A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.
George Bernard Shaw
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
A Joyful Favorite . . .
My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy: As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever. -- Luke 1:46-55
Smile offering for today!
"I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours."
-- Jerome K. Jerome
"Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people."
-- W. C. Fields
-- Jerome K. Jerome
"Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people."
-- W. C. Fields
Do my duty or quilting?
My bad angel says to take the whole day and quilt. My good angel says I need to take my teen shopping for new shoes. Sigh . . . Guess who wins on this one? Since my son and I are heading out on a vacation requiring a lot of walking, he needs to get some sturdy shoes broken in now. Okay, okay, I'm going shopping!
Shoe shopping is always an adventure these days especially for women. I've noticed that men's shoes don't change that much while women's shoes can be rather interesting. I have to wonder if some women take a look in the mirror as to how some shoe styles throw off their balance and don't really make them look all that attractive. I saw one rather portly woman wearing what seemed to be five-inch platform shoes that caused her to bend forward in order to walk and stay up. When she bent forward, it sadly threw her generous behind out and did not make a pretty profile. She compounded the chosen style with a thin-knit mini-dress. We had to take a 'charm' class in high school and the one thing I remember is you should always check a full-length mirror before leaving the house. Just checking out your hair and face doesn't tell the whole story!
Anyway, the fate of any quilting time, today, hangs in the balance of the amount of time required to find suitable shoes for my son. He isn't a fashion hound so if the shoes fit, aren't pink, and ARE comfortable, this could be a fast and easy process. Sigh . . . what are the chances? I've noticed that every time we enter a store, they hide everything in the sizes we are looking for! Nope, not paranoid! They really are out to get me! :-)
Shoe shopping is always an adventure these days especially for women. I've noticed that men's shoes don't change that much while women's shoes can be rather interesting. I have to wonder if some women take a look in the mirror as to how some shoe styles throw off their balance and don't really make them look all that attractive. I saw one rather portly woman wearing what seemed to be five-inch platform shoes that caused her to bend forward in order to walk and stay up. When she bent forward, it sadly threw her generous behind out and did not make a pretty profile. She compounded the chosen style with a thin-knit mini-dress. We had to take a 'charm' class in high school and the one thing I remember is you should always check a full-length mirror before leaving the house. Just checking out your hair and face doesn't tell the whole story!
Anyway, the fate of any quilting time, today, hangs in the balance of the amount of time required to find suitable shoes for my son. He isn't a fashion hound so if the shoes fit, aren't pink, and ARE comfortable, this could be a fast and easy process. Sigh . . . what are the chances? I've noticed that every time we enter a store, they hide everything in the sizes we are looking for! Nope, not paranoid! They really are out to get me! :-)
Stretching your resources . . .
The economy in the United States is scary these days and whenever there is a sale on some non-perishable food item, I try and stock up. Even ground beef is getting more and more expensive but it is still one of the cheaper items you can use to get a hot meal on the table and still save a few cents.
Ground beef really stretches the meal in this recipe. Ever since I can remember, my mother offered this dish to us every couple of weeks. Looking back, I realize it coincided with a pre-payday week! Nevertheless, it is filling and savory. It also lends itself to your own ideas of what to throw in to please yourself and your family’s tastes.
Beef Bean Savory
2 pounds ground beef, estimate
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 brown onions, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons brown mustard
1 large can baked beans, your choice
1-2 small cans tomato paste
1 package dry Italian dressing mix
1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
Brown the ground beef in a large skillet. When the beef turns brown and crumbly, add the onions. Continue cooking until the onions are transparent. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Serve with a salad and fresh bread or biscuits. Then again, this is a meal that calls for hot corn bread.
Ground beef really stretches the meal in this recipe. Ever since I can remember, my mother offered this dish to us every couple of weeks. Looking back, I realize it coincided with a pre-payday week! Nevertheless, it is filling and savory. It also lends itself to your own ideas of what to throw in to please yourself and your family’s tastes.
