Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and it is basically all that saves November from being the worst month of the year for me. January has that distinction now, because it is still winter, after the excitement of Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, and it is miserably cold and dark, with nothing fun or interesting to distract us. Rich and I have come up with a modified hibernation plan for humans: We sleep from November 1 to the Friday before Thanksgiving, do Thanksgiving and all of that, and stay awake through Saint Nicholas Day, then go back to sleep through the fourth Sunday of Advent, stay awake through Theophany, go back to sleep through February 13, stay awake for a couple days, then go back to sleep until Holy Week. Then we can be awake with a fair hope that we will not be entirely frozen.

My Thanksgiving dinner is pretty much the same from year to year. We sometimes skip part of it, or add something, but it is basically the same. I try to include foods from the Americas in it. So, we have turkey, potatoes, corn, peppers, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, pecans, cranberries, chocolate, bourbon, but I realized that we didn't have maple syrup included, so I am trying to find a way to incorporate that.

We still haven't found any fresh pressed cider to make apple cider doughnuts. This may not happen this year. However, we are getting ready to do our crazy pie per person for Thanksgiving, even if it is smaller this year.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Toasted Crumpets with Peanut Butter and Preserves, Fruit, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Rouz Kably, Garlic Chard, Harissa, Fruit Salad
• Monday - Feast of Saint Clement of Rome
  Breakfast: Crock Pot French Toast, Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Croque Monsiuer/Croque Madame with Ham and Asiago Cheese, Asparagus Pickles, Mandarin Oranges
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Chopped Apples and Cinnamon Sugar, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: French Onion Soup with Croutons and Broiled Cheese, Fruit Plate
• Wednesday - Feast of Saint Catherine of Alexandria
  Breakfast: Yogurt with Jam, Toast, Fruit Plate, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Fried Cauliflower with Taratoor, Arabic Style Rice Pilaf
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Farmer Breakfast Casserole, Blintz Casserole, Mandarin Oranges, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Deviled Eggs, Vegetable Tray, Chex Mix, Herb Roasted Turkey, Bourbon Gravy, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Cranberry Horseradish Relish*, Chestnut Dressing, Wild Rice Dressing, Sweet Potato Rolls, Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Pecans, Wine, Eggnog, Pumpkin Pies, Cranberry Cherry Pies, Nantucket Cranberry Pies, Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pies, Maple Pies, Gingerbread with Chantilly Cream
• Friday
  Breakfast: Pies, Coffee and Milk
  Dinner: Turkey Tetrazzini
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Bacon, Fruit Plate, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Leftover Casserole

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

Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen, Thanksgiving

We were able to have our lantern walk last week, which was wonderful! We did not knock on any doors, because our neighbors wouldn't have known what to do with us. But, we were able to talk about Saint Martin and the traditions around his feast, and take that walk with the kids, which was great.

This past week and this week are a hard time in our house. Today is the anniversary of the loss of Rayan, and while we rejoice to have a family saint praying for us and the world, it is still a grief we have, and Rich and I live always as expectant parents. This past Sunday was also the anniversary of my best friend's death, and Monday, we found out that my father had been hospitalized, a couple weeks after being diagnosed with Covid (despite isolating and masking constantly), for pneumonia, and then Wednesday, we found he had been moved to the ICU. We have heard no worse news, so we are hoping no news is good news right now. Please, in your mercy, keep him in your prayers.

In this last week before the big cooking week of Thanksgiving, we are enjoying a lot of things we won't after Thanksgiving, because of the Advent fast. We still haven't been able to find fresh pressed apple cider, which I use to make apple cider doughnuts, that I was hoping to make before the fast. I will make an extra batch for anyone who can get me some fresh pressed cider! Our family does not keep a very strict fast during Advent, but we struggle in our strength with the family of small children and life we have. You will see more vegetarian and fish meals over the weeks past Thanksgiving. We are also heading into more restrictions, so we have stocked up and are preparing. I am so grateful for the work of my husband and children in the garden and at the farm so we can have such a well stocked pantry and freezer. We are still eating garden tomatoes because of Rich storing all the ripe and nearly ripe ones in cold spots on our property where they won't freeze. Whatever we cannnot eat goes to the animals, but we are still able to make fresh salsas, eat tomato sandwiches for lunch, and more.

Because our life has been a bit harder lately, and the winter weather and darkness has brought with it some more exhaustion and stress, I have not been good at posting all the recipes here. I am sorry for that, and should have a couple posts up by tonight. Please keep your eyes open for them, but also please be patient with me. Thank you.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Croissants and Cheese, Fruit, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Pomegranates
• Monday
  Breakfast: Toast with Labneh, Za'atar and Olive Oil, Kalamata Olives, Sliced Tomatoes, Fruit, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Hot Dogs with Sauerkraut and Mustard, Baked Potatoes, Fruit Plate
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Duck, Sausage and Bacon Cassoulet, Salad, Ciabatta Rolls, Sliced Melon
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Ful, Duqqus, Toast, Fruit Plate, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Chili Cheese Fries, Fruit Salad
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Cinnamon Sugar, Chopped Apples and Raisins, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Layered Mexican Casserole, Salsa Rice, Chopped Pineapple
• Friday
  Breakfast: Zucchini Bread, Fruit, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Soparnik, Grilled Potato and Spring Onion Salad, Fruit Salad
• Saturday - Feast of the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
  Breakfast: Waffles with Maple Syrup, Bacon, Fruit Plate, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Leftover Meatloaf, Garlic Green Beans, Tater Tots

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

Labels: All Saints, Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen

This past week was rather interesting, wasn't it? We are doing fine here, warm house, and some good news for me as a designer. Our oldest two boys both have jobs now, and we are trucking along on our schooling, though everything seems to be taking a lot more time than it should, and the blog has suffered because of it. I'm trying to catch up on recipes, as well as re-inserting photos. Since we moved the shakshouka to this week, I will post that recipe this week, along with one for taratoor. That one really is a guideline, and is made largely to taste.

We have had some great deals on some fun foods at our grocery stores, and I am looking forward to using them in our menus over the next few weeks. I am also really excited about Thanksgiving, even if it will be a little smaller this year. This is a great time to stock up on inexpensive or free turkeys and hams, and we already have two in our freezer (plus one we butchered of our own). I expect to get at least two or three more this month, and maybe some whole turkey breasts and hams. Even if you can't get a free one, the discounted prices often offered are usually around $0.25 - $0.50 per pound, and it is pretty hard to find any protein at that price, so we always fill our freezers at this time of year. If you can get multiples for free, I would encourage you to also see if you can donate to a food bank or a friend or neighbor in need, or a family that needs encouragement. The sale prices are so good, you might even be able to provide an entire meal for a family or two.

