Holy Transfer

from Community...


...to home


She who bore Life dies to be received to Life,

and Holy God transfers blessed festal flowers
down the interstate,
ferrying also Love and Life from Eucharistic Body
back to our Family Alter.

Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos - An August Fasting Menu

I am a high school teacher (Speech, English, Drama, and Debate) and school is rapidly approaching. We were blessed to home school last year, so are a little nervous about the kids being back in public school, though they are in wonderful programs. This year we'll have my husband in grad school, my son in 2nd Grade, and my daughter at Montessori preschool, so we'll all four be in four different schools!

Anticipating the need to give more time to my family and my classroom, I plan on substantially decreasing my blog presence. I did a similar thing last August, but had not the grace to let you know first.

My goal is to post once a month, near the beginning of the month, so here is my post for August: Dormition Fast Menu

Sunday - Procession of the Cross
Supper: Caponata and Polenta (with olive oil instead of butter)

Monday
Breakfast: Vegan Banana Bread I can't count the endless number of times we've enjoyed this - thank you so much, Matushka Emily, for sharing it!
Lunch: Crock Pot Veggie Soup
Dinner: Tostados (crunchy corn rounds topped with seasoned refried beans, caramelized onions & kale, tomatoes, and guacamole)

Tuesday
Breakfast: English Muffins and Fruit
Lunch: Polenta Slices (leftover from Sunday)with Peanut Butter Sauce or with Caramelized Onions and Kale from yesterday
Supper: Purple-hull Pea Patties or Pasta and Marinara

Wednesday
Breakfast: Scrambled Tofu
Lunch: Boca Burgers
Supper: Pinto Beans and Rice

Thursday
Breakfast: Squash Bread (like Banana Bread recipe, but use mashed cooked Sugar-Pumpkin Squash in place of banana)
Lunch: Bean Quesadillas
Supper: Liturgy for the Transfiguration

Friday - Transfiguration of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Breakfast: English Muffins and Fruit
Lunch: Peanut Butter and Jelly
Supper: Grilled Fish marinaded in Dales

Saturday
Breakfast: Pancakes
Lunch: Bread, Earth Balance, and Sauteed Greens
Supper: Pizzas made with Mission Sun-dried Tomato & Basil Wraps and the crust, Basil Almond Pesto, mushrooms, tomatoes, and veggie mozerella.

Week 2 will be the same, except Monday will include Alaskan Salmon Patties in honor of St. Herman of Alaska

Snacks: grapes, banana chips, almonds, animal crackers, flour tortillas

And to feast, I highly recommend this Lasagna Casserole, which makes enough to serve one 8x8 pan and freeze the 2nd 8x8 pan for another week.

Gifts from God: More Monasteries

The Dormition of the Theotokos in Michigan had a wonderful children's garden, planted by Abbess Benedicta, memory eternal.

I would love to create some of these little rock messages in our garden at home.
The Monastery also sells little nun and monk dolls , which were dotted all along the children's garden, re-enacting various scriptures and events.

At Holy Cross Hermitage in West Virginia, we all got to milk goats!


The monks use the goat milk to make soap and lotion products.

Although the monastery website provides a woderful 7-page Vistors Guide, I would add One More bit of ADVICE as a Mother:

Do NOT put your little girl in pretty church shoes. Tennis shoes or mud boots would be much more appropriate for milking goats and hiking through the woods!

As the monks said every time we told them "Thank You" for something,

THANK GOD for our summer visits!

Gifts from God: Visiting Monasteries

We were blessed to spend an afternoon at the Presentation of the Theotokos Monastery in Marshfield, MO on our annual summer drive to the grandparents.

After visiting over a lovely afternoon snack, we stepped into the stream of prayer that flows day and night all over the world in faithful monasteries.

The nuns introduced us to some instruments that often call people to prayer.

Little Builder ringing the bells (with protective ear coverings).

Hammering the simantron. Mother Alexandra explained that when the animals heard Noah beating his hammer, they heard it as a call to come to the ark; and so we also can hear the beating of the wood as a call to enter the ark of the Church of Christ.

In general Abbess Sergia and Mother Alexandra were so generous and attentive to the children. When we asked them later what they remembered about the monastery they replied,
"the sweet nuns."

During the evening prayer services, both children were unusally peaceful and quiet. Our souls indeed were nourished by the sweet and holy spiritual atmosphere in the chapel.

Thanks be to God.

Scrambled Tofu Rancheros

Although my first encounter with Scrambled Tofu was pretty unsatisfying, I've been tweaking the process for the past year and found something my husband and I both like. The recipe is the same as linked above, except that I don't use bell pepper anymore - just nicely browned onion and garlic in olive oil.

The key, I think, is draining the tofu. That gets rid of the strange flavor.

This morning,

I grilled a corn tortilla,
spread some re-fried beans on the roasted corn goodness,
spooned on some tofu scramble,
and topped with salsa and fresh diced tomatoes.


It's not something I would make every morning, but sometimes during a fast a little extra protein helps.

Since I would eat Mexican food five times a week if my family tolerated it, this meal is a special treat for me.

Beautiful Beans

At Coffee Hour last Sunday, our priest's wife asked me if I had planted beans. "They are so gratifying" she explained, "they sprout quickly and flower." I agreed with her; they are gratifying. And, I figured, by way of fasting food they are Orthodox. (smile)

I planted two types of beans this year. Pole beans called rattlesnake, which have a horrid name, but make pretty green beans with dark purple splashes that disappear when they cook. Sort of like those hot wheels cars that turn colors in the freezer, but more, um, natural.



















