Crazy Quilts, Catholics, and Cookies: 06/12/11

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Sunday Dinner . . .

No one eats until I get a picture! It looks complicated but this is one of the easier meals to prepare and still observe a nice, family meal on Sunday. It is amazing how you can transform a lowly chicken into a great meal without too much time or expense. I also like it when the potatoes cook right along with the chicken which frees me up to fix the vegetables and . . . well, post stuff on the computer.

Again, anyone interested in the recipe, let me know!

A blessed Sunday to you all!

Recipe Request being answered . . .

A good friend of the family saw the post mentioning the Garlic/Sausage Mashed Potatoes and requested the recipe. Thought I'd post it for anyone else interested in a different way to have the same old potatoes.

Garlic/Sausage Mashed Potatoes

4 large Russet potatoes
15 cloves of garlic
1- 2 spicy sausages (not a gigantic one! You could also use the soy protein types, too.)
Garlic powder
Black pepper
Salt to taste
Butter
1/2 cup milk

Put the peeled garlic cloves in a pot along with the broken up sausage and a tablespoon of vegetable oil. If the sausage has a casing (the thin 'skin' around it) remove it first so the meat crumbles as it fries. Cook on low heat so the meat get browned and the garlic turns golden and softens. Remove from heat and let cool down a bit.

Peel the potatoes and quarter them. Place them in a big pot of water with a tablespoon of salt. The salt doesn't stick to the potatoes but it seasons them nicely and they cook better. Simmer until tender.

Drain the potatoes and put them back into the same pot. Melt the butter with the milk until they are hot. Pour into the potatoes and add the seasonings. Taste for seasoning. With a large spoon or potato masher, break up the potatoes and mix them into the milk/butter mixture. There can be lumps but you want it pretty well mixed and combined.

Take the browned sausage / garlic and smash and chop up. Mix thoroughly into your potatoes. Serve!

I like to put the potatoes into a microwave-safe bowl in case I need to reheat them. You can also heat them back up in the pot with the addition of a little more milk to keep them from drying out.

This recipe should serve 4-6 depending on what else you are serving with the meal. The recipe can be easily doubled.

Quotes to Cook By . . .

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. ~Jim Davis

There is a lot more juice in grapefruit than meets the eye. ~Author Unknown

Do vegetarians eat animal crackers? ~Author Unknown

Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables. They probably get jet-lagged, just like people. ~Elizabeth Berry

Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that’s bad for you! ~Tommy Smothers

As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it. ~Buddy Hackett

Welcome to the Church of the Holy Cabbage. Lettuce pray. ~Author Unknown

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. ~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story

You can say this for ready-mixes - the next generation isn't going to have any trouble making pies exactly like mother used to make. ~Earl Wilson

All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast. ~John Gunther

Vegetables are interesting but lack a sense of purpose when unaccompanied by a good cut of meat. ~Fran Lebowitz

Anybody who believes that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach flunked geography. ~Robert Byrne

Pentecost Sunday . . . so where was the Holy Spirit today?

I like Pentecost Sunday because of the beautiful hymns that are possible for the celebration of this special Mass. Sigh . . . It didn't happen at our Mass, unfortunately. So often, if you show a desire to observe the Church Rubrics as they are written, you are called Liturgy Police. Seems to me that we might have some Liturgy Police to see that what should be done is done in respect to proper music for Church feast days . . . Like Pentecost Sunday.

I guess that in the hustle and bustle to include everyone in some kind of capacity at Mass, the real reasons for the Mass get lost in the shuffle. In my humble opinion, it wouldn't hurt for choir directors to attend a liturgy class in order to give glory to the occasion with hymns that pertain to the occasion.

"Come, Holy Ghost . . . Creator blest . . ." would have been nice this morning. As we were leaving the parking lot, after Mass, I heard the choir for the next Mass beginning with that hymn and verged of jealousy.

A lot of the music used in Mass these days is kind of flat compared to hymns from the 'olden days'. I'm not saying they are bad hymns just ones that would probably sound better at a teen retreat or around a camp fire at a Catholic camp.

Just for reference . . .

Anyone interested in joining a Yahoo Group for either selling or buying homemade items are welcome to check out this link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CatholicCornerforCrafts/. It is only in the beginning days but the more that join, the more likely you are to find that perfect gift or discover a market for your knitting or sewing projects.

Spring Time in California

In Southern California, we tend to go from cool and, if we are lucky, rainy weather with a brief stopover to celebrate Spring. This year, the overcast June gloom is lasting a bit longer and the early, tender flowers and fruit tree blossoms are hanging about. I took these pictures last month. Woke up this morning to discover we had some drizzles over night so I might get some more pictures of Spring-green growth now that the dust has been washed away.