Deacon Day Apart

The road trip was purposed so I could attend Deacon Day Apart with the Deacon Order of the North Carolina Annual Conference of the UMC. Even though I did travel the farthest distance (and received traveling chocolate as a prize!) I only had a 10 minute ride this morning and easily came through the flood waters that kept several people at home. It was a reflective time designed that we might remember our call and consider the unity of our common journey as we seek to serve God in the church and the world in many diverse and wonderful ways (after all, they let me, doing doctoral research and writing in NJ, be a provisional member!). We worshiped together, celebrated the Eucharist that the Bishop offered, ate lunch and fellowshipped even as we engaged in contemplative practices of the Church which included walking a labyrinth. This is a picture of the day's participants in front of a banner depicting the call of the deacon, being poured out in the power of the Holy Spirit for service in the world. Since we had to squeeze together to make it into the frame we unfortunately blocked some of the beautiful artwork. I have these great photos because I travel with my camera (as a result of this blog) and there was a little trouble with the camera that belonged to one of the organizers so photographing responsibilities were delegated to the one with fresh batteries. I'll give you three guesses to figure out who that was.....
The North Carolina Order of Deacons procured the banner following a 2007 international convocation celebrating the 10th anniversary of Deacons being included as an order of ordained ministry and 30th anniversary of the Diaconal Ministry in The United Methodist Church. The banner was presented to Bishop Gwinn on behalf of the order to be hung in the new conference building and is supposed to be displayed at Annual Conference come June.
Back in the spring, at Annual Conference, we decided to meet at St. Francis UMC at this time because the church was hosting this canvas labyrinth. Though I've walked labyrinths in a variety of places both by myself and with different companions, the opportunity to follow the pathway to the center before returning to the world as I encountered peers and cohorts in ministry was very special and will stay with me for quite some time.

Rainy Raleigh

Well, actually dinner was in Cary, NC and I overnighted in Raleigh. It was so rainy and miserable driving from Richmond, VA this afternoon - I saw 6 accidents on 95 once I started counting - that I almost totally forgot to take a picture today. But I did manage this shot of the wet and rainy skyline of Cary that can't even be seen because of lighting. I was so tired and hungry I didn't even try another shot.

Quick Campus Visit

On my way to NC for a Methodist event on Thursday, I stopped on campus for some appointments, meetings and a visit to the library. Since it is Tuesday, 5PM means there is an Ultimate Frisbee game on the Quad of Union Presbyterian Seminary.

Ultimate Frisbee is taken very seriously here at UPSem. It has a competitive edge that culminates in a spring tournament that involves several other seminaries from as far away as Pittsburgh. The last two years, UPSem has been victorious and defeated the competition in the day long event. Community members are regularly practicing Tuesdays and Thursdays in all sorts of weather - just not the pouring rain which began a few hours after this photo was taken.

My overnight accommodations were at the M&M B&B where Mevin was downright insistent to be the center of attention. My reservations were in the bag as the Hokies are on the road and Cindy Lee elected not to travel for the game this weekend.

Call Numbers

I don't blog much about my thesis/dissertation and I can't decide if that is a good or a bad thing. Really it just is. Regardless, today I spent the day making a list of call numbers of books and texts that I want to check out of the school's library while I make a visit to campus this week. I've secured some texts through my alumni privileges here at local university and seminary libraries but these are texts I want for longer borrowing times which comes with my current student status. Also as a current doctoral student I can check out more books than most normal people ever even want to check out of the library. Yes, individuals at the upper end of graduate studies and beyond have personal neurosis that are intricately weird and defy explanation. Maybe that is a reason why I don't blog very much about my dissertation work.

As good as I imagined it would be!

Back a few weeks ago, I blogged about a recipe from a new Gordon Ramsey cookbook I was inspired to purchase. The recipe that hooked me was "Macaroni cheese with Blue Cheese and Mushrooms" and that is exactly what I made this evening. The macaroni I chose was a petite penne pasta and I got it boiling while I heated up a cast iron pan with mushrooms to saute.

While the mushrooms cooked down there was a ham steak simmering in a mustard sauce I concocted on my own. It needed to be used and I wanted to keep it as moist as possible. It was a very unappealing brown sauce and hence was not photographed.

Mushrooms cooked down and browning in the butter.
Ground pepper was added to the mushrooms at the end.

Once the pasta was cooked and rinsed 3/4 C of heavy cream and 4 oz of blue cheese were added and warmed till melted and creamy. I had far more pasta than what was called for because it would have left a scant amount in the box if I hadn't cooked it up. I didn't adjust the dairy products and it didn't really seem to matter too much.