Beef Bean Savory
2 pounds ground beef, estimate
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 brown onions, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons brown mustard
1 large can baked beans, your choice
1-2 small cans tomato paste
1 package dry Italian dressing mix
1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
Brown the ground beef in a large skillet. When the beef turns brown and crumbly, add the onions. Continue cooking until the onions are transparent. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Serve with a salad and fresh bread or biscuits. Then again, this is a meal that calls for hot corn bread.
Marthas abound . . .
I attend Mass almost daily but do take some issue with the abundance of females running about the altar. It seems to me that women should be helping out when there aren't any men available to be lectors or extraordinary ministers. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, when they started allowing girls to serve Mass, it was to help out when there were not enough boys to do the job. Now, boys often have to sit out Mass because the girls are scheduled ahead of them.
No matter what people claim, serving at the altar is not a step to the religious life for a girl whereas it could be for a boy. If my history serves me right, serving at the altar, in the olden days (!), was one of the actual steps to becoming a priest.
The claim in our current parish is that there are not enough boys to serve Mass. Uh, in a parish with probably over 1,500 families, everyone just gave birth to only females? Like in the workplace, these days, females are taking away jobs traditionally held for men and it can be bad for moral, hard for men to support their families, and ultimately a problem for the economy.
In my entire life, I've only seen one altar boy who was a bit of a vanity freak in caring what he looked like, preening at the altar, and admiring himself in any nearby reflections. Just about every female server at our parish is constantly fussing with her hair, looking about, and refusing to take an active part in serving the Mass! More than once, there have been a line up of servers kneeling at the altar when it comes time to ring the bells for Consecration and I've personally witnessed the girl assigned to ring the bells hurriedly pass the bells down the line to the boy. When asked if she doesn't know how to ring the bells, she said, "I know how, I just didn't want to."!
My husband trained altar boys for over twelve years and he always told the boys that if the congregation notices them, they aren't doing their job. Ninety-five percent of the girls serving Mass want to be noticed.
In my humble opinion, we might be losing some prietly vocations when boys hesitate to become an altar boy because the girls have taken over. Seems to me we have more Marthas than Marys in church these days.
No matter what people claim, serving at the altar is not a step to the religious life for a girl whereas it could be for a boy. If my history serves me right, serving at the altar, in the olden days (!), was one of the actual steps to becoming a priest.
The claim in our current parish is that there are not enough boys to serve Mass. Uh, in a parish with probably over 1,500 families, everyone just gave birth to only females? Like in the workplace, these days, females are taking away jobs traditionally held for men and it can be bad for moral, hard for men to support their families, and ultimately a problem for the economy.
In my entire life, I've only seen one altar boy who was a bit of a vanity freak in caring what he looked like, preening at the altar, and admiring himself in any nearby reflections. Just about every female server at our parish is constantly fussing with her hair, looking about, and refusing to take an active part in serving the Mass! More than once, there have been a line up of servers kneeling at the altar when it comes time to ring the bells for Consecration and I've personally witnessed the girl assigned to ring the bells hurriedly pass the bells down the line to the boy. When asked if she doesn't know how to ring the bells, she said, "I know how, I just didn't want to."!
My husband trained altar boys for over twelve years and he always told the boys that if the congregation notices them, they aren't doing their job. Ninety-five percent of the girls serving Mass want to be noticed.
In my humble opinion, we might be losing some prietly vocations when boys hesitate to become an altar boy because the girls have taken over. Seems to me we have more Marthas than Marys in church these days.
Easy way to save the day . . . at meal time!
There are times when you have that beautiful pot of soup simmering on the stove but the day suddenly overwhelms you. The bread remains in your dreams and you need something to round out your soup supper. Biscuits aren’t limited to the breakfast scene. And, believe it or not, the ordinary biscuit is teeming with possibilities.
Everyday Biscuits
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup shortening
1 ½ cups milk, approximately
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients. Mix in the shortening with a pastry cutter or fork. It should look like coarse meal. Slowly add the milk, mixing the batter gently with a fork until a soft dough is formed. Take half the dough and knead on a floured surface until smooth. Not too long! Just until it loses it’s stickiness. Roll out lightly to about 1/2-inch thick. Cut into circles using a cookie cutter or a glass. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake on lightly-greased baking sheet for approximately 15 minutes or until golden. Makes about two dozen biscuits.
