Picnic Pie

This Christmas I wanted to do something very English to celebrate my heritage.  I used to make sausage pie when the kids were young but haven't made it for a long time because I couldn't find the same sausage in this country.  It was exciting because I could use our own homemade sausage from pastured pork.  I studied different recipes and asked around on Facebook and came up with the following recipe:  You don't have to make it this shape.  I used to make it in a pie shape with only a bottom crust. But a two crust pie in a deep pan would work great too.  Chill it for a take anywhere savory treat.  Or serve hot with a side of veggies.  You could also cut this recipe in half for a smaller version.

Here are some pictures of the process.

I served this picnic pie cold on Christmas Eve.  It was a hit.  At least it was
with me.  Mark liked it too.  The two of us ate that all the next week.  I will
definitely make this again.  I hope you try it and enjoy it.

Here is a recipe for the pastry I make.  Just double it for a two crust pie.

Joanna's Green Bean Casserole

Thanksgiving is a time for food and tradition.  One tradition among many is the 'Green Bean Casserole'.
It hasn't been a tradition so much for me as I was only introduced to it in the last decade.  My first introduction however was at a Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws.  Everyone seemed to love it and one or another always made it or brought it.  I think I made it once.  My memory of the process includes a bag of green beans, onion, cream of mushroom soup and a can of French fried onions.  As I progressed into our 'unprocessed, non-additive', real food lifestyle, 'Green Bean Casserole' kind of fell to the wayside until Joanna came for Thanksgiving this year.  Joanna is our daughter, number four of our grown up children, and she loves to cook real food, from scratch.  Well, she wanted 'Green Bean Casserole'. " I suppose you can make it real." was my reply.  We haven't done this before but now would be an excellent time to try and also to learn a new thing together with my daughter.  I jumped at the opportunity.

I referred to www.100daysofrealfood.com for a real food recipe and this is what I learned.  Green Bean Casserole can be broken down into 3 recipes.  I used lard instead of butter.  Butter usually makes things soft and lard makes things crispy.  So we went with lard. Pastured pork lard.  Old fashioned, no additives.

Joanna loved this so much that when she went home, after Thanksgiving, she made a Thanksgiving dinner of her own complete with Green Bean Casserole.

She's actually cooking sausage for the stuffing, but this is Joanna cooking on my stove.

Cream of Mushroom Soup:  make ahead, like the day before.

French Fried Onions: best to make last minute

Putting it all together.  Green Bean Casserole

The Advent of Christmas - Dec 8, 2013 Peace

The 2nd Sunday of Advent we will light the second candle, the candle of Peace.
taken from: http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-2/ADVENTwreath_03.htm

The 2nd Sunday of Advent: Peace

Youth - Last Sunday, we lit the first candle in our Advent wreath, the candle of hope. Let us light it again, remembering that the light of hope shines for us in the darkness. (Youth and adult light the first candle.)

Adult - Peace is one of God's gifts to us. John the Baptist was a prophet calling the people of Israel to repent, to find peace with God. John also declared that it is in our actions of love and justice that God's peace is shown. May we by our actions help to prepare the way for the coming of Peace.

Youth - We light this second candle to remind us that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. His light helps us find ways to share God's peace with others. (Adult and youth light the second candle.)

Adult - The prayer of St. Francis asks God to help us be peacemakers. Let us say it together:

Everyone - Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is sadness, joy; and where there is darkness, light. Grant that we may not seek so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, in pardoning that we are pardoned, and in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen!

After the reading and lighting of the candles we sing these two verses together.
Taken from: http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-2/ADVENTwreath_01.htm

The Advent Candles
Tune: Away in a Manger

On the First Sunday of Advent

A candle is burning, a flame warm and bright;
A candle of Hope in December's dark night.
While angels sing blessings from heav'n's starry sky
Our hearts we prepare now, for Jesus is nigh.

On the Second Sunday of Advent.., add

A candle is burning, a candle of Peace;
A candle to signal that conflict must cease.
For Jesus is coming to show us the way;
A message of Peace humbly laid in the hay.