We will be home on Wednesday, and Rich has the day off of work, so we might actually be able to finally do a Saint Martin's lantern walk in our neighborhood. If you would like to make a special treat for that day, please take a look at the recipe for the rolls I am making for breakfast that morning.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese, Hard Boiled Eggs, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Greek Style Pizzas, Salad with Tarragon Vinaigrette, Fruit Salad, Peppermint Mocha Ice Cream
• Monday
  Breakfast: Shakshouka*, Toast, Sliced Pears, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Cornmeal Waffles with Bacon, Scallions, Sour Cream, Cheese, and Salsa, Fruit
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey and Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Mahshi Squash, Rice, Duqqus, Fruit Plate
• Wednesday - Feast of Saint Martin of Tours
  Breakfast: St. Martin's Day Almond Crescents, Fruit Plate, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Fresh Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Fruit
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Cinnamon Sugar, Chopped Apples and Raisins, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Macarona bi Béchamel*, Mashed Garlic Winter Squash, Sautéed Peppers, Onions, and Garlic, Fruit
• Friday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Cream of Poblano Soup with Crisp Fried Tortilla Strips, Cucumber Tomato and Onion Salad
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Fried Eggs, Tater Tots, Avocado and Toast, Fruit Plate, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Leftover Night

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

Labels: All Saints, Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen

Since Rich and I fell in love with Croatia, and especially the Dalmatian region, I have been trying to cook more of their food. I have been looking at a particular cookbook, but didn't buy it for ages. However, a cooking friend strongly recommended it, so I finally ordered it and it came Friday! We may be cooking through Dalmatia for quite a while. There were very few recipes that I thought we might not be able to get the ingredients for easily or that we wouldn't like. Their food is like the best of Mediterranean, Central European, and Central and Southwest Asian cooking all mixed together. I also have Croatian Desserts and I have been enjoying that for a little while, and will probably be trying some of those treats for All Saints, too.

We tried to have our All Hallow's Eve movie night, but were thwarted by the movies not coming to us in time, and none of the ones we wanted were available for streaming anywhere. So, the oldest kids set up a candy scavenger hunt for our youngest three, and we gorged ourselves on candy and spent a little time at the Grocery Outlet, with their generous fun, and had a few friends over for an easy dinner.

As today is the Feast of All Saints in the west, we are spending our day in prayer and remembrance, but also using it as a good excuse to eat some more treats. It is also the anniversary of Nejat's baptism Monday, on the day after the Feast of All Souls. We have a lot of blessings in our home this week. The weather warmed up a tiny bit just before the big cold hits us again. We are bundling up and preparing here. I wish you a blessed week!

Just an administrative note: I am going back through my posts from this year to re-enter photos that cannot be hotlinked from Instagram any longer. I'm starting with more recent posts and going backward.

• Sunday - Feast of All Saints
  Breakfast: Biscuit, Egg, Cheese and Sausage Breakfast Casserole, Raspberries and Cream, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Rouz Bedoui, Duqqus, Lentil, Apple and Pomegranate Salad, Spiced Roasted Squash Slices, Key Lime Pie* with Coconut Macadamia Crust and Chantilly Cream
• Monday - Feast of All Souls
  Breakfast: Shakshouka*, Toast, Sliced Pears, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: BLT Sandwiches, Pickles, Veggie Sticks, Pomegranates
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Fried Ham and Potato Hash, Fruit Plate, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Lemon Za'atar Chicken and Potatoes, Summer Squash Fritters, Marinated Beets and Onions, Duqqus, Fruit Salad
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Tomato Fritters, Battatas Harra, Roasted Squash with Tahina and Pine Nuts
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Cinnamon Sugar, Chopped Apples and Raisins, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Cornbread with Sausage and Sausage Gravy, Mashed Garlic Winter Squash
• Friday
  Breakfast: Zucchini Bread with Cream Cheese, Sliced Pears, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Loaded Black Bean Nachos with Mixed Greens, Salsa, Sour Cream and Guacamole, Melon Salad
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Sausages, Fruit Plate, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Poached Chicken with Olives, Croatian Potatoes, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Cranberry Pear Tart with Almond Cream

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

Labels: All Saints, Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen

I am going to have to go back and re-enter some 70 photo sources on the blog for this year, as Instagram has changed their policy on hotlinking and will not allow images to be linked on other pages as of this past Thursday or Friday. If you use that feature on Ravelry, note that it will no longer be possible there, either.

Anyway, we are in the depths of winter here now. We have already had temperatures in the teens at our house, and we have the whole garden either harvested, pulled up and stored in more insulated outbuildings, or covered with plastic to see if we can give them a couple more weeks (plants that are underground). Tomorrow morning is likely to be in single digits at our house. It is miserable. Winter here lasts about six months. I'm trying not to be so sad, but it is hard. We have some good meals planned for the week, though, and we don't have too much to do away from home. Now that we have three other drivers in the house, I am no longer obligated to drive people to their activities, either. It is times like this that I wish I could do some form of semi-hibernation. I am already so cold, and cannot even face the cold that is coming. Please pray.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Vegetable Hash, Fried Eggs, Fruit, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Cheeseburgers with Sliced Tomatoes, Grilled Peppers and Onions, French Fries with Béarnaise Sauce, Leftover Cake
• Monday
  Breakfast: Egg Muffin Sandwiches with Cheese, Sliced Pears, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Slow Cooked Chicken and Chickpeas, Herbed Cous Cous, Chopped Salad with Pomegranate Pips
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Slow Cooker Rice Pudding with Coconut and Craisins, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Kofta bil Bayd*, Duqqus, Loubiyeh bi Zeit, Arabic Spiced Roasted Squash Slices
• Wednesday - Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Falafel, Khoubz Araby, Duqqus, Sliced Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Onions, Kalamata Olives
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Cinnamon Sugar, Chopped Apples and Raisins, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Baked Pasta and Tomato Pepper Sauce, Béchamel, and Topped with Feta, Fruit Salad
• Friday
  Breakfast: Tomato Toast, Fruit Plate, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Tacos de Papa with Avocado Relish, Quick and Dirty Mexican Rice, Sliced Watermelon
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Leftover Tacos, Fried Eggs, Sausages, Avocado Relish, Fruit Plate, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Roasted Hot Dogs, Tomato Salad, Bloodshot Eye Devilled Eggs, Candy

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

Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen

The real freezes have finally come. We are harvesting the last of our garden, and hoping to keep the cole crops going under plastic for a couple more weeks. Those beautiful eggplant up there produced even when our other eggplant struggled with our weird, and late and short summer this year.

