Friday Food

Friday 

Short version: Shrimp or bean burritos

Long version: Last meatless Lenten Friday. I had a couple of small bags of shrimp, which I sauteed in butter with taco spices and lime juice. I also took out the last container of chili beans--pintos spiced like chili--so everyone could choose to have either shrimp or beans in their burritos. Or both.

And I had all the good toppings.

Including, most importantly, avocado. Yum.

Saturday

Short version: Thursday's dinner, revisted

Long version: We had enough of my sister's giant lasagna left over from Thursday to have it again this night. I very much appreciated not having to cook after a busy day of preparing the church for Easter and making a pie for Easter dinner. 

We had a salad again, too, but this time Poppy made it. 

Sunday

Short version: Easter ham, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, maple carrots, strawberry-rhubarb pie, vanilla ice cream, chocolates

Long version: We should, of course, have had lamb for Easter dinner. And I know I have a leg of lamb somewhere in the freezer, but when I was digging in there, I found a spiral-sliced ham first. I considered it a sign and cooked that instead.

The children wanted scalloped potatoes, so that is what I made. Well, my sister and I made. She did all the hard work of peeling and thinly slicing the potatoes. All I did was layer the potatoes with milk, cream, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

The asparagus was from the garden, of course, as was the rhubarb in the pie. The carrots were the blanched carrots I froze in the fall, and the strawberries were frozen store berries.

I didn't get a picture of the dinner buffet. But I got one of the pie!

My sister did the lattice top, as well as the eggs and bunny cut-outs, which is why it's much less ugly than my typical pies.

Monday

Short version: Leftover ham, potatoes, carrots, raw radishes

Long version: Nah.

Tuesday

Short version: Ram and chickpea curry, rice, still-frozen green beans

Long version: I had the curry sludge from dying eggs, plus half a can of tomato sauce in the refrigerator. I also had a container of cooked ground ram from the last time I made chili. I had more meat than I needed, so after I sauteed it with the garlic and onion, I froze some. That's what I used for the curry. 

I also had a container of cooked chickpeas I had taken out of the freezer, thinking I would make hummus to have before Easter dinner. But then I had made deviled eggs, and we had pistachios, so I didn't make hummus. I added the chickpeas to the curry, instead, along with quite a bit of yogurt. 

Tasty, if not particularly attractive.

There were also a few lamb chops left from almost a week earlier, which I heated up for A.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftovers, garlic bread

Long version: We had leftover ham and potatoes, or curry and rice. The garlic bread was just some I had made the day before when I was baking bread, with no particular plan in mind for it. 

Thursday

Short version: Nachos and candy at school, leftover curry and rice at home

Long version: I took the younger two children to the spring crafting event at school.

Many crafts were made.

They had nachos there--chips with queso and meat, plus toppings--and lots of candy.

It was in the old gym, which is why all the photos look green.

Alien nachos.

The older two kids and A. had the leftovers at home.

Refrigerator check:

Blurry and messy. Like life sometimes.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

Angels Among Us

Some of you may perhaps remember a song by the country band Alabama called "Angels Among Us." From maybe the late 90s? I never cared for the song much. I always thought it was kind of cheesy. It is, but it was what I thought of Saturday night when I met Leroy.

Saturday was a very hard day, for various reasons. I was pretty ready to be done with the day by evening, but I was taking the younger two boys to serve at the Saturday Vigil Mass at the church in the other village we go to sometimes. Mass started at 8 p.m., but they needed to be there early, so we left at 7:15. My low tire indicator light was on, but the town maintenance shop in this village has an air compressor hose on the outside of the building that I have used many times to air up my tires.

There was a truck parked on the other side of the parking lot of the shop when I got there. This will be important later.

It was raining slightly as I pulled up to the shop, hopped out, aired up my tire for a few seconds, and then pulled the air compressor out of my tire to put it back on its hook so I could continue on my way.

Except the valve of my tire got stuck in the air compressor. So when I pulled at it, the valve got ripped out and stayed stuck in the air compressor's chuck. This meant that not only was my tire rapidly deflating, but the air compressor continued to run, with no way to turn it off, as the actual machine was inside the locked building.

