Gathering Graces 1/19/2017
*Today was Mom’s 86th birthday! Sadie and I headed over to her house in the morning, as is our regular morning ritual, and talked to brother Bill for a few moments as he called with birthday greetings, and gave Mom a haircut. Later in the evening, Mom’s front sidewalk was free from ice, so she was able to walk to our car and come over for her birthday dinner. The dinner menu included Pear, Bleu Cheese and Walnut Salad, Broiled New York Strip Steaks, Glazed Carrots, Twice Baked Potato Casserole, Cheesy Biscuits and Mom’s neighbor Jane made her an Angel Food Cake with Lemon frosting that we enjoyed for dessert. Mom, Paul, Christy, Everett and I enjoyed a wonderful evening together celebrating Mom’s birthday!! Oh, and we Chromecasted Cosette’s Potato Bowl performance in the Vandal Marching Band onto the television screen so Mom could see it.
*Icy Roads, Bad Weather Conditionsk No School Day #2. I was a bit surprised to check my phone around 5:15 a.m. and see an email from our principal saying we were not having school again today. So I shared the good news with Paul, and we went about our slow, lazy day. I feel like I have been graced with a bit of a Winter Sabbath these past few days, where I was quiet, and spent time watching birds in our bird feeder, took time to sit and think, and just enjoyed the quietness of the days.
*I have been pulling up some Chopped Junior episodes on You Tube these past few days, and two things came up that the contestants used that I either had just heard mentioned recently, or had never heard of in my life. First was Shakshuka , something I had never heard of until Bill shared about making it in his Three Beautiful Things on Wednesday. This was one of the basket ingredients that the kids were to use in their competition, and I couldn’t believe I had just read about that the day before. The next things that one of the competitors did was create an Aquafaba sauce. I found out you can take the juice you drain off a can of checkpeas (garbonzo beans) and use it in place of egg whites. I was blown away.
Aquafaba can be used to replace egg whites in many sweet and savory recipes. Its unique mix of starches, proteins, and other soluble plant solids which have migrated from the seeds to the water during the cooking process gives aquafaba a wide spectrum of emulsifying, foaming, binding, gelatinizing and thickening properties.
If you want to find out more about Aquafaba, and what you can make with it, go to aquafaba.com.
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