Time for some St. David Day Cookies!

Tomorrow, March 1, is St. David's Day - the feast day of the patron saint of Wales. If I was lucky enough to be in Cardiff, I might go to a parade, take in cultural exhibits, attend a concert and wear a daffodil. However, I am lucky enough to be in New Jersey close by my friend Alice so we can resurrect a tradition and make St. David Day cookies together. They are curious looking discs aren't they?

I never knew anything about St. David prior to teaching at South Plainfield High School in the 1990s when I was hired to replace two Welsh gentlemen upon their retirement. It was their tradition to bring in dozens and dozens of St. David Day cookies on March 1 for the faculty to enjoy. Little did I know until I signed my contract that Alice had conscripted me to help make these cookies. But, hey, I passed home economics and can bake a batch of cookies - right?

St. David Day cookies are not baked, they are cooked on a griddle like a pancake. So, they aren't really a cookie - but a biscuit of sorts. And no matter how hard I've researched to discover all sorts of facts about St. David, the 6th Century Celtic monk who helped evangelize Wales, I've never found a recipe for his cookie. But I have discovered this recipe is a traditional Welsh biscuit/cookie. They are not the most attractive looking cookie, but I must warn you, these cookies are addictive. Seriously. Teachers would literally fill up their pockets with cookies before leaving the faculty room to have them between class periods. Since leaving SPHS eleven years ago, I found that members of church staffs I've worked with have the same penchant for gobbling up the discs as well.
Alice and I have not made the cookies together since we last taught together in 1996, so it was fun today to spend an afternoon together doing something we haven't done in years AND have a great desert when it was all over! They go great with a cup of tea, a glass of milk, or even a bowl of tapioca pudding. Yum. If you are feeling adventurous, I've included the recipe below - I am sure they are just as good on other days of the year - not just March 1! Enjoy!

St. David Day Cookies
(March 1)

1/2 C butter
1 C shortening
2 C sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 eggs
6 C flour
6 tsp. baking soda
1/2 C milk
1 C golden raisins

Sift together dry ingredients. Mix butter, shortening, and sugar. Add eggs till creamy. Stir in flour mixture. Add in milk and raisins - you may want to mix with your hands at a certain point.

Roll out onto floured board and cut out with round cookie cutter. Bake on griddle (400 degrees on electric griddle) and turn as you would a pancake when it 'puffs' up a bit. Makes about 6 dozen cookies.

I suppose you could cut the recipe in half, but I never have seen the need to bother.

Preparing for St. David's Day

St. David's Day is almost here! That means it is time to get ready to make St. David Day cookies. In preparation for the griddle frenzy that will take place tomorrow afternoon I not only assembled the ingredients but prepared the batter. Tomorrow afternoon, my compatriot, Alice and I will make up the cookies together for the first time since 1996.
What? Are you confused about St. David, who he is, and why there is the need to make cookies to celebrate his sainted day? Check back tomorrow and I'll let you in on the tradition.

Chicken soup - good for what ails you

Spent the day with my friend pillow and quilt. Feeling good enough to watch some Olympic team pursuit on cable. Hoping to feel better enough tomorrow to actually do something - even reading. Glad we have figured out here at the Homestead to meet everyone's desires when it comes to broad or skinny noodle in the soup. Cook the noodles up separately from the soup and add to the individual bowl as taste preferences dictates. As you can see, I am a broad noodle type of gal.

Under the Weather

Proof that I don't feel well is that I haven't even bothered to watch it snow today. I've spent most of the day under a quilt sleeping. When awake, I haven't had much energy to read but watching some videos of Foyle's War on my laptop. Good thing I am done traveling this week.

Because "Oil and Petrochemical Refinery State" doesn't fit on the license plate

I'm back in The Garden State! As is my tradition, Bruce Springsteen was cued up to play Thunder Road and Born to Run as I crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge just after 5 PM. I stopped to record the fact in pictures at the Welcome Center.

