Showing posts with label Autumn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Autumn. Show all posts

Fall Recipes

2 comments Posted by Kristine at 11/11/2010 05:42:00 AM

© Country Living
The past couple of months have been unexpectedly busy, not affording me time for the usual fall/holiday planning and preparations. With things settling down and cooler weather forecasted for the next week (finally!), I've started searching for some new fall recipes to try. Here's what sounded good:

Sweet
Savory
Beverages

Also, from my newest cookbook, Holiday Fare: Favorite Williamsburg Recipes: Peanut Soup with Cranberry Sauce and Lardoons, Butternut Squash and Pear Pottage, Sugar and Spice Crusted Pork Tenderloins with Red Cabbage and Pear Compote, Gingered Pumpkin Muffins, and Applesauce Buttermilk Biscuits. Yum!

Labels: , ,

St. Cecilia

0 comments Posted by Kristine at 8/22/2010 04:34:00 PM

Feast Day: November 22nd


St. Cecilia by Simon Vouet

Patroness of Music
More than seventeen hundred years ago there lived a little girl whose name was Cecilia. This little girl is now remembered, the world over, for her goodness and her love of music.

Cecilia's mother and father were Roman nobles. They had a beautiful palace in one of the most pleasant parts of Rome. There, in the midst of all that was rich and grand, the child Cecilia was born.

As she grew up, this gentle maiden cared but little for the wealth and grandeur around her. She loved God, and in everything she did she tried to please Him. She sang sweetly and at a very early age made hymns of her own.

She sang these songs to our dear Lord, Jesus Christ. She loved Him so much that she used to carry the story of His life in the folds of her dress so that she might read of Him at any time. Her voice was so sweet that, when she sang, the angels came to listen.

She learned also to play upon the organ, that thus through music she might further show her love for God. She played with so much skill that to this day she is often called the first of organists.

At that time the rulers of Rome did not believe in Christ. They were very cruel to Christians and wished to drive all of them from the city.

For this reason they put to death some of Cecilia's dearest friends and threw others into prison. At last she too was taken and made to stand up before one of the rulers.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Christian is my name," she said, "though I am commonly called Cecilia."

" What gods do you serve? "

" I serve Jesus Christ," was the answer.

Then she was led forth to her death; but she went bravely and without fear, knowing that her Lord was with her.

(From Standard Catholic Readers By Grade, Third Year by Mary Doyle)

Resources


St. Cecilia by Raffaello Sanzio

Purcell; Handel; Haydn: To Saint Cecilia:





Händel: Ouverture (An Ode for St Cecilia's Day):





Ode on St. Cecilia's Day (Vidal) Overture 1/2:


Ode on St. Cecilia's Day (Vidal) Overture 2/2:


Hymn to St. Cecilia (Benjamin Britten):





St. Cecilia by Nicolas Poussin

Labels: ,

November/December Liturgical Plans

0 comments Posted by Kristine at 8/10/2010 07:24:00 AM

NOVEMBER (Dedicated to The Holy Souls)


November 1st: All Saints' Day
November 2nd: All Souls' Day
November 21st: Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
November 22: St. Cecilia
November 27th: Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
DECEMBER (Dedicated to The Divine Infancy)


December 4th: St. Barbara
  • Traditional recipes can be found here.
December 6th: St. Nicholas
December 8th: Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
December 9th: St. Juan Diego / December 12th: Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 13th: St. Lucy
December 16th: Las Posadas

Labels: , ,

El Día de los Muertos

1 comments Posted by Kristine at 8/09/2010 02:03:00 PM


© Guago

Last year I really wanted to have a Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead celebration, but was entirely too disorganized to make it happen. This year, I'm planning early so that I have ample time to collect supplies and get prepared (for one thing, the sugar skull blanks will need to be made well in advance so that they have time to dry.)

Day of the Dead is a traditional Mexican holiday that coincides with All Saints' Day (November 1st) and All Souls' Day (November 2nd). In most regions of Mexico, November 1st, called Día de los Inocentes ("Day of the Innocents") or Día de los Angelitos ("Day of the Little Angels"), honors children and infants. Deceased adults are honored on November 2nd, called Día de los Muertos/Día de los Difuntos ("Day of the Dead"). Some good information about the holiday can be found here, and you can find all things Day of the Dead here (including a 31-page Teacher Packet and videos).

Below are some of my ideas for our celebration. More inspiration can be found at the Día de los Muertos group on Flickr and DIYLife's Day of the Dead Traditions and Projects is extremely thorough.

