Today is the illustrator Norman Rockwell’s birthday. I love the following of his paintings which depict bedtime. There is such a sense of security and “rightness” about the images of children safely tucked in, and rocked in front of the fire. The first is called ”Freedom From Fear”, which says it all, really…I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Freedom From Fear
Bedtime
Posted in Domestic Art, Old-fashioned Style
Whenever business allowed her a little leisure, she spent it in holy prayer and contemplation in a little retired room in the garret; and at her work repeated frequently ardent ejaculations of divine love, with which her soul appeared always inflamed.
From: St. Zita
How do you spend your free time?
I think I need to direct that question towards myself, for I have been squandering it lately, and I probably have far more leisure time than St. Zita had. Of course, she didn’t have television, or the internet, or the varying multitude of other activities which we have today (sports, days out, hobbies, crafts, virtual realities!). But one could not blame her if she chose to spend her free-time sleeping, or walking or going out visiting, considering her life of almost continual servanthood and hard work. Yet she provides, once again, an example of devotion and virtuousness which we can try to follow in our own lives.
From the passage above, we can see that St. Zita spent most of her free time in contemplation and prayer, which she was then able to carry into her work life. In spending time with God in prayer, her love for Him would have been increased, to the point that the Beloved’s name was easily brought to her lips! I wonder if it is possible for you and I to display such fervent ardour for our Lord? How many “ardent ejaculations of divine love” do we utter as we go about our work? (an ejaculation, or aspiration is a short prayer which we can speak out at any moment, in praise, in times of temptation, when we simply want to acknowledge the presence of God with us) Maybe the following will inspire us!
…and there are many more here. But for the name of Jesus to be so easily brought to our lips, love for Him must grow in our hearts. Prayer, reading Scripture, receiving Him in Holy Communion, Eucharistic adoration ~ all these things draw us closer to the heart of the Bridegroom, and so increase the love within us. Then it will be near impossible to stop ourselves from uttering the name of our Beloved!
Jesus, my Love, my Lord!
Posted in Domestic Saints, Saint Zita
Just a sample of my weekend’s work in the kitchen…
First of all, I made some mushroom and spinach pasties, with puff pastry. The filling is a mixture of mushrooms, onion, baby spinach, double cream and cheddar cheese in varying (random!) quantities, seasoned with basil and nutmeg. I sprinkled poppy seeds on the top to add extra texture and flavour 
Then I made one of the loveliest, sweetest puddings ever…banana and ginger butterscotch pudding. It’s worth posting the recipe for this one!
Ingredients
4.5 oz SR flour
1 tsp ground ginger
4.5 oz brown sugar
2.5 oz melted butter
1 large egg
7fl. oz milk
2 ripe bananas, mashed
For the topping
4.5 oz brown sugar
4 tbs golden syrup
8 oz water
Method
Sift together the flour and ginger and add the sugar.
Mix together the melted butter, beaten egg and milk.
Combine the dry with the wet ingredients.
Add 2 ripe mashed bananas and mix well.
Pour the batter into a large greased pudding dish.
Warm the sugar, syrup and water in a pan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
Bring to the boil and pour onto the batter (it will sink to the bottom).
Cook at Gas 4 for about an hour.
When you take it out of the oven, it has a lovely golden cripsy top, and at the bottom a rich thick butterscotch sauce ~ not for the faint hearted!
I had some left over puff pastry from the pasties, so I made some little pastry hearts for my Grandson to eat, sprinkled with poppy and sesame seeds and some grated cheese…
Oooh, I feel hungry now! 
Posted in Kitchen Talk, Recipes
She kept fast the whole year, and often on bread and water; and took her rest on the bare floor or on a board.
From: St. Zita
This particular paragraph can sound quite scary to our modern-day ears. Fasting for long periods on bread and water and sleeping on bare floor boards is something that we tend not to do any more, but one has to remember that in St. Zita’s day, such examples of mortification were not uncommon, and were, in the most part, encouraged as a way to holiness. Although our methods may have changed in the 21st century, that doesn’t cancel out our obligation to practise some form of penance as part of the life of faith.
