet, but nobody complained about that. They were super simple to make, too. I just used my cinnamon roll dough with vanilla and loganberry liqueur in place of the almond extract, spread it with a cup of seedless blackberry jam, baked as normal and made the cream cheese frosting with vanilla and a little loganberry liqueur. They were so good!

We had so many leftovers this week, that we still have some that were either put in the fridge or freezer, so we are pulling them out in different ways this week. Harvest was also delayed by our weird spring and summer, like I said before, so we have a ton of fresh produce that needs to be eaten before it becomes either chicken feed or compost. If we manage it well this week, it will be fine, though. We have the feasts of Saint Michael and Jerome this week, so some fun family traditions, as well as Jerome's name day to celebrate.

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.

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. -- Revelation 12:7-9

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits, who roam through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio. Contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur. Tuque princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 2:30 PM 0 comments

Sunday, September 26, 2021

Menu Plan: September 26 - October 2

In your mercy, please pray for me. The tooth extraction went a little sideways and we only took one tooth (that part is alright), but that decision was made after wrenching on the other for nearly 40 minutes. I have been in more and more pain since Wednesday, getting rather bad Friday and this weekend. Rich met with the dentist yesterday to get me a stronger pain medication prescription and an anti-biotic, if it looks like there is an infection. Please pray that the pain lessens and that there is no infection or damage to the yanked on tooth, especially below the gum. What I can eat has been severely limited, and even chewing on crustless bread was hurting a little. The stronger pain medication helped me eat more solid food that was still on the soft side.

After many mixes and many experiments with gluten-free pancake recipes, I finally just used the peanut butter pancake recipe I normally use with Jerome's flour, egg substitute and almond milk, and they were the best pancakes he's had since being on this diet. When he can have egg back completely, in a month and a half or so, it will improve them even further. Since he can't have our Michaelmas dragon, I may just give him some of the filling to eat on some gluten-free biscuits. The girls' ballet schedule makes it easy to have our bonfire this year, so we will be able to enjoy that.

Jerome's name day is this week, as well, and I think I've found an appropriate treat that he can enjoy with the rest of us. In the interim, I am resting as much as I can and trying to heal. We are still doing as much food preservation as possible, so we don't let the late summer harvest go to waste.

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.

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. -- Revelation 12:7-9

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits, who roam through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio. Contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur. Tuque princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 7:50 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Menu Plan: September 27 - October 3


It's another late week. We started school for real this week, and we are still running on sleepless nights. It is the week of the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, and we are at least getting to slay our dragon. Ballet is so late that I don't think we will get to do our bonfire, though.

Jerome's name day is this week, also, and we are quickly approaching the last birthday of birthday season at our home. It is still so weird to me that all of our birthdays have been celebrated in this quarantine.

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. Linking to Menu Plan Monday

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 6:29 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Menu Plan: September 27 - October 3


Though there are some repeats this week, we are trying to get better at following the plan, which really means that nothing else can break or go wrong in our home and work and family. We'll see how that works. This is the first year we won't be doing our serpent for St. Michael's**, because our schedule has been so crazy, and I just can't figure out how to fit it in, and we won't have our bonfire, either. Instead, we ate waffles and blackberry syrup for our dinner in honor of one of our favorite saints. On the plus side, I'm hoping that there will be no emergency room trips this year. Jerome's name day is this week, as well, which we always have fun with at home.

Our garden is still plugging away and Sir Francis Bacon, or Frank, is eating up a storm. We are working at putting the garden to bed, then letting him root around all over it and growing some cover crops, or just covering it all with grass clippings, leaves, wood shavings, and compost to start getting ready for next year's garden. This is Alexander's second week at the college, which is pretty cool, and our second week with the homeschool co-op. This new school schedule along with our intense ballet schedule is a bit of a bear. And then, I've been doing a ton of submissions, as well. I'm only planning one or two of them this month, maybe re-submitting some proposals that were rejected for previous magazines to see if they'll fit better in this round.

We helped our friends pack up their moving van and they have left. It's been a sad time for us, even though we are thrilled they have a great job to go to, because it is so far away. However, I found out that a train trip to visit them would cost two or three thousand dollars less than driving and hotels would. It would take the same amount of time, but we wouldn't have to drive or put the wear and tear on our van. We may look deeper into this.

Below, I include our daily Bible readings which we use to read through the entire Bible each year. We read through all of the Old Testament and New Testament, reading the Psalms and Proverbs twice. Remember that the Psalms are according to eastern numbering in our daily Bible reading, also I Kings is the original designation, it is I Samuel in western Bibles (II Kings is II Samuel in the west, III Kings is I Kings, and IV Kings is II Kings, I Ezra is also called I Esdras in other translations, II Ezra is often translated as Ezra or II Esdras).