Biscuits go well with just about any kind of soup. You don’t have to make due with plain biscuits all the time. Biscuits adapt well to added ingredients. Think about what you are serving them with and enhance them with a bit of your own ideas.
Cheese Biscuits can happen with a cup of grated cheese added to the dough. Cheddar is best but Feta is interesting.
Herb Biscuits will take any dry herb or spice that will be compatible with your main course. Dried dill biscuits go well with chicken soup. Thyme and Rosemary are surprisingly good with a heartier, beef soup or stew.
If you need dessert, biscuits can rescue you again. Add a cup of granulated sugar to the above biscuit mix and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar before baking. A plain bowl of ice cream increases in value when there is a warm, sweet biscuit along side it.
Depending on how your mornings go, nothing gets the family up like the scent of baking biscuits. I loved sleeping in when I was younger . . . but I loved biscuits more! Sometimes I would carefully dribble maple syrup on them. Other times, they clamored for a pat of butter and a spoonful of jam. No matter how grey and drizzly the day, a cozy kitchen and hot biscuits revealed the warmth of my mother’s love. Baking biscuits makes memories and certainly brings back memories. It is never so much the actual food but the time and thought that brought it to the table.
My father got himself in trouble with his favorite aunt over biscuits. We would often visit on a Saturday and stay for one of Aunt Jo’s wonderful lunches. I always remember the line up of glasses at my place, a glass of milk, one of orange juice and another of water. Hot biscuits were always a part of whatever she was serving. One time she complained that no one ever mentioned her homemade biscuits. She was feeling overworked and under loved! Keeping this conversation in mind, the next time we visited, my father praised her biscuits to the skies. After his fourth or fifth flowery remark on her culinary expertise when it came to biscuits, Aunt Jo had to admit something. She had been in a hurry that day and the biscuits were from a package.
Everyday Biscuits
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup shortening
1 ½ cups milk, approximately
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients. Mix in the shortening with a pastry cutter or fork. It should look like coarse meal. Slowly add the milk, mixing the batter gently with a fork until a soft dough is formed. Take half the dough and knead on a floured surface until smooth. Not too long! Just until it loses it’s stickiness. Roll out lightly to about 1/2-inch thick. Cut into circles using a cookie cutter or a glass. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake on lightly-greased baking sheet for approximately 15 minutes or until golden. Makes about two dozen biscuits.
Biscuits go well with just about any kind of soup. You don’t have to make due with plain biscuits all the time. Biscuits adapt well to added ingredients. Think about what you are serving them with and enhance them with a bit of your own ideas.
Cheese Biscuits can happen with a cup of grated cheese added to the dough. Cheddar is best but Feta is interesting.
Herb Biscuits will take any dry herb or spice that will be compatible with your main course. Dried dill biscuits go well with chicken soup. Thyme and Rosemary are surprisingly good with a heartier, beef soup or stew.
If you need dessert, biscuits can rescue you again. Add a cup of granulated sugar to the above biscuit mix and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar before baking. A plain bowl of ice cream increases in value when there is a warm, sweet biscuit along side it.
Depending on how your mornings go, nothing gets the family up like the scent of baking biscuits. I loved sleeping in when I was younger . . . but I loved biscuits more! Sometimes I would carefully dribble maple syrup on them. Other times, they clamored for a pat of butter and a spoonful of jam. No matter how grey and drizzly the day, a cozy kitchen and hot biscuits revealed the warmth of my mother’s love. Baking biscuits makes memories and certainly brings back memories. It is never so much the actual food but the time and thought that brought it to the table.
My father got himself in trouble with his favorite aunt over biscuits. We would often visit on a Saturday and stay for one of Aunt Jo’s wonderful lunches. I always remember the line up of glasses at my place, a glass of milk, one of orange juice and another of water. Hot biscuits were always a part of whatever she was serving. One time she complained that no one ever mentioned her homemade biscuits. She was feeling overworked and under loved! Keeping this conversation in mind, the next time we visited, my father praised her biscuits to the skies. After his fourth or fifth flowery remark on her culinary expertise when it came to biscuits, Aunt Jo had to admit something. She had been in a hurry that day and the biscuits were from a package.
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