In Pope Benedict’s message for Lent last year, he said: “Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person.” The Catholic Spiritual Direction website goes on to say:
In other words, because God has chosen to redeem our fallen human nature, and not just replace it, his grace enters into our wounded, self-centered, sin-tending souls, and gradually transforms them (think of Jesus’ parable of the leaven in the dough). But since we are free, spiritual creatures (not just instinct-driven squirrels), we have to freely cooperate with his grace in order for this process to fully develop. One of the ways we do this is through freely denying ourselves certain pleasures that are not in themselves sinful, e.g. not listening to the radio for the first three minutes of a half-hour commute, offering the silence as an act of mortification, and maybe using it to pray. When we do that, we learn to govern our tendencies to pleasure and self-seeking (which are always waiting for opportunities to run wild); we tame them so that they are fruitful and not destructive, like a tamed stallion as opposed to a wild stallion. This self-governance helps creates interior order and peace, so that we can better hear and respond to God’s action in our lives. The mortification is never an end in itself, but a means by which we become better followers of Christ.
So while fasting on bread and water, sleeping on the floor or using the discipline might not be the choice of mortification for Catholics nowadays, it is still important to look at other ways in which we can deny our ego-driven selves, and co-operate in the Holy’s Spirit’s purification of our souls. As Lent approaches, it is a useful time of year to ponder on these things. Maybe the following suggestions could be helpful…
I am sure you could come up with many more ideas yourself! Why not post them in the comments box
Posted in Everyday Penance, Saint Zita
I picked this tag up from here via Sharon’s blog. I haven’t done this meme for a while, so am going to enjoy it!
If you’re reading this, you’re tagged!
Posted in Homely Memes, Seasons of the Domestic Church
One of the tasks of the homemaker is to create a warm, welcoming and peaceful home, an oasis of calm for those who live there. This is not an easy task in the midst of a busy life with many commitments and work outside the home. But it is something that can be done through the simplest means, and only takes a little time and imagination.
Soft lighting, calm music and candles make a huge difference, as does taking the effort to clear away the clutter of the day. Last night, I lit two candles in my newly de-cluttered corner of the living room, where the Christmas tree stood, lit the lamps, and spent a few precious moments in prayer whilst my husband was on the computer and my daughter was putting her little one to bed.
It was enough. Here it is, beautifully soft-focus
It’s been a while since I wrote about St. Zita, the patron of housekeeping and homemakers. I have decided to revisit her, and to re-immerse myself int he wisdom of her life. For easy accesss, follow the link to what I have written so far:
Reflections on the life of Saint Zita
This where I got up to last time:
She used often to say to others that devotion is false if slothful. Hearing a man-servant speak one immodest word, she was filled with horror, and procured him to be immediately discharged from the family. With David, she desired to see it composed only of such whose approved piety might draw down a benediction of God upon the whole house and be a security to the master for their fidelity and good example.
From: St. Zita
…and I found this passage quite tough! It seems that her behaviour is rather harsh and overly pious. Is it appropriate for us to emulate it? Perhaps not in the same way, but there are still some lessons to be learned, especially if we have children, about our use of words.
The behaviour of a household declares to others whether or not it is godly or ungodly. If we wish to set an example to others, then our words and actions need to display our faith. Our walk should match our talk. This can mean not tolerating foul language from our children, and looking to our every word and deed to ensure that we aren’t letting the side down ourselves. It is so easy to let either an immodest or an ukind word fall from our lips, for we know that the tongue, though small, can do great damage. But are we not wanred by Jesus that we will be judged by every word that comes from our mouths:
But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment…
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give an account for every thoughtless word they have uttered…
Matthew 12:36
These are sobering words indeed. In fact, if I think of standing before God while He sifts through the millions of words which I have uttered in a lifetime, it is enough to make me blush and hang my head in shame sat here at my computer. What kind of legacy am I leaving? I have had cause recently to examine my use of words, and realised just how much I fall short of God’s ideal. I am guilty of murmuring and complaining about my situation, of saying unkind words about other people including members of my family, and of just generally being a very negative bod! Not good…
Knowing that God is listening to every word I say, and will judge me by them, should be sobering enough to nip such things in the bud, but sometimes we become blind to ourselves and our own shortcomings. I am so glad that realisation has come slowly, and not because something disastrous has happened as a result of my foolish attitudes and behaviour. It is never to late to re-evaluate our speech, and to make the necessary adjustments, and to allow God complete control over what I say. This of course begins with the heart, for it is out of the heart that our words proceed. If we have a heart full of love for others, then our words will follow. I have been in need of heart surgery, and allowing God to weild the surgeons knife has been (and still is!) painful, but it is worth surrendering to. There is no other, easy shortcut to holiness.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer ~ Psalm 19:14
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone ~ Colossians 4:6
The heart of the righteous weighs its answers,
but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil ~ Proverbs 15:28
Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips ~
Psalm 141:3
keep your tongue from evil and
your lips from speaking lies ~ Psalm 34:13
Morning by Edvard Munch
May these words be our prayer each morning as we start our day!
