If
I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall
feel that I have worked with God.
- G. K. Chesterton
Friday, January 13, 2012
Off to a good start . . .
No rain in the near future but I'm going to enjoy the temperate temperatures. It encourages my daily walk around the church before Mass. On the way home, I treated my altar boy (young man, actually!) son to a StarBucks and he did the unspeakable . . . He convinced me that I needed one, too. My justification is that compared with his extra-large drink, my medium one didn't look that big! I figure I will wear off a lot of calories hand washing the clothing again today.
Tomorrow, we have high hopes of finding a washer in an affordable price range that can be delivered soon! I've informed the family that I do not handwash blue jeans. Yesterday, I actually managed to hand wash two medium loads of laundry. As always happens, the machine broke when we had a minor back up of dirty clothing.
Meatless Friday so I'm making cheese pizza for dinner. This is one meal everyone will agree on happily. I have a lot of friends who consider their pizza homemade because they put on the sauce and cheese but use a store-bought crust. Given the cost of store-bought and homemade, they are having an expensive pizza. For the same cost, I can almost make two, large pizzas.
Pizza Crust Dough
1 tablespoon yeast
1/4 cup water to dissolve yeast
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil.
If you have a mixer, a dough hook will take care of this quickly. Just add everything, turn on the machine, and gradually add water (cold is fine) until the dough forms a ball around the hook.
If you are mixing by hand, put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, all the yeast, olive oil, and enough water to form a workable dough. You will have to knead the dough a bit more as the mixer does that for you in the above instructions.
You can use just about any kind of baking pan for your pizza. Personally, I like the round ones with the holes as they keep the crust crisp and brown a bit better to my thinking.
You can get two large pizzas from this recipe. Divide your dough in half and start stretching and pulling it to fit on whatever greased pan you are using. I go back and forth between the two pans as it give the dough time to rest a bit and it becomes easier to work with. When you have it formed to your specifications, form a bit of a rim and then go crazy with your sauce and toppings of choice.
I usually bake my pizzas at 450 degrees until the crust is brown and the filling is bubbling.
Tomorrow, we have high hopes of finding a washer in an affordable price range that can be delivered soon! I've informed the family that I do not handwash blue jeans. Yesterday, I actually managed to hand wash two medium loads of laundry. As always happens, the machine broke when we had a minor back up of dirty clothing.
Meatless Friday so I'm making cheese pizza for dinner. This is one meal everyone will agree on happily. I have a lot of friends who consider their pizza homemade because they put on the sauce and cheese but use a store-bought crust. Given the cost of store-bought and homemade, they are having an expensive pizza. For the same cost, I can almost make two, large pizzas.
Pizza Crust Dough
1 tablespoon yeast
1/4 cup water to dissolve yeast
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil.
If you have a mixer, a dough hook will take care of this quickly. Just add everything, turn on the machine, and gradually add water (cold is fine) until the dough forms a ball around the hook.
If you are mixing by hand, put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, all the yeast, olive oil, and enough water to form a workable dough. You will have to knead the dough a bit more as the mixer does that for you in the above instructions.
You can use just about any kind of baking pan for your pizza. Personally, I like the round ones with the holes as they keep the crust crisp and brown a bit better to my thinking.
You can get two large pizzas from this recipe. Divide your dough in half and start stretching and pulling it to fit on whatever greased pan you are using. I go back and forth between the two pans as it give the dough time to rest a bit and it becomes easier to work with. When you have it formed to your specifications, form a bit of a rim and then go crazy with your sauce and toppings of choice.
I usually bake my pizzas at 450 degrees until the crust is brown and the filling is bubbling.
Quick Dinner Idea . . . Chicken Pesto
I got home late from appointments the other day but still had to get dinner on the table at a reasonable hour. So, being late, in the first place, I did not have time to stop by the grocery store. What to do in order to provide a meal for four, hungry people?
I checked the freezer and discovered four boneless chicken thighs. My mind started mulling over possibilities . . . I've found the best way to get started . . . is to start! I put a little olive oil in my trusty skillet, salt & peppered the chicken, and threw them in to sear on both sides. Since they were thin, even frozen, they cooked through quickly. I took them out of the pan, thinly sliced them, and put them back into the pan which I had not washed as I wanted to incorporate all the browned bits into my recipe in the making. I added a quarter cup of flour to the chicken pieces and heated it through to brown a bit and mix into the chicken. This will also prevent lumps forming. I added a can of chicken broth, 1/2 cup white wine, and cooked until the sauce started to thicken. That's when I remembered I had some pesto* in the freezer and added two tablespoons to the mix. I continued cooking it until it melted in, stirred in a half cup of freshly-grated Romano cheese and turn down to a simmer while I cooked a pound of pasta.
When the pasta was ready, I divided it among the plates, added the chicken sauce, and a small pinch of chili flakes, and a grinding of black pepper. My family said I had better remember how I made it as they wanted it again! I was pleased at getting a meal prepared with only four pieces of chicken.
*Pesto is Basil, cheese, and pine nuts ground together. You can usually find it in the refrigerated section of the store or, sometimes, in the pasta sauce section. I get mine from one of the warehouse stores. It is too much to use at once so I divide the jar up into ziplock snack bags and freeze them. That way, I have just the amount I need when I am trying to get inspired!
