Sunday 9 August 2009

Marie's Sunday Six . . .



Welcome to my Sunday Six Smile Makers!! I forgot to do them last week, and I sure missed it! I think it's good to take some time to reflect on the past week and all that was good about it. It's always a chore for me to keep it down to only six!




I would have to say the "highlight" of my week was having the Young Women over for a Barbecue this past Thursday evening. We have a very small group of girls. Most weeks we only have two girls that come out regularly. Sometimes they bring friends with them to help pad out the numbers, but really we only have the two. It's kind of nice in a way, because they have formed a good friendship with each other, but I feel kind of sad for them sometimes, because it would be nice if they had a lot of girls to chum around with. It can be very difficult to be a member of our church and stand up for your ideals when the numbers are very few and spread out and living quite far from each other. If it is difficult as an adult, I can only imagine how much harder it is when you are a teen. I admire the teens in our Ward so very much. There are very few of them, only about half a dozen all together. Most go to different schools, and so they end up being very isolated in their faith. That they hold on to it at all is a huge, huge thing! I know that they are all looking forward to their EFY camp later this month! I am sure they will have a wonderful time with other teens from all over England and it will be a great opportunity for them to make some new friends and to feel that they are truly a part of something large and wonderful!



I love tomatoes and the tomatoes we planted in our garden earlier this year are now ripening fast and furiously! I could just sit and eat a whole plateful of them, simply sliced and sprinkled with salt and pepper. With a slice of buttered white bread, there is no finer meal on earth I am thinking! You just can't beat the flavour of a ripe tomato, fresh from the vine with the heat of the sun still on it's skin. Heaven on earth!




The Sweet Peas in our garden are blooming profusely right now! They were really late getting started. We had begun to despair of having any bloom at all, but lo and behold they finally have let go and are chocker block full of lovely blooms. Our friend Alan gave us these plants earlier in the spring. He is a wonderfully proficient gardener and I just knew they would be beautiful, and . . . they are!! A lovely variety of colours and shades. Sweet Peas are one of my favourite flowers. I love the old fashioned blooms, like these and Pansies and Petunias. If I was a young bride, I would want a bouquet of Sweet Peas.



The trees in the Orchards that surround us are just full of ripening apples and I don't think it will be long now before they start picking them. They have already set out the apple boxes . . . great towers of wood scattered here and there throughout the Orchards. It won't be long now before the air rings with the happy chatter of the pickers as they go about their business. We often walk through the Orchards. There is a public footpath that goes right through them. It's a very pleasant walk and so very pretty. The other evening when we were walking through them, the air was very still and, as I looked up into the sky, I could see a hot air balloon floating overhead, the only sound the whoosh of it's gas burner as it fired up again, and again . . . the hedgerows are full of ripening blackberries and the ground is covered with windfalls. We're allowed the windfalls and so at this time of year we often pick up a few. The other night we got enough cooking apples that I made a big pot of applesauce as soon as we got in from our walk. I froze most of it, but then we sat down and enjoyed some of it right then and there.



Jess enjoys the windfalls too. She is ball crazy most of the time. Having us throw her ball with her is one of her absolute favourite things to do. When we are walking through the orchards, she often picks up a windfall and walks the whole way with it in her mouth, just like a little piggie waiting to be roasted. Occasionally she will drop one at our feet, just hoping that we will throw it for her, and so . . . we do . . .



I am so very grateful to be able to live in such a beautiful place. Surrounded by Orchards and tucked away down a quite lane we are quite far away from the world. It's quiet and peaceful and so very, very beautiful. A walk on a quiet afternoon is always filled to the brim with beauty . . . even the seed pods of the wild flowers in the meadow are beautiful in their own way . . . a hundred million pods of promise waiting to find their wings and take to the wind . . . to end up who knows where . . . they do not fear what awaits, or where they will end up. They leave it all to the Master who directs their paths . . . we could learn alot from those little seeds.

And there you have it, my Sunday Six Smile Makers for this week.