Posted in Saint Zita
I’m back! (About time, I here you say 
)
I have been so busy over the last few months, and up to my elbows in all manner of homely and housewifely duties, not to mention the work I do outside the home, and consequently have been too busy to blog about it. Things will hopefully slow down a bit as the year progresses, and I shall have more time to chat to you as I go along, sat at the kitchen table with a cup of tea. I would like that…
It’s nice to stop and take a breath, now that the busyness (and sometimes insanity) of Christmas is almost over, bar the decorations which will come down on the Feast of the Epiphany on the 6th. There is simple pleasure in the lack of clutter as presents are found homes, the pile of accumulated laundry tackled, and simple meals returned to. I am taking simplicity as my watchword this year!
I managed to do a big “Spring” clean during the week before Christmas, which helped. It meant that following Christmas and preparing for a return to normality, I wasn’t faced with such a huge job. There is a long way to go, as the bathroom is half-decorated, the living room carpet still needs replacing and the kitchen badly needs a fresh coat of paint, but these big jobs can be tackled in small chunks. For now, surfaces are clean, floors are swept and hoovered and there is a little more space than there was.
I also aim to get back to simple wholesome cooking. Towards the end of last year, I lost my cooking muse, and began to rely on well-tried formulas and even convenience foods. I am going to experiment with finding new variations to try out on my unsuspecting family, and get back to making bread and cakes again.
“Homely”…a word I love. What does it mean, to you, to me? It’s certainly something I plan to explore. Just off the top of my head, the word conjures images of warm fires, cosy hearths, the smell of baking bread, hearty soups, soft throws and cushions, a good book, a steaming mug of hot tea, slippers, fluffy socks and candlelight. Simple and inexpensive, and more importantly, accessible to us all, with a little thought. It’s something I wish to re-create here on this blog too, and share with you.
Pull up a chair…
Posted in Blooming at Home, Tea Talk
Life has become come increasingly demanding. I have a lot to think about. In order to do so, I need to withdraw into an inner hermitage for a while. A “poustinia of the heart”, so I can hear God’s voice.
A poustinia (Russian: пустынь) is a small sparsely furnished cabin or room where one goes to pray and fast alone in the presence of God. The word poustinia has its origin in the Russian word for desert (пустыня).
I hope to find God within…meanwhile, I will only be blogging here: Seeking Silence
I shall be back!
Posted in Blooming at Home
Just some pictures of what I’ve been cooking up in my kitchen this weekend
Apple cake with crumble topping:
This is just an ordinary sponge cake, with 3 grated eating apples added to the mix, and then a mixture of flour, margarine, brown sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on the top before going into the oven. Lovely and moist and the crumble topping adds a biscuity element.
Cherry Scones:
Always a family favourite, especially served warm with cream and strawberry jam
Carrot, lentil and coriander soup:
Now that Autumn is well and truly here, warm soups and stews are the order f the day. I made this batch yesterday for our tea tonight, and am so looking forward to eating it later with some Nan bread!
Apple and blackberry frangipani pudding:
I still have a fair few foraged blackberries in the freezer, so made this lovely pudding for after our meal yesterday. This is the fruit filling, prior to the frangipani going on the top (made up of 2oz soft brown sugar, 2oz margarine, 1 egg, 1oz SR flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 3oz ground almonds) The end result is still on the camera, so I’ll post it later.
Enjoy!
Posted in Cake!, Kitchen Talk, Recipes
There is a website called “FlyLady” which is an aid to getting one motivated to do the housework, and be organised and thorough. I personally don’t subscribe to the e-mails, because I have my own tried and tested way of getting the chores done, but one of the things FlyLady advocates is putting on ones shoes before getting down to work in the house. She says:
“Since starting this group, I have continually harped on putting your shoes on your feet each morning. I want you to do this and you are not the exception to the rule. Here is why. Several years ago I worked for a direct sales cosmetics company. One main rule for that company was that you could not make a single phone call in the morning unless you were totally dressed, and I mean really dressed! All the way to dress shoes. The reason behind this duty was that you act different when you have clothes and shoes on…With shoes on those feet of yours, your mind says “OK”, it’s time to go to work. You have no excuse for not taking the trash out or putting that box of give-away stuff into the car. You are literally ready for anything. Believe me, when you get that call from school that your child needs you, or that dear friend calls up and says that she needs to talk “can we have lunch?” you are ready! Including shoes.”
