Small Success Thursday...on Thursday!

Will wonders never cease? 

It helps that I'm home sick today.  I can do three things. Groan, sleep and occasionally comment on something in social media. 

However, if I don't post SST today, it won't be because I didn't have time, only a lack of will.   Here's today's Small Success Thursday.  There are times when I think about stopping this weekly exercise of counting one's blessings.  It doesn't seem to generate much of a written response. 

Part of me, the egotistical part, wants that affirmation.  But as I told my mom recently, too much affirmation for me, is like alcohol.  I get spiritually drunk on it, and fail to keep growing.  Simcha Fisher wrote a great piece,  there's a value in the waiting to be healed, even if we do not fully recognize it, and I knew, that's what I feel sometimes when there aren't many responses to Small Success Thursday.  Where is everyone?  Isn't a sign of the Holy Spirit, community?  Am I just tooting my own horn? Does it come across as me bragging about my life? Does it come across as smug about reality?  Which lead to the question...why do you do this?  For yourself?  If so, why? 

I write it to keep track of life, to remember all the good that happens,  even when battling a stomach bug.   I write it to remind myself, all of life is a gift, and that even suffering, while not "fixable," is redeemable.   (To quote another wise woman, Leticia Adams).  God redeems our suffering, which is very different from fixing it.  However, that redemption requires one key element, our cooperation.    When you spend the day in bed, cooperation seems like a bit much to ask.  My sufferings are nothing compared to anyone else's, but I'm just as willing to whine at God, "Fix this." over the small things as the big.  I'm very good at nagging God. 

Then I read Pope Francis' work a Letter Placuit Deo To the Bishops of the Catholic Church On Certain Aspects of Christian Salvation.  Pope Francis takes on the two modern heresies which are merely repackaging of two of the oldest,  Pelagianism and Gnosticism. 

Most of us have a cursory knowledge of the second one.  The body is innately bad, and all redepmtion is a spiritual act, a divorcing of the soul from the body.  If so, there would be no need of the ressurection. Why trouble us with new bodies, if bodies are themselves, unnecessary and innately of no worth.  Why become man if being man were not necessary.  God could have shown himself as a giant head, like in that horrible movie Startrek V, and the question would be, "What does God need with a starship/body?" Answer, nothing at all if gnosticism is true.   Fortunately, it's not true even if right now, I know my body feels bad and I'd personally like a divorce for as long as it feels this way. 

Which brings us to the second heresy.  Being sick has an advantage in terms of insight. I cannot will myself better. I can only wait and work towards being well.  But I cannot make myself healed no matter how much I wish it. Pelagianism asserts we can (absent God's grace) be good, be whole, be who we are called to be.  I've only begun to delve into the piece by the Pope, and can barely spell the term without double checking, but I do get the good person who does not believe in God, does not know they receive God's grace.  They receive it nontheless because God loves all his children and wants them to know through all the graces of life, His love.  He's pouring out all the graces of the Universe in an attempt to win over each of our hearts. 

So I go back to the question...and the answer is of course, I will write SST, if only to remind myself to be grateful to God for everything.  (I'll still ask God, could you make me better soon please, this is not fun).   

One of These Days, I'll Listen to My Mother

When I was a teenager, I liked baking.  I didn't like reading directions.  Ergo, I ushered in an era of suffering in my family's household, enduring my attempts to make chocolate cake.  These cakes became known as Sherry's famous crumble cakes, for most of them either looked like a disaster or tasted like one until you coated it with enough frosting.

My mother would ask, "Did you read the directions?"  She already knew the answer, "Sort of."

My mom is full of good habits that would make life so much easier if I just did them with any consistency.   She drops other helpful hints like, "Did you make a list?" when I complain about how much I have to do or, "Did you put it up where it is supposed to be?" when I'm feeling so frustrated about my wandering shoes...keys...phone...purse...and the answer to both of those question would be, "No.  If I had, I wouldn't be looking for said items now."

These days, I am the mother. I am asking the same questions of my offspring my mother asked me. The results are equally revealing.  Yesterday got away from me.  I asked myself the question.  "Did I make a list?"  The calendar says..."No. This page is mysteriously blank. Nothing happened today."  and the calendar feels like it is correct. It isn't, but it feels that way because I wrote nothing down.

