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| Altar |
On Sunday, I hosted the October monthly prayer gathering. I got up at 9:00 a.m., had a cup of coffee, washed the dishes that had been left in the sink, overnight, put away the laundry from yesterday, and got started on the lunch preparations. I had the chickens ready for roasting, the dump cake ready for baking, and the eggs (for the salad) boiling by the time friend R got here at 11:00 a.m. She helped to make the salad, set up the altar, put on the table covers, took the dust covers off the sofas, etc., while I heated up the curries (that took a little longer than I anticipated as most of them hadn't thawed as much as I had thought they would), cooked the green beans, etc. In the end, I decided to skip frying the pappadum, and, to be quite honest, no one missed it!
Cousin P was the first to arrive at 2:00 p.m., but, by that time, we had done everything that needed to be done. The friend who leads the rosary prayers, her husband, and another friend were the next to arrive and they enjoyed the snacks (the garbanzo beans and the veggie sticks friend R contributed) while we waited for the others - Aunt T, cousins V and R, V's husband, and friend F. They were the only ones who could attend the gathering; the rest were unable to attend. So, there were eleven of us, including me.
After everyone had arrived and had a snack and a drink, etc., the rosary was recited; friend R and my three cousins and another friend, each said a decade; my mother's birthday was remembered and a prayer was said for cousin V who will be undergoing surgery, later this month. I, being Buddhist, didn't say the rosary, but I sat during the reciting.
Afterwards, lunch was served:
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| Rosary Lunch |
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| Peach Dump Cake |
Aunt and cousins and a couple of friends stayed to tea and I encouraged everyone to take food home with them, as there was a lot of food left over. Cousin P and friend R stayed behind after the others had left and they helped to clear everything and put away most of the food; R washed up most of the dishes for me, as well. Then, cousin P left and I took R home. It w as around 6:30 p.m. by then.
I rested for awhile after I came home. I was tired and my legs hurt! Later, I put away the last bit of food. Of the two roast chicken, half a chicken and lots of bones, etc., were left. I cut up the half of the chicken into two sections and froze them, individually. I also bagged up the bones and bits and pieces and froze them too - I'll make chicken soup with them, later on. The freezer is full, once again, and so is the fridge!
Sunday's To Do List:
- Roast chicken - DONE
- Cook green beans - DONE
- Boil eggs - DONE
- Boil eggs - DONE
- Make tomato/cucumber/onion salad (R) - DONE
- Fry pappadum - DIDN'T
- Bake "dump cake" - DONE
- Cook rice! - DONE
- Cook rice! - DONE
- Warm up the thawed curries - DONE
- Take down bottle of tomato chutney - DONE
- Take down bottle of tomato chutney - DONE
- Set up altar (R) - DONE
- Table covers - DONE
- Final sweep of my bathroom (Dancer's litter box area) - DONE
- Put bathmats in my bathroom - DONE
- Remove sofa covers (R) - DONE
- Serve lunch after prayers are said - DONE
- Wash up/clean up/put away food - DONE
- Drive R home - DONE
- Water the garden
I was too tired to water the garden after I came home. So, that's on tomorrow's agenda.
Today, I was grateful for:
- The prayer gathering went off well
- Family and friends who participated
- Friend R and cousin P's help, especially with the putting away and cleaning up afterwards
- Plenty of good food
- My daughter received notification that a research article of which she is the second author, was published
Monday's To Do List:
- Rest!
- Put away the washed dishes
- Wash the last few dishes I was too tired to wash tonight
- Take out the trash/take the big trash cans to the curb
- Water the garden
- Put back the few chairs that were pulled out
- Put away the bottles of drinks
- Clean the kitchen
- Do laundry
- Put the statue of Our Lady back in the regular altar
How was your Sunday? What are your plans for the up-coming week?
I was too tired to water the garden after I came home. So, that's on tomorrow's agenda.
Today, I was grateful for:
- The prayer gathering went off well
- Family and friends who participated
- Friend R and cousin P's help, especially with the putting away and cleaning up afterwards
- Plenty of good food
- My daughter received notification that a research article of which she is the second author, was published
Monday's To Do List:
- Rest!
- Put away the washed dishes
- Wash the last few dishes I was too tired to wash tonight
- Take out the trash/take the big trash cans to the curb
- Water the garden
- Put back the few chairs that were pulled out
- Put away the bottles of drinks
- Clean the kitchen
- Do laundry
- Put the statue of Our Lady back in the regular altar
How was your Sunday? What are your plans for the up-coming week?
Yesterday around 2 pm I remembered your prayer gathering. Then I remembered the time difference, so you must have been still getting ready at that time.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that it went well. Now you can relax.
