Overnight Trip and Sweetsome Sundays...

For most people, an overnight trip to a town four hours away for a garden convention isn't much to get excited about.  For me, it's a sign of how far I've come since I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, mercury poisoning, Hashimotos, and adrenal fatigue.  Three years ago, even last year, a trip like this would have been a MAJOR stress starting  three weeks in advance, with much misery and doubt about whether or not I could handle everything.  Now, even without getting a good night's rest at all last week, having to run and hide from a tornado in a freezing, moldy, and spooky basement, and having to watch The Ten Commandments (have I ever expressed my loathing of anything connected with Charlton Heston? Let's just say this was a perfect lenten penance...), I am tolerably confident I will survive this trip.  Especially since Mom brought bubble gum.

The convention was actually kind of fun; I ran the checkout station (I always feel like Fitz from Agents of Shield when I use our tablet) and got to meet a lot of people, many of whom have been customers of ours for years.  It was lovely hearing about their gardens and answering their questions...actually my brother answered most of the questions, he's much more informed about these things than I am =).

Since we drove, I was able to get caught up on lots of reading and research I've been meaning to do, switching back in forth from book to phone as I gained and lost Internet connection.  I've been interested in making my own makeup for awhile and needed to plan out our Easter dinner (especially since our parish priest may be coming), so all the time stuck in the back of the suburban (I''m now officially the shortest person in the family, so I get the seat with the least amount of leg-room; in other words I had to sit on my feet the whole way =)) was put to good use.  Conveniently enough, there was a Whole Foods and a Natural Grocers right down the road from our hotel and we were able to have a nice salmon and shrimp dinner in our room Friday night.

We were all pretty exhausted when we got home but everyone had a great time and the high speed internet at the convention definitely came in handy.  Mom has had some health summit talks that we've needed to download for a few weeks and my brothers downloaded all the Agents of Shield episodes we have missed during Lent so we can watch them after Easter.  My little brother was in near ecstasy when we got home and found his drone had come in the mail while we were gone...he's been waiting for it to come in for over a month now.  Our doberman is about to have a nervous breakdown from being chased around the house, and the chickens think it's a chicken hawk, but it's already provided a lot of entertainment and fun.   Now that we're back home we're busy preparing our garden for planting and working on finishing up our Lent well.  Last year I did NOT prepare for our Easter dinner, and it wasn't a very festive meal, but this year things are going to be different.  We shall feast on artichoke stuffed lamb, marmalade glazed ham, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and Creme Brulee...so let it be written, so let it be done! (Booonnnnngggg...I love saying that quote; all I need is someone to hit a gong when I say it).

We found all of our flowers have started blooming in our yard...somehow they always seem to bloom right before Easter...

Lately we have been just picking up ice cream for our "Sunday Treat", so I'm going to share the recipe for the cake my brother made for the feast of St. Benedict.  There was some mis-communication about the sweetener, so ours ended up tasting like incredibly buttery cornbread with cream cheese icing...but oh my goodness, it was soooooo delicious.  I just might have him always make it without the sugar...
I got this recipe from Satisfying Eats.

Italian Cream Cake

Cake

3 cups blanched almond flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. Organic Trader Joe's Stevia or sweetener of choice, to taste
1-1/2 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut**
2 tbsp. pure vanilla extract (or homemade)
8 large eggs
3/4 cup unsalted butter or ghee, melted
1 cup sour cream, heavy cream or pure coconut milk
2 cups chopped pecans

**I used shredded coconut which is very fine for one cake. I also used coconut flakes or coconut chips that I had slightly processed in a food processor to make them smaller, more like shredded coconut, for the second test batch. Both worked well. 

Cream Cheese Frosting
(2) 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp. Organic Trader Joe's Stevia or sweetener of choice, to taste
1 tbsp. raw honey (optional)

instructions

Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of (2) 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper to prevent cake from sticking.

In a large bowl, add the dry ingredients. Blend well with a whisk to break up any lumps. To the same bowl, add the remaining ingredients and stir. Taste for sweetness and adjust if needed.