Earlier this week my fruit and veggie box arrived with these odd looking flying saucer shaped vegetables tucked into it's bounty. I have seen small patty pan squashes before and they are delicious steamed and served simply with salt, pepper and butter. I had never encountered one quite as large though as these two and so I really had to put on my thinking cap to figure out what to do with them. I thought about stuffing them, or just pan frying them in a bit of olive oil with some salt, pepper and garlic, and then I thought why not do something totally old fashioned with them and so I made a Summer Squash Escallop. It was deliciously different and we both enjoyed it immensely!!



*Escalloped Summer Squash*
Serves 6
Printable Recipe

I love vegetables cooked in this way. Tender and delicious, this is a wonderful side dish in the summertime when the squash are ripening on the vine faster than you can eat them. Sometimes it's the simple things in life that taste the best, don't you think?

2 medium summer squash, thinly sliced
2 TBS butter
1 small onion, peeled and minced
1 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
paprika
4 TBS freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cream



Pre-heat the oven to 180*C?350*F. Lightly butter a 1.5 litre shallow casserole dish. Cover the bottom of the casserole with squash. Season with salt, pepper, paprika and minced onion. Dot with butter. Repeat the layers until all the squash is used up and finish off with a final layer of cheese, onion and the spices. Mix the milk and cream together and pour over. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the squash is tender and the cheese is lightly browned.



If you like Blue Cheese dressing on your salads, you may want to check out my tasty recipe HERE.

Happy Sunday everyone!

10 comments:

  1. Oh, looks like it's been a very good week there, Marie! Your young women's group sounds like a lot of fun. And so lovely to see sweet Jess...she is such a sweetie-pie. Your tomatoes looks terrific! We didn't do tomatoes this year...July gets rainy here and it never works out--LOL! Your squash recipe today is wonderful--I must try this one! Hope you & Todd and sweet Jess are having a great weekend there... Hope we get a chance to chat yet today. :o) LOVE YOU HEAPS, my friend ((BIG HUGS))

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  2. The squash looks so good. I love squash, and that looks like such a nice way to serve it.

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  3. Sounds like you had a wonderful week. The sweet peas are just so beautiful. They have been my favorite flower all my life. Sadly we can't grow them here in Colorado. Thanks for sharing the pictures! Jan

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  4. What a lovely Garden of Eden you have within a few footsteps! I was visualing the apple orchard with the hot air balloon swishing above! Thanks for my exciting walk! I feel so refreshed now and how I needed a respite as it's been a hectic week.

    I am in the process of possibly having my Mom in a new Senior Living facility just about 3/4 of a mile from me! That would mean I could spend time with her daily! She is 93 and has been in a rehab facility due to a back injury. She doesn't want to return to the Senior Living community where she has lived for almost 2 years. Pray that everything will work out and that she can afford this new location as it does cost more money.

    I've written down the squash recipe and plan on preparing it this week. I wonder how it might taste if I grated some zucchini (not much) to add to the layers???
    I need to finish up my zucchini.

    Hugs,
    Winnie

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  5. That looks like a great way to enjoy summer squash!

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  6. Winnie, I wish you luck with moving your mom to her new home! I'll be keeping you in my prayers for sure. I think zucchini would be a lovely addition to that casserole, and in fact it might work very well with zucchini alone! It's worth a try at any rate!

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  7. Today you're a smile maker for me Marie! I love reading your blog because it's always so uplifting. And I'm anxious to try this squash recipe - we love squash and this will be another good way to prepare it. blessings, marlene

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  8. Every time you list your six things I think about how much have in common. I also love the church kids, could eat tomato sandwiches everyday of my life, love the secluded area we live in, and adore sweetpeas. We just don't have a dog but other than that, I could write a very similar list this week.

    Love to you, Marie!

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  9. What a lovely Sunday Six you had this week. I am glad that you've had all of these things to bring smiles to your face.

    Your home is in such a lovely area. How I hope that one day I can see it for myself. Dreams sometimes come true...so I keep hoping.
    Have a happy birthday week coming up. I will be thinking of you.

    I can't wait to try the squash dish. We love squash.

    I send love, Lura

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  10. so glad to hear you had such a fun time with the young women!

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