More ground pepper was added before the dish was assembled.

The pasta was put in an oven proof container and topped with the mushrooms and blue cheese. It was put under the broiler for a few minutes till bubbly and golden brown. I almost forgot to take a picture of the finished product but managed a quick one before we sat down and said grace. Next time I will prepare more mushrooms - the rustic taste of the mushrooms and the blue cheese blended nicely. It went ok with the ham steak, but mom and I think a pork tenderloin or a pork chop would go nicely with the creamy blue cheese sauce. A small basket of cherry tomatos accompanied the meal and it was delish! I don't regret buying the book, even if I only like the two recipes I've made out of it so far!

Last of the summer garden

Its still warm and the tomato plants are still producing

The basil is top heavy and seriously needs to be harvested and made into pesto

And for all intents and purposes, the long, dry, hot summer has taken its toll on the garden. After five months of production things are coming to their natural, eventual, inevitable end.

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Yesterday I made the tomato soup cake. This morning it was iced.
This afternoon when the pastry chefs arrived it was decorated.

It was a slight surprise that Luke took such and interest in decorating Nana's cake....

but once I figured out he enjoyed eating the flowers it all made sense!

"The cake was a little heavy, but the candles made it light!"

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Happy to help you with a little extra hot air!

All this celebrating can make a guy dog tired.

Tomato Soup Cake and Cream Cheese Icing

Yes, you read that right - and I baked one early this evening for my mother's birthday tomorrow. She has loved it since childhood and as long as anyone in the family can remember its been her birthday cake. When people go "Whaaaaat?" I usually describe it as a depression era spice cake - I wasn't around in the depression and technically my parents were born at the end of the Great Depression, but its what I remember her mother saying one time and it just works for me. It is a good cake, but after today's performance in a Wilton cake pan, I suggest you stick with a 9x12" pan and don't try and get fancy.

Tomato Soup Cake

3/4 C Crisco
1 1/2 C sugar
1 C tomato soup (canned, condensed, classically Campbell's)
3/4 C water
1 tsp. soda
3 C flour
3/4 tsp salt
3 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 C raisens
1 1/2 C chopped walnuts (not usually in the b-day cake)

Blend Crisco and sugar. Combine tomato soup with water and soda. Add to Crisco mixture alternately with all the sifted dry ingredients. Stir in raisins and nuts. Pour into 9" greased tube pan or 9x12" cake pan. Bake in moderate oven of 350 for 45 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. (yes, there is no egg in the recipe, it always fakes me out)

Cream Cheese Icing

Blend 2 8 oz. packages cream cheese with 1 egg yolk and 3 C confectioner's sugar. Add 1/8 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. vanilla.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Methodist Mecca by the Sea....

I had dinner with the deacons of the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church - GNJUMC for short. (We Methodists - and most people in mainline denominations love making alphabet soup with our committees, boards, agencies and such!) Dinner was at conference headquarters and is simply an office building. And because traffic is what it is I either would arrive early, with time to kill or late. So I chose early and popped over to Ocean Grove's Great Auditorium. Ocean Grove is just across the creek from Asbury Park, and if you think you are suspecting a theme here, you might just be a Methodist - or know something about early American church history. Ocean Grove is home to one of the oldest Camp Meeting Associations in the country. In the 19th C, Protestants - especially Methodists and Baptists - would gather in large numbers on camp grounds in tents for a week or so of preaching and revival. Ocean Grove's Tent City surrounds the Great Auditorium and are quaint seaside Victorian era structures that are handed down generation to generation.

Tent City is only in operation between Memorial and Labor Day. These are the platforms that in summertime are covered in pretty colored canvases spanning the spectrum of a rainbow reminiscent of sherbet and salt water taffy.

Day's ice cream parlor - just your average Victorian era shopfront typical here on the streets of Ocean Grove - but the stores don't get packed away for winter.

and the green grass grew all around and around

well after this dry hot summer the only way it
will be green again is with a little tlc, water and
grass seed!

Change of scenery

I did the 5K yesterday morning. It was a cross country course run on grass and rocky paths up and down the hills of Deerpath Park. Considering I've just been hitting the pavement on the road in front of the Homestead I am satisfied with my results. But early morning workouts are getting difficult because the sun isn't up and there is increased traffic with people rushing off to school in the morning. I think it is a little safer for the next bit to go to a local park and use their gravel track to get in my interval workouts. Since I didn't have time to get there this morning I headed over and walked the loop. It's relatively flat terrain, but I am not concerned about being side swiped by a vehicle. Unfortunately Jake is nursing a limp leg and needs to rest it so he can be ready to go get birds in a few weeks. So, I go it alone even though I'd be willing to clean up after him if necessary.