Divide batter between the two lined pans, being sure to spread the batter evenly. Bake for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Once cakes are done, let cool in pans 5 minutes and then run a butter knife along the edge of the cake and invert onto a cooling rack. Allow cake to completely cool. While cake is cooling, prepare frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

In a large bowl, blend cream cheese until smooth using a hand mixer. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until frosting is thick and smooth. Taste for sweetness and adjust if needed.
Frost cooled cake with frosting.

notes
Nutrition: 333 Calories, 31 grams Fat, 7.1 Total Carbs, 2.7 grams Fiber, 4.4 Net Carbs, 7 grams Protein 

 I hope you all have a very Blessed Holy Week and Easter! On Good Friday I'm going to try a new Hot Cross Buns recipe I made up, and if I have time I'll post the recipe and some pictures for your benefit.  If it turns out edible, of course. =)

Just For Fun...

In my opinion, people don't have enough fun.  And by fun I don't mean doing something bad/stupid/immature for a temporary thrill like the world defines as being fun.  My definition of fun is doing something morally permissible, slightly crazy, and that makes you feel alive.  I was thinking of this when I was playing frisbee with my friends on St. Patrick's Day (actually I hadn't officially started playing yet, I was mainly trying to dodge the *THREE* frisbees that were flying in all directions); even though I was doing nothing but avoiding de-capitation, I was having some serious fun.

A few days later my little brother and I biked to Vespers with some friends...I hadn't biked that far in years, it was all uphill on the way home (including one seemingly never-ending hill that went nearly straight up), it was getting dark, and my friend wasn't doing much better than I was.  Our brothers were far ahead of us and we were still dragging our bikes up that blasted hill, we could hardly breathe, and yet we were laughing and having fun.  On the internet I am constantly seeing phrases like "Just do it", "YOLO", and "Cuz it's fun", and I wonder how many of these people have ever experienced real fun.  I think there would be a huge decrease of stupid actions in our world if some of these people would try sledding down a steep curvy hill in the middle of a blizzard, building a fort out of brush in the woods, or tying a smoke bomb to the tail feathers of a chicken once in awhile, just to mention a few ideas.  

What really gets me is when girls and young ladies seem to believe the only permissible fun for them to have cannot exist beyond novel reading, tea drinking, or their embroidery.  These are all lovely things, but to be honest, they're not really fun.  I have known girls like this who believe any physical exertion is masculine and un-ladylike. When I meet people like this, I just want to scream "OUR LORD DID NOT CREATE US TO BE CHINA DOLLS!!!" He created us to be His warriors and ministers to the world, to be useful members of His Mystical Body, the Holy Catholic Church.  He has given us wonderful bodies to live in and he wants us to take care of them.  One of the best ways to do this is be fit and strong. You don't have to work out every day, or lift weights, just go outside and play for a little while! Not only does this make you physically stronger, it puts you in a better mood.  And don't feel like because you're a girl you can't play with the boys (disclaimer; I am by no means suggesting that you go roughhouse with your brothers and their friends...be active and play, but in a ladylike and feminine manner.  And if the game does start getting too rough, learn to gracefully step aside).  One of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen was a couple of novices from our convent having a snowball fight in full habit with my two brothers (and winning, actually).

There are some games which ladies shouldn't join in, like football for example, but there are many fun, active, outdoor games that are perfectly alright to play.  And you don't have to be good at it (personally, I couldn't catch a frisbee to save my life =)); sometimes the most  fun you have comes from laughing at yourself.  On the other hand, life is not all about having fun.  There is a time and place for everything.  I always found it interesting that in the rule of St. Benedict (and most other religious orders, to the best of my knowledge) there is a specific time set aside for recreation, a.k.a. fun.  Our monks go for a long walk together every Thursday, and on the other days of the week they do anything from play soccer, have nerf gun fights (a Christmas gift from our nuns =)), to snowball fights, to hosting plays for Father Abbot and any visitors staying with them.  I always laugh when I hear people say religious don't have fun and are always serious and morbid.  Our Benedictine monks are pretty cloistered, and they certainly know how to be serious and contemplative, but at the same time they certainly know how to have fun.  Life is a precious gift, and God wants us to live it joyfully, even through the trials and sorrows we can never escape.

