Golden Morning

I love having a yellow flower on the piano, because the morning sun works this alchemy upon it:

It makes all the difference to this not-morning-person, seeing something glowingly lovely first thing!

Things are starting to wind down a little around here. My husband has handed in his most demanding papers and taken his exam, so we are all a little more relaxed, and I have computer access again!

Even with all of the business, we managed to have a pretty good weekend. Saturday was a baking day for me. I had a sudden overwhelming urge to bake an apple pie, complete with homemade crust, and Daniel was very sweet and played independently while I sliced and cored and rolled.

I wish I had taken a picture of it, since it came out much better aesthetically than my previous pie attempts (which is to say, the top crust was all in one piece, and the edge was crimped in a semi-regular manner) but we were in too much of a hurry to eat it, so here is a picture of Daniel being well behaved instead:

Then in the evening I baked ginger snaps in preparation for St. Lucy's and Gaudete Sunday.

Some were eaten right out of the oven, some saved to be sent to my grandfather (it has become something of a tradition that I send him ginger snaps for Christmas) and the rest were packaged up...

..put into a basket...

...and left anonymously on our neighbors' door steps!

Redeeming the Time

Today was not the day I had planned.

To start out, I was so tired yesterday evening after a full day of shopping at IKEA that I didn't have the energy to go out again for treats to put in Daniel's shoes from Saint Nicholas.

And, after a night of nursing my little boy, I was too tired to get up early to bake the strawberry scones I had planned for a special breakfast treat.

In fact, I was so tired that Amos took Daniel to the early Mass that we usually go to as a family and let me sleep in till the 11. So we didn't even get to go to church all together.

I have been feeling wretched about this for the past couple of hours, but i have decided to try to salvage what is left of the day and make the evening as pleasant and festive as I can.

This afternoon I will tidy the house and put up a few more decorations.

For dinner I will make my husband's favorite pork chops with onions and apples. We will dim the lights and eat by the light of the Advent wreath and the other candles arranged on the table. I will put a cloth on the table, and real cloth napkins.

In the evening Amos will probably go back to the library to work on his papers (30 pages to write by the end of the week!!!) and so I will make a pot of tea, get out one of my beautiful china tea cups, and work on my knitting.

The Second Sunday of Advent

People, look east. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the Guest is on the way.

Furrows, be glad. Though earth is bare,
One more seed is planted there.
Give up your strength the seed to nourish,
That in course the flower may flourish.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the Rose is on the way.

Birds, though you long have ceased to build,
Guard the nest that must be filled.
Even the hour when wings are frozen
God for fledging time has chosen.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the bird, is on the way.

Stars, keep the watch. When night is dim,
One more light the bowl shall brim,
Shining beyond the frosty weather,
Bright as the sun and moon together.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the Star, is on the way.

Angels announce with shouts of mirth,
Him who brings new life to earth.
Set every peak and valley humming
With the word, the Lord is coming
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the Lord, is on the way.

--Eleanor Farjeon

I have been meaning for some time to make a post about the changing of the seasons. While in many parts of the country, the excitement of the transition into Autumn has worn off long ago, and it is time to look for snow and ice, here in Texas, we are just coming to the end of the long slow burn.

When I first moved down here, I was desperately unhappy that the seasons did not follow the pattern that I was used to growing up in New England (my husband likes to call me a snob for this). Only this year, my fifth Fall in Texas, have I begun to understand and come to love the particular rhythm that governs the change of season here.

I think seeing it through Daniel's eyes has helped immeasurably in this respect. Our daily walk takes us over the same path, and I have been at leisure to notice the subtle changes and the way things come to fullness over time. His fascination with acorns, pine cones, the brown coarse leaves on the ground, and the copious mud from the rains that finally return after a long, inhumanly hot summer has let me be fascinated with them as well.

The colors are not so overwhelmingly glorious and abundant as in New England. Everything is more muted, the transition more gradual. But there are falls of golden leaves (which remind me of the shower of gold poured out in Danae's lap), and red berries, and deep purple oak leaves, and -- delightful in their unexpectedness -- yellow jasmine and crimson roses!

Peaceful Morning

This morning was full of sunlight and snuggling and quiet domesticity.

Daniel practiced being gentle to the long-suffering Audrey...