There I stood, in the rain, in my church clothes, holding a hissing air compressor and watching my tire go flat.

Not my best moment.

I had my cell phone, so I called A., asking him to bring some pliers to possibly pry the valve out of the air compressor, and also to change my tire. Luckily, we only live ten minutes from this village, so I knew it wouldn't take him long. 

As I was getting off the phone, I saw someone get into the truck on the other side of the parking lot. I went over there and waved down the person who had gotten into the truck, thinking maybe he would have pliers. When he rolled his window down, I asked if he happened to work there.

"Actually, I do," I replied.

THANK YOU, GOD.

This is how I met Leroy. 

He unlocked the shop and turned off the air compressor. I stood there apologizing and explaining while he tried to get the valve out of the air compressor's chuck. This is when I learned his name, that he comes to the shop every morning and evening to feed the feral cats that live there, and that he takes care of his 92-year-old mother. He reassured me that it wasn't my fault that the valve had gotten stuck, telling me the compressor chuck was old and needed to be replaced anyway.

After the compressor had been off for awhile, the pressure came down enough that he was able to remove the valve from the chuck. 

At about this point, A. arrived and I took the boys up to church in the van. They were still in time to serve Mass, and I didn't go back to the Honda. A. told me that Leroy stayed there with him and helped him try to put the valve from the Honda's spare tire on the flat tire. Leroy also found another valve they tried, which didn't fit. And, when the Honda slipped off our jack in the gravel parking lot, Leroy brought out a floor jack from the shop and helped A. change the tire with that.

In the course of our very brief conversation, I had told Leroy that I was going to church. He said he had been watching an Easter Vigil Mass on television before he came to the shop. His elderly mother couldn't really leave the house anymore, so he wouldn't be going to the Easter Vigil at church.

But I went to church, and you'd better believe that I spent much of the two-hour Vigil Mass thanking God for Leroy.

The end.

Easter Photos

Poppy found an intact bird's nest on the ground outside, made an origami bird for it, created a tree for the nest and bird, and left it by the front door.

It seemed a suitably Easter-y decoration, so I didn't move it.

There's always an Easter egg hunt at school the Wednesday before Easter. The high schoolers hide the eggs for the elementary kids to find. This year, there was terrible wind, so all the eggs had to be secured into something so they didn't blow away.

Egg in a bush.

It was also very windy on Holy Thursday when we went to Mass at the other church we sometimes go to, in the village ten miles in the opposite direction. A cat had sheltered itself from the wind in the window well at the end of our pew, and it stayed there the whole time.

Holy cat.

On Easter morning, I had to leave before seven to open up the church and make sure everything was ready, which meant we were not doing any egg finding or baskets before church. My parents had sent Easter cards to all the kids, so I put those at their places at the table, along with my grandmother's tea cups containing Cadbury mini eggs.

Because chocolate for breakfast is an Easter tradition.

Then there was church.

Easter altar.

Then our egg hunt at home. I didn't get a photo of the dyed eggs this year, but we dyed them with paprika, curry powder, and pickled beet juice, and they came out well. Also, the weather had improved, so we could have the egg hunt outside, which is always better.

Next, baskets hidden inside the house.

The only thing I actually bought for these were the books*. My sister and mom provided everything else. Hooray for family.

The weather was nice enough that the children played outside all day, which was really nice. 

We had our Easter dinner around 5:30 p.m. My sister was here, and our priest joined us, so we had a full table for the ham, etc. 

The MiL had sent a box of treats, so I used my grandmother's tea cups again to set out a selection of chocolates to supplement the strawberry-rhubarb pie I had made.

Peeps donated by the guy who runs the tiny store in the village. Alcohol donated by my sister. I did actually buy champagne myself, but it was in the refrigerator.

A good Easter. How was yours?

* This year's books were Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm, The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, and Primitive Wilderness Living and Survival Skills: Naked Into the Wilderness.