What Do You Do For Fun? 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

This is the week everyone in our community looks forward to during Lent.  A sort of break in the rigorous fasting and abstinence, you might say.  First there's St. Patrick's day, then St. Joseph's, St. Benedict's, and finally the feast of the Annunciation; all very big feasts for us.  I've been rather busy for the past few days planning our annual St. Patrick's Day Party so I was unable to publish my usual "Sweetsome Sundays" post. Instead, here are some pictures from the party, and a recipe for the delicious corned beef my mom made...

I decorated the house with sparkly shamrocks and green and white tulle the day before and put together a couple of apple pies ( this was slightly impromptu...our cooler started freezing everything inside last Sunday, so we had an excess of green apples that needed to be used up as quickly as possible =)) so they'd be ready to put in the oven on the day of the party.  The apple slices were slightly mushy, but it worked great for the pie and no one knew the difference.

We FINALLY got our very own St Patrick statue...

The day of the party we got up early to go to low Mass at the Abbey...when we got back home we started baking, cleaning, touching up the decorations, and making guacamole.

Everyone brought a dessert and a side dish...there was so much food one of the little boys just stood staring at the table with his mouth open for several minutes.

We had a rather diverse age range of youth attending-from one years old to twenty-three, and everyone was able to mingle and have fun together.

Of course the punch was very popular...

After dinner we all headed outside to jump on the trampoline and play Frisbee.  Some of the dads even joined in and we played until it was too dark to see the frisbees anymore.  Then me and some friends went to the barn for an incredibly competitive game of pool...those not playing separated into teams and cheered the players on.  Everyone said they had a wonderful time and the younger kids all wanted to know if we could do it again next week.  There were several injuries sustained by one of the younger boys including a bloody nose, several whacks on the head from the frisbee, a sore neck from being throttled by his brother during a wrestling match, a burn on his hand from sliding across the trampoline, and several bruises from two other boys falling on top of him, but he was a real champ about it and was reasonably consoled by a bowl of ice cream. =)

Corned Beef

We bought our meat ready to cook from Whole Foods...I found instructions online for starting at the very beginning of the process, but it was way to complicated for me to do in the amount of time I had. =)

You Will Need:

A cast iron pot with a lid

Filtered water

Ready to cook Corned Beef

Preheat oven to 275 Fahrenheit.  Place meat in cast iron pot and put in oven.  Cook for six hours.  When done, remove and slice.  The meat may look under cooked, but trust me, it's done.  This is delicious right out of the oven, or cold the next day.  Enjoy!

How Was Your St. Patrick's Day?

Weekly Rounup...

What I Liked...

...helping at the annual convent/abbey workday

...reading about life in Goa, India...I know where I want to live one day

...coconut milk ice cream on Sundays

...listening to Father Issac Relyea's mission on the Four Last Things...you can listen to it here

...helping a one-year-old little boy build a lego train...after we built it we would ram it into walls and look at each other with shocked expressions =)

...winning at pool against my brothers and my friend, even though I haven't played in months

...a sudden brilliant inspiration for my Easter dress

...learning that Saturday, the fourteenth of March, at 9:26:53, was "Pie Day" ( 3/14/15 9:26:53)...and we got a picture so we'd never forget =)

...getting back in touch with an old friend

What I Didn't...

...seeing my best friend and I in a mirror for the first time in months and suddenly realizing I am now a full head and shoulders shorter than her

...cleaning the floor of the convent chapel till it shined...and then a couple construction workers walking in with muddy boots

...the state of the ground outside our house right now...icky, sticky, muddy goosh

...the mail man not delivering my ThredUp package...though I KNOW it's been sitting at the post office since Friday...

...daylight savings time ruining my whole week

What Made Me Laugh...

...the many different responses of the boys I helped serve lunch too at the workday...you have the shy ones-"Thanks."-who don't even look at you, the cowboys-"Thank ye, ma'am."- who tip their hats, the friendly ones-"Oh man, food.  Thank you so much; you girls are awesome!"-who have more food on their plate than I and my friends could eat in a week, and the little boys under ten-"Yes, please!"