...And was overjoyed when she rewarded him with a kiss!

One of the things I love most about the liturgical year is that our new year begins a month before the secular calendar turns over. It is fitting that our year ends in November with the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls, and a month of remembering the dead and looking toward the end times, and then begins again in celebration of the Incarnation -- the coming of the Light of the World.

(It is a happy accident that the Thursday before the beginning of the new liturgical year is usually Thanksgiving -- what better way to start the cycle over than by looking back at the past year with gratitude?)

This year we will be spending Christmas with my family in Massachusetts, but I am enjoying decorating the apartment for Advent. I set up my advent wreath on the seasons table, and surrounded it with a few pine cones and other things Daniel and I have collected outside.

I am planning to set out Daniel's shoes for St. Nicholas on the 6th, and bake my annual ginger snaps, probably for St. Lucy's Day on the 13th.

I have a few gifts to finish knitting, and a few more to purchase.

My husband has papers and finals looming in the next couple of weeks, so my goal is to keep things as relaxed and low-key around here as possible, before we get to really celebrate Christmas with my family!

The First Sunday of Advent

"Advent is concerned with the very connection between memory and hope which is so necessary to man. Advent's intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child.

This is a healing memory. It brings hope.

The purpose of the Church's year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart's memory so that it can discern the star of hope.... It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope."

--Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Seek That Which Is Above

The Feast of Christ the King

As the visions during the night continued, I saw One like a son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven; When he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him,
He received dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.

Daniel 7:13-14

Lately I have been rereading two Alice von Hildebrand books, By Love Refined (which I quoted from in my last entry) and The Privilege of Being a Woman.

The first is a series of letters written to a young friend in her first years of marriage. It is full of invaluable wisdom, advice, and inspiration for any Christian woman trying to live her vocation to marriage faithfully. The epistolatory style is warm and accessible, and she strikes just the right note between general principles and concrete application. I particularly love the way she talks about taking the clear vision of our beloved at his best that we are given through love and storing it away in a treasure chest for those times when we are angry or disappointed or lose sight of the beauty of marriage.

The second, The Privilege of Being a Woman, covers some of the same ideas, sometimes the ideas that underpin the advice in By Love Refined, but in a rather more systematic and scholarly way. I could read this book over and over, and I think that anyone who wants an alternative and an answer to secular feminism should do the same.

Inspiration for the week

"Like the oriental carpet weaver, the good wife must be an artist of love. She must remember her mission and never waste the little deeds that fill her day -- the precious bits of wool she's been given to weave the majestic tapestry of married love."

--Alice von Hildebrand, By Love Refined: Letters to a Young Bride

The Feast of All Saints

After this I had a vision of a great multitude,

which no one could count,

from every nation, race, people, and tongue.

They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,

wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.

They cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,

and from the Lamb.”

All the angels stood around the throne

and around the elders and the four living creatures.

They prostrated themselves before the throne,

worshiped God, and exclaimed:

“Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,

honor, power, and might

be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Revelation 7:9-12

I had such great aspirations for keeping up this blog in a more regular fashion, but obviously I didn't follow through.

It has been wonderfully busy around here though. D. and I went for ten days to visit my parents in New England, and had a wonderful, amazing time! We went to an orchard and farm stand, hung out with family, went to the playground, and went on walks in the beautiful Fall weather.

Daniel fell in love with the beech tree in my parents' front yard that has been very special to me for many years.

He also enjoyed picking up pine cones (and smearing sap on Mamma's shirt) and giving me bright maple leaves.

When we got back it took me a while to find the rhythm of my home again, but now things are coming along nicely. I am working on some knitting projects for various Christmas gifts for friends and family. My knitting skills are extremely basic, so I can't make anything very fancy, but I found a few nice basic hat patterns, bought some pretty yarn to make them up in, and I am improving. I think I will post pictures when I have a chance.

The highlights of today have been:

~dancing around the living room with Daniel to my Carole King Pandora station

~several long walks with Daniel in the mei tai, enjoying the cool sunny weather

~eating apples with peanut butter (and also peanut butter right off a spoon...!)

~dinner of gourmet pizza from our favorite restaurant (free with a gift certificate) and heirloom tomatoes with fresh basil and mozarella

~looking forward to an evening out with my husband at a mixer for graduate students at the university.