The Advent of Christmas - Dec 1st, 2013 HOPE

A few years ago our family began a new tradition in our home.  The Advent Candles.  We found information about Advent on the internet and each year we add to it and make it more meaningful to us.  This has brought us closer together and given us the Spirit of Christmas that we would like to entertain.  In this series of posts I will share with you what we do and take some pictures as well.  I learned some of this from a website http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-2/ADVENTwreath_01.htm it is a beautiful page.
On the first Sunday in December, we light the candle of Hope.  We read these words (http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-2/ADVENTwreath_02.htm) aloud and sing the first verse of a song.

The 1st Sunday of Advent: Hope
Youth - Today is the first Sunday in the season of Advent. Advent means "coming," and in this season we prepare for the coming of Christ.  One of the ways we can celebrate Advent is by making an Advent wreath and lighting its candles to remind us of the gifts Christ brings to the world.

Adult - The Advent wreath includes many symbols. The wreath is in the shape of a circle, without beginning or ending. This reminds us that there is no beginning and no ending to God. God's love and care for us never ends. The evergreen branches are a sign of ever new life. The candles tell us of the light which came into the world with Jesus Christ. The traditional colors of the Advent candles, three violet and one rose, are penitential colors, reminding us that we need God's help to be the people we are meant to be. The white candle which we light on Christmas Eve signifies the coming of Christ.

Youth - Today we light the first candle, the candle of hope.
(Youth and adult together light the first candle.)

Adult - The people of Israel heard God's promises through the prophets. The prophet Isaiah spoke words of hope to Israel. He spoke of the coming of God's realm of Shalom when all nations will walk in God's light. We too hope and pray for a world of peace and harmony.

Youth - Hope is like a light shining in a dark place. With the lighting of this candle, we celebrate the hope of Israel, and the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

Everyone - We continue to hope in God's promise that Christ will come again to fill our lives and the life of the world with love and joy and peace. Thank you, God, for the light of hope. As we 
prepare for Christ's coming, help us to share our hope with others.

We sing this verse to the tune of: Away in a Manger
http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-2/ADVENTwreath_01.htm

The Advent Candles

Tune: Away in a Manger

On the First Sunday of Advent

A candle is burning, a flame warm and bright;

A candle of Hope in December's dark night.

While angels sing blessings from heav'n's starry sky

Our hearts we prepare now, for Jesus is nigh.

 

 

 

 

Buckwheat Pumpkin Pancakes

Chloe and I love to play around with recipes and ingredients.  This is a favorite for taking with us on short trips where we may get hungry.  We just love these little cakes.

Eating Sunshine

I had no idea that so much time had passed.  I shall call it 'busy', even though I don't like that word much.  It's been a great kind of 'busy' though.  Harvesting peas, strawberries, lettuce, radishes, berries, peaches, beans, lots and lots of beans, zucchini, cucumbers by the basket and then tomatoes.  I had picked some green peppers and jalapenos and the occasional eggplant.  We also harvested a ton of pinto beans.  When you begin to harvest, you get to eat fresh.  Very, very fresh.  There is no fresh like the fresh of eating while you pick.  I call it "eating sunshine".  The warmth of the sun is still in the fruit.  The life has not waned one bit as I bite into the bean.  Bean juice quenching my thirst.  No need for a canteen in this garden.  Tomatoes with the sunshine still pulsating through every cell.  A moment of refreshment in the warmth of the garden.

That is not the end of it.  I lugged baskets full of produce back to the house sometimes sending back to the garden more baskets to
fill as I picked more and more food.  Once back to the house I was tired and looked at what I had brought in.  This is not the end of it.  Some produce can sit on the floor for a day or two.  Some must be refrigerated.  It all has to be dealt with soon to preserve that freshness.  Any way tomorrow or the next day I will be hauling that much or more back from the garden again.  The harvest doesn't stop and wait for you to deal with what you already harvested.  No.  The garden is a huge growing machine. 

There are piles of green beans, delicious cucumbers, bushels of tomatoes, bags of shelling beans, arms full of herbs.  Did I mention the piles of green beans?  All to eat or preserve as quickly as possible.