© From Texas to Mexico

© Flores-Perez

© Coyotbeck
Books
Crafts
Elements
© John3000


Food/Drink

Pan de Muerto © 2Camels

© Vecky22

Labels: , ,

September/October Liturgical Plans

2 comments Posted by Kristine at 8/07/2010 12:19:00 PM

SEPTEMBER (Dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows)

The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin, Albrecht Durer, 1496

September 5th: Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
September 8th: The Nativity of Mary
September 14th: Triumph of the Cross
September 15th: Our Lady of Sorrows
September 17th: St. Hildegard von Bingen
September 23rd: St. Padre Pio
September 29th: Feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael (Archangels)
OCTOBER (Dedicated to the Holy Rosary)

Our Lady of the Rosary Day, Albrecht Durer, 1506
October 1st: St. Thérèse of Lisieux
October 4th: St. Francis of Assisi
October 7th: Our Lady of the Rosary
October 12th: Our Lady of the Pillar
October 13th: Our Lady of Fatima, The Miracle of the Sun
October 15th: St. Teresa of Avila

Labels: ,

Winter Preparations

0 comments Posted by Kristine at 8/05/2010 09:49:00 AM


Our garden was SUCH a flop this year, for the first time ever, so needless to say, I can only dream of having a pantry such as the one described below (from The Country Kitchen by Della T. Lutes). It makes me long for those "simpler" times and is an inspiration to do more (and better!) next year.

"Autumn is here. The blue of October sky grows thick, is filmed with grey. The apples are picked and barrelled, to put in bins. Baldwins, selected for long keeping, Northern Spies, Greenings, Jonathans, Seek-No-Furthers, Russets, Gillyflowers, in the bins for more immediate use, or, if the cellar is unsafe in coldest weather, in the apple pit outside. Lovely names, incomparable fruit. Cider and vinegar barrels are full. ---

Cellar and pantry are stocked. There is a barrel of wheat flour in the latter, at least a twenty-five-pound sack of white sugar, with as much of brown, and a sack of buckwheat flour, with another of corn meal. When these are used up we shall go to the mill. There is molasses in a big jug, and coffee, tea, and other groceries on the shelves. And the bean barrel - we must not forget the bean barrel, for it plays no inconsiderable part in the winter diet.

In the cellar, besides the bins of apples and potatoes, the piles of squash, turnips, and cabbage lying on the uncovered ground, there are cupboards and shelves full of canned and preserved fruits. Perhaps a pan of broken honeycomb, for my father always kept a few hives of bees.

My mother (as did all her contemporaries) began this preparation for winter with the strawberry crop. When the best and heaviest pickings were over - those that brought the best price - the preserving began, until there were dozens of glasses standing in back in a dark corner in order that the delicate colour might not fade.

Following the strawberries came raspberries - 'rawsberries,' we called them - black caps, and red, also transmuted into jam to be eaten on freshly baked bread for supper or used in tarts; gooseberries for a 'fool' or to be served with game; currants - many, many glasses of jelly, for this makes the best jelly roll, and is the best accompaniment to the chickens, turkey, or game dinner.

Jars of cherries, plums, pears, peaches, and small stone crocks opulen and fragrant with preserves: citron, quince, gingered pears.

And pickles! No end of pickles. First of all there was a barrel of cucumbers preserved in brine. These would be taken out as needed, freshed in cold water, and then soured in spiced vinegar. There were crocks of sweet pickles, mustard pickles, chowchow, piccalilli, watermelon rind. Bottles of catsup - chili sauce. ---

In the attic were bags of nuts, strings of peppers, and bunches of herbs - sage and savoury, as well as those of medicinal nature. And dried apples in some! Ah how pungent was the air, how teasing at every turn was the odour of this provident brewing during all the days of summer and fall. How infinitely satisfactory to the housewifely eye was this cumulative show of conserved surplus, this prescient gratification of anticipated need, this lavish prospicience to individual and family appetite.

Not the cleverness of a well-turned verse, nor the glut of colour in a glowing canvas, can more fully slake the thirst of creeation that does this rich provision for her family's needs satisfy the true home lover. And as a remedy for boredom, ennui, or a flagging spirit, I can recommend nothing more salutary than a garden for production and a cellar for preservation of its harvest."