October Roses

One of the wonderful things about living in Texas is that today, on the feast of St. Therese, I could pick red roses from the bush behind our neighbors' condo to decorate the table and the home shrine.

I got a spray of three full blown roses, for the Trinity, and one tiny bud, for the Little Flower. They are just lovely next to the icon, sprawling out of my white cream pitcher!

Later in the evening, another neighbor knocked on the door and gave me two more roses, one small and red and one sunset yellow, also in honor of the feast day!

On the subject of roses, I got a wonderful book from the library, Pink Ladies and Crimson Gentlemen: Portraits and Legends of 50 Roses, which I have been greatly enjoying. The photography is stunning, and the stories of the creation of the roses and their namesakes is fun too!

Beanie's Birthday

On August 26th, my son turned 1 year old.

Peaches

Last summer, during the end of my pregnancy, all I wanted to eat was raw summer fruit -- plums, peaches, nectarines, just plain or at most cut up in a little yogurt.

This year I have discovered the delights of baking with stone fruit. A few weeks ago we got a couple pounds of plums from the produce co-op, and to keep them from going to waste, I scoured my recipe books for a good recipe to use them up.

I finally found one in my 1971 copy of Joy of Cooking -- Apple, Peach, or Plum Cake Cockaigne -- and have made it a couple of times, once with just plums, and once with a few peaches thrown in.

Yesterday we found gorgeous peaches for a very good price per pound, so I bought two big bags and just spent the afternoon slicing and peeling them and then laying them out on cookie sheets in the freezer. Once they are frozen, I divided them into one cup baggies so that I can easily bake with them during the winter.

Apple, Peach, or Plum Cake Cockaigne (from Joy of Cooking)

Use a 9 x 9 x 2 1/2 in. pan. Preheat oven to 425.

If the fruit used is very juicy, reduce the liquid in the dough by at least 1 Tbsp.

Sift before measuring:

1 c. all purpose flour

Resift with:

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. sugar

Add:

1 1/2 to3 Tbsp. butter

Work these ingredients like pastry.

Beat well in a measuring cup:

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Add enough milk to make 1/2 cup.

Combine with the flour and butter to make a stiff dough. Pat the dough into the pan with a floured palm or spread it in part with a spoon and then distribute it evenly by pushing it with fruit sections when you place them in closely overlapping rows.

Use about:

3 to 4 cups sliced, pared apples or peaches, or sliced, unpared plums.

Sprinkle with a mixture of:

1 c. sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

3 Tbsp. melted butter

Bake about 25 min.

"...She went from mystery to mystery with more and more courage. She was a long time playing with the shells, and longer still looking at the rock pools, exploring each miniature ocean from horizon to horizon, but at last she was ready for the fairies' cave. She did not feel at all afraid as she pushed past the green rock and went inside. Since she had run into this strange place through the horns of the horseshoe she had felt no fear, only awe. She had discovered a new country, but it was her own country. In this place where one was alone that one might listen, she felt at home as never before. In spite of its mystery it was so clean, so simple, and so safe. Nothing befouled the air one breathed, the music that was heard and yet not heard, like the sound of bells caught away by the wind, was without confusion, cold and clear like crystal..."

--Elizabeth Goudge, from Green Dolphin Street

This passage makes me miss the places, now so far away, that are my own country...

We are now mostly (mostly) settled in our new apartment. The boxes are all but unpacked, and this afternoon the workmen are coming to finish installing the oven (which sticks out three inches from the wall due to an inconveniently placed door frame) and put a doorknob on our bedroom door. We seem to have sorted out the massive communication problems with our landlords, and hopefully life can settle into a quiet routine.

The big uncertainty now is about what my husband will be doing this year. After having trouble finding work for the summer, we decided that the best use of his time would be to take a couple of summer classes so he could be finished with his course work as soon as possible.

And of course as soon as we made the decision, he was offered a job. Not just a summer job, but a permanent one. We are just waiting to hear whether the hours will permit him to continue with his core classes (one of the inconveniences of the UD phd program is the three-year Tuesday/Thursday 3:30-5 pm cycle of required courses) and he will probably take it.

It will slow down the speed with which Amos can finish his degree, but it will be good to have some steady income after living so precariously for the past few years.