Likewise, I've discovered over the years, if I make a menu, it makes life and dinner planning easier.  I know this, I've proven it many many many times.  Is there a menu on my refrigerator detailing the plan?  No.  There is not.  Why is there not?  Because I am a stubborn person who for some reason thinks the think system would actually work despite decades of proof to the contrary.

So today, when Simcha restarted her "What's for Dinner?" post, I opted to participate, to make my menu for the upcoming week through this exercise.  I may ask her to start a "Post your To Do list for the week" on Monday, so I can at least have a hint of target practice for what I hope to accomplish in the coming week.

Friday September 2nd

Pancakes/waffles are delicious.  It's what's for dinner. Why?  Because it's Friday, which is either pizza or pancakes

Saturday September 3rd

BBQ Brisket, tomato salad, cucumbers, french fries.  We cook it on the grill, I make my own rub, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup kosher salt, 1/4 cup black pepper 1/8 cup white pepper, 1/8 cup paprika, 1 tablespoon ground red pepper.  Coat the meat, brown fat side down for 30 minutes, wrap in foil, cook on low heat until you cannot stand it one more second.

Sunday September 4th

Hamburgers, salad, corn, yellow cake, chocolate frosting

Monday September 5th

Pasta, home made red sauce, sausages, salad, french bread

Tuesday September 6th

Chicago Dogs, sweet potato fries, cucumber salad, carrots, corn on the cob.

Wednesday September 7th

Pork Medallions with honey/soy, green beans, quinoa and pita bread

Thursday September 8th

We found this recipe last week courtesy of the Pioneer Woman. It is easy, it is delicious and it uses up the left over tomatoes when you've gotten tired (not sick) of Caprese Salad.   

Slice up 2 onions.
Saute in a pan with three tablespoons of butter for about 25 minutes or until caramelized.
Pour all the oniony goodness into two frozen pie crusts.
Preheat oven to 450.
Wash and slice tomatoes or use cherry tomatoes and cover onions.
Grate two cups of cheese. Mozzerella, fonina, Parmesean, all good, but it should total 2 cups.  Cover the tomatoes.  Beat one egg and mix with 1/4 cup of milk.  Mix. Pour half of the milk/egg mixture into one pie crust and the rest into the other.
Put the pies on a cookie sheet, Bake for 15-20 minutes or until everything is melted and set.
Garnish with chopped basil, salt and pepper.
It is good hot. It is good cold.  It is just yummy tomato goodness.



It also looks really showy and didn't require more than an hour of work.

Tomato Pie --we need to finish off the old tomatoes and spinach salad, and for the ones who don't like Tomato pie, dipping dinner...chicken nuggets, french fries, carrots, apple slices and broccoli.

I'll try to be more experimental next week.  If you want other inspiration, check out Simcha's blog.  I need to locate Sir Kentland's Ketchup if I want to make my meatloaf recipe.

Connecting the Dots with Mark Shea

Mark Shea runs a podcast radio program through Breadbox Media called "Connecting the Dots."  He's graciously offered me the opportunity to be his guest on Mondays.

If you'd like to listen to the first one, complete with Simcha Fisher's final podcast and the telling of the Duck Joke, click here! 

Download the app for your smart phone and I'll be on next Monday at 5 o'clock.  Thank you Mark and Simcha!  It was loads of fun.

A Tale of Two Stories

Simcha Fisher wrote a great piece yesterday about expecting their youngest, Corrie.  The article triggered a lot of memories of our own experience of Paul, which turned into my post over at Aleteia today, Down Syndrome and God's Delivery System.  Please go read, share, like and leave a comment.

Thank you!

What's For Supper?

We do Christmas.  We do food.  I've done the math and when all twelve are at home, there are 252 meals served on any given week.  There are days this is not hard...bagels, oj and bacon.....hot dogs, french fries and carrots and cucumbers...and dinner...pasta, salad, meatballs, sauce.   And, there are days, it's not so easy.