I checked the freezer and discovered four boneless chicken thighs. My mind started mulling over possibilities . . . I've found the best way to get started . . . is to start! I put a little olive oil in my trusty skillet, salt & peppered the chicken, and threw them in to sear on both sides. Since they were thin, even frozen, they cooked through quickly. I took them out of the pan, thinly sliced them, and put them back into the pan which I had not washed as I wanted to incorporate all the browned bits into my recipe in the making. I added a quarter cup of flour to the chicken pieces and heated it through to brown a bit and mix into the chicken. This will also prevent lumps forming. I added a can of chicken broth, 1/2 cup white wine, and cooked until the sauce started to thicken. That's when I remembered I had some pesto* in the freezer and added two tablespoons to the mix. I continued cooking it until it melted in, stirred in a half cup of freshly-grated Romano cheese and turn down to a simmer while I cooked a pound of pasta.
When the pasta was ready, I divided it among the plates, added the chicken sauce, and a small pinch of chili flakes, and a grinding of black pepper. My family said I had better remember how I made it as they wanted it again! I was pleased at getting a meal prepared with only four pieces of chicken.
*Pesto is Basil, cheese, and pine nuts ground together. You can usually find it in the refrigerated section of the store or, sometimes, in the pasta sauce section. I get mine from one of the warehouse stores. It is too much to use at once so I divide the jar up into ziplock snack bags and freeze them. That way, I have just the amount I need when I am trying to get inspired!
Beautifully stated . . .
For
the truly faithful, no miracle is necessary. For those who doubt, no miracle is
sufficient.
- Nancy Gibbs
The Wisdom of St. Theresa of Avila . . .
“The devil will try to upset you by accusing you of being unworthy of the
blessings that you have received. Simply remain cheerful and do your best to
ignore the devil's nagging. If need be even laugh at the absurdity of the
situation. Satan, the epitome of sin itself, accuses you of unworthiness! When
the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future!” ~St. Teresa of
Avila
Where is the Pro-Choice in that?
Texas just passed a requirement that abortion clinics have to take and display to the expectant mother an ultrasound of their baby before proceding with the abortion. Naturally, Planned Parenthood is filing a counter suit to remove this from the bill. You have to wonder why? Don't they claim they are there to help women during 'troubled' times? Why are they so against this supplement to their proposed 'care' of pregnant women? Why do they so fear the fact that a woman will hear a beating heart? Women have stated that if they had seen their baby via ultrasound, they would never have aborted the baby. Doesn't 'pro-choice' give the illusion that Planned Parenthood is anxious to support the choice of the mother? Obviously not as one official said that it confuses the issue of whether to abort or not. Oh, the fact that the mother might totally realize she is allowing a human life to be snuffed out is 'confusing the issue'? And, in refusing the abortion, there goes a hefty fee and, probably, federal funds. One of the Planned Parenthood people said that requiring the ultrasound is 'abhorrent'. Abhorrent to what? Abhorrent to their cash flow? Abhorrent to giving a woman a real choice? Abhorrent because it might turn a woman's heart and save a baby?
Thursday, January 12, 2012
The Weight of a Mass . . .
Someone once shared with me their love of the story about the poor woman who bartered with the butcher for some meat in exchange for offering a Mass for him at her church. He laughed and said he would have to see that weighed up proper on his meat scale. She wrote down her promise of having a Mass said for him and set it on one side of the scale. He placed the pound of meat he promised her if it carried the same weight as the Mass she offered in exchange. Since most of you have probably heard this story, the scale immediately went all the way down . . . on the side of the slip of paper with the promised Mass. The weight of the Mass was 'heavier' than the butcher's piece of meat.
Interesting side note to this story. The person who told it to me later shared that she was very picky about when and where she went to Mass and, even more especially, who was celebrating the Mass. Needless to say, I didn't often see her at daily Mass. This has gone on for over ten years and I often wonder . . . Who are we, mere humans, to decide which Mass rates our attendance and which ones can we decide to avoid because they don't meet a personal criteria. If we truly believe in our Faith and the weight of a single Mass, wouldn't any Mass offered within the correct Rubrics be heavier than any materialistic thing or event? Wouldn't we be judging what only God can judge when we decide a Mass isn't worthy of our attendance?
It often makes me sad when it comes to mind. How does that provide an example to our children? If we pick and chose the Mass we will attend, our children might end up picking and chosing not to go at all . . . because we have minimized the majority of Masses in hopes of finding a perfect one each time. The heart of all Masses is perfect. The man made flaws and liberal antics don't take away from it. And doubting the validity of a Mass based on personal preference of the celebrant is surely a sin against God's Gift to us.
Over the years, we have run into some interesting celebrations of the Mass. Yes, my children have been exposed to these bumps in the liturgical road. It hasn't changed their mind about their Faith. It has given us a lot of good conversation starters and they have learned to overlook the 'stuff' and concentrate on what matters.
Interesting side note to this story. The person who told it to me later shared that she was very picky about when and where she went to Mass and, even more especially, who was celebrating the Mass. Needless to say, I didn't often see her at daily Mass. This has gone on for over ten years and I often wonder . . . Who are we, mere humans, to decide which Mass rates our attendance and which ones can we decide to avoid because they don't meet a personal criteria. If we truly believe in our Faith and the weight of a single Mass, wouldn't any Mass offered within the correct Rubrics be heavier than any materialistic thing or event? Wouldn't we be judging what only God can judge when we decide a Mass isn't worthy of our attendance?
It often makes me sad when it comes to mind. How does that provide an example to our children? If we pick and chose the Mass we will attend, our children might end up picking and chosing not to go at all . . . because we have minimized the majority of Masses in hopes of finding a perfect one each time. The heart of all Masses is perfect. The man made flaws and liberal antics don't take away from it. And doubting the validity of a Mass based on personal preference of the celebrant is surely a sin against God's Gift to us.
Over the years, we have run into some interesting celebrations of the Mass. Yes, my children have been exposed to these bumps in the liturgical road. It hasn't changed their mind about their Faith. It has given us a lot of good conversation starters and they have learned to overlook the 'stuff' and concentrate on what matters.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)