And I can certainly see a lot of truth in this! When I am slobbing around the house in my slippers I actually feel slobby! That’s ok if it’s my intention to have a lazy do-nothing day, which happens from time to time (less often nowadays) but if I want to get a lot done, I just feel more able to do it wearing shoes!
I’m sure there’s a spiritual analogy. In fact one came to mind whilst I was thinking about this earlier today. Is it possible to sometimes wear spiritual slippers when in fact we need to put on our spiritual shoes, to show we mean business? I guess we can all become slobby about faith, too, and stop really putting our all into it. Or we can get all too cosy and comfortable and mediocre about our spiritual life and begin to drag our feet. have you noticed how it’s virtually impossible not to drag your feet in slippers?!
Putting on my spiritual shoes is part of getting ready for my day. It is getting up and getting properly dressed by remembering to do my morning prayers, my daily offering. It is being prepared to walk into God’s will for me that day, and willingly! It is being ready to go the extra mile for my family. When I have done all this, then I can put my slippers on and rest in the knowledge that today, I did my best for Him.
Have you put your shoes on today?
Posted in Blooming at Home, Rule of Life for the Home
Please join me for a cup of tea in my kitchen!
I wish I could invite you in real life…put the blue enamel whistling kettle on the gas hob…serve you biscuits on my vintage cake stand…sit and share the little things about each others’ day. How we might have found God present in our homes and kitchens, in life’s little daily tasks.
So much of life is about these simple, uncluttered moments when we stop and take a breather, in company or alone. I love my kitchen! It’s not flash, or funky, in fact it’s probably a bit on the shabby side and definitely needs decorating. But it’s home, and it’s the heart of my home. I sometimes just run my hand along the work surface, touch the back of the battered old chair my husband restored when next door gave it to us for firewood! When I’m washing up, I often stop, my hands in the hot water, and look out upon the garden, full of ivy and flowers and at this time of year, the occasional robin perching on the washing line.
My kitchen is full of sights and smells which hold meaning for me. Fridge and shelves stocked with ingredients for making cakes, stews, crumbles, pies. An overflowing herb rack which I couldn’t live without. An odd assortment of plates, cups and saucers which don’t match. Cookery books, and plenty of loose leaf recipes stuffed between them. The kitchen is my space, my territory, I am happiest there, and I’d love to invite you inside for tea and biscuits and a chat.
We don’t have a kitchen to share in real life, but we have here ~ pop in and let me know how you’re doing. The picture above is my own kitchen and I have made it inot a prayer, which you can find here: Kitchen Prayer.
Posted in Home-spun Spirituality, Kitchen Talk, Tea Talk
What would be a perfect birthday celebration? To have a 1940s tea party The above picture is from the tv programme “The 1940s House” which is something I get out and watch on dvd quite often! Not having any other members of my family interested enough to actually arrange a 1940s tea party for me, I shall have to go about it myself, I think I imagine myself sat with my daughter, planning the menu, as are the ladies above! I shall do this later in the week…
Mock sausage rolls
Roll out an oblong of shortcrust pastry. Cook red lentils in a little water until soft and combine with fried onion, mashed butter/kidney beans, breadcrumbs, a little beaten egg and some sage, pepper and salt. Form the lentil mixture into a sausage shape and place onto the pastry, roll, and cut. Bake in a moderate oven until the pastry is golden.
Fish paste sandwiches
6 oz Cooked smoked mackerel
4 oz Cooked, Mashed Potatoes
2 oz Softened Margarine
4 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
Pepper
Flake the fish with a fork or put through a mincer. Beat in the potatoes
until a smooth paste is formed. Beat in the Margarine, Worcestershire
Sauce and the pepper. Spread between thin slices of fresh or toasted bread and serve for supper or as a nutritious picnic treat.
Carrot Sandwich Filling
Add two parts of grated raw carrot to one part of finely shredded white heart cabbage and bind with chutney or sweet pickle. Pepper and salt to taste. Or bind some grated raw carrot with mustard sauce flavoured with a dash of vinegar
Carrot Cookies
2 Tbsp Margarine
4 Tbsp Sugar
A few drops of vanilla or almond essence
8 Tbsp Grated raw carrot
12 Tbsp Self Raising Flour or Plain Flour with 1 tsp Baking Powder
Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the flavouring and carrot and fold in the flour. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into greased patty tins and sprinkle the tops with a little sugar. Cook in a moderately hot oven for 20 minutes
Wartime Trifle
1 small ordinary tea bun per person (stale will do)
Fruit Juice (bottled) OR Cooked Fruit OR Very thin Apple Sauce
Thin Custard made with custard powder or potato flour and flavouring.