Labels: , , ,

Fall Preparations

0 comments Posted by Kristine at 10/08/2009 12:31:00 PM

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn
sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all
the daylight hours in the open air." -- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Have I mentioned how much I love fall?! It is, hands down, my favorite season. The weather this year, in particular, has been SO lovely - it really is impossible to stay indoors. We've been especially busy as a result (hence the lack of posting).

Outdoors:

  • We built a fabulous wild bird feeding station! Using a 4'x'4'x8' post and a 2'x4' cut down for cross beams, it holds four large bird feeders easily.
  • This week will be our final harvest in the garden since the temperature is expected to dip below freezing this weekend (with possible snow!).
  • We'll be pulling everything out of the garden, tilling the soil, and spreading manure in preparation for next spring.
  • Some of our herbs will be potted up for a move indoors during the winter, others will be harvested and dried for future use.
  • We've been planting apple trees! It started with two trees: a Red Delicious and a Granny Smith that we planted in honor of Johnny Appleseed's birthday. Now I've got an order placed for some additional [heirloom] trees, with plans for small orchard in what is currently our back field.
  • The large front flower beds have been weeded and new plantings added. We've done some additional landscaping work around the house, taking advantage of the fall sales on plants and shrubs.
  • We started a large raspberry patch that includes 'Fall Red' and 'Heritage' raspberries. I'll be adding a few 'Fall Gold' raspberry plants this spring.
  • We're preparing a large gooseberry and currant patch, as well as a trial blueberry/huckleberry/lingonberry patch. I've got plants on the way and will need to get them in the ground and mulched ASAP!
  • We ordered our winter's supply of firewood to be delivered.

Indoors:

  • The cooler weather seems to have brought out a serious nesting instinct in me this year. I've been doing some much needed deep cleaning and purging the house of all unnecessary clutter.
  • Stocking up has been on my mind a lot lately as well. This weekend I'll be re-organizing our pantry and baking cabinet and making a list of what items need to be replinished.
  • Laundry has been all-consuming these days. Winter bedding and blankets are being washed, summer clothes put away and winter clothes brought out from storage.
  • It's time to start thinking about Christmas shopping, yikes...

School has been bare bones these days, only the basics. I simply don't have time (or energy) to cover all of the extras I'd so carefully planned for. While I'm a little sad about that, I've also realized that it's a necessity right now. The kids are still learning plenty, and it's not a "forever" change.

Labels: ,

Friday Nature Walk

0 comments Posted by Kristine at 9/28/2009 03:04:00 PM

For last Friday's nature walk we decided to re-visit Pawnee Prairie Park, since we'd never seen it not flooded. We had a nice but rather uneventful walk...and fortunately we left just in time as yet another thunderstorm was looming!





















Labels: , , , ,

A Nature Walk Adventure

0 comments Posted by Kristine at 9/15/2009 06:54:00 PM

Last week, three of the kids and I went for an impromptu nature walk at Pawnee Prairie Park, a local nature preserve. Though we've lived in Kansas for nearly eight years now, somehow I'd never heard of this park until a couple of weeks ago. Someone on a local e-mail list had raved about the abundance of sunflowers in bloom there, so I knew we had to check it out!

Unfortunately, my timing could not have been worse. We were hit with excessive amounts of rain for most of last week, and while there was some flooding in town, it never occurred to me that the park might be flooded as well.

Just a few minutes into our walk, we encountered water.

Because it only appeared to be ankle-deep, I wasn't overly alarmed and decided that we should press on...surely dry land was only around the bend, right?

The sunflowers were beautiful...

The twins enjoyed playing in the water entirely too much, while Maddie and I were decidedly less thrilled.

Finally we got to some semi-dry land.

And then just a little further, we came to this...At this point, Maddie and I were begging the boys to turn around so that we could go back to the car. They didn't listen, so we had no choice but to cautiously follow them. The current was fairly strong at one point and it was hard to keep our footing on the concrete path below (a path we couldn't even see!).

This was our view from the bridge (a much swollen Cowskin Creek!):

Once over the bridge, we encountered a meadow - and more flooding. We followed one of the trails for a few yards before I insisted that we turn around and go home. There was water in every direction and at times it was hard to tell where the creek had been originally, it was very disorienting and a little alarming!

On our way out of the park, we saw some fresh deer tracks:

And that was the end of our adventure - one hour, LOTS of water, and three soaked kids later, I was happy to be done with it!

I must say, I cannot wait to get back to the park for another nature walk - the little that we saw was quite beautiful. This time, however, I will be sure to wait until everything has dried out completely!

Labels: , , ,

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)