Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Vegetarian, here we come!

So as Lent continues, here is my meal plan for the coming week:

Wednesday: Salmon quiche with pear & cucumber salad and roasted Jerusalem artichokes.  (Yes, they're still hanging around waiting for me to do something with them! And now our produce basket this week has an excess of pears and cucumbers.)

Thursday: Pasta and vegetable-based sauce (since we missed out last week)

Friday: Baked potatoes and salad

Saturday: Pork chops and veges (in the freezer from last week, too)

Sunday: Eggs of some description (omelet, poached, scrambled... I'll see what we feel like)

Monday: Pumpkin and chickpea casserole (a new recipe I am trying)

Tuesday: Vegetarian chilli (also in the freezer)

We've done meal planning on and off all through our marriage, so it's nice to be back in the habit.  Having said that - I've learnt that it's always just a plan.  I don't think I've ever set up a week of meals and done every single meal on the day I'd planned to do it!  I'm trying to be smarter about leftovers though, so I can take it easy some nights during my boys' "witching hour" (usually 5-6 p.m.) by just pulling out something from the fridge or freezer that's all ready to be heated.

It has been a dull day outside, and the blokes are all a bit snuffly or croaky with a cold going around, so I made these cookies as a treat with the cranberries I'd frozen at Christmas time.  Yum!  They won't last long around here.  I think I've already had five (instead of lunch).  It makes 3-4 dozen.

My modifications: I prefer ordinary chocolate chips over the white ones, and no more than a cup.  Today I had lime zest rather than orange.

P.S. 1 cup butter = 8 oz = 2 sticks = @250g
P.P.S. There is a lot of sugar in these to offset the tartness of the cranberries.  You could easily use less.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Homemade: Tomato Relish

So far, we've kept to the Lenten fast.  Yes, we did end up having fish (tuna casserole) for Saturday's dinner, and leftovers for Sunday too.  J wasn't so keen on fishy pasta!

But back on Friday we had corn fritters.  Now the best part about corn fritters is that you can eat them with virtually any accompaniment.  N's favourite is hot or sweet chilli sauce.  I often have them with tomato sauce (ketchup, for the North Americans).  But my new favourite is with homemade tomato relish.  Funnily enough, it is on the same page as corn fritters in my handwritten recipe book.

I made a batch of relish recently because I got a good deal on tomatoes.  You only need 3 pounds of fruit for the recipe and you get about three jars of relish.  Yum!  Mine caught a bit on the bottom of the pot when I got distracted (imagine that!) but it didn't affect the flavour, and it is the best consistency I've ever achieved with this recipe.

Grandma T always used to have this on hand, so here is her recipe.

Tomato Relish
Slice 3 lb tomatoes
         4 medium onions
Add  3 breakfast cups vinegar
Boil 5 minutes, then add 1 lb sugar

Mix together with cold vinegar: 1 oz salt
                                                   1 heaped Tbsp curry powder
                                                   1 dessert spoon dry mustard
                                                   1 1/2 oz flour
                                                   1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Add spice slurry to vegetables and stir until boiling.  Boil about 45 minutes.  (Stir occasionally.  More frequently than I did!)  Pour into warm, clean jars.  Screw lids on tightly.  Seal will 'pop' down when cooled.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

A Different Season

Wednesday marked the beginning of the church season of Lent, a time of preparation and reflection before Easter.  We didn't attend any Ash Wednesday service this year, but I hope to make it to more in Holy Week.

As we have for the past couple of years in community, this year we are having a Lenten fast of meat.  We're also using the tradition of 'breaking the fast' once a week (Saturday most times this year we've decided).  I find this makes the other six days easier (for any meat lovers and for the menu planner) and we'll still have fish (mostly for the nutritional needs of a toddler and breast-feeding mother!)

So here is the menu for our week so far:

Wednesday: Pasta with tomato & vegetable sauce Well, my planning didn't quite work here.  We still had a mile of Santa Fe Chicken Casserole left over from the night before.  It had already been frozen so we needed to eat up the leftovers.  Guess we've broken the fast already!

Thursday: Spinach & chickpea curry (Alison Holst recipe, very yummy)


Friday: Corn fritters and green salad

Saturday: Pork chops (maybe fish instead!) & seasonal veges (we have cauliflower, yellow zucchini, and Jerusalem artichokes in the fridge, plus frozen veges too)

Sunday: Eggs (as they come) and leftovers

Monday: Vegetable stirfry (maybe with Thai curry paste?) on rice

Tuesday: Tex-Mex beans & rice

Friday, February 24, 2012

Feeling Challenged

In the last few weeks I have felt challenged (by God) about prayer. For the last few months, beyond prayer requests for friends and family, my prayer life has consisted of 'arrow prayers' almost exclusively! So now that we pray with J at bedtime, it seemed like I should practice more of what I preach.