We get to have our homeschool co-op potluck this week, and I am so excited. It is wonderful to have something else that approaches normal. Our godson's birthday is today, and I am trying to remember him in prayer more, and actually just to keep in touch more. We are not as good at that as we wish we were. I think I will invoke Saint Luke a little more to help all of us.

Speaking of prayer, I managed to either bruise my foot or sprain a tendon in it without realizing it, and it has been a week and a half of relative pain. If I stay on top of it with ibuprofen and tylenol, it is better, but I am not as good at that as I should be, and I just don't have a life that is conducive to staying off my foot. So, please keep me in your prayers - at least that I will remember to take the pain medication.

• Sunday - Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist
  Breakfast: Leftover Scalloped Potatoes and Fried Eggs, Leftover Pastries, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Sausage, Roasted Pepper, Red Onion, Artichoke Heart, Olive and Feta Pizzas, Apple Pie
• Monday
  Breakfast: Zucchini Bread*, Sliced Melon, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Rotini with Fresh Eggplant, Pepper, Tomato and Onion Sauce, Grapes
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Peach Kefir, Toast, Sliced Melon, Grapes, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Loco Moco*, Steam Sautéed Zucchini and Onions, Marinated Cucumbers and Onions, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Watermelon
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Baked Potatoes, Broccoli Cheese Sauce, Sour Cream, Salsa, Scallions, Pomegranates
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Cinnamon Sugar, Chopped Apples and Raisins, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Sticky Asian Meatballs with Vegetable Ramen, Fruit Salad
• Friday - Feast of Saint James of Jerusalem
  Breakfast: Home Fries, Fried Eggs, Toast, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Puerto Rican Beans and Rice, Roasted Vegetable Flatbread
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Fruit Plate, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Manicotti with Squash and Sage, Tomato Sauce, Broiled Italian Sausages, Pepper and Tomato Salad, German Chocolate Cake

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

Labels: Birthday, Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen

Rich was able to go on his cousins' weekend again this year, which is great, but we are both glad to have him back home. I know it seems a little silly, but we miss each other so much when we are apart, and we try not to spend much time apart. We even miss each other when he is at work. I'm so glad that this year nothing significant seemed to break. Last year when he went away, we had a dangerous brake job that cost nearly $1000 the day he left, our washing machine broke, and something else went wrong that I cannot even remember. Anyway, now that he is back, he is going to finish off those vegetables up there to make them into his special hot sauce. He took a couple more days off so he could rest from his trip and we could do some things around the property, as well as take a day with a family we have missed very much during this shut down.

My surprise for him on his return was to make some Key Lime Pies, which he loves, using the macadamia nut flour I found at the Grocery Outlet and some dessicated coconut with butter and sugar for the crust. The Grocery Outlet also had bags of key limes, so I picked them up, as he had recently been talking about that pie. He has a surprise for me, too, but hasn't told me what it is yet. I had planned a more extensive dinner, but our fridge is so full of leftovers that I am going to just serve that for dinner, and we will celebrate with the dessert.

Our garden has been producing for us, finally, but we are going to start to have freezing nights every night at our house starting Wednesday night. So, Rich has the boys putting up a frame and plastic cover over the plants that are still ripening and producing to extend their life for us before the hard freezes come. Between the garden, our CSA (which will be delivering for the next three weeks), and the generous farmers where the boys go to help, we are inundated in good food and are enjoying sharing with others and putting up the food (like Rich's hot sauce) for winter and spring.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Swedish Cardamom Twists, Sausages, Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Leftovers, Key Lime Pie with Coconut Macadamia Crust and Chantilly Cream
• Monday
  Breakfast: Shakshouka, Toast, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Lamb Harira, Shabboura*, Mediterranean Style Chopped Salad, Sliced Watermelon
• Tuesday - Feast of Saint Edward the Confessor
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Saffron-Orange Flower Water Syrup, Apples and Dried Cherries, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Leftovers, Key Lime Pie
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Slow Cooker Rice Pudding with Pears and Craisins, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Tuna Casserole, Tomato Salad, Sliced Watermelon
• Thursday
  Breakfast: German Apple Pancake, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Hot Dogs, Pan Roasted Summer Squash, Sliced Tomatoes, Sliced Melon
• Friday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Penne with Tomato and Eggplant Sauce, Fruit Plate
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Fruit Plate, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Meatloaf, Scalloped Potatoes, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Cranberry Pear Tart with Almond Cream

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

Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen

It is our last birthday of the birthday season this year. While Amira's, technically, was outside of this infernal restricted time, her party was to be held during that time, so even hers has been on restriction. All ten birthdays on restriction, with no end in sight. Alexander has a birthday this week (there he is all the way to the left in that photo). While he is still trying to find a job in his field (do you know of any aviation mechanic positions opening up with UPS, an FBO, an airline, test flights, anything?), glory to God in His saints, he has a job locally which provides some experience with a supervisor and a pay check. Please keep him and Dominic in your prayers that they would find steady work. Dominic is trying to make money to transfer to a university to study film, or conversely, get an internship with Metanoia Films or the Irwin Brothers or another film company like that. If you have leads for that, he would be in your debt.

Our schedule has been rough. Re-entry into "normal" work and school has been a challenge, so a lot of the things I wanted to make have ended up pushed off the list to another day. I will be trying to make the basbousa again this week, and to get the final recipe to you.