Daniel is growing apace! He is now walking a little bit, and eating more and more solid food. I have to say that I have mixed feelings about the solid food. For someone who has found exclusive breastfeeding such a physical and emotional burden, I am surprised to find how sad it makes me to share feeding duties with my husband. I treasure more and more the time we spend together in the evening as I nurse him to sleep, and I find myself holding him for a few extra minutes for a snuggle before putting him into his crib.

"There is a special providence for fools, drunks, and Americans!"

Happy Independance Day!

Produce:

grapefruit

oranges

broccoli

corn

bananas

Meals:

chicken cutlets with salad

chicken parmagian (from the leftover cutlets) over pasta

pot roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli/salad (x2)

potato and egg pie with red peppers and toast

grilled cheese

Not a stellar box this week, so we had to buy a lot to make up our meals. The oranges and one of the grapefruit my husband used to make delicious fresh juice. I will use the other grapefruit in a fruit salad along with a honeydew that has been ripening up on the counter. It has been too hot to bake, so we bought our first loaf of store-made sandwich bread in a long, long time.

In other news, we are slowly gearing up for the move. We should get the key this weekend, and then we can start moving things over a little at a time. I may have mentioned in my last post that I want to do some painting in our bedroom, and we will do that before moving the bulk of our furniture over.

Daniel is now almost 9 months, which still shocks me whenever I think about it. It is so strange to feel simultaneously that he couldn't possibly be that old -- he was just born yesterday, wasn't he? -- and that he has been part of our family forever.

He is such a joyful presence in our lives -- full of smiles and laughter and silly little tricks. Even now, while he is getting his two top front teeth, he is just the sweetest thing (except when he bites....!). He now loves to play peek-a-boo, comes across the room to me when I call him, and can stand for short periods of time unsupported. He loves to pull all the books off the shelf in the living room, eats any small pieces of paper or shoes he can get his hands on (and also bugs, but we won't go into that!), and tries to match notes when I sing to him. I think he has learned to recognize the baby sign for cat and hungry. I want to start him on a few more soon

His finger infection has cleared up almost completely now (his middle finger is still a little red and puffy, probably from the trauma inflicted on it by the doctors, but the sores are gone), for which I am incredibly thankful.

All in all, things are very good here. :)

Produce:

Granny smith apples

plums

oranges

roma tomatoes

Meals:

rotisserie chicken (on sale at Kroeger), mashed potatoes, and peas

bulgur stuffed peppers

spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce and salad

chicken and rice stir fry

fish with lemon basil pasta

We had the chicken last night so we could get the sale price on it, and I used the leftovers for chicken salad which we will have for lunches (a nice break from our usual cheese quesadillas).

I have not written in so long because I have been just too tired. It turns out that I have fibromyalgia, which is a fancy way of saying that I am tired and achey all the time and my doctor can't find any other reason for it. She has a medication she wants me to try, but I can't take it while breast feeding, so it is out of the question for the time being. Apart from that, her recommendation is to "relax and get plenty of sleep" -- not easy things to do with an 8-month old baby who has been sick or teething for the past month or so...

My sister in law has moved in with us, and she has been a great help around the house, cooking dinner about once a week, watching the baby so I can get some sleep, and helping me stay on top of the dishes.

For the time being we are all living in our tiny apartment, but we will be getting the key to a bigger place at the end of the week and (after some painting and general preparation) moving before the end of the month!

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about the move. On the one hand, it is so wonderful to have Charity with us, and I really like the new place (right next door to our dearest friends down here!). On the other, I have enjoyed living where we are so much. It is the first place that I have really felt at home since leaving my parents' house.

Oh well. I am sure I will come to love the new place just as much...

Good Friday

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
How pale Thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish, which once was bright as morn!

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

When it rains...

The past two days have been cool and rainy, my favorite kind of spring weather.  I love the way the colors look so intense -- especially the new green leaves -- and the smell of clean growing things and how nice it is to have a cup of tea and look out the window...

Two interesting things happened to me on Wednesday afternoon, both at pretty much the same time.  Daniel and I had some errands to run at the University campus.  Of course just as it was time to head back to the car, there was a huge downpour.  After waiting inside for as long as I could, I wrapped Daniel snugly in a blanket, shouldered my purse and the diaper bag, and started to make a run for it.  We were stopped almost immediately by a young man we had never seen before who offered us the shelter of his umbrella and insisted on walking back across campus with us to the car!