Those will slowly produce all summer. I wish I had planted more!

Then, I planted etna beans, which are an Italian Soup bean. Why did I choose etna? Well, they make pretty pink and white pods and pink and white beans - why else! Also, I figured soup beans would be good to have around.

Farmers Market Goodies

Our square foot garden is taking off, but we still head to our little town's Farmers Market each Saturday morning.

Zinnias for our Anniversary (11 years!)


Squash and Peaches scattered about the counter

We are so very thankful to have the opportunity to be locavores, and I especially appreciate the opportunity to get to know the growers has we visit them throughout the summer!

Gift from God: Zuchinni Bread

I finally couldn't put it off any longer.

Every time I take a bite of my Pawpaw's recipe, I can see and hear and smell my Nana & Pawpaw's kitchen. The only reason I hesitated is because of doubt that the recipe, copied from a phone call in my mother's hand on yellow and white striped paper, would translate into a fasting treat, but it was time. Time for for Zucchini Bread.

I'm glad I did it, and here's the recipe for any of you who might be starting to get an abundant crop.

The only change is that the original recipe called for 3 eggs instead of rice milk and egg-replacer.

The Ingredients
(WET)
3/4 cup of rice (or soy) milk, warmed and beat with 1&1/2 TBS of Energy Egg-Replacer
*******************************************************************************
update: taking Marfa's advice, I made it again with 3/4 cup of applesauce and 2 TBS of flax meal instead of the rice milk/egg replacer combo - worked just fine. I did decrease the sugar a little, to compensate for the added sweetness.
*******************************************************************************
1 c oil
2 c grated raw zucchini
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
(DRY)
3 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1&1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

The Steps
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease 2 large loaf pans.
3. Beat wet ingredients and sugar.
4. Sift dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
5. Add dry to wet and add 1 TBS of vanilla, and optional chopped nuts or raisins.
6. Bake 50-60 minutes.


One loaf stuck to the pan because we didn't wait until it cooled to take it out. The other loafs came out fine after a couple of hours cooling. It seems a little oily, so I might decrease the oil next time, but let me tell you:

sitting at our round wooden kitchen table here in 2010, I was completely transported to 1986, at the rectangular table in my Pawpaw & Nana's kitchen in the little village in south Louisiana. Thank you, God, and please bless my grandfather Gilliam, and grant rest to the soul of my grandmother June.

Gift from God: Working Mother at Home

As a teacher, I am very thankful for my summers at home with my kids.

Though I do feel, a bit... incapable maybe?

This morning at 7am I woke up determined to accomplish one major thing today:

Sweep the tile living room floor.

At precisely 2:08 pm, I finished sweeping. Okay, prayers and breakfast are important. And lunch. But how did it take us so long to clean the living room floor and sweep?

At school, the bell rings every 55 minutes, and grown-ups and students move and function. I guess I need to find my rhythm at home.

Lord, thank you for these precious months.
Lord have mercy on us, and help us find a way to work as a family at home.

Win, Lose or Draw?

Win - Spicy Green and Black Saute'
Last night, a friend brought over some sweet basil, a black bell pepper, a banana pepper, and a long hot pepper. We chopped them up and sauteed them with some garlic and chopped zuchinni. Oh my - a real treat.

Lose - harvesting cucumbers naively, attacked by little pricklies that this novice gardener did not realize guarded cucumbers.

Draw - My Shopping List. Somehow I left a couple of things from the last fast on there (like creamed corn and hominy) that I don't need this month, and I'm having trouble editing them back out. Oh well. By the way, I ended up scratching off over half the list before going, so it's not as huge of a list in practice as it appears.

And... more wins!

Win - Wheat Berry Tabouli
Whisk juice of 1 lemon, twice as much olive oil, salt, pepper and 1 clove of minced garlic. Pour over cooked wheat berries (1 cup), a chopped cucumber, a chopped tomatoe, and some chopped mint. I would have used parsley, but mine is going to seed so I didn't bother. Nice.

Win - Sunny Squash Soup, borrowed from Fat Free Vegan. I added all the optional ingredients except the tumeric, and only used half a jalepeno. Because of the potatoes, this soup was very creamy. Terrific way to use summer squash!

Chickpea Mash for Sandwiches

Since Presv. Maria asked,

Basically, drain the can of chickpeas and then then pretend you're making traditional tuna salad.

Add mayo, mustard, sweet pickle relish and a little salt and pepper. Mash it all up and use with bread or crackers.

Apostles Fast Menu

Here's one more menu, to add to the many good ones already out there, in case you are looking for fasting ideas. We rotate suppers every other week, but keep breakfast and lunch the same. The google document has many links to recipes, and I'll try to add more as I get them collected. View Apostles Fast Menu on Google Docs Here's the Shopping List. It is VERY tailored to our hometown, and I would probably not buy all these things every week. Hopefully the garden will provide most of the produce. However, I can print this off, carry it around the kitchen, strike through the things I already have, and then use it at the store. It covers 2 weeks, with the exception (which is marked in the document) of produce that will be bought fresh for the second week. And just for fun, here are two of my favorite recipes that I would have put in the menu, except that they are too spicy for my family: Vegetarian Kung Pao Green Chile Potato Soup