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.

**Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. -- Revelation 12:7-9

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits, who roam through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio. Contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur. Tuque princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.




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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:12 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Yarn Along: Secret Finished Object


Here is yet another poorly lit, blurry photo of my knitting. There is a little surprise in this, so you can't tell anyone! Those wristers are for a friend of mine, for her birthday. However, what they are sitting on is a split stitch that is so thin, that it would break and unravel in the first couple wearings. That I just found tonight. Smack dab in the middle of the stockinette on the back of my Equinox which means I will have to undo the bind off and drop the stitch back to correct it. It's not a huge deal, but somewhat demoralizing when I was feeling so close to finished. A little progress has been made on my friend's long distance hug. At this point, I'm hoping to have it ready for her for Christmas.

We are supposed to be getting ready for our first day of school tomorrow. And we will begin tomorrow. But this week has been a bear. Rich and I had a short trip to Portland for him to take a class. While we were there, we found out that a friend of ours had his mother die, and then that an aunt of mine had a stroke. When we got home, three or four of the kids were in the beginnings of a cold. Now a full fledged cold, which has also claimed Nejat. Then the news came that my aunt had died. Best of all, however, is that Mariam, while running to catch up with her brothers and sisters last night, ended up tripping and getting a huge split in her face, just above her left eyebrow, requiring her to go to the hospital at around 9:00. She didn't get home until after midnight. Now, our challenge is to keep her still so she doesn't pull or burst her stitches.

I haven't done much knitting in the past few days. Nor reading. I tried to tackle Mormon Christianity: What Other Christians Can Learn From the Latter-day Saints, which I had been making good progress on this weekend, but it required too much thought. Even Christ in His Saints, with its short character sketches was too much. The closest I got to reading today was to grab a happy little murder and place it beside me. Everything is a little mentally taxing right now.

Did I mention that both Rich and I are feeling a little sick now, too? And that the two nights before Mariam's accident, we hadn't slept much because we were up with Nejat? Then last night, I took the couch with Mariam, to make sure she was okay and not in pain, and to keep her from falling out of bed or on stairs, while Rich took on Nejat in our room. Tonight, Mariam wanted to sleep on the couch again. With me. So, we're doing it one more night. Please pray for all of us. This has been the most exciting Michaelmas celebrations we've ever had.



Also posting to Keep Calm and Craft On

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 9:51 PM 4 comments

Monday, September 29, 2014

Menu Plan: September 28 - October 4


We had another short trip this weekend. Rich had a class for work to do on Saturday, so he and I popped down to Portland and stayed at an amazing bed and breakfast, Heron Haus, which was built with salmon money at the beginning of the twentieth century. There were so many details to the house that I really like, so I was taking pictures to keep them for our own home. We stayed on the third floor, which was where the servants' quarters were when the house belonged to the Warren family. It was a wonderful place to rest, and even though Rich had to leave for his class too early to join us for breakfast, they packaged it up for him so I could deliver it to him on his break.

I have some good reports and another prayer request. My friend Kim has had much of her speech capabilities restored, which baffles her doctors. She has completed her final round of radiation, and the doctors basically think they have done all they can to extend her life. This restoration has them confused, and we are praying for more of that kind of confusion. We hope for the Lord to work mightily in her and baffle the doctors once more. I am thankful so often that I believe in a God who raises the dead. So, we are thankful for this improvement, and any other blessings that may come. However, Saturday morning, I received a message from my cousin's wife that our aunt (his and mine, our mothers' eldest sibling) had had a stroke, was in a coma in the hospital, and had a brain bleed from the blood thinners. I had to break the news to my mother, which was difficult. Before I really had a chance to communicate with our other cousins, I received news yesterday, that my aunt had died. She was already a widow, and had lost a 19 year old granddaughter to cancer, but is survived by three sons, two of whom are married with children, a daughter, her husband, and their children. She makes the third of six siblings to pass from my mother's family. I am grieving her loss, and am so sad for my cousins and their families, but also I am grieving the loss my children have, without even realizing it, since they had not met her, as they have not met so many of my family. They have not grown up with the summer visits, family stories and all of the laughter and history that I did, and I am sorry for that. It is the reality of living an ocean away on a different continent, but it is a harder reality sometimes. Please pray that God would have mercy on her soul, and for the comfort of her children and grandchildren.

Some friends of ours also lost a family member this weekend, so please pray for the repose of the soul of Eileen, who was mother to Paul and mother in law to Jill. Again, pray for the comfort of her children and grandchildren as well.