Cut the buns across and put in a large dish. Heat the fruit juice and custard and pour over the buns, ensuring that each is well soaked. Top with a little fresh fruit for decoration if available.
Mock Apricot Tart
1 lb young carrots,
A few drops almond essence,
4 round tablespoons plum jam,
About 6 tablespoons cold water,
1 lb shortcrust or potato pastry,
2 teaspoons more jam if it can be spared.
Line plate or flan dish with pastry and bake blind. While cases are cooking, peel, wash and dry the carrots and grate into saucepan. Add jam, essence and water and cook slowly until a pulp forms, stirring regularly. Spread over the pastry case and top with a little more jam if available. Could be served with mock cream.
Mock cream
1/2 oz cornflour
1/4 pint milk
1 1/2 oz margarine
3tsp sugar
few drops of vanilla essence
Mix the cornflour with a little of the milk to form a smooth paste. Bring the rest of the milk to the boil and then pour the hot milk over the cornflour paste. Return to the heat and bring to the boil, then cook for 3 minutes. Cream the sugar and margarine together. Gradually whisk in the cornflour mixture and add the vanilla essence. Allow to cool.
Oh, and don’t forget the obligatory rabbit-shaped blancmange!
Posted in Recipes, War Time Kitchen
In the abscence of any long wordy posts, due to time constarints at the moment (gosh, I’m too busy right now!) I thought I’d post some photos of my latest culinary delights for your persusal. I might get round to adding full recipes at some point, too Enjoy!
A honey cake made form a WWII recipe in the Daily telegraph wartime book, Good Fare. It has little sugar/fat and only one egg, substitued by milk and honey, Rather less sweet than I’m used to, but nice all the same (although my family weren’t keen). I ended up turning it into a sultana-cake pudding (also a WWII recipe) later in the week to use it up! See below…
Another recipe on rations! A root vegetable pie with potato pastry and boiled rice mixed with tinned tomatoes and fried onion. Both rather nice, if a little dry!
These are some spinach and feta tarts which were loved by all, even my 7 month old grandson. Very simple to make, just bake the pastry cases blind and add cooked chopped spinach, crumbled feta and fill with a mix of cream, eggs and milk seasoned with pepper and basil (you don’t need to add extra salt as feta is quite salty anyway). I served with baked potatoes and salad
Jam tarts! An old favourite from childhood for most of us I’ll bet I used a mixture of raspberry and starwberry jam, lemon curd and marmalade to make the most of the different colours.. Caught in the sun they look like jewels
This is a mango, cinnamon and lime cake. I had a very over-ripe mango in the fruit bowl, so I peeled, chopped and boiled it with the juice of half a lime and a teaspoon of cinnamon until reduced and thickened, then added it to regular cake mix. The icing is made from icing sugar and the remaining lime juice and sprinkled with cinnamon. Sweet and tangy all at the same time! I think I will let mangos go over-ripe on a regular baisis now. It is probably the moistest cake I have ever made
Finally, this is a latte sprinkled with nutmeg in my favourite mug ~ put your feet up and share a virtual coffee with me, and have a great day!
Posted in Coffee Chat, Kitchen Talk, Recipes
Well, it’s been a while! I guess I have been too busy living “Life on the Home Front” to blog about it But it’s time for a recap, and for me to put together some thoughts I have been mulling over, and try and get them into some semblance of order!
This is the time of year when life changes for me, steps up a gear, so to speak. After the wondrous lull of the summer holidays, when I become fully domesticated again and just revel in being in the home, the kitchen, pottering, tidying, being creative in a domestic way (and loving it!) I have to change hats, and prepare to enter the world of work again. It’s so good working in education, because it means I get plenty of holidays in which to connect with what I see as my true vocation ~ being a homemaker. To be honest, I would love to do it all of the time, because it’s where my heart is and where I feel most fulfilled. But circumstances necessitate that I work part-time, and quite honestly, we couldn’t manage financially without my income. At least now the children are all growed-up, I don’t have to juggle childcare, or feel guilty about not being there for small children. Yet I still feel most at home in a apron, and dare I say, barefoot in the kitchen! 