• Sunday - Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi
  Breakfast: Cinnamon Rolls, Fried Eggs, Grapefruit Halves, Coffee and Milk
  Dinner: Lasagna with Meat Sauce, Chopped Salad, Garlic Bread, Dessert Bars
• Monday
  Breakfast: Leftover Cinnamon Rolls, Sliced Cantaloupe, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Stir Fried Vegetables, Chicken and Lemongrass Potstickers, Rice, Kale and Broccoli Salad with Sesame Dressing
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Egg and Cheese Biscuit Sandwiches, Grapefruit Halves, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Porchetta, Roasted Rutabagas, Squash and Onions, Italian Bread, Basbousa
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Saffron-Orange Flower Water Syrup, Apples and Raisins, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Salmon Cakes, Sautéed Peppers, Summer Squash, Chard and Onions, Blistered, Salted Padron Peppers, Baked Potatoes, Fruit Plate
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Scrambled Egg and Cheese Burritos with Sour Cream, Sliced Watermelon, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Macaroni and Cheese with Bacon, Roasted Squash, Autumnal Chocolate Cake
• Friday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Egg Curry with Vegetables, Garlic Rice, Fruit Salad
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Dutch Baby Pancake, Fruit Plate, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Japanese Chicken Drumsticks, Rice, Sesame Green Beans, Cranberry Pear Tart with Almond Cream

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

Labels: Birthday, Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen

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.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Pancakes with Butter and Syrup, Sausages, Scrambled Eggs, Mixed Fruit, Juice
  Dinner: Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Cream Gravy, Sliced Tomatoes and Peppers
• Monday
  Breakfast: Biscuits and Hard Boiled Eggs, Sliced Cantaloupe, Coffee
  Dinner: Lamb and White Bean Stew, Tamis, Brownies with Heath Bar Crunch Topping
• Tuesday - Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Cinnamon Sugar, Sliced Pears, Coffee
  Dinner: Chicago Style Hot Dogs, Snickerdoodle Blondies, Apple and Cherry Stuffed "Dragon" Bread
• Wednesday - Feast of Saint Jerome
  Breakfast: Ful, Chopped Tomato and Jalapeño Relish, Toast, Sliced Honeydew, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Potato and Onion Tarte with Three Cheeses, Roast Squash Slices, Sliced Watermelon, German Chocolate Brownies
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Toast with Feta, Tomatoes, Za'atar and Olive Oil, Sliced Cantaloupe, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Tortilla Casserole with Chile Verde from the Freezer, Salsa Rice, Sliced Watermelon
• Friday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Potage Parmentier (Potato Leek Soup), Oyster Crackers, Sliced Watermelon
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Bacon, Fruit Plate, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Grilled Italian Sausage Sandwiches with Sautéed Peppers and Onions, Hot Giardinera, Sliced Cantaloupe

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

Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Michaelmas, Quarantine, Shelftember, Tales from the Kitchen

I'm so sorry that this is late. We have been having early mornings and sleepless nights. The smoke has cleared, though, finally, on Saturday, and now you wouldn't know that we had been socked in for nearly two weeks. We are still trying to outrace winter in our garden, and now that we don't need it to filter out the smoke, the air conditioning units are going away. It is back to chilly mornings and warm days with chilly evenings. I am also running a bit late on my recipe round up from last week. I will try to get that posted this week. You can see the basbousa above. It isn't the exact recipe my mother and aunt gave me, because the recipe often includes coconut, and I had coconut flour I wanted to use, so I was experimenting to see if using that in the batter would work, and it did! However, I still need to tweak it to make the texture of the cake right.

Our breakfast this Sunday looks like last Sunday's and will be the same next Sunday. A local restaurant has been offering a substantial breakfast as a fundraiser each week for three children in our area who are battling cancer. Our children know one of them, so we went last week to support her, but Rich and I decided we would go each week to support the other two, as well. That isn't exactly in our budget slashing plan, but that money is an offering, and we are trying to increase our offering, anyway. Our church follows the model of the Old Testament, in that the tithe is what is given to the priest and his family, and the offering is what is given for the mission of the church, the building upkeep, charity, etc. We always give at least 10% of our gross income in tithe, to support our priest families, and we wanted to be giving another 10% in offering, but often, it is closer to 5%. We try to look for opportunities to give more, and this one was a little closer to our hearts. Our friend's daughter is almost Amira's age, and she has stage 4 cancer in her bones, and we are praying for a miracle. They found out on Father's Day, and the reality is that without divine intervention, she will die. We are heartbroken, and can only imagine how her parents and sister are feeling right now. Please join us in praying for a miracle for her, as well as these two other children. If you would like to give money toward the family's medical expenses, I can send you a link, if you contact me.

You might notice that the Feast of the Conception of Saint John the Forerunner is this Wednesday. Contrary to a lot of anti-Christian and anti-Catholic rhetoric, this is why Christmas is in December. When calculating the date of Jesus' birth, the Church Fathers looked back on the visit of the Blessed Mother to Saint Elizabeth, and when in her pregnancy it was. Since Zechariah had been serving his time in the temple before he went home and they conceived their baby, and there were only two times of the year (given his section of the priesthood) that this could have been, they had to determine if it was the spring session at the temple or the autumn. For several reasons, the September date was considered more likely. Which meant that Jesus conception, and the Annunciation, would have been March 25, and nine months later is December 25. This is the reason that the Feast of the Nativity is when it is. So, in some ways, the feast this week is the first feast of the year relating to the Nativity of our Lord.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Pancakes with Butter and Syrup, Sausages, Scrambled Eggs, Mixed Fruit, Juice
  Dinner: Faux Poutine Made with French Fries, Beef Gravy and Queso Fresco, Roasted Summer Squash, Leftover Basbousa
• Monday - Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
  Breakfast: Biscuits and Strawberry Yogurt, Peaches, Coffee
  Dinner: Chorizo, Summer Squash, Pepper, Corn and Onion "Crostini" on Toasted Jalapeño Cheddar Bread, Sliced Watermelon
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Jalapeño Cheddar Toast, Sliced Honeydew, Coffee
  Dinner: One Pot Greek Style Chicken and Rice, Roasted Summer Squash
• Wednesday - Feast of the Conception of Saint John the Forerunner
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Chopped Apples and Cinnamon Sugar, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Cuban Black Beans and Brown Rice, Sautéed Peppers, Corn and Onions, Sliced Watermelon
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Ful, Green Hot Sauce (Sah'awiq), Chopped Tomatoes, Toast, Sliced Asian Pears, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Slow Cooker Chicken Curry with Brown Rice, Spiced Sautéed Summer Squash, Peppers, and Onions, Sliced Cantaloupe
• Friday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Cheese Tortellini with Tomato Pepper Sauce, Garlic Bread, Fruit Salad
• Saturday - Memorial of the Falling Asleep of Saint John the Evangelist
  Breakfast: Sausage and Potato Breakfast Casserole, Sliced Honeydew, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Pasta with Sausage, Tomato, Pepper and Onion Sauce, Fruit Plate

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

Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Shelftember, Tales from the Kitchen

This is what it looked like at our house Monday at 9:00 am. It got a little better, though still hard to breathe, then it got a lot worse when the winds changed and brought in the heavy smoke that had been blown to sea. We are supposed to see a small improvement by Tuesday, so I am postponing my grocery shopping from Friday to Tuesday, in the hopes that it will be easier to breathe. As bad as this looks, it is much worse where my mother (and the kids' godparents) live. Please be praying for the entire west coast which is engulfed in flames and smoke right now.