Every New Year's, we toast the old and welcome the new with a steak and lobster tradition, token vegetables like broccoli and asparagus, and desserts, lots of desserts.   After fixing steak and lobster, I'm needing down time from the kitchen.  Today is feast of The Solemnity of Mary and we made it to the ten o'clock.   All twelve at the ten o'clock on time.  I'm thinking, not bad.  Pretty good way to start the new year.

Monsignor Brennan came over to me and asked, "How's your french?"  The answer?  Bad.  As in, it wasn't good when it was fresh and new either.  Never got beyond a B- after my first year and I think Sr. Emily took pity on me with that B.

I knew I was hearing the Our Father.

Upshot of all this?  My eight year old asked, "Can we have French Toast?"
Oui.   The thing about french toast in my house, I can use 12 eggs, a quart of milk and two loaves of bread.  It's never quite enough.

However, they loved it, and no leftovers.  No crumbs even.

As for the rest of the week, let's eat! MEMO: No special diets. If you want a special diet at our house, you can make your own if you clean up.  Ergo, No special diets.

Friday: Hamburgers and french fries, carrots, salad.
Saturday: Double Baked Chickens, potatoes, green beans
Sunday: Roasted Pork, salad, crescent rolls, roasted veggies.
Monday:  Pasta, red sauce, salad
Tuesday: Hot Dogs, beans, corn, cucumber salad
Wednesday: sausages, potatoes, green beans, sauteed onions, peppers.
Thursday: Pasta, meatballs, sauce, salad.

What's For Supper?

That day I bought a waffle maker and bragged about planning to make waffles....we ordered pizza.  I'm such a fraud.   But tonight, waffles are on the menu because the pork shoulder I planned to make is currently defrosting.

So Friday night, is waffle night, no waffling on dinner, just waffles for dinner.  I'll even throw in some bacon for those who like it.

Saturday...the pork shoulder should be defrosted.

That sucker is getting patted down, coated with a sheen of cooking oil, rubbed with brown sugar, kosher salt, black and white pepper, paprika and put in a slow cooker. Then I'm adding two cans of beer and letting it sit all day.

Saturday evening, when we've recovered from the field hockey practice, the cross country meet and before we tackle the Sunday obligations of sitting to sell tickets for the Saint Martin's 90th, mass for all ten of us, and the cross country meet for the Rita, Regina, John and Faith (at noon in Laurel), we will sit down to pulled pork sandwiches, tomato salad or Caesar --their pick, carrots, and french fries.

I shred the pork in a new pan, and take 2 cups of the drippings and add them to a bottle of BBQ sauce.  (Whatever kind you like).  Stir well while heating.  Then slosh the meat and make into sandwiches. Serve each child who likes it, and give them a roll of paper towels for clean up.  Any child who doesn't like it, hand a bowl of cheerios and pray for their souls.  

Sunday has become the Pasta night of the week, with a homemade sauce as long as the tomatoes hold out. I already gave that recipe here.  

Monday: I am liking this planning out the dinner menu...so I'm going to say we're doing hot dogs and hamburgers with french fries and carrots and cucumbers tonight.  Maybe watermelon for dessert.

Tuesday: Soup's on!  I love making soup in the slow cooker and even better, the kids eat it.

What do you need?   TIME....in the morning, before ten o'clock...

A slow cooker.
A piece of stew meat or roast. (I cut it up).
garlic

olive oil

onions (2)

celery (3)

potatoes (4)

carrots (5) 

bag of frozen peas --small.
box of chicken stock 

1 cup of red wine.

1 can stewed tomatoes or diced, preferably large.

1 can pureed tomatoes --large.  

bay leaf

salt and pepper

cooking oil

1) in a skillet, brown the meat.  Transfer to slow cooker.
2) chop up all the vegetables.  Add to slow cooker.

3) saute the garlic in olive oil.  Add to slow cooker.

4) pour in tomatoes, stock, wine and if need be, a cup of water into slow cooker, so everything is covered.

5) crush bay leaf, add to slow cooker.  

6) Add a handful of salt and pepper and the frozen peas. 

7) Most important step...turn on slow cooker.

Cook all day, serve with a salad and french bread.  They eat it.  And for the wimps, I make a pot of pasta and pour it over it and call it sauce.  