Snapshots: The Alleluia Flowers

I volunteered to take care of the church again this year for Easter, so I could do the flowers. I didn't order a big arrangement for the altar from a florist this year, though. Instead I intended to go to Walmart and buy a bunch of flowers to make my own.

However.

I ended up having to go to a different town earlier in the week, not the one with the Walmart. I didn't want to have to drive 200 more miles later in the week just to get flowers, so I just bought some at the grocery store in the town I was in on Tuesday.

The selection, as you might imagine, was quite limited. As was the quality. I mean, this is an end-of-the-line, middle-of-nowhere-New-Mexico grocery store, not some upscale fresh market.

Grocery store flowers ready to ride home.

I supplemented those with lilacs, iris leaves, and other found greenery from the village, and decorated the altar.

I used the container from last year's professional arrangement for the main altar flowers. I didn't have that foam stuff that came with it--chickens love to peck things like that apart, alas--so I just stuffed a bunch of twigs in the bottom to form a lattice that I could poke the flower stems into. That worked surprisingly well. It probably helped that the lilac stems are quite thick and twiggy, too.

The inclusion of the lilacs made the arrangements slightly more purple than I would have preferred, but I had to use what I had. And they do make the church smell incredible.

Happiest of Easters to all of you. I hope it's a lovely one.

Friday Food: Asparagus, Yay!

Friday 

Short version: Scrambled eggs, garlic bread, still-frozen green beans, baked fruit

Long version: I had actually planned on making a cheese pizza for our meatless Friday, since I was baking bread anyway, but then I was up much of Thursday night with a fever and was not feeling well this day. I still had to bake the bread, but instead of wrestling with pizza dough, I made some of the dough into garlic bread, which I served with scrambled eggs.

While I was baking the bread, I also baked the last bag of peaches from the freezer, along with the remaining cranberry sauce and some peach jam. We had that with cream poured over the top.

Saturday

Short version: Cheeseburger casserole, raw radishes, fruit crisp

Long version: I used a bag of ground elk to make the casserole, along with potatoes, ketchup, mustard, diced dill pickles, onions, a few pieces of diced bacon, pureed calabaza, cheese, milk, cream, and a couple of eggs.

I had over-sweetened the baked fruit the night before, so I added some plain frozen strawberries to it and then topped it with an oat and flour topping.

Sunday

Short version: Mostly-potato soup, leftovers, faux fondue

Long version: I had a quart container of chicken soup in the freezer, without any rice or potatoes in it. Since I was still not feeling well, and a couple of the kids weren't either, I decided to use that. I added to it some diced potatoes and a lot of sour cream. And then to thicken it a bit more, I added some instant potato flakes.

Except I added too much of the flakes and then it was too thick and I had to thin it out more. So it ended up being a very potato-heavy soup. Tasty, though.

A. also had the rest of the leftover meatloaf, and the soup-hater had the last of the cheeseburger casserole.

I hadn't made dessert, so everyone got a little bowl of chocolate chips and coconut oil melted together--maybe a quarter cup of chocolate chips and a quarter teaspoon of coconut oil--into which they dipped marshmallows.

Monday

Short version: Combined cans and boxes

Long version: We had eaten most of the leftovers the night before, which meant I needed to figure something else out for after work. I used two boxes of macaroni and cheese, but only one of the cheese packets for it, plus a can of chicken, two pesto cubes, some garlic powder, and butter to make pasta for the children.

A. had a can of beef stew we got awhile ago from the excess commodities. He used to actually buy canned beef stew when he lived alone, so I knew he'd eat it. He also had bread and butter and cheese.

I had leftover potato soup. Which is also what I had for lunch at work, but oh well. I was too tired to care. 

Tuesday

Short version: Elk tacos, leftover pasta, asparagus, yay!, hot cocoa

Long version: I would normally cook something more substantial on a day off of work, but I spent much of the day running hither and yon, so I just took out a small bag of elk meat that had been cut very thin, like fajita meat, and fried that with spices and canned kidney beans. That was the taco filling.