The good news is that because of how well stocked we are, the generosity of farmers, and my getting the inventory done on all the comestibles and libations (hooray!!!) in the house, we can go without a grocery store trip for a while, actually. It means I have to be creative with what we have, and not just choose to make whatever I feel like, but since I know how to cook, we are still making out pretty well. Glory to God, the farmer the boys have been helping keeps sending them home with tons of produce, and we have filled our freezers with about half of what we would normally purchase in a year. His generosity and a little of our time has blessed us and saved us money. He has been sending these beautiful watermelons, eggplant, cabbage, onions, cucumbers, spaghetti squash, jalapeños, leeks, kohlrabi, basil, tomatoes, besides all the green and red bell peppers, home with them after work. We are praying that he is blessed far more than he has blessed us. Even what he has done has helped other families besides ours, as we were able to offer the produce to them, too. Our gleaning club has been doing what it can during this time, and we are getting eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peaches on a fairly regular basis, too. This is besides what our garden is (finally) providing. God is looking out for us extravagantly.

This week has the autumn ember days, and we will be, of course, praying for the Church, her bishops, priests and deacons, those in consecrated virginity, and those called to all those offices, but we will also be praying for the physical and spiritual relief of our country and the world. If you feel led, please pray (and fast, as you are able), on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. If you are unable to fast, you can eat meatless on those days, as a reminder. It is the feast of Saint Cyprian of Carthage today, who said of the Church:

Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adulteress, is separated from the promises of the Church; nor can he who forsakes the Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger; he is profane; he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.

Please pray for our Mother Church.

• Sunday - Feast of Saint Cyprian of Carthage
  Breakfast: Pancakes with Butter and Syrup, Sausages, Scrambled Eggs, Mixed Fruit, Juice
  Dinner: Taco Meat and Beans over Roasted Tomato Salsa Rice, Sliced Tomatoes, Queso Fresco and Jalapeños, Salsa Verde
• Monday - Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
  Breakfast: Toast with Feta, Tomatoes, Za'atar and Olive Oil, Apricots, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Gumbo, Rice, Pepper Vinegar, Sliced Watermelon
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Plum Skillet Cake, Hard Boiled Eggs, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Borschty (Substituting Rutabagas for the Potatoes for a Nightshade Free Friend), Sour Cream Egg Noodles
• Wednesday - Ember Day
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Chopped Apples and Cinnamon Sugar, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Boiled Potatoes, Romanian Cabbage Salad, Romanian Eggplant Dip, Shabboura*, Sliced Watermelon
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Biscuits with Peach Butter and Ricotta, Pears, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Spaghetti Squash Bolognese, Fried Eggplant, Garlic Balsamic Beet Greens, Sliced Tomatoes and Cucumbers
• Friday - Ember Day
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Asian Pears, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Caramelized Onion and Eggplant Puff Pastry Tart, Fruit Salad
• Saturday - Ember Day
  Breakfast: Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Eggplant Gyros, Baba Ghanooj, Taratoor, Green Hot Sauce, Khoubz Araby, Sliced Vegetables, Olives, Sliced Watermelon, Basbousa*

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

Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Shelftember, Tales from the Kitchen

Fall is definitely in the air here. It's not quite as far as that photo from a couple years ago, but it is getting closer and our nighttime temperatures are getting cooler and cooler. We had the last rigor mortis of summer this past week, and while the weather shaman is predicting some hotter days next week, I think that is largely wishful thinking. Last week I mentioned how we are slashing our grocery budget and using what we have. Well, part of that was taking inventory of all the food in our kitchen, fridge and freezer, our pantry, our stand up freezer, and our chest freezer. We are almost finished with that task, and should finish everything up tomorrow. There is the refrigerator, four shelves in our kitchen, the spice rack and spice drawer, our coffee and tea, our liquor cabinet, and the last half of our pantry storage to do. I have already done all three freezers (including the one attached to the fridge), the flex drawer of our refrigerator (which is just at freezing, but not below) where we keep our nuts and whole spices and chocolate chips and such, the drawers (except for the spices) in the kitchen, all our grain/bean/rice/flour/sugar type bins, the produce outside of the refrigerator, and Rich did half the pantry storage.

We have a lot of food here. I knew that, and we buy in bulk and in large quantities, just to feed the family, but somehow seeing it on 20 sheets of paper (with at least another 12 to go) has brought it home to me. Again, God is good to us. Both Rich and I have felt an urgency to prepare for whatever might come this fall, whether that be more stringent Covid restrictions (though our county has had relatively few serious cases and very few deaths), or economic trouble related to all the shut downs, or shortages, or limits on purchases, or who knows what. We want to be prepared and able to care for our family, regardless of what is going on around us. We are so blessed to have what we have here, and have our gleaning club and generous friends with farms and gardens, and our own garden. It has been good to be able to bless others with that plenty, as well. I pray that you are in plenty, and not in lack or in fear.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Egg, Cheese and Tomato Biscuits, Pears, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Jalapeno Popper Pizza and Mexican Pizza, Leftover Chopped Salad, Sliced Watermelon
• Monday
  Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs, Potatoes O'Brien, Sausage, Toast, Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Italian Sausage and Potato Bake, Italian Bread, Fruit Plate
• Tuesday - Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, Blessed Virgin and Mother
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Raisins and Brown Sugar, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Spaghetti Squash Carbonara, Garlic Bread, Steam Sautéed Kohlrabi, Carrots and Zucchini, Sliced Watermelon, Chocolate Velvet Cake* with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Ful, Green Hot Sauce, Toast, Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Layered Tortilla Casserole, Salsa Rice, Cilantro Citrus Coleslaw, Nutella Brownies
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins, Hard Boiled Eggs, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Biscuit Topped Chicken and Green Chile Pie, Chopped Salad, Fruit Salad
• Friday
  Breakfast: Tomato Toast, Sliced Oranges, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Cheese Tortellini with Fresh Tomato Pepper Sauce, Fruit Salad
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Bacon, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Not Texas Chili, Chopped Red Onion, Chopped Jalapeños, Chopped Cilantro, Sour Cream, Tortilla Chips

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

Labels: Blessed Virgin, Family, Frugality, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Shelftember, Tales from the Kitchen, Theotokos

Last Monday, fall winds began, and we are full on in the autumn now. We even saw trees changing colors yesterday. It is a race against the winter now. This has been such a weird year with regards to everything, including the weather. So our normal hot spring and summer never really materialized. We had a few days above 100˚, but not the normal two weeks, and our spring and most of summer were pretty cool. Our first ripe tomato was yesterday. Normally, we are at the end of our tomatoes by now. Rich is trying to figure out how to set up hoops to extend our season so we can get more produce from our garden.

