Category Archives: food and cooking

A belated letter from Lent.

church, food and cooking, homemaking, Lent, my garden, , , , , , , ,

I’d like to catch up here about a few of the things that happened, and that I did, during the several weeks I was absent from the blogging world. These are the kinds of things you can take pictures of, so they are not many, considering all the hours and days we are talking about. It often happened that I would think to take a picture somewhere, but then I would think, “I’m not blogging, so I don’t really need a picture of that.” And it was nice. Life is full. Here are some of the ways my days were full of life:

Birthdays: I cooked for two of the birthday parties that I attended. One of my accomplishments in this department was a batch of vegan gluten-free chocolate cupcakes, which the party-goers thought wonderful; I ate two of them myself. The picture is from before they went into the oven. You might guess that there were beets in the batter!

Later I drove north for grandson Jamie’s 11th birthday, and took the job of baking the cake he remembers always being the tradition for his day, a “Black Forest Cake” made with a box mix, whipped cream, and canned cherry pie filling. The top layer of my version was so domed, I had to create a lake from the whipped cream to hold the cherries. No one should be surprised to find a lake in the Black Forest, right?

Up there, spring was early, and when we took walks in the woods we encountered dogwood flowers a month before they’d normally be seen. And a trillium. I am rarely in a place to see trilliums when they are newly opened, so that was wonderful.

Other cooking: A bigger project than the birthday baking was for church. I took a whole day to experiment at home in an effort to figure out how to get a consistently good imprint on the tops of our altar bread that we call prosphora.

And I learned a lot, though the huge batch of dough (it used 20+ cups of flour) from which I  made four sizes of breads, overwhelmed my kitchen — or more precisely, my mind, as I scrambled to keep track of timers and squeeze everything into my oven.

It seemed pretty chaotic for a while, but the end result was quite satisfactory, Glory to God! It was on St. Patrick’s Day, and I had been to church that morning so as to start my project off right. Thank you, Saint Patrick!

Reading: You can see from the sidebar that I read several books, but the one I most wanted to read for “lenten reading” I haven’t finished yet. It’s Transfiguring Time by Olivier Clément, and is a beautiful complement to the joy of Pascha, as the author’s own joy at the Christian message shines through every page. Clément was born in 1921 in France, and spent his 20’s exploring the religions of the East, in particular India. He became somewhat of an expert on ancient cosmologies and their concept of time, and when he discovered the Christian faith as elucidated by Vladimir Lossky, he saw the huge contrast. I’m sure I’ll share some quotes from Clément later.

Little breads for church feasts: For the feast of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste I decided to bake Lark Buns for my church school class.

40 Martyrs Sebaste

The symbolism has to do with larks in springtime, but also the spirits of the martyrs flying up to heaven. You have to bake 40 of them, of course, so quite a few were left over to pass around to a few people at the agape meal. That was fun.

At the very end of Lent, on Palm Sunday, to commemorate Lazarus Saturday which was the day before, the cooks who prepared the agape meal made a batch of Lazarus Buns. They are just as cute!

In the garden: We had a couple of very warm weeks in March, and around the date of the equinox, when weather returned to normal, it was as though summer had ended and spring had arrived. It was easy to be out of doors during that special time. I had organized my seeds…

…and planted several 3″ pots with winter squash: kabocha, butternut and Delicata. Because of there being so much sunshine and high temps, I was able to leave them outdoors much of the time. Just before recent rains I set them out into the garden, and if we don’t get any killing frosts I should end up with a good supply of squash in the fall.

I harvested plenty of greens and they were delicious. The Chinese Broccoli towered over the garden bed and swayed prettily, scattering its flower petals around, but I didn’t get very much in the way of the broccoli part from it, and the larger leaves were bitter.

The Tasmanian Flax is blooming this spring, after readying itself for three years, and I am thrilled. Each flower is exquisite and dainty, and there are hundreds of them, so we can expect a slew of berries in a few months.

Now I must check out what my fellow bloggers have been doing the last two months ❤

Got butter and eggs?

food and cooking, Lent, , ,
Custard

In the Orthodox Church we start fasting from meat a week before full-on Lent. And this week we don’t restrict ourselves otherwise, even on Wednesday and Friday. I thought I might post an appropriate recipe … but I’ve run out of time, so instead I’m just going to put up a few pictures of such foods as I have cooked, and might cook again, during these seven days.

Butter Week Quiche
Salty Honey Pie

As I eat more butter than cheese always, I prefer to call it Butter Week,
but Cheesefare Week is also a good name.

Egg Lemon Soup

I can make Egg Lemon Soup with vegetable broth instead of the traditional chicken broth, but I can’t see making it without eggs, though I’ve seen recipes for such a thing. But please, give it a new name if you are going to do that!

Tea Eggs

You know I’ve never even flirted with the idea of being vegan.