The Great Seal of New Jersey

The Great Seal of New Jersey is also visible in the center of a yellow field on our state flag. The wind of the incoming storm helped unfurl the flag as I was snapping photos (thanks, wind!) I am certain if I was at a Texas Welcome Center there would be a dozen Lone Star State flag in a horseshoe around the American flag. From my experiences of visiting Texas, the Lone Star flag would be as big (or even bigger) than the Stars and Stripes. Texans are very proud of their flag and fly multiple ginormous Lone Star Flags everywhere, even at restaurants and car dealerships. Jersey is slightly more modest about the flag and it usually just is at town halls and in court rooms. I am not dogging Texas - I have too many friends there to try and do that - I'm just saying I've never visited a state that has a more visible state flag, and I've been to 46 of the 50 states in the Union. I've not only heard, but experienced, that Texas is like another country. I take my passport when I go there just to be on the safe side so I can return to Jersey.

At the Shive B&B

I'm in Greenville, NC this evening for an overnight visit. Once upon a time, from Oct. 2002-May 2005 Greenville was where I lived and St. James UMC was the church I served as Minister of Adult Discipleship. Today, I met with the Board of Ordained Ministry in Garner, NC as part of my ordination process to be a deacon in the United Methodist Church.

I stopped by the church late this afternoon to say hi and went to dinner with my friend Marianne - who turned out to be my argyle twin today!


My overnight accommodations are courtesy of the Shives. Lanie and Danny put me up when I am in town. These days the sun room is occupied by Elliott, the furry grandchild. Lanie and Danny's daughter Kim is here in town while her husband Gregg is serving a chaplain with the Army in Afghanistan.
I am having a great time visiting people on my quick dash south for meetings. I wish I could stay longer and visit more but I have promises in NJ to keep and miles to go before I sleep in my own bed tomorrow night.

Sorry, James Taylor

I'm gone to Carolina in my car. I'll be up early enough to see the sunrise, I'm not interested in tasting the moonshine and it's just like my friend Joy and I to talk and talk and keep on talking tonight - gee, I'm glad I came to N. Carolina in my car!

The M&M B&B

I'm in Richmond, VA this afternoon in prep for some meetings I will have on campus tomorrow. The fun of out of state travels is that I get to stay with friends. This evening I am at the home of Cindy Lee who has a favorite college team she cheers for 24/7, 12 months of the year. Here is a shot of Hokie Heaven. Maroon and orange are not just autumnal colors but fashion forward (don't ya know?). Tonight tip off is 7:45 against Duke (and I'll be in Durham tomorrow night!) Believe me I will enjoy watching Cindy and her Hokie friends Irene and Randy Leech watch the game.

The M& M references Mavis and Mevin the resident kittys who run the home.

Everything is VT here - even the fan finial.


The Hokie tree



The mantle piece. The picture of Cindy Lee in the upper left corner
is with Frank Beamer. I heard he coached the football team for a few years.


Another view of Hokie Haven

At age 6, Cindy's nephew Wil proved himself to be a
true fan and a fine artist in the eyes of his everlovin' aunt.

P.S. I'm informed (from reliable sources) that there are 199 days till opening game of football season (that's VTech's season) against Boise State in Washington DC on Labor Day Weekend.

nothing glamorous - but still fun

Eleven years ago this summer, my brother married the best sister-in-law (s-i-l) a girl could ask for. Lorraine and I went to the diner for dinner and then on to some shopping at the mall (what do you want from two Jersey girls?) Any time I go shopping with Lorraine, I end up finding great deals and bargains. I stay in my budget, but I'm the one who ends up buying and she ends up just looking. Tonight we got in and out of our favorite store and neither one of us found a thing - but when we got to Marshall's later in the evening, it was a different story. We nearly bought out the home decorating department with items for St. Patty's Day and Easter.

Lorraine and I in front of the famous red doors of Talbots - our favorite store.

With apologies to Robert Frost

Too often Robert Frost's last lines to "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" serve as a mantra to remind me of the amount of things I need to accomplish during a given day. Today I have been reciting the whole poem and I dedicate my 5:00 blog to Frost's thoughts as I paused this afternoon to take a picture of the snowy meadows adjacent to the Homestead. I'd like to take some time and go snowshoeing this evening (I have no horse to ride), but the reality is even though I don't have to go anywhere, I still have promises to keep and piles of paperwork to get through before I sleep. Piles of paperwork and pages of reading to do before I sleep. But those woods are lovely, dark, and deep - and snowshoeing here in Jersey is not guaranteed each year.
For those of you unfamiliar with his work, the whole poem appears at the end of this entry.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it's queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Biscuit Dough not Biscuit Done