We are taking September to minimize our spending, and I have slashed our grocery budget for this month. Normally, we spend about $1500 or more each month on our food, pet food, paper products, cleaning products, toiletries, etc. This month, we are trying to spend only $300. Now, we have a well stocked pantry, fridge and freezers, including two stand alone freezers, and we still have our gleaning club and our CSA (which is already paid for), and we will be purchasing milk as we always do. However, we are trying to rotate our stock of stored foods and eating down what we have to put money toward debt. We are still paying for Rich's student loan, and we have some consumer debt (which we deliberately took on so we could have some once in a lifetime experiences) and we want to make a dent in them. Also, since we have always either paid our credit cards in full, or paid more than the minimum with no late payments, Rich called and asked them to lower our interest rate, which they did for six months, telling us we could call again at that point and see if it could be renewed. This means we can make these payments go a little farther. I will still be menu planning, and if we can extend our garden a little, that will be a blessing.

God takes care of big families especially, it seems. We have had so many people five us crates and crates of produce lately. The boys were still helping on a local farm last week, and he sent them home with two huge crates of bell peppers, a crate of jalapeños, five or six yellow watermelon, a crate of kohlrabi, a huge bucket of basil and purple basil, two crates of tomatoes, a few serranos, two spaghetti squash, plus we received about 20 eggplant, a box of lemon cucumbers and slicing cucumbers, a box of peaches, a dozen zucchini, and more from our gleaning club. They often set aside the damaged produce for us, too, because they know we have chickens, turkeys, and ducks which can eat it and make eggs and meat. It is a busy time of preserving because of this, but we were also able to bless others we know with the excess produce. We have felt an urgency to put more food up in jars and in our freezers to make sure that whatever craziness happens this fall and winter will not mean that we are at the mercy of what is in the stores. The peppers were a special blessing to us, because we spend probably between $125 and $200 each year on packaged frozen, sliced peppers, so we put ourselves to work seeding and slicing these peppers to put the equivalent of $40 worth of those peppers in our freezer, vacuum sealed, and still have about half a crate of peppers to finish today. The Lord is good to us.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Fried Egg, Tomato and Cheese Biscuit Sandwiches, Grapes, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Thai Style Ramen with Chicken, Eggplant and Kohlrabi, Leftover Cake and Ice Cream
• Monday - Feast of Saint Aidan
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast, Nectarines and Peaches, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Chile Verde Nachos with Spicy Cheese Sauce, Sliced Avocados, Sliced Watermelon
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Apple Calvados Pancake with Ricotta, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Scalloped Potatoes with Turkey Ham, Marinated Cucumber, Beet, Onion and Kohlrabi Salad, Sliced Watermelon
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Cottage Cheese with Blueberry Preserves, Toast, Sliced Pears, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Potato and Poblano Stew, Lime Wedges and Fried Tortilla Strips, Cilantro Citrus Coleslaw, Apricots
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Fruit and Nut Bread, Cottage Cheese, Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, Rice, Hot Pepper, Cabbage and Tomato Relish, Baba Ghanooj, Tamis, Sliced Watermelon
• Friday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Raisins and Brown Sugar, Fruit Plate, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Slow Cooker Ratatouille, French Bread, Fruit Salad
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Ratatouille Omelets, Nectarines, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Grilled Pizzas Bar, Chopped Salad, Sliced Watermelon

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

Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Shelftember, Tales from the Kitchen

"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."

"It is sweet to think of Jesus; but it is sweeter to do His will."

~ Saint Mariam Baouardy (Mary of Jesus Crucified) ~
This week, it is Mariam's birthday! She gets to have a few friends over, and her favorite cake and dinner. We are trying to make the best of our circumstances.

Glory to God in His Saints! We have been blessed with so much produce that we are needing to freeze and can and dry quite a lot of it. This is the time of year we most appreciate where we live, though the impending winter that we already feel in the air is looming. Our boys all got to do a real, hard day's work in a farmer's field this past week, and he asked them back this week. He is a farmer who has been extremely generous with our gleaning club, and they were actually gathering quite a lot for the food banks when they were there, too. He cooked them an amazing spicy vegetable stir fry for their lunch there, and sent them home with boxes and boxes and boxes of eggplant, sweet peppers, cabbage, onions, honeydew melons, cantaloupe, and watermelon. We receive our CSA boxes on Thursdays, and our garden is finally starting to produce a little, plus what we have gotten from our gleaning group. We are inundated in sweet peppers, frying peppers, eggplant, summer squash, jalapeños, tomatillos, carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, peaches, apples, onions, and more. The girls helped me put up almost 12 quarts of peaches in light syrup (four with nutmeg), and we have been working on peach jelly and peach butter this weekend. We sliced and froze peppers, and our meals for the week have loads of fresh veggies in them. With all the eggplant, Rich didn't even have to ask for the baba ghanooj, I knew he would want it. Rich and the boys did some butchering this weekend, too, so our freezers have some more chicken and duck in them. We want to be ready for the fall and winter, and who knows how much groceries will be by then. I encourage you to freeze or dry or can what you are able to do, even if it just saves you a little bit of money this winter, or gives you a little memory of summer when you eat it.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Everything Bagel Pull Aparts, Garlic Butter, Plums, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Italian Beef Sandwiches, Fried Peppers and Onions, Hot Italian Giardinera, Marinated Cucumbers and Radishes, Fruit Salad
• Monday - Feast of Saint Bartholomew
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Cinnamon Sugar, Sliced Honeydew, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Chicken Shawerma, Khoubz Araby, Baba Ghanooj, Sliced Peppers and Radishes, Kalamata Olives, Green Hot Sauce, Watermelon
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins with Peanut Butter and Honey, Nectarines, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Kofta (Broiled, no sauce), Roasted Summer Squash and Onions, Arabic Style Rice Pilaf, Cabbage Salad with Creamy Cilantro-Cumin Yogurt Dressing, Sliced Cantaloupe
• Wednesday - Feast of Saint Mariam Baouardy
  Breakfast: Yogurt with Blueberry Peach Preserves, Toast, Sliced Cantaloupe, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Caponata, Chopped Salad, Frozen Fruit Pops
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Brown Sugar Biscuits, Chocolate Gravy, Sliced Honeydew, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Papas con Chorizo served with Salsa Verde*, Sliced Cucumbers, Fruit Plate
• Friday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Nectarines, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Eggplant "Meatballs" in Marinara with Penne Pasta, Garlic Bread, Chopped Salad, Coconut Lamb Cake with Coconut Frosting and Lemon Curd
• Saturday - Memorial of the Beheading of the Prophet and Forerunner John
  Breakfast: Fried Eggs, Home Fries, Sausage Patties, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Sausage Spaghetti, Cucumber, Tomato and Onion Salad, Watermelon

