A Recipe and a Meme
In the comment section of my recent canning post (My Dh said recently: you want to pickle beets? But you don’t eat the perpetual pickled beets out of the jar in the fridge), the wise Suzanna asked about my dill, cucumber and sour cream recipe that I mentioned (as a favorite way to eat dill). It reminded me of how I came across the recipe, so I thought I’d give a bit of back-story.

When Dh and I decided to become vegetarians in 1992, we lived in a very unvegetarian friendly Podunk area (it has become less so and more vegetarian friendly. As really has where we live, but when we moved here, we were shocked at how vegetarian friendly it was even then), I bought two books to start me on the way. The first is the classic Diet for a Small Planet, and the second was Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking. I figured whatever worked for Sir Paul would work for me. I read and re-read that book, since it had a great section on how to prepare vegetables and what kinds of herbs and cooking utensils to use. I was very newly married (this was prior to my Dh becoming the amazing cook that he is) and this was important information to me (plus, she uses the term aubergines)

At the time, it was very representative of vegetarian cooking, but it seems dated now (as does Diet for a Small Planet, actually). Naturally, prior to her far too young death, her cooking style evolved into a more local and fresh way, as did ours. But, this cookbook still has a soft spot in my heart being as it was good enough for Sir Paul.

So, from the Lovely Linda:

Cucumber Salad
1 large cucumber
1 tablespoon cooking salt*
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon chopped chives or chopped onion
3-6 sprigs fresh dill weed
1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
Peel and cube the cucumber. Place in a colander, cover with the salt, and let sweat for 30 minutes (*I actually skip this step with no issues. If you choose to do this, skip the 1 tablespoon cooking salt from the above ingredients).
Mix all ingredients together in a large salad bowl and serve immediately or let chill for about an hour

And, my swell cousin-in-law, Angie (whose homebirthed baby will arrive any day now) tagged me for the Five for Five Meme, so here goes:

5 things I was doing five years ago: (I had to double check my 2004 scrapbook)

Enjoying my newborn nephew (I didn’t have to check the scrapbook for that one)
The mom of one teenager
Going to CKU San Jose with my mom
Going to Ashland to see Much Ado About Nothing
Falling, getting back up again, repeat.

5 things on my to do list:
Grocery Shopping
Antiquing with my Goddaughter
Scrapbooking (including making a gift for the aforementioned Cousin-in-law's baby)
Folding the Laundry
Getting back into the exercise groove.

5 things I would do with a million dollars:

Pay off debt
Donate to Charity
Spend a lot of time in Europe
Eat bon-bons and read all day
Install a floor to ceiling bookcase in the living room

5 places I have lived:
Jackson, CA
Denver, CO
The podunk part of California.
Western Washington

5 things I want to be doing in 5 years:

Be the mom of two high school graduates
Scrapbooking
Going to Ashland to see a few plays
Falling down and getting back up again. Repeat
Following Duran Duran in a Grateful Dead like caravan

People I Tag: As always, the floor is open if you want to play. Let me know.

Every February 1st, Orthodox bloggers are abuzz about our love for St. Brigid*, but even though she’s pre-schism, there haven’t been a lot of Orthodox books about her.

Jane G. Meyer (a fellow California Basque girl) has rectified this situation with the absolutely delightful children’s book The Life of St. Brigid: Abbess of Kildare**. Told in a beautifully simple prose, we meet the young girl who loved Christ and who even from a young age lived a truly Christian life. After her adulthood, she goes to her Chieftain father’s house, where he tires of her almsgiving and decides to marry her off. Instead, she becomes a nun and gives her love of Christ and almsgiving to the people of Ireland. It is a lovely tale of hospitality and of Ireland’s very Christian (and Orthodox) heritage. It is a delightful read, and one that I encourage you to share with the children in your life.

The text is printed in a beautiful Celtic font , which may prove to be slightly difficult for the earliest readers to read, but it will be a great read aloud book until they get past that age. The illustrations*** incorporate traditional Celtic designs and Christian symbols and add a beautiful layer to this book. I cannot recommend the book highly enough.

*we actually have a cat named Brigid. Later we found out you aren’t supposed to give animals saint’s names, but she was well named by that point.
**Full disclosure: I was sent a pre-release copy to review. Thank you ever so kindly.
***Proving once again the smallness of the Orthodox world, the illustrator (and author of a book about St. Patrick) came into Orthodoxy in a church whose pastor came into Orthodoxy in my parish. We are practically family, although we’ve never met.

Photo from the Conciliar Press site.