I am one of those people who can't wear wool without breaking out into hives. Still, I love and adore hand knit items regardless of who makes them - but if the item is made for me, it can not have even the slightest hint of wool - no lamb, sheep, angora, llama, alpaca, or any other itchy fiber in the yarn if I am expected to wear it comfortably.
Recently, I was inspired to knit a sweater for myself. With my mother's vast knowledge of yarn and yarn houses we found an acrylic yarn in the proper weight and I chose a tweed called "biscuit" that I thought was very pretty for spring. I ordered it almost two weeks ago and have been anxiously awaiting its arrival so I can get started on the project and take it with me on some traveling I will do next week.
When I arrived home this afternoon, I discovered the yarn arrived. I eagerly ripped into the package expecting to spend my evening watching the Olympics and knitting my gauge. However, I am rather disappointed to find out biscuit is darker and more beige than the creamy color depicted on the internet or catalogue. It is a nice color, but not the color I wanted for a spring jacket. It is no problem to return it for a refund or an exchange. I'm just delayed in starting my project. It has just been one of those days - not bad - just filled with numerous starts and stalls is all. It hasn't been unproductive, just not as productive as I imagined or hoped it to be. C'est la vie.

After the cows came home

I spent eleven years in southern regions with just sporadic snowfall and missed seeing the snow blanket the landscape before melting away within a day or so. Therefore, I couldn't help but snap a few extra photos of the countryside on my ride home from Princeton late this afternoon.

I really do like fence lines

One of the nearly dozen one lane bridges I cross on a regular basis

He was meandering around the farm
and paused obligingly to have his picture taken.

When I got home, the new snowshoe bindings arrived in the mail. Dad wanted some help checking his sap buckets on a friend's property. Hopefully the thaw coming the next few days will not only produce sap but reduce the snow drifts so he won't be held up collecting sap until I get home each day.

Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Dinner!

The tradition of using up the fats and oils before fasting during the season of Lent continues in the form of pancake dinner at churches on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.

My dad and a few other men
belonging to the pancake brigade of Sergeantsville UMC
were there with griddles and pancake turners in hand at 4:45

Bob measuring out perfectly sized silver dollar pancakes.

Dad tending to little link sausages from the Amish market

Ray pouring out more tasty medallions

Vigilant and ever watchful of what is cooking,
conversation and good times are still had in the kitchen

Ed got lots of pointers from everyone

Everyone is a critic when the turner isn't in their hand.

His wife Mary Beth was just happy he was making dinner for a change!

And Can It Be?

Is it possible that in nearly two weeks of blogging I have not had a picture of books yet? Well, today the five o'clock hour struck and I was caught reading through these texts that contain the lyrics of Charles Wesley. If you are not aware Charles Wesley (1707-1788) had a brother named John who is the founder of Methodism. Charles wrote many hymns for the fledgling movement in the 18th century that are sung by many Christian denominations today. Wesley's hymns and lyrics will be the featured material of a Lenten study I will lead at Sergeanstville United Methodist Church where my parents are members. Happy Mardi Gras to you all - enjoy your King's Cake!

Snow Tubing Needs to be an Olympic Sport!

Snowshoes are helpful to tamp
down our own run here at The Homestead.

There is no lynx here but a friendly dog.

Sarah wanted Jake to pull her,
but he was having nothing of it!

Walking up hill gets hard at the end of the afternoon.

But the reward of going downhill is totally worth it!

Luke likes to go all by himself!

Over the River and Through the Wood

I went to Grandma's house this afternoon to
deliver chocolate chip cookies for Valentine's Day.
There was neither horse nor sleigh, but there was a
covered bridge to cross in white, drifted, and plowed snow.

Going down the lane at the Farm

Grandma was having dinner and neither one
of us felt like posing - but believe me she is very
happy to have some homemade chocolate chip cookies!
On the way out of the lane, the sun painted the sky with some incredible colors.

Another sunset shot across the fields
(that is not Grandma's house -
just a random one to help balance the shot)

No overdue fines for me!

My status as a homebound instructor for
Princeton Regional Schools entitles me to a public library card.

It is a fabulous library and I enjoy my borrowing
privileges for books, audio books, and DVDs
for personal enjoyment as well as professional need.

Like other patrons, I need to obey the due dates so I got here
late this afternoon to return some DVDs I enjoyed during the recent snowstorms

Inside the lobby is a rather cool tile mural

Each time I view the mural I never fail to spot something new