The other interesting thing happened en route to the car.  A huge hawk flew right across our path, and on through the campus!  I have never seen a bird of that size up close like that before.

Today I had to go back to campus for a meeting and then Daniel and I hung out for a while before heading home.  It is nice for both of us to be out of the house, and with out new car it is not so difficult to get around.

Also today I baked bread and strawberry scones, cleaned the kitchen, and had a lot of playtime with Daniel.  I wanted to continue my spring cleaning project, but I have been so tired lately that I decided to take it easy.

Produce:

small red potatos

grapefruit

apples

mushrooms

red peppers

spinach

Meals:

pot roast with roasted potatoes and asparagus (for company/leftovers)

potato and egg pie with leftover summer squash and salad

mushroom yogurt pie with spinach

bulgar stuffed red peppers, salad

hamburgers with salad

chicken with mashed potatoes and broccoli

Produce:

nectarines

lettuce

cilantro

bananas

mushrooms

white onions

grape tomatoes

cucumbers

Meals:

pasta with roasted veggies and salad (x2)

beef stew (from freezer)

chicken fried rice (x2)

tacos with cilantro black bean salsa

Friday we are setting off to visit Amos's family in Ohio, so we don't need a lot of meals.  To use up the cucumbers before we leave, I think I will make cucumber sandwiches for lunch one day.

The warm weather has officially started -- we are all wearing our summer clothes and sweating in the humidity, and it is not even March yet!  Having lived in New England for most of my life, I don't think I will ever get used to this!

It does have its benefits, though.  Yesterday on the way to Ash Wednesday mass, we saw a cherry tree in bloom, and the daffodils, those cheery harbingers of Spring, have been out for a couple of weeks already.

 image by fleecetraveler from flickr

Today has been a slow day.  After caring for a sick husband for the past week and having two nights in a row with very little sleep and no nap, I have not been up to much beyond the basics and playing with Daniel.  I did manage to get some bread together, continuing my flirtation with rye flour.  This batch is made from my fall-back bread recipe with the substitution of 1/2 cup rye flour for some of the white/wheat.  We shall see how it comes out -- it certainly smells wonderful, and it hasn't even started baking yet!

Daniel is, as always (ok, usually), a delight.  His uneaven bottom front teeth give him the most adorable lopsided smile, and he is enjoying the range of sounds he can now make.  This afternoon we had a little conversation.  He would make a sound and I would echo it back to him, back and forth for about ten minutes.  He can also move with astonishing speed around the living room, and has developed an interest in venturing down the hall!  I have to keep a close eye on him even more than ever!

Something pleasant before I go to bed:

Meal Plans

Produce:

yellow peppers

cameo apples

oranges

eggplant

sweet potatoes

bananas

Meals:

lentil soup (from the freezer)

beef stew (ditto)

pasta with steamed veggies

chicken soup (x2)

pork roast with roasted sweet potatoes and greens (whatever is on sale)

I also want to bake banana bread with some over ripe bananas from last week and (if things calm down around here) make a Moosewood apple crisp with the cameos which requires orange juice which I will squeeze fresh (we really have a lot of oranges).

I am glad that I have so many things stashed away in the freezer for this week, since between Amos's sickness and Daniel's troubles I really have my hands full.  We also have to make a trip into down town to get a copy of Daniel's birth certificate to take to the airport on our trip to Ohio next month, and my husband has a paper due (he is not going to get it in tomorrow, but hopefully before the end of the week he will be up to writing again), and I have not done the food shop for the week.

We have been praying that God will help us to rely on him more and not be anxious, and he is certainly testing us this week.  I guess that is the danger when you ask God to help improve your character -- he gives you what you ask for!

I am working on a post about Lent, but that will have to wait for another day! 

Last week my best friend from college (the maid of honor in my wedding) came to stay with us.  We had a great time, playing with the baby and going out to lunch and talking to all hours of the night.