Then Meg spoke at my church moms' group about prayer (and her struggle with prayerlessness as a pastor's wife) and that resonated with me on many levels.  Then I heard this sermon at church the next Sunday, and was challenged again.  One of Meg's comments that stuck with me was that a lack of prayer revealed pride: essentially that we stop relying on God and think we can manage everything ourselves.  This was a bit of a wake-up call!

God has certainly been working on my pride of late, primarily on my financial self-sufficiency (or what I'd prefer to be self-sufficient). Through family, friends, acquaintances and government departments over the past few months we have been blessed with gifts of babysitting, supplementary groceries, phone discounts, cloth diapers, show vouchers, letters of encouragement, a newspaper subscription (with coupons), and money.  We are so thankful to each of those people and God for the blessing and encouragement of each gift.  They have brightened our days in many ways. It has reminded us that God knows all our needs and provides amply for them (and even a few desires for good measure).

So I've been trying to get back into the habit of having a daily quiet time.  Generally this has meant when J naps I try to settle C and pray.  It doesn't always work and I don't always remember!  I have been using the Celtic Daily Prayer book as a lectionary, and following the Finian readings to get me started.  N and I try periodically to return to doing compline from here too, but with mixed results at present.

So far, God has been speaking to me a lot about his provision.  You have no idea how many readings this month have talked about God providing for the poor (the PhD stipend is generous for a single person, but stretches thin for a family), the hungry (not that we've experienced that yet) and the displaced (still feeling the transition at the moment).  The other emphasis has been on hospitality (another big focus for me).  So He has my attention!

Please pray for me as I continue to grow in this area.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

You Know You're in Texas When...

...there are stars on everything! One of J's favourite things to spot is stars. He sees them on license plates, signs, buildings, highway pylons,... You name it, there's probably one here somewhere with a star on it!
...the average main meal at a restaurant is enough to feed two hungry adults. It is considered 'normal' for half your meal to remain on your plate and be whisked off to be put in a take-away container as you pay the bill.
...the majority of billboards along the highway are advertising either lap-band surgery, or heart surgery (or other such serious procedures) at Hospital X, or some form of Christian advertising.
...the State Fair features competitions in deep-fried food. Deep-fried bubblegum anyone? (This year's winner) Check out the rest of the finalists.
...every form you fill out is bilingual (Spanish or English). Makes a change from Maori or French for us!
...in the supposed coldest month of winter, today it is warmer to have our door open than closed. At 2pm it is 80*F/27*C outside and 71*F/22*C inside.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Odds and Ends

This is a post of the various bits and pieces that have kept me away from this blog for the last couple of weeks. There's another post in the wings, but it's taking its time in coming together! So here goes:
1. Our biblical scholar in the making. One of J's favourite things at the moment is pulling multiple bibles of our shelf and sitting down to read them. The commentary is quite funny to hear, too!
2. J has had a fever on and off for the past couple of days. :o( But it does show how curly his hair gets when he's all hot and damp. Reminds me of some other McLellan boys I know!
3. Our friends, the Hunters, came for lunch on Superbowl Sunday. Completely coincidentally we had soup for lunch (a traditional Superbowl offering) and we had fun catching up together. Here are the 3 J's reading a story.
4. I've signed up for a food co-op for produce here. This was last week's swag - all for $15! And today's collection included Jerusalem artichokes, so we are having a culinary adventure this week.
5. C has tried out the Jolly Jumper for the first time... and seems to like it already.
6. Discovered J's first 'word' with the foam letters in the bath. Maybe Daddy's reading list is having more of an impact than we thought!
7. My blokes. Don't they look sweet?

Thursday, February 2, 2012

A House Guest

Look who wandered into our house today while J napped. (Apologies for fuzzy focus - I didn't download this until it was released.) There is a 1cm gap under our front door and I saw it sneaking across the carpet out of the corner of my eye. I think it may be an aptly named Mediterranean House Gecko. This one is only about 3-4cm long so it must be a juvenile. He or she sure is cute though! We've seen this lime green anole in the gardens here, but this is the first lizard to make a visit.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

St Brigid's Day

Today is Saint Brigid's Day. It brings fond memories of my years teaching at Holy Family School, founded by the Brigidine sisters. When N and I were in Ireland we visited the church at Kildare. This year St. Brigid's Day also brings a tinge of sadness, as I heard this past week of the death of my former principal at HFS, Barbara O'Reilly-Nugent. I haven't been able to pin down details yet, but when we visited NZ in 2010, Barbara was ill and not expected to live long then. I was fortunate to have visited her and said my farewells, but my grief isn't any lesser at the moment. Barbara was a strong, Godly woman, whose faith, leadership and compassion were exactly what I needed at that time of my life. She was part of the reason I decided to study at Regent, and I will miss her.