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

Labels: Birthday, Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen

Jerome's birthday is this week! We were able to have a small birthday party with his friends at a park, which he really needed. We normally do a fair food night to compensate for not buying millions of dollars in fair food when we are there, but this year, we are doing it because there is no fair.

We are at the time of the year that we are preserving as much as we can with freezing, canning, and drying, and eating what is fresh and plentiful. Between our gleaning club, garden, and our CSA, we have a LOT of produce!

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Onion Bagels with Cream Cheese, Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Tender and Crisp Chicken with Sweet Tomatoes, Caponata, Italian Bread, Lemon Blueberry Poundcake with Lemon Glaze
• Monday
  Breakfast: Croissant and Cheese Sandwiches, Peaches, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Potato Dressing with Sausage Gravy, Chopped Salad, Blueberry Pie* with Chantilly Cream
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins with Peanut Butter and Honey, Sliced Apples, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Corn Dogs, Onion Rings, Battered, Fried Mushrooms (which tells you how much I love my family), Funnel Cakes, Chocolate Cloud Cake
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Yogurt with Blueberries, Toast, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce, Rice Noodles, Quick Pickled Radishes, Fruit Salad
• Thursday - Feast of Saint Bernard
  Breakfast: Vegetable Hash with Poached Eggs, Fruit, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Hobbit Dinner (Kielbasa, Potato, Carrot, Sauerkraut and Onion Skillet), Chopped Salad, Fruit Plate
• Friday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oatmeal with Vanilla Sugar, Blueberries and Cream, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Fish Tacos with Shredded Cabbage, Chopped Onions, Chopped Cilantro, Salsa and Crema, Cuban Black Beans, Green Chile Rice, Fruit Plate
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Sausage Patties, Fried Eggs, Sliced Peaches, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Leftovers, Watermelon

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

Labels: Birthday, Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen

Our produce is finally coming through in abundance and we are eating loads of lovely fresh fruits and vegetables. We are also getting ready for Jerome's birthday next week. The feast of the Dormition (or Assumption) is Saturday, and that means a family celebration. We noticed that we had a kind of gruesome tradition going on accidentally. We fried food on the memorial of the Maccabees, and we are grilling chicken on the feast of Saint Laurence. Maybe our dinner can levitate and fly into the air on Saturday?

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Breakfast Burritos (to use up leftovers), Bananas, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Pork Chile Verde, Salsa Rice, Corn, Peppers, Zucchini and Onions, Corn Tortillas, Fruit Salad, Poached Pears in Red Wine Syrup
• Monday - Feast of Saint Laurence
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies, Buttered Toast, Grapefruit Halves, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Grilled Coconut Chicken Thighs, Stir Fried Peppers, Zucchini and Onions, Jasmine Rice, Watermelon
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Oatmeal with Peaches and Cream, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Pork Tenderloin Medallions in Creamy Dijon Sauce, Cucumber and Onion Salad, Herbed Rice Pilaf, Pineapple
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Rhubarb Bread and Cream Cheese, Pears, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Eggplant Gyro and Feta Phyllo Pie, Marinated Beets, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, and Onions, Fruit Plate
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Blueberry Muffins with Blueberry Yogurt Sauce, Peaches, Coffee and Milk
  Dinner: Bratwurst with Sautéed Onions and Sauerkraut, Sour Cream Egg Noodles with Celery Seed and Poppy Seeds, Marinated Cucumbers and Onions, Fruit Plate
• Friday
  Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs and Cheese Burritos with Salsa and Sour Cream, Fruit Plate, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Mediterranean Vegetable Casserole, Arabic Style Rice Pilaf, Fruit Plate
• Saturday - Feast of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary
  Breakfast: Sausage, Egg and Cheese Croissant Sandwiches, Nectarines, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Lamb and Tomatoes, Rice, Chopped Salad, Knaffeh*

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

Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen

I was really hoping that Qibli would be headed to my technical editor and ready to come back soon for people to try it out before it goes on sale. Unfortunately, I am spending today recalculating a rate of pick up for the border, because I forgot the border had a different gauge than the foot of these slippers. Gauge matters, and swatching is more important than we like to think. If you would like a chance to knit these slippers before anyone else, and for free, please contact me. As soon as I have a decent picture and the pattern back from my TE, I would love to give you a chance to try them. These are knit toe up (with one of the easiest toe up methods in the world!), in a linen stitch with a mosaic border. The whole piece uses slipped stitches in interesting ways. It is a pretty interesting construction, too, if I do say so myself. It will be an eligible pattern to knit during the Around the World Stitch Along that will be beginning next week, too!


I am part of a group of almost a dozen knit and crochet designers who are putting on a stitch along beginning at the end of next week. We hope you will join us, either on Ravelry or on Instagram. We will be hosting an IG challenge with prizes, as well as the discussion, games and prizes in the Ravelry group. This is our first year putting this together, and we are hoping it will grow and become an annual event with more crochet designers especially and more parts of the world represented in our designers and participants.

I'm still reading Kristin Lavransdatter. We've been too exhausted lately for me to be reading much more than a page at a time, which makes it harder going. I found myself reading a story that wasn't on the page the other night, and that was when I decided to put the book away and turn off the light. Our study of Songs of Praise and the Psalms is going really well. It has been such a pleasure to delve into the prayer book of the Church and share that with other women.

Also, in case you missed it, Vespers is now available in Knotions Magazine's August issue!