We are finally beginning school in earnest this week. We've done some reading and activities and small studies, but we're really serious this week. I decided to start on the first, just to make things a little simpler for us. The boys start up fencing this week, and co-op began last week, so we are at full schedule for this time of year. Michaelmas** is Monday, and Jerome's name day is Tuesday. We always try to commemorate these days with special foods and activities, but also this weekend, several of our children seem to have had a cold, so we'll see if a bonfire is really feasible for Monday night. We will slay our serpent, though.

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.

**Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. -- Revelation 12:7-9

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits, who roam through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio. Contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur. Tuque princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.


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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 9:38 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Menu Plan: September 23 - September 29

It is still pretty crazy around here. This is the second year in a row that we have started school with serious illness in the house. Rich and I have not slept a full night in over three weeks. Please pray for all our household, but especially the girls, and especially Mariam.

Since everyone was so sick, we postponed the first day of school for a while. Along with that, I was trying to coordinate our weeks to the number of lessons and had fewer lessons for Yasmina than weeks, so I started her off rather slowly. As a result, we are still working on the letter A this week. We will be making an A apple pie and I am working on painting some A saints (Angel and St. Anne). This is so out of my sphere and it is taking me much longer than I thought it would (and I planned for extra time). At this point, I'm hoping that the A saints will be finished before we do the D saints. I have to paint St. Barbara and St. Benedict next week! I'm also teaching a class in our co-op again, so I'm preparing for our first class and the rest of the term as well.

We still have lots of corn to eat, so we're eating it at almost every dinner now. I've started tracking how much each dinner costs us, out of curiosity. I'll try to share that the following week for you. I do not count what we didn't have to buy, or full prices, but what we actually pay. Last week's dinners cost us an average of $7.85 each, or $0.87 per person, per dinner. That was somewhat unusual, even for us, as we were able to have a free dinner because of an event we attended.

I know I have been posting spottily, even for me, lately. Between the deaths in our family, the grief, the trying to catch up with our lives from our hectic summer away, illness, school, all of that, it has been harder for me to take the time to post. Even the simple menu plans and recipes. I have a recipe that I was planning to post from the last menu. I will just try to post it this week. I hope to get back to posting more sometime soon. I miss it.

I forgot that this Saturday is Michaelmas! We will be making our Michaelmas Dragon Bread again this 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.

*Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. -- Revelation 12:7-9

**
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits, who roam through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio. Contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur. Tuque princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.


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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 3:43 PM 0 comments

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Menu Plan: October 2 - October 8

Thank you for your prayers. We all seem to be recovered.

This past week we were given an opportunity to help a friend clean up her garden and came home with bushels of produce for our time. I have been blanching and freezing and canning - with more to come this week. This will definitely help us to eat well during the fall and winter, when not much locally raised produce is available, and will cut down on our grocery bill as well. Then, a friend from church said he'd picked up 15 gallons of plums from a farmer and asked if we wanted five gallons of them. We love plums, so we said yes. I'm hoping to get plum butter and plum jelly and plum preserves made this week. I'm also trying to use up as much of this good, fresh produce while we have it, too. So, this week's menu will reflect that.

A couple of our meals were shifted or changed last week, so I have a couple repeats this 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.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 4:01 PM 0 comments

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Menu Plan: September 25 - October 1

Well, fall is here at last. Temperatures are supposed to be below freezing at night in a little over a week. We are now entering the time when I miss our old home the most. It turns out I don't like all four seasons. I liked our milder falls and milder winters which weren't even winter, but had about two weeks of snow and that was all. We're still using the last of the summer produce, but are now getting into winter squash and fall meals, too. This is the time of year I wish I could hibernate. Instead, I decided to teach two classes in our homeschool co-op, thus making sure I could not miss any of them without serious illness.

Speaking of illness, but not serious, we have been fighting off a small cold for the past few days and have finally succumbed. We're not terribly sick, and we're handling it fairly well, but we would appreciate your prayers for a quick recovery.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.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 3:43 PM 0 comments

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Menu Plan: September 27 - October 3

Still no tortillas, but I did render the lard. Not likely to see them this week, either, because we have two major feast days. Michaelmas is Tuesday, so we will take a holiday break and do activities related to that feast. We're having "gaufrettes" for breakfast, or rather waffles, in honor of the day along with blackberry syrup we will make as a nod to the tradition of St. Michael's day being the last day to pick blackberries. We are going to make our sweet dough serpent again and vanquish him. Wednesday is Jerome's saint's day. We won't take a day off for the feast of St. Jerome, but we will make some fun treats and take some time to talk about and commemorate him during our day.

This week is full of treats for us. Next week we get to feast one more time because of Alexander's birthday. What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. Starred recipes will follow separately.