She left on Saturday and now I am struggling to get back into my household routines.  This process is complicated by the fact that my poor husband has been ill with a fever, head ache, and intermittent stomach pain since Friday, and last night Daniel started having trouble eating and sleeping.  He has scarcely nursed all day, and has only napped for 10 minutes since 7 am after an interrupted night of sleep.  He does not have a temperature, fortunately, so I am hoping he does not have the same virus as his father.

I have managed to make some progress today, tidying and airing out the bedroom (which had the musty feeling of a sick room) and evicting my husband from the bed long enough to straighten the sheets and fix up the pillows, baking bread (rye whole wheat, which is the new favorite around here), and doing some laundry.

I am going to try to feed Daniel again, and then set to work disinfecting the door knobs and light switches, and making my shopping list for the week.

Produce:

red peppers

green leaf lettuce

apples

bosc pears

broccoli

Meals:

chicken fried rice

potato and egg pie with roasted asparagus (on sale at Sprouts!)

pasta primavera

corn chowder and salad

sausage with sauted peppers and onions

tacos

Today I baked two loaves of bread, one for us and another to give (along with some of the corn chowder and a salad) to some neighbors who recently had a little girl.  I will hopefully have time tomorrow afternoon to bake some lemon squares for them as well.

This weekend my husband and I are going to go out on our first real date since August.  Some other neighbors offered (completely out of the blue) to watch Daniel for the evening so we could go out to celebrate Valentines Day.  We have never been much into Valentines Day (with the notable exception of the year that Amos plotted from Rome to have a friend in New Hampshire give me a dozen roses on his behalf) but free baby sitting is free baby sitting!  I am a little nervous to be leaving the little fellow, since he is exclusively breast fed and has never even tried a bottle, but I think it will be ok.  He has been going to sleep at between 7 and 7:30 and having his first waking between 10 and midnight, so we are going to have an early dinner at home and then go out for dessert.  I am really excited for a chance to dress up without having to think of the logistics of breastfeeding!

Today I did a lot of much-needed cleaning in the kitchen. I took the stove burners apart and cleaned under the range, and completely cleared and wiped down the counters. One would think that it would be easy to keep a kitchen as tiny as mine spotlessly clean, but there are just a lot of little nooks and crannies for the dirt to hide in -- and they are sometimes very hard to reach!!! (For example, there is no physical way that I can reach the back of the corner cupboard, and sometimes have to use a long spoon or other utensil to fish out a blender cover or such thing that has fallen out of reach...)

I had prepared a tomato sauce yesterday, and I used a good portion of it this evening for pizza. I make my own crust, from my mother's excellent recipe, and top it with fresh, wholesome things. Tonight it was summer squash, artichoke hearts, and feta cheese.

We invited one of my husband's friends to share it with us, and had a very nice evening.

I really enjoy being able to open our home to our friends, and especially when I have made a dinner that I am proud of. Cooking is both a creative outlet for me and a way of showing love.

Mom's Pizza Crust:

1 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp. dry active yeast
a splash of olive oil
a dash of salt
2 1/2-3 cups all-purpose flour

 

image by César Astudillo

Mix the water and yeast in the bowl of a mixer and let sit for five minutes.

Add 1 cup flour and begin mixing. While mixture is still soupy, add oil and salt.

Gradually add the rest of the flour until the dough is formed (when it firms up, switch to a dough hook attachment).

Finish kneading by hand and put the ball of dough in an oiled bowl (covered with a clean towel) to rise.

When doubled in size, fold in the four corners of the dough into the middle and let rise again.

Roll out on a large cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal, and assemble your pizza!

Candlemas

This year I have been working on incorporating more devotions into our lives. I want my son to grow up immersed in the rhythms of the liturgical year, to have access to the rich grace of the Church's celebration of the Saints and Martyrs and the events of our Lord's life. He is too young now to know what is going on, but if my husband and I have a habit of a liturgically and prayerfully centered life, it will be natural to him as he grows to understand.
Today we have been celebrating Candlemas, the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. I have been dealing with pretty bad allergies, so we didn't do anything fancy, but I made a Mediterranean feast for dinner (hummus and tabouleh and balsamic roasted eggplant with pitas and wine) and set the table with a cloth, cloth napkins, and, of course, lots of candles. Later we are going to read the story of the Presentation from the Bible then pray a rosary.
Next year I hope to do more. It is a tradition to have bee's wax candles blessed during mass and then light them at home.