I don't fry papadam in oil now. I microwave them. I break a papadam into quarters and microwave for one minute. It's still good. 😊
One of these days can you do a post about how you make dump cake?
Congratulations to your daughter !
Thank you, Nil, for both thinking of me and the congratulations to my daughter. I am a proud mother! :)
DeleteYes, I would have been still in the middle of preparations. I, too, have made pappadum in the microwave, but I must admit that I prefer them fried. I had the time to make them, but I was already starting to get tired. Never mind, I'll fry some for the almsgiving. :)
The dump cake - the online recipe said to use a can (21 oz) of cherry pie filling and a can (15 oz) of crushed pineapples, but I used two cans (15 oz each) of peach pie filling, instead. Open the cans and dump the pie filling into a 9 x 13 baking pan (I used a glass pyrex pan). Spread the filling evenly. Open a box of yellow cake mix and sprinkle the mix on top of the pie filling (just the dry cake mix, as it is, out of the box; don't make it into a cake batter). Some of the online recipes said to melt the butter and pour on top of the cake mix, but the recipe I followed said to cut up 1 stick of margarine and 1/2 stick of butter and spread on the top. I used 1 1/2 sticks of butter, and placed the pats of butter in rows on the top. Then, baked at 350F for about 45 mins. The recipe said for 1 hour, but my oven tends to run hot and 1 hour would have been too long. I think my combination of peach pie filling and yellow cake mix worked out really well - it was like peach cobbler (the cake mix and butter forms like a pie crust on top, not so much like a cake). But, any pie filling/cake mix combination would be fine and it would be fun to experiment. :)
Thanks for the recipe, Bless. It sounds easy,I should try it one day. 😊 I love peach cobbler, so I think I'll use peach.
DeleteYou are welcome, Nil.
DeleteThe gathering sounds like it was a great success. All of your hard work paid off. I like your idea about using your own fruit for the dump cake. While it is always good, that might make it even better.
ReplyDeleteIt went off well, Live and Learn. Yes, I think using fresh fruit would be a good idea - the canned pie filling, while convenient, was just too sweet and there wasn't a lot of fruit. Even canned fruit might have been better, or, perhaps, a combination of a can of pie filling and a can of fruit - that would work, too, I think, and still be convenient. But, I didn't want to experiment too much with the very first attempt.
DeleteWhat an amazing spread. And what a resounding success. It is also wonderful to note that the menu items that were so successful were also easier to throw together (meatball curry with pre-made meatballs, and the dump cake) than what you had initially planned. Have any of you considered making future prayer gatherings pot-luck? Or does that detract too much from tradition?
ReplyDeleteToday's final cleanup will be enough for today. Rest and enjoy your cleaning efforts from the past two weeks. Maybe you and Dancer can snuggle into the couch for an afternoon nap.
Thank you, Susan. Yes, the convenience foods worked out very well! :D Even the frozen green beans for the sauteed beans worked out better than I had expected.
DeleteYes, we have had a few pot luck meals for the prayer gatherings. They are not that popular with the older generations of aunts and even some of the younger generation. Back in 2015, when it was my turn to host the October rosary gathering, I was still recovering from my lumpectomy (surgery had been on my right side and I am right handed, so couldn't do much), I made it a potluck. My aunt told me I should have had it catered, instead! LOL!
Yes, I made it a point to sleep in, this morning, and it's just past noon and I haven't done anything, yet! I'll do the final clean up, today, and take it easy for a bit. :)
You have been busy, Bless. My weekend has been busy with washing and ironing mainly as we have just returned from two weeks away. I feel like I need another week to catch up with everything! I love that your posts often centre around food - well, all our lives do really, don't they? But family and food are the things that make life worthwhile! Are Armenian pastries like those eastern European Baklava pastries - often made with nuts and honey?
ReplyDeleteWelcome back from your holiday, Eloise. It's hard to catch up with everything when you return, isn't it? I'm glad you enjoy my food-related posts. In fact, I thought of you and your chicken dish that you made when you had a group of your lady friends over for a dinner one evening - I think it was in June? I was thinking of making something like that for this meal, too, because it sounded so easy, but I went with the roast chicken, instead. That was fairly easy, too, and less cutting and chopping. :)
DeleteYes, the Armenian pastries were exactly that - different types of baklava and others made with phyllo dough, nuts and honey. There were some small cakes, too, with many thin layers of cake filled with cream and nuts. All too sweet for me, but delicious!
I have a sweet tooth but I'm not keen on honey so baklava isn't a favourite of mine. Thanks, yes it takes a while to catch up!
ReplyDeleteI must admit I prefer my own homemade baklava (made with bought phyllo dough) to many of the premade baklava. Haven't made it in a long time, though, as I don't need all those calories!
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