Here is the list of foods from the freezer, fridge and pantry that I'm using this week. Anything from the freezer, pantry or fridge that was not bought specifically for this meal or this past week will be included in my lists.

Freezer:
Chorizo
Pork Shoulder
Ground Beef
Whole Chicken
Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs
Kielbasa
Sprouted Whole Wheat Bagels
Sprouted Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
Cranberries
Blackberries
Strawberries
Sliced Almonds
Slivered Almonds
Pecans

Fridge:
Eggs
Butter
Buttermilk
Yogurt
Milk (& Cream from the Top)
Parmesan
Cream Cheese
Sour Cream
Salad
Salsa
Apple Cider
Watermelon
Cabbage
Carrots
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Parsley
Cilantro
Ginger
Galeux des Eysines Squash (for the Stew)


Pantry:
All Herbs & Spices
Salts
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Shallots
Onions
Garlic
Olive Oil
Sesame Oil
Hard White Wheat Berries
Kamut Berries
Basmati Rice
Brown Rice
Sushi Rice (for Rice Pudding)
Corn Meal
Vaquero Beans
Steel Cut Oats
Pastry Flour
Yeast
Baking Powder
Baking Soda
Vanilla Extract
All Sugars
Honey
Golden Raisins
Dried Cranberries
Dried Cherries
Homemade Granola
Canned Hatch Chiles
Tomato Sauce
Bread Crumbs
Red Hots
Sweet Dumpling Squash (for Muffins)
Peaches
Pears

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 8:00 PM 1 comments

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Serpent


This was so much fun. I made a sweet dough in the bread machine, cut a little piece off to make the head of our dragon, and rolled the rest out into a rectangle for us to fill. Alexander and I made the filling of diced apples, dried cranberries, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and melted butter. We rolled that up like a snake, shaped it and Alexander made the head. Amira had the idea for the almond slices in the eyes and the red hots were Alexander's idea. I came up with the fangs. We used the sliced almonds for the scales and Dominic wanted to put spikes on the back, so we pulled out the slivered almonds for that.


His guts spilled while we baked him.


Here is his head up close. Notice the fire from his nostrils. That was a bonus.


I was going to give them a knife to hack it to bits when it cooled, but Rich gave them little bamboo spears. The children had a great time vanquishing the enemy. We ate our pieces and went out to the bonfire that Rich had set up and roasted marshmallows.

We never did fit in any blackberry picking, so I guess that's it for the blackberry season.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 12:46 PM 2 comments

Monday, September 29, 2008

Menu Plan Monday: Michaelmas


I am going to try to make that roast pork, finally. The weather is certainly getting autumnal, so a roast pork loin and nice creamy, warm gratins are perfect comfort food.

I'm also going to send the children out to pick the last of the blackberries because it is Michaelmas. This is just a fun tradition, it isn't part of the real story of St. Michael casting Satan out of heaven, it's just something to help us (and especially children) remember, much like the star in the core of an apple reminding us of the five wounds of Christ. The legend goes that when St. Michael cast Satan down, he landed in a blackberry bramble and cursed it. So, since this is the commemoration of St. Michael casting him out, this is the last day to gather them, because after today they will be cursed (shriveled, dried out, dead).

There are other fun traditions associated with this feast day. In England, it was traditional to have roast goose and renters tried to appease their landlords on this day, because in England the year was divided into quarters on feast days and this was the autumnal quarter, by bringing the quarterly rent, the lease for renewal and a goose to roast. In France they ate waffles and in Italy, they served gnocchi. One tradition is lighting a bonfire, which we will be doing. Since it was harvest time, there was a lot about grain and bread baking. Another is baking a cake with a gold ring mixed into the batter; the person who finds the ring can expect early marriage. Something another mother suggested was making a Devil's food cake, putting a figure of St. Michael on top and giving the children those little cocktail swords to pierce the devil, which would probably help them remember more about St. Michael than getting a wedding ring. We plan on making a sweet dough filled with apples, sugar and cinnamon and shaping it into a serpent/dragon* and using sliced almonds as scales for the children to cut up after dinner.

These are just fun little activities one can do. They are ways of making the church year come alive for people. It is how we impress on our children the significance of these days, the saints, the events that are commemorated. As for spiritual things, we did the collect and readings for the feast this morning during morning prayer, we are reciting the Prayer of St. Michael**, we also sang the song we sing in church and we discussed who St. Michael is, what he did and how it is he who is the opposite of the devil and not God, who is so much more powerful. We won't be having roast goose, but we're eating chicken tonight.

If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can.
What is on your menu this week?

*Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world -- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. -- Revelation 12:7-9

**
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits, who roam through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio. Contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur. Tuque princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.


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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 1:53 PM 1 comments

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