...walking my bike up a very long, very steep, and rather exhausting hill and being passed by multiple cars with the passengers yelling out encouragement as I went

...being made the "Responsible Adult" to accompany my underage (almost 17 yo) friend and her little brother to the workday

What I Accomplished...

...learning to play "Little House" by Amanda Seyfreid on my guitar

...working in every single group at the convent...polishing candle sticks, cleaning the altar cloths, sweeping and mopping the floors, polishing the furniture, dusting, laundry, garden work and lunch...

...cleaning out my closet...and I mean a GOOD clean-out.  I'm talking a jumbo-sized garbage bag of clothes for Salvation Army...

From the Kitchen..."Sweetsome Sundays"

Okay, so today I don't have a recipe for what I made for our Sunday treat this week.  Lets just say that I have learned you can't make fried donuts when you don't have any yeast or sugar, and you certainly can't make lemon curd without eggs...annnnnddd don't ever try replacing the eggs in lemon curd with arrowroot powder.  It produces a sticky, gooey, whitish mess that no one wants eat except your little brother...and then only if it's covered with maple syrup.
Luckily, Mom had bought some candies at Natural Grocers a few weeks ago and we picked up some ice cream on the way home from Mass, so we were still able to enjoy something sweet for Sunday after all.
Note to self: make sure you have all the ingredients BEFORE you start mixing everything together.  =)

Please excuse lighting in these photos...=)

Weekly Roundup...

What I Liked...

...roaring fires when it's 16 degrees outside

...the astonishing amount of money I save at ThredUp (click the link for ten dollars credit and free shipping!)

...babysitting a little girl and showing her my box of dress-up clothes from when I was little...her reaction to every dress: "It's soooo pwetty!!!"

...finally being able to use our new sleds...yep, they work just fine =)

...starting Father Fabers "Sermons on Kindness"...very humbling

...finding out my personality type through the Myers-Briggs test...I'm INFJ apparently, the rarest type.

...planning our annual St. Patrick's Day party

...our latest batch of homemade kombucha...it seems we've finally perfected our recipe

What I Didn't...

...more snow and winter weather for the next week...I'm so ready for Spring

...getting a handful of snow smashed on my face by my brother's friend...grrrrrr...sometimes its hard to remember you're an adult and can't completely pulverize someone every time you feel like it

...getting flat tires regularly

...not sleeping again

...being dared to go down the hill on my friend's sled, snowboard style...annnnnddd falling flat on my face after staying on for approximately two seconds.  And the fact my friend made it the whole way down the hill without falling once...

What Made Me Laugh...

...a neighbor knowing ahead of time when her boyfriend was going to propose because her dad couldn't keep it a secret

...our dog Lottie's mournful face when it started snowing again

...our cat using all the other cats as a bed to sleep on

...trying to sled down our friend's huge sled hill on the "super-fast-sled"...it would have been more fun if the sled hadn't started two seconds before I got on...

...Blimey Cow's "Why I Kinda Hate Black Friday" video

...how the same birds seem to return to our yard every year...and they have gotten unbelievably fat 

What I Accomplished...

...making the "perfect biscuit"

...getting caught up on all my reading...now I just need to get caught up on my health studies

...parking the suburban perfectly...I've been driving for over two years now and finally managed to park straight =p

...learning to do the "Cups" from "When I'm Gone"...the only person it impressed was my little brother's friend

How Was Your Week?

From The Kitchen..."Sweetsome Sundays"

Chocolate Chip Brownies

3/4 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp baking soda

2/3 cup butter, melted and divided

1/2 cup boiling water

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/3 cup almond flower

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups chocolate chips/chunks

1. Heat oven to 350 Degrees F.  Grease a 13x9x2 baking pan

2. Mix cocoa, baking soda, and 1/3 cup of butter together in a mixing bowl.  Add water and stir till thickened.  Add sugar, eggs, and remaining butter and mix thoroughly.  Add remaining ingredients and fold in chips/chunks.  Pour into prepared pan.

3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until brownies pull away from sides of pan.  Let cool before enjoying.

 

My brother made these for our Sunday treat because I wasn't feeling well.  He also drizzled caramel on the top...mmmm... And, no, poor Skye didn't get any, though she asked very nicely.

How Was Your Sunday?