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Everything Else, ,

Thanksgiving menu and happenings

I started last night with the prep for my famous stuffing. The recipe for those interested:

Need:

  • 1 bag plan breadcrumbs (do NOT get anything with flavorings, spices, etc. – buy them from your local bakery – I get mine from Freihofer’s)
  • 1 1/2 Tb sage
  • 1 3/4 cup golden raisins (or other dried fruits – this year I used a mixture of golden raisins, dried cherries, and dried cranberries)
  • 5 crisp stalks celery
  • 1 large onion – sweet onion preferred
  • 1 package regular pork sausage (Jimmy Dean works fine, don’t get the hot or sausage with other flavors)
  • 1 1/2 quarts chicken broth
  • 1 stick butter (1/4 lb)

Procedure (one day prior):

Empty the breadcrumbs into a LARGE bowl – and I mean big, you’ll need it.
Bring the chicken broth to a boil and reduce heat to low. Leave it on while you prepare the rest.
Chop up the raw sausage as much as possible and fry. As the sausage fries continue to chop at it with a non-metal spatula. By the end you should have a finely crumbled, nicely browned bunch of sausage. Throw it on top of the breadcrumbs and mix.
Return your frying pan to the heat and melt the butter. Finely chop the celery and onions and mix together. Fry them in the butter until they are translucent. Once cooked, throw them on top of the bread crumbs and sausage and mix.
Thrown in the sage and the dried fruit.
Blend everything together.
Pour the broth over the mixture. Pour slowly and cover the mixture. Stop and stir everything together every so often.
Refrigerate overnight to let the flavors blend.

Bake apart from the turkey in a casserole (400 degrees for about 1/2 hour, till hot through).

Experiment with your own spices and other such things. Good luck.

Our family began arriving at about noon. Everyone pitched in with the prep and the clean-up (for which I am very grateful) and we ate at 2:15.

Today’s menu consisted of turkey, white and sweet mashed potatoes, rutabaga, corn, rolls, apple sauce, zucchini bread, jambalaya (with andouille sausage and shrimp), the stuffing noted above, gravy, cranberries (jellied and whole).

I served a Valpolicella Classico Superiore – Danese before dinner and a Moscato d’Asti – Saracco with dinner.

All-in-all a successful repast.

Everything Else, ,

Time for beer and wine

I’ve been drinking selections from the Samuel Adams seasonal collection recently – Winter Lager, Old Fezziwig Ale, Cranberry Lambic, and Holiday Porter. I enjoyed them all except the Cranberry Lambic – too many high notes – it was harsh.

I just picked up a case of Leinenkugel’s Holiday collection made by the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. It’s new in the area and after trying it I adjudge it a welcome addition. Even the bottle styling is traditional. Reminds me of Buffalo’s favorite – Iroquois (careful of the pop-ups). I’ve tasted them all – Honey Weiss (a non-cloudy wheat honey beer), Red, Creamy Dark, and Sunset Wheat (a traditional wheat with orange overtones – very refreshing).

I’ll be opening the wine tomorrow morning after I get the bird in the oven. I’ll be starting with an Armenian Pomegranate wine – very nice, but takes some getting used to. I have a nice Sauterne (not Sauternes) which my mom used to mix with Squirt. A pretty good combo, I’ll give it a go tomorrow in memory of mom.

Everything Else, ,

Of holy memory

Please remember during the month of November:

Andrzej and Emilia, Józef and Rozalia, Louis A. and Bernice, Walenty and Maria, Jan and Marianna, Marcin and Marianna, Louis T. and Rita, Sister Mary Agnese, Agnes and Joseph, Angeline, John, Walenty, Walerka, Francis and Mary, Ludwis, Anthony and Laura, Mary Grace, Joseph, and Chester

Wieczny odpoczynek racz im dać Panie, a światłość wiekuista niechaj im świeci. Amen.

Niech odpoczywają w pokoju. Amen.