Wednesday

I made a nice meal yesterday...what do you mean you want me to do it again today?   They don't have school today so I'm going to make something that makes my life easy.   Meatloaf!  

Again, half the kids like it, half don't.  

Now I make my meatloaf with ketchup as a topper, specifically, the best we ever got was Sir Kensington Ketchup, which is only found in New York. I don't know how we got it the one time we got it, but I've been on the hunt ever since for it, and have had to substitute other ketchups,   The kids who like the meatloaf, have complained that they miss Sir Kensington.   So I've ordered some....

Otherwise, it's meatloaf.  Meat, breadcrumbs, onion, eggs, milk, ketchup, mix.  Form into a loaf. Cover top with more of the Kensington Ketchup.  Put foil over top.  Cook for 1 hour at 325.  Check. Uncover and cook another ten minutes at 425 to crisp the top.

Serve with bread and green beans.

Thursday

Chicken...it's what's for dinner.   But the kids are getting tired of fiejtas. (The horror).   

So I've got to do something different to make it interesting to them again.  Last week I tried panko breadcrumbs --breading the chicken...and that earned universal thumbs down. 

I remain undeterred.  

The kids need newness on the menu.  So this week....we're making schwarma.  I'll serve cucumbers and white rice on the side but they eat pita and narn bread so putting it together shouldn't freak out anyone.  I'm also going to pulse the black olives into a paste, which makes it more kid friendly than looking at one of those olives and thinking...she wants me to eat this?   I'm also preparing for a lot of quotes of Tony Stark.    

Happy week...happy eating....I'll let you know how the schwarma works out. 

The Mother of All Linky Posts!

Hosted by This Ain't The Lyceum

1.  Today is September 11th.  Everyone has a story of that day back in 2001.  It's a dull ache this fourteen years later, but when you see the pictures of the before and the after, the knife of it comes back.   So hug your family today, and stop and breathe deep the air of this country. We're free. We have our fights and our problems to be sure, but we have the gift of this day, and so many on that day, don't.   

2.  This was unexpected.  But it's lovely to see, lovely to hear, and gives me great hope, and I say that as someone who has never voted for Joe Biden.  Hearing two men on prime television during popular time, talk about suffering, death, and their faith, felt so natural and normal, and yet it isn't, so let yourself enjoy this clip.  I will be watching more of Stephen Colbert in part because of this sort of surprise. 

 

3. I didn't link up yesterday to Small Success Thursday, in part because yesterday was it's meeting day. I had meetings in the morning and the evening.  So if you need a break, stop and count your blessings.

\\

4.  NEWS FLASH...I am considering a smart phone.  This seems as good a time as will ever come to dust off this published gem, "Imprisoned Without a Cell to Speak of" from my past.

Monday, I spent two hours at the same store.  They were nicer. They told me I should not buy from the store, but buy online.   They are gentler.  I wish they told me that two hours ago.

They are still woefully irritating when it comes to selling me what I want, and getting to it sooner than never.   That being said, I may soon succumb to the need to get a new phone, or take up letter writing.

5.   Happy Birthday Paul!  

My son turns seven next week.  It does not seem like seven years have passed.  He's happier than the picture indicates, but he never likes sitting still for pictures.   

6.  What am I reading?

Well, I just finished up True Radiance by Lisa Mladinich, as a reviewer for the Catholic Writers Guild. and I enjoyed it.  It's a good reflection (for the most part), on the nature of internal beauty. Here's a snippet to show what happens when she gets going:

"To allow the culture to mislead us about our identity as daughters of God has an impact on more than just ourselves.  We are the hearts of our homes and communities, creators and caretakers of tradition and mentors of the generations to come."  Lovely stuff.

 I've also just read a snatch of another book, Your Sacred Yes by Susie Larson.

"Jesus invites us to live as a joyful, secure, expectant people who respond to the nudges of the Holy Spirit within us, who live awakened to the adventure of faith God invites us to, and who believe that as a kingdom people, everywhere we place our feet, the spiritual atmosphere changes, because Christ-in-us has led us there."  

That quote alone made me very interested to see how she follows up.