It’s been quite a while since I posted anything about Saint Zita and the woman of Proverbs 31. Both have been a wonderful inspiration for me, and both of them combined the domestic with the working life, albeit in different ways. I will be writing something about both of them soon, focusing on the balance between the home and work, and being able to do justice to both.
If you want to catch up with my other musings on Saint Zita and Proverbs 31 first, then please follow the links!
See you again soon!
Posted in Blooming at Home, Proverbs 31, Saint Zita
I don’t say this boastfully or out of a sense of pride, but it’s not often I have a kitchen disaster…except last week I certainly did! I was making an apple, sultana and cinnamon crumble and after putting it all in the dish, I placed the dish on top of the cooker until time to go in the oven, and went off to do other things. I was sat at the computer in the front room thinking “mmm, those apples do smell nice” which then changed to “hmmm, those apples smell a bit like burning toffee!” at which point I went in the kitchen to investigate. Oh dear. I had left one of the gas rings on low, and plonked the crumble on top. There was a lot of sugar added to the tart Bramleys, and the bottom of the dish was toffee of the most burnt on kind…
Unfortunately the whole thing tasted burnt and was unsalvageable, so I had to throw it and make a quick chocolate pudding instead. Thankfully the dish came clean after a couple of days soaking in biological washing powder and warm water (a tip I picked up from the internet!) so all’s well that ends well.
Otherwise, it has been busy chez Pogle over the last few weeks, despite being summer vacation. Vacation does not necessarily equal rest! I have been doing a fair bit of babysitting and generally cathcing up around the house, so forgive my blog silence. I will try and make an extra effort over the next couple of weeks
Posted in Kitchen Talk
I made this savoury pudding a couple of weeks ago to use up some leftover stale bread, and it was a hit! It’s very simple to make, and as all my recipes tend to be, I made it up as I went along, so the quantities are approximate (I can never fully remembered what I did after I have eaten it!)
Just grease a baking dish well, and line the bottom with triangles of buttered bread (crusts cut off), buttered side down. Top with a generous amount of grated cheese and fried onion and herbs…you can add other stuff here, like fried red pepper, courgette, mushrooms, chopped ham ~ whatever you like! Top with more buttered triangles, butter side up, and then pour over 3/4 eggs beaten with some milk (5-6oz) so that it just comes up to, but not over, the bread. Place a small plate on top and weight it down a bit (with a can of beans or similar) so that the bread soaks up all the egg/milk and leave for half an hour. Top with more grated cheese and then cook at Gas 5 for about half an hour. It will puff up like a souffle, and is delicious served with a green salad…but very rich! Be warned! 
Bread and butter pudding was a staple during wartime, and although usually sweet was often made as a savoury dish to save on sugar, with powdered egg and margarine instead of butter. This is def. not a rationed recipe though…far too much butter, cheese and real eggs
Posted in Recipes
Today I made cupcakes, and bought an icing bag and piped pretty swirls on the top, for the first time! I am pleased with the result…
These two are my favourite…(the flower’s not edible, just pretty! )
Posted in Kitchen Talk, Recipes
It is important to look after yourself if you are running a Domestic Church! I have been pondering this, and come to realise that women in general are very good at putting others needs before their own, and while that is all part and parcel of a Christian domestic life, we also need to make sure that we are taking care of our own needs, for then we are better able and equipped to look after others!
I had a doctors appointment yesterday, and my GP emphasised the importance of “weight-bearing exercise” for post-menopausal women such as myself, to keep my bones strong and protect against osteoporosis. The conversation went something like this:
Doc: you need to be doing weight bearing exercise at least 5 times a week.
Me: does housework, hoovering, mopping floors, cleaning windows, hanging out the washing, carrying shopping, running round after my family and 3 grandchildren, jiggling a baby and walking everywhere (as I don’t have a car) count?
Doc: only if you work up a sweat…
Me: that’s my exercise accounted for then!
…but it’s also important to make sure we are building in times to relax and wind down in our busy week. Whether that’s by doing a gentle hobby we enjoy, such as reading, or simply relaxing in a chair from time to time. We are human beings, not human doings, and we need time to just “be”! My favourite way of relaxing is in a long, hot bubble-bath, listening to Classic FM on the radio. I can go in, lock the door and shut out the cares and concerns of daily life for half an hour each night, and feel refreshed and physically cared for.
What’s your favourite way to relax? Leave a comment…
Mater Admirabilis
“It is most laudible in a married woman to be devout, but she must never forget that she is a housewife and sometimes must leave God at the altar to find him in housekeeping.” ~ St. Frances of Rome
Pope Benedict XVI