Lemon Sour Cream Cake

You can find some of these recipes on my Recipes page tabbed above.
Happy Butter Week!

The Traveling Onion

food and cooking, poetry,

THE TRAVELING ONION

“It is believed that the onion originally came from India. In Egypt it was an
object of worship — why I haven’t been able to find out. From Egypt the onion entered Greece and on to Italy, thence into all of Europe.” — Better Living Cookbook

When I think how far the onion has traveled
just to enter my stew today, I could kneel and praise
all small forgotten miracles,
crackly paper peeling on the drainboard,
pearly layers in smooth agreement,
the way the knife enters onion
and onion falls apart on the chopping block,
a history revealed.
And I would never scold the onion
for causing tears.
It is right that tears fall
for something small and forgotten.
How at meal, we sit to eat,
commenting on texture of meat or herbal aroma
but never on the translucence of onion,
now limp, now divided,
or its traditionally honorable career:
For the sake of others,
disappear.

-Naomi Shihab Nye

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Onions

Halfway, the cactus bloomed.

Christmas, family, food and cooking, grandchildren, my garden, , , ,

My Christmas cactus opened its first bloom on Christmas Eve. We were already halfway through our family celebrations at that point, and I had moved most of the houseplants into the Morning Room upstairs, in anticipation of needing all possible space for human bodies.

Several days before actual Christmas Day the family started to arrive, from five locales in four states. Three days later, the first departures happened, and by the afternoon of the Fourth Day of Christmas, I was alone in the house again.

Once Pathfinder and I were the only ones left, I brought the cactus with its stand downstairs again, so I can admire it throughout the day.

Before I continue with the Christmas theme, I want to show other current floral happenings in house and garden. Blooming orchids, my first picking of Chinese Broccoli, and a last Japanese anemone. The pomegranate bushes are decorating the garden with their changing color.

It was a lovely, lovely Christmastime. Soldier’s and Kate’s families couldn’t come this year, but Pearl and Nate and two of their children’s families were able to make it. The youngest child was my great-granddaughter Lori, who is 6 1/2 now. She is a lot of fun!

Lori met several family members for the first time. I wonder if in 2026 I will manage to meet my two great-grandsons who will soon be a year old. They live in two different states, but were brought together for an early Christmas, from which meet-up I received a picture to share:

It rained a lot the whole week of our festivities, but not constantly. There were enough breaks that a few short walks were taken, and one outing to the coast. While most of our group was gone on that latter trip Pearl and I both took naps. She did much of the cooking for several days, but I made one large dinner and breakfast for the crowd. Pippin and the Professor served in the kitchen one night as well. The food was abundant and appreciated!

This year I didn’t make any cookies myself. Lori’s cookies were from a King Arthur gluten-free recipe, and the spice profile was really nice. I did make some goodies to eat and give away: This  Sticky Cranberry Gingerbread was the most popular recipe in all of 2025 on the New York Times Cooking site. I’ve unlocked it as Christmas present from me to you ❤

I forgot to take a picture of mine. I followed the advice of several cooks who added ginger, more cranberries, and less sugar. It was enjoyed very much by everyone, with a dollop of whipped cream on top. I want to make it again soon.

I made Candied Espresso Walnuts, and our longstanding traditional California Fruitcake/Jesus Birthday Cake/Nativity Cake, which I hadn’t done for some years. People sliced from one big loaf for breakfast and snacks here, and I gifted the others. This time I made it with a gluten-free flour blend, which worked pretty well.

Lori took the initiative to find this felted hummingbird ornament among the things her family had brought, and gave it to me early. She had seen other hummingbirds on the tree and didn’t want to delay.

When she was ready to go out and explore my garden and greenhouse, her shoes were in the bedroom where her mom was sleeping, so her father let her use his boots.

I love my Christmas tree this year! It is a Nordmann fir from Home Depot — amazingly symmetrical and well filled out. Last year the big LED lights I had on my tree were so bright it pained me to look in that direction, so I bought tiny incandescent lights this year and they are perfect.

I had laid in bright materials for making paper chains, in case Lori would like to do such a craft with me. She wasn’t interested, so I made three long chains after everyone had arrived and were doing all the work around me. We hung them on the black railings that had recently been painted; after that, I somehow had the energy also to hang up the ribbons pinned with the prettiest old Christmas cards.

Because of the comings and goings all week, I didn’t wait for Christmas Day or Epiphany, but put the Baby Jesus and the Wise Men in their places at the outset. I’d like to wait until the Presentation of Christ on February 2nd to take down the tree, and to put away the Nativity scene. I’ll need to gather some fresh greenery from the bike path before then!

I know that by today, most people are thinking ahead to the new year coming in, so I wanted to post these images of the end of 2025 while it is still December. Happy New Year! I wish you courage and Hope in the coming year, and may the good desires of your heart be fulfilled in 2026 ❤