7. What's For Dinner?

Well, with three nights filled by Back to School, this week's dinner menu has been....creative. Yesterday, I punted and ordered pizza.  Wednesday, my oldest son at home, made spaghetti and meatballs and salad, and Tuesday, I made pot roast that cooked all day, smelled awesome, all of the kids ate, but all of them said they hated it.  All I got was the brown cooked onions on the bottom. Granted, those were delicious, but it didn't quite satisfy.  Tonight?  We're having chicken.  How?

Baked chicken with parmesan brown butter. (Don't get too excited, it's an easy recipe).

1) Bake chicken --with skin on, for 1 hour at 375.

2) Turn oven up to 425.  Take chicken out of oven and pour grease off. 

3) Put chicken back in oven.

4) Let cook for 25 more minutes, or until the skin is toasty and brown.

5) Melt a stick of butter in a pan, let it heat (on low), until it turns a nutty brown.

6) Take chicken out of oven.  Cover/dust with parmesan. (The green can of stuff will work fine).

7) Pour melted butter over the pieces of chicken. The heat from the butter melts the cheese onto the crust.  It is yummy.  

Serve with green beans, bread, and the obligatory salad 85% of my family won't eat.  

The Very Waffle Pancake Dinner

This week over at Simcha's, we talk about food from the past week.  Unfortunately, with cross country and field hockey and my daughter's new job at Dairy Queen and Back to School Night, dinner has been something of a catch as catch can experience.

Monday...we had...what did we have?   I know my oldest two opted to buy subway before I managed to make dinner.  It was supposed to be pork tenderloin but the pork tenderloin hadn't defrosted and could have been used to club a t-rex to death.  So I think I remember thinking about chickening out and going for fast food for everyone, but instead made the younger ones eggs and toast and gave them pineapple.  No complaints.

Tuesday..pork tenderloin still not tender sitting in the refrigerator, determined to remain a brick. We had...spaghetti with meatballs and red sauce and salad.

Wednesday we had...pork tenderloin and beans and rice and tortillas, and carrots.  Kids complained we ran out of tortillas.

Thursday: I know we had chicken drumsticks and broccoli, left over corn bread, watermelon and white rice. Some of the kids opted for leftover pork tenderloin, mixing it with bbq sauce and having pulled pork.

Friday: I'm voting pancakes and bacon or hot dogs and french fries.  I don't have any great recipes or stories.  I just know, I need to make a menu plan for next week because cooking during the school year is so much harder than cooking during the summer.

Yep.  Pancakes.  

I make mine from scratch using the Southern Living cookbook recipe. The recipe is so beloved, the back of the book has fallen off, half the pages are missing, but it is comforting to use that page, beveled by years of making these things for dinner and any other time we decided, the best cure for whatever it is involves maple syrup.  It's also posted over at My Recipes, but there's something comforting about a cook book so used, it becomes a relic of its prior self.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar 

1 large egg

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

3 tablespoons vegetable oil 

Preparation

Stir together first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture.

Stir together egg, buttermilk, and oil; add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.

Pour about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake onto a hot, lightly greased griddle. Cook pancakes until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked; turn and cook other side. Serve with butter and warm maple syrup.  Plus, whenever my kids see me making these things or any other food which involves maple syrup, someone will pull up this video or sing the song...

followed by the attempt to play the Teen Titan's Waffle's game. 

(Where you only say Waffles until someone surrenders).

Hint: I've won this one. 

What's For Dinner?

Why?  Because it is frequently asked just after breakfast and I have a thing about not thinking about what I will be cooking next when I haven't finished cleaning from what I cooked just now.



But the undefeatable and hilarious Simcha Fisher has a Friday feature, "What's for Dinner?" and I thought, I ought to boast while the boasting's good.

Yesterday, I made my mother mad.  On purpose.   I called her to let her know, I had FIFTY-TWO home grown Roma tomatoes.   Not being able to eat FIFTY-TWO Roma tomatoes, even on a dare, even in Caprese Salad (Which I've lived on all summer), After I told her I didn't even use all the tomatoes I could have, she told me I was an evil daughter and I laughed my most evil daughter laugh.  We hung up on good terms.  I had tomatoes to boil.

