I seem to have wandered away from writing! Well here is a recipe to fill the time.
Ingredients
1 medium onion – diced
2 tablespoons curry (more or less depending on your tastebuds!)
1 clove garlic minced
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup red pepper chopped
1-2 cups of cauliflower cut into bite sized
1 large tomato cubed
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
salt and pepper to taste
1) In a large skillet with a lid. Fry onions with oil (use enough oil to cover bottom of skillet). Medium heat is good and don’t burn the onions!
2) When the onions are soft and translucent, add curry powder and garlic. Stir into onion mixture for about 30 seconds.
3) Add carrots and peppers and cook for 2-3 minutes.Stirring to make certain the carrots are well coated with the curry base.
4) Add tomatoes stirring in and then finally add cauliflower to the mix and cook until desired softness is achieved.
Remove from heat and add ginger and salt and pepper to taste. Cover with lid and let sit for 5 minutes. Serve with rice or enjoy on its own.
Optional Add 1/2 cup of coconut milk to add some creamy goodness!
Sometimes I add a cup of chopped fresh spinach with the cauliflower to add a bit more colour – and some iron!
I love bananas a whole bunch! And apparently I don’t eat them fast enough and end up with a few overripe brown ones! But that is why we make banana bread!
Ingredients
1/2 cup Butter (at room temperature!) (or margarine)
1 cups sugar (white or brown)
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 cup white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
optional:
1/2 cup walnut pieces METHOD
Prepare a 9×5 loaf pan (grease and flour); Pr-heat oven to 350F
1) In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly in a bowl.
2) In another bowl cream together the sugar and butter until well mixed; Mix in the eggs, vanilla and lemon.
3) Mix in the banana and sour cream with the butter mixture
4) Combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients mixing until evenly blended
5) Pour the batter into the loaf plan, give the pan a shake and a bump to settle the batter.
Bake for 60 minutes (check that a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean)
On the twelfth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me:
Twelve Drummer Drumming…
January 5th is here and so this is the “Twelfth Day of Christmas.”
The modern saint of the day – St. John Neumann – was a Bishop of Philadelphia, living in a time when there was a rabid anti-catholic sentiment in the USA. Feelings were so strong that there were burnings of Catholic Churches, schools and seminaries. It is a fascinating parallel to the strong feelings currently sweeping through the USA – especially related to “non-Christians”. Politically this lead to the Know Nothing movement and included the 1852 American Party which reads like an ancestor of the Tea Party movement. Its main platform was opposition to all foreigners (especially non-Protestants), and its motto was “Americans must rule America.” The more things change the more they stay the same!
Now that has very little to do with Christmas as a celebration – but it sure is a fascinating glimpse into the evolution of US politics and world social movements.
In the secular traditions of Christmas this is Twelfth Day, and tonight then is Twelfth Night. Most of us know the the Twelfth Night as a play be Willaim Shakespeare. The title of Twelfth Night refers to the magic that flows into the world during Christmastide, as the old order of the world is over-turned by the coming of Christ. The play itself reflects the Carnivalesque atmosphere of Yuletide – where things are reversed and confused and involves cross-dressing, switching of roles (master becomes servant – servant is master). Christmastide reflects the essential fact that Christianity has rather rebellious roots at its foundation. A virgin has a child – and that child is the divine become human. The barrier between heaven and earth is breached and will never be the same.
Twelfth Night as the Eve of the Epiphany, and as a Christmas tradition, is a day of celebration and carousing. It is a festive occasion marked by merrymaking, feasting and drinking. The wassail punch of the song “Here We Come a Wassailing” is an important part of the English tradition for Twelfth Night. The carol itself has become associated with Christmas Eve, however more traditionally it was part of Twelfth Night celebrations. This is a night for singing, dancing, drinking and celebrating.
The modern Twelfth Night is now the traditional time for Christmas decorations to be removed and put away. Any edible decorations are distributed and eaten. My parents would have colorfully wrapped marzipan on our Christmas tree – and any we hadn’t already consumed would be eaten that night. My mother always pretended surprise at the many wrappers stuffed with tissue – the delightful marzipan somehow transmuted into paper.
In the Christian context, Twelfth Night is celebrating the Eve of the Epiphany. The Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th is the day the three wise men arrive and the “manifestation” of god as human within the infant Jesus. This is part of the “upside-down” nature of Christmastide. On Christmas eve, the birth of Jesus is revealed to the animals in the stable, and then announced to the ordinary people first – “shepherds watching their flocks by night.” The elite of the world must wait until later for the revelation of the manifestation of god. With the appearance of the three wise-men and their gifts worthy of a King bestowed the promise of Christmas is delivered into the world.
Since the actual day of the Epiphany is a joyous and solemn event – Twelfth Night is then a chance to revel in the unfettered merriment of Christmastide one last time. Perhaps having a hang-over makes for quiet worship the next day.
So on this Twelfth Night – eat, drink and be merry!
merlinspielen 