Birthday Buddies

We celebrated Grandma's 97th birthday this weekend. She and mom both have their birthdays during the week. Since Uncle Butch down from Maine for the weekend, the rest of the family from Jersey was rounded up and came to celebrate in style with pizza on the porch and ice cream cake at the Farm.

And if only great-grandsons didn't grow so tall, we might be able to see more of Ryan!

Did you know....

Autumn is for sale!
Or at least pumpkins and corn husks and hay bales are.....bring on the sweaters!

TGIF???

I missed the memo that it was Friday and the five o'clock whistle blew an hour and a half ago. I got so immersed in some curriculum writing I just missed it. Guess that's what happens when Jimmy Buffett isn't your next door neighbor and your office isn't in Margaritaville.

phantom raindrops

Honestly, it is raining! And no matter what setting I used, I couldn't get a single drop to come into focus. Actually, the skies opened and it was a deluge just as I reached the kitchen door. But by the time I got the camera to the porch, it had returned to a steady and regular rain. Oh well.

Air in the hair therapy

The nicest part about owning a British roadster is driving it on a gorgeous afternoon like today. After spending the day squirreled up with my books and writing some curriculum, I was ready for some "air in the hair therapy". It was a perfect afternoon for tooling around the country roads here in Hunterdon County. I only paused long enough to take this silhouette picture.

Thanks to Dad I had a freshly flushed radiator and it ran great!

roadside stop

For two weeks, this pretty clump of flowers have been blooming bright, beautiful and orange.

I just know my sister in law is jealous and wished they bloomed in her yard.

O where is my hair stuff?

Narrator: Now it's time for silly things with Tammie. It's the blog entry in which Tammie enters the stage and pirates the lyrics of a silly Veggietales song. Our curtain opens as Tammie, having tried a new hair stylist this afternoon in her never ending quest for a good cut at a reasonable price, is searching for her hair stuff (or products - but 'stuff' is a better fit since the original lyrics is 'hair brush') Not happy with the current style, Tammie sings......

"O where is my hair stuff, o where is my hair stuff - oh where oh where oh where oh where oh where is my hair stuff?"

Narrator: Having heard Tammie's cry of lament on facebook, dear childhood friend Lynne (who is now a hair stylist in GA) enters the scene. Alarmed and saddened that her friend is not happy with her hair style, Lynne offers words of comfort and sings.....

"I'd cut your hair for free if only you lived closer to me!"

Narrator: Spying her hair stuff where it belongs (it wasn't even missing in the first place) Tammie rejoices and sings (and jumps a couple of verses at the same time).....

"Yes, there is my hair stuff - now its time to use my hair stuff, its time to soften the stiff hair and wash out my hair because I have found my hair stuff!"

Narrator: After washing her hair with her special non-sulfate formula (which is of the cucumber aloe variety - not something Larry might approve of) that she found with 'The Phebes' a few years ago in the RVA, Tammie's hair is neither stiff nor as big as a football helmet. Tammie smiles as she can live with the cut - but the quest for an affordable hair stylist continues.....

The End

Pumpkin harvest

The crop down the road is getting ready for harvest

In the lower left corner you can see the wire from the electric
fence that protects the field from unwelcome pumpkin pickers.

Pumpkins this big fetch high prices. But who considers them more valuable - ornamental designers or bakers with plans to make lots and lots of pies?

She helps me save by not spending!

Normally, when Lorraine, my sister-in-law, and I go shopping, I am the one doing all the buying and she does all the looking. The tide is now turning, because today, for the first time since we've known one another, she did more buying than me! I think I had a little good luck charm in my niece being along for the excursion today. Here is silly Sarah being ultra silly in a shoe store in which none of us bought anything.

Jake drives

Mom and I ran errands this afternoon and whenever I
got out to dash into the store, I'd return to find my seat occupied.

He did a good job of keeping mom entertained while I ran errands

But it'd be nice if he could have offered to chauffeur me around town, don't you think?

Quick and tasty rice and beans

I know I should have used dried beans and rehydrate them, but I really wasn't up for an all afternoon affair in the kitchen. So, with a little garlic, onion and half a jalapeno pepper sauteed in olive oil and simmering in chicken stock, I warmed up the beans.

Add rice (I use a Texamati blend) with a little more olive oil and the rest of the chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Cover tightly (I forgot to take that picture) reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Stir after most of liquid has been absorbed and allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving. A little cheese and its a complete meal in itself. Yum.