The wonderful saying "You can't reap a harvest unless you plant seeds." is so true.  The more seeds you plant the more you can hope to harvest.  Also the busier you will be.  Hahaha

We froze green beans until we had nearly filled the freezer.  I put one load in the dehydrator and we even pickled a batch.  We gave beans away and tried to sell them at a local market.  In years past our beans had a lot of beetle bites and didn't look very nice, but this year they looked wonderful.  Mark sprayed lime on the ground early and again at the beginning of summer.  I also saw a great many toads.

I was trying to decide when to stop harvesting the beans.  When is enough, enough. I picked beans for a dear lady down the road.  She is in her nineties and doesn't look a day over 70.  But she doesn't garden anymore and was thrilled that I would give her the beans.  Late for supper one evening and toting two very large baskets of beans and cucumbers and heading out to get a second load my husband gave me this look.  It was the look that says I'm 'doing something to him'.  I was hoping for a more 'proud of me'
kind of look.  I decided that it was now 'enough'.

I thought about putting a sign out but then I would have to pick more beans.  If you have never picked beans you may not appreciate that thought.  Then a friend came over and picked beans for herself and another family.  I was relieved that I didn't have to put up a 'U-Pick Beans sign'.  Then just like that the beans were over for the year.

I wondered what the nutritional value of green beans is, being that we may be eating a whole lot of them this winter.  I feel especially thankful for the abundance.  The small price of the seeds and the regular workout in the bean patch and such a huge return in produce.  It is mind-blowing.



I looked up green beans on a website: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2341/2 .  Here it says that green beans are a wonderful food, loaded with great vitamins and minerals.  "Good source of protein, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and copper.  Vitamins A, C and K.  Folate and Manganese."  Wow.

Sounds like great, virtually free, packed in there nutrition to me.

Now I feel very lucky to have so many green beans.  I have a lot of other stuff preserved for the colder months too.

So Blessed.

Easter Is A Special Celebration (2013)

Easter morning was overcast
but that didn't stop the crocuses from blooming.

It is the ordinary things in which I find extraordinary pleasure.
Seeing Easter through the eyes of a child.
The mystery, the magic, the hunt.
Going through the door to Spring.



Hunting for eggs before and after Church.

Someone stands behind that door
and it isn't even the Easter Bunny.  (No offense)
It isn't any other than me the mother.
It is a lot of extra work.

Dad found some really tricky places
to hide those eggs.




















But looking with the eyes of a child
the ordinary becomes special and the well known a mystery.
Tying bunnies and chicks and chocolate
to Christ's death and resurrection.



Hand knitted chick.
Pattern from www.knittingfever.com






















It all makes sense when I'm a child.

 



...'because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.'...

Jesus words to God in Matthew 11:25



What if I open an egg and it contains
the fragrant disks of dried banana?
Or dried apple squares?

Or chips of chocolate from a natural chocolate company?

http://www.naturalcandystore.com





Homemade wholewheat sugar cookies
with naturally died icing.  Blackberry,
Raspberry, Orange and Chocolate.



A basket filled with chocolate delights and thoughtful gifts.

Cookies made in shapes
and drenched with fruit flavored and colored sugar icing.




Puzzle pieces hidden in some of the eggs

was a hit.



When you hold on the sweets all year,
(well except for Christmas and Valentines)
then sweets are a special rarity and treasured with glee.

When a treat is really a treat and not an everyday habit
then it really is a treat.



A visit to the cemetery to honor our precious.



Wow, Easter is special.
 

News from the grandchildren far away.
Aren't they beautiful?



Easter is a special celebration.


Celebrating a special Someone, who did a rare thing.

He sacrificed Himself for us so that we can live anew.

No more guilt,
no more shame,
no more sacrificing over and over to make up for our habitual sinning.

Everything is new and we are forgiven,
because of Him, Jesus.
Because He arose.What a reason to celebrate.

I can't think of a better way to celebrate than with chocolate and chicks and bunnies and flowers.
All the new life.
In the eyes of a child.