Not a shot of mine, because I didn't have the presence of mind to take a shot before I began the carnage of cooking. 

I opted to make a home made sauce.

To make what I made for dinner last night, you will need:

A garden in the back, which your husband tends lovingly and you ignore, and which the critters that visit our property, don't destroy.  I've trained my children to run out and yell at the deer.  One time, they rushed the beasts with water guns, another time with one playing a trumpet.  It is very entertaining, and those animals now fear the utter random nature of mankind that dwells in this household.

FIFTY-TWO Roma Tomatoes.

Equipment:
A tall clean pot full of boiling water.
A slotted spoon.
A big bowl filled with ice and water.
A sauce pot
a wooden spoon
a working can opener. (Or one you can will to work by multiple attempts and finally prying it into compliance to get the one can of paste open).
knife.
Masher

Other ingredients:
Garlic
Garlic press
olive oil.
red wine
tomato paste
bay leaf
basil
parsley
one onion
two boxes of linguini
Kraft green tube of cheese --they get upset when you switch it up.

Patience for when you also need this:
one box of shells
one stick of butter
salt
(For those who believe touching anything with tomatoes in it that isn't ketchup or on pizza, will cause them to mutate into something horrible like an adult).

Boil the water.
While the water's boiling, pulverize 2-5 garlic cloves, chop up the onion, the parsley, ignore the complains from the teenager about how parsley taste, threaten to put it in his sandwiches all school year if he continues to try and organize a child revolt against the green garnish.  Let the kiddos wash and tear apart the basil, mash the garlic, and the ever helpful thirteen year old saute the onion, herbs and garlic in olive oil until tender, at very very low heat.

Rinse and then core the top of the FIFTY-TWO Romas.  (I'll stop bragging soon I promise).
Immerse Romas in boiling water for two minutes.  The book says one, but I couldn't get the ice bath ready in one minute and it took a while to fish all those suckers out and into the ice water bowl.

After the tomatoes cool enough to touch, you squeeze the innards out into the pot with the garlic and the onion herb mixture.  It is an oddly satisfying experience, which separated the cooks from the critics in my household.  The chefs had fun.

Mash the tomatoes in the pot.  This takes time and aggression.  Teenagers are very good for this sort of thing.

Add a cup of wine (to the sauce, to the sauce, it's not yet five o'clock).
Put a new pot of water on to boil for the pasta.
Add the can of tomato paste.  I would have added two, but the aforementioned can opener is not feeling cooperative today. Is it five o'clock yet?

Let everything cook.
Have several come in, sniff the air, say it smells good, and then declare they don't eat red sauce.
Though they eat it on pizza, with fried cheese, and with meatballs.  

It's getting closer to five I think.....(I didn't, I saved it for dinner).
But, I have a rule about not fighting food battles if I don't have to.
So a second pot goes on the stove for plain buttered pasta with the promise of eating cucumbers and carrots first.

Five kids ate buttered pasta. I felt defeated.  When my husband returned with the cross country runner, the teen who works DQ and some french bread, four of the former nay-sayers came back for seconds and eight of the ten Antonetti's supped on homemade FIFTY-TWO Roma tomato sauce and linguine pasta.

We're using the leftover sauce today to make beef stew.   I think I may have to call my mom.


 

For Larry D

Larry D runs a blog, Acts of the Apostasy.  He wrote about how he despised Patheos at one point, and now he's writing for them.

Now me, I've loved Patheos ever since I discovered it and now...I'm still here.

But I'm not envious or anything like that, no.  I'm grateful and filled with Catholic joy for my fellow Catholic blogger and his success at becoming part of the big league of Catholic bloggers over there hanging out with The Anchoress, Mark Shea and Simcha Fisher. 

While I'd love to be part of the cool kids who all seem to fit in, I'm here in blogville double A farm team. So in honor of all those who warm the bench of the Catholic blogosphere, I offer this tribute to Larry D.  

  

Want to be a Patheos Catholic blogger,

want to send links to my sister and my brothers...

want to have my smiling face...

in the listings at Catholic Patheos......

as a blogger for Catholic Patheos.......

but again, not jealous. I promise.