Linking to Yarn Along, Keep Calm and Craft On, and 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: Around the World Stitch Along, Beta Knitting, Books, Design, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Knitting, Quarantine, SAL2020, Stitchalong, WIP, Yarn Along

It is now August, and we are still stuck mostly at home. There is no fair for the kids, which is a huge disappointment. Ballet is supposed to begin this week, but we just don't know how the girls are supposed to dance and sweat and work out with masks on their faces. It is not reasonable, but we don't want the studio to go out of business and we don't want our girls to miss out. We're feeling a little discouraged.

However, Rich's brutal schedule has ended, so at least we get to sleep more at night, and we are coming out of the over 100˚ temperatures. Fall will arrive in about three weeks. We are hoping our garden will produce more in that time. We were a bit late, and the weather was a bit late, and we had late freezes and strong winds working against us, but the garden still looks really good. It's just a matter of whether or not the produce will ripen before it starts to freeze at night.

Jerome's birthday is on the day the fair normally would have opened, so we are still planning our fair food night, and we will add a chocolate cloud cake for him. This week, we are planning a little celebration for the Transfiguration, mostly by eating cake. I have some coloring pages of icons for the little kids and we will do the readings and prayers that day. That mosaic above is one of my favorite icons of the Transfiguration. It is from the Monastery of Saint Catherine of Alexandria on Mount Sinai, which is the longest continuously operating monastery there is.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Cranberry Pecan Rolls with Orange Butter, Red Hard Boiled Eggs (because we missed them while Rich was sick), Yellow Plums, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Arab Style Grilled Chicken*, Grilled Zucchini, Arabic Salad with Lemon Dressing, Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies
• Monday
  Breakfast: Strawberry Yogurt, Toast, Sliced Cantaloupe, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Italian Meat Sandwich, Giardinera, Fruit, Sliced Watermelon
• Tuesday - Feast of Saint Dominic (Original Date)
  Breakfast: Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins with Peanut Butter and Honey, Nectarines, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Koubbeh, Rice, Marinated Cucumbers and Onions, Knaffeh*
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Brown Sugar Biscuits, Chocolate Gravy, Sliced Cantaloupe, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Cheese Tortellini with Tomato Pepper Sauce, Bread, Fruit Plate
• Thursday - Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord
  Breakfast: Cherry Nut Bread with Cream Cheese, Sliced Cantaloupe, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Cheese and Salami Sandwiches, Pickles, Fruit, Lamb Shaped Lemon Coconut Cake with Coconut Frosting*
• Friday
  Breakfast: Everything Bagel Pull Aparts, Cream Cheese, Fruit, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Summer Squash Curry, Rice, Watermelon
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Bacon, Milk & Coffee
  Dinner: Arabic Beef and Vegetable Soup, Tamis, Watermelon

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

Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Homesteading, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen

In case you missed it, Vespers is now available in Knotions Magazine's August issue!

I am almost where I want to be on Qibli. The goal had been to be at the heel flap, but I am still on the heel turn. It is working as I wanted it to, though, and I have about half the heel turn and then the flap to do. If I can finish that tomorrow, then I will pick up stitches for the border edging, which will be fun, and should go quickly. I'm hoping to be able to send a picture of the slipper and the pattern to my technical editor by Friday. Please wish me speed and good fortune.

We finished The First Four Years as a family. Right now we are trying to decide what our next book should be. There is a little debate between Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and Charlotte's Web. I'm still reading Kristin Lavransdatter, slowly, and enjoying it. Amira and I are working our way through Songs of Praise with the women's study and prayer group each week. I am so impressed with her insight, and how she really engages with the text and with the adult women in the group. It was supposed to include some of her friends' mothers and their daughters, but none could join us. I was concerned that she wouldn't be interested because her friends weren't there, but she has really stepped up and been an asset to our group. It is so neat to interact with her as a fellow woman in Christ and not just as her mother.


Linking to Keep Calm and Craft On.
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, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Knitting, Patterns, Quarantine, WIP, Yarn Along

These are my birthday flowers from Rich. He brought me 44 roses for my 44 years.
Poor Rich has had such a rough schedule the last couple weeks, and we have the rest of this week before it is through. On top of that, he ate something that did not sit well at all and ended up home, sick, for two days last week (though he still did some work from home and had to go deal with some of the things with the big project). We had not slept more than three hours at a time for over two weeks until Friday and I feel like I am about to have an episode. Part of the project is finished, though, so we got the entire weekend to rest and relax a little before it starts again Monday night.

In better news, I have some great meals planned this week. We're kind of eating around the world this week, like we did last week. The Dutch meatballs were so good, that we are having them again this week, and I will share the recipe with you on Saturday, along with one for the potato and carrot mash, and a potato and garbanzo bean curry that we like. Because of our exhaustion, last week's recipe round up is postponed, but I will share it as soon as possible. Also, we had so much food leftover on Saturday and we were still trying to catch up from our sleepless life that we ate leftovers and fruit and moved that dinner to tonight.

• Sunday - Feast of Saint Anne the Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary
  Breakfast: Bacon and Toast, Peaches, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Bacon and Garlic Crusted Pork Loin, Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Gravy, Steam Sautéed Peas and Carrots
• Monday
  Breakfast: Labneh and Za'atar on Toast, Radishes, Apricots, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Not Texas Chili, Tortilla Chips, Chopped Onions, Chopped Cilantro, Sour Cream
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Blueberry Muffins with Blueberry Sour Cream Sauce, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Dutch Style Meatballs* with Gravy and Hutspot* (Made with Rutabagas and Carrots), Coleslaw, Pickled Beets
• Wednesday - Feast of Saints Mary and Martha
  Breakfast: Butterhorn Rolls with Jam, Pluots, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Fried Fish Fillets, Tartar Sauce, Potato Wedges, Pickled Beets, Leftover Coleslaw, Fruit Plate
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Peanut Butter Toast with Honey, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Chipotle Beef, Quick and Dirty Mexican Rice, Sautéed Corn, Peppers and Onions
• Friday - Feast of Saint Joseph of Arimathea
  Breakfast: Brown Sugar Biscuits, Chocolate Gravy, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Potato and Garbanzo Bean Curry*, Sticky Coconut Rice, Fruit Plate
• Saturday - Memorial of the Holy Seven Maccabee Children, Solomone Their Mother, and Eleazar Their Teacher
  Breakfast: Cherry Pancakes with Maple Syrup, Bacon, Fruit, Milk and Coffee
  Dinner: Sambousak, Harissa, Battatas Harra, Loubiyeh bi Zeit

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

Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Governor Inslee Needs a Frozen Fish to the Forehead, Homemaking, Menu Plans, Quarantine, Tales from the Kitchen