Witaj, Królowo Nieba (Hail, Thou Queen of the Heavens)

[audio:https://konicki.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/Witaj_Krolowo_Nieba.MP3]
Current Events, Perspective,

Your breasts are like twin fawns

Your breasts are like twin fawns,
the young of a gazelle
that browse among the lilies.

I offer this verse from the Song of Songs (Song of Songs 4:5) in honor of all women, and in recognition of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Many bloggers have turned their sites a lovely shade of pink in blogdom’s Go Pink for October effort.

Part of the Go Pink effort is the sharing of personal stories. Here’s mine:

I had a cousin, Mary Grace, who was affected by breast cancer. She ended up having a double mastectomy followed by high-dose chemo and radiation therapy.

I remember very clearly how our whole family came together in prayer before, during, and after her treatments. It was an intense and exceptional lesson in faith. I remember the sense of confidence I had in our common prayer. I don’t remember questioning whether the prayer, along with the medical treatment, would work, I just had no doubt.

The treatment worked and Mary Grace was able to carry on for several years. Eventually, the cancer did return, and took her life, the life of an outstanding person, a mom, wife, and educator.

Mary Grace was in the lead among technology educators in this country, long before technology was part of school curricula. Something that I as a blogger and amateur tech guy appreciate and admire.

The Kentucky Association of Technology Coordinators named a Student Technology Leadership Program scholarship in her honor. They had this to say in their minutes (Google archive):

Dr. Mary Grace Jaeger was the director of the Computer Support Unit for Jefferson County Public Schools and in the beginning stages of KERA, she was the Associate Commissioner of Education Technology. Her tireless efforts to improve the integration of technology in instruction benefited students in her county and in all districts across our great Commonwealth. Dr. Jaeger was a wonderful president of KATC and an enthusiastic supporter of STLP. KATC wishes to honor two STLP high achievers who are also effective leaders in their club and community. It is our desire to honor them with a scholarship appropriately named after one who epitomized those same outstanding qualities.

In a special way I honor my cousin Mary Grace who would have turned 50 this year. I also honor all the women of my family.

If you took a look at the family I grew up in, you would see that the majority of family members around me were women, strong, independent, and faithful women.

I personally experienced the parochial attitudes doctors exhibited toward them and the lower level of medical care that these women received. Many would be alive today if not for the poor state of women’s health care.

My mom, my aunt, all of them under treated. All met with the attitude of ‘Oh, honey, you’re just complaining because you’re a woman.’ All with treatable conditions left undetected while doctors raked in revenue. The very same conditions in a man would have been met by extraordinary efforts on the part of the medical community.

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So this October, Go Pink, make a donation to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and help ensure that our sisters and daughters receive the care they deserve.

Everything Else,

Georgian, Armenian, and Hungarian Wines – oh my!

A good friend introduced me to wines from Central Europe about a decade ago. Egri Bikavér (“Bull’s Blood”) is a wonderful Hungarian wine. When we used to drink it, it was a very inexpensive buy. Lately I’ve been hearing a few people talking about Georgian wines. I was at our local mega-specialty wine store yesterday and decided to look for a bottle or two.

Their selection from these countries was rather limited. I picked up one Georgian wine and I found an Armenian wine. The Armenian wine is a semi-sweet made from quince. We tried it with dinner tonight and, in my inestimably poor ability to judge anything, I give it a thumbs up. I noticed that the Armenian’s make a semi-sweet from pomegranate. I’m going to start looking. I also forgot to ask them if they carry Egri – that’ll have to wait for the next trip.

Na zdrowie!

Everything Else, ,

I will be away

A very dear aunt passed away late last week. The wake and funeral will be Tuesday and Wednesday. I will not be blogging for the next two days, although I will try to get the saints of the day posted before I leave.

Please remember her and her children, family, and friends in your prayers.

The pastor of the R.C. church where the funeral mass is being held is allowing me to sit in choir for the funeral. I appreciate his generosity and kindness.

Generally pastors do this sort of thing, and based on other recent experience, would like PNCC clergy to participate more fully. It presents an uncomfortable situation in that we have to explain why we cannot. Usually something like —Due to our unfortunate divisions etc. etc…—

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