Some had the tacos, some had the leftover pasta. And then I made the cocoa because it just wasn't a particularly inspiring meal.

Except for the asparagus! I personally always find the first asparagus of the year to be very inspiring.

Happy spring!

Wednesday

Short version: Lamb chops, beans, rice, carrot sticks with curry dip

Long version: I went to the chaotic chest freezer in the morning prepared to do battle to find something that would be easy to cook after work, and what to my wondering eyes should appear as soon as I shifted one box but a bag of lamb chops. Yay.

I wasn't sure the lamb chops would be enough, so I used the half can of kidney beans left from the night before, plus another can, heated up with lots of butter, garlic powder, and a bit of vinegar, to mix with the rice.

Thursday

Short version: GIANT lasagna, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: My sister drove to us from Colorado this day for Easter weekend. She very kindly made a lasagna to bring with her so I wouldn't have to make dinner. She arrived around 3 p.m. with literally the largest lasagna I have ever seen.

The jar you can barely see next to it is a pint jar.

It was delicious. We ate about half of it and can have the other half for dinner on Saturday, so she actually provided two meals for us.

Refrigerator check:

Lots of milk and LOTS of leftover lasagna.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

About that Church

I post a lot of photos of our church. Partially that's because I'm there a lot in my role as mayordoma. But mostly, it's because I love it.

The very old pump organ that is no longer played.

We go to church in a village about ten miles from our house, in the same village where the children go to school. That's why we go there: Because it is our community church. The Mass is the Mass no matter what building it is in, which is one of the great things about the Catholic church. But I realized when Poppy asked me last week what my favorite church I've ever been in is, that it is, in fact, this tiny church in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico.

New Mexico has no shortage of historic churches. We've been to many of them. And while I can appreciate their history and the faith that built them, I am not really enamored of their aesthetics. They tend to be quite heavily decorated in bright colors, with folk-art statues and paintings. I guess I prefer a more French style, which is also not that uncommon in New Mexico, thanks to the French missionaries that are a part of New Mexico's Catholic history.

The blue ceiling is a classic of the French-style churches.

I also appreciate the cruciform layout of our church, which means the footprint forms a cross. So at the front door of the church, you're standing at the foot of the cross.

From the front looking up the aisle.

This style lends itself to symmetry, which I have always preferred.

I particularly appreciate this because, although the church is fairly old--built I think in the 1920s--it was at some point renovated with truly hideous brown paneling all behind the altar, ugly carpet on the floor, and weird doorways on the altar leading to the sacristy. It was a victim of the 1970s, and it looked it. I've seen pictures, and it was appalling. It was renovated again to its current state in the 1990s, and I am forever grateful to the congregation and priest at that time for making it the way it is now.

The colors in our church are quite muted, which means that when the altar colors are changed, it has more of an impact.

Purple for Lent. (The Lenten altar does not typically include flowers, but there was a funeral this day, hence the flower arrangement on the altar.)

Last year's Easter altar.

Also, something you can't see in the photos is that is completely silent in this church. We have no sound system, no plumbing, nothing except the heater in winter makes any noise. I have grown so accustomed to this that I find it very distracting to be in a church with microphones or water fountains humming and switching on and off.

For that reason especially, this is my favorite church to pray in. I will stop when I'm in the village for something else just to go sit in there. Perfect silence is so rare in our modern world, and so appreciated.

This is a church I am happy to take care of, even if I sometimes find my role as mayordoma to be a lot on top of everything else going on in my life. I will remind myself of this as I clean the church, change the altar linens, buy and arrange flowers, and otherwise prepare the church itself for Easter Sunday.

Waiting on its transformation.

Caring for this building so it can offer to others the same peace I have found there is one of the most important things I do. I am so thankful to have been brought here to this unlikely place so I can do just that.

Snapshots: Flowers and Veils

It's Tulip Time!

And still daffodil time, too.

An animal face-off.

I've had this pepper grinder for about seven years now, and just now saw this little joke on the bottom.

And last, Poppy and I veiled all the statues at church in anticipation of Holy Week. Which means Easter is almost here!

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.