Day 6 and some thoughts

This morning, I was reading Psalm 104, and was struck by this psalm.


David is speaking of the Creator of heaven and earth, and not only the Creator of all things, but the Sustainer too. There is not an area of this creation that is not ruled over and sustained by our God. The sky and the sea; the mountains and the valleys; the springs of water and the grass; the cattle and the wild animals; the trees and the fruit of them; the birds and the sea monsters; the tides and the seasons. No wonder David declares, "O Lord, how manifold are Thy works. In wisdom Thou hast made them all" (v24). And then, little wonder that he sings, "I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of Him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord." (vv33, 34)


As Catechism 11 puts it:
God's works of providence are, His most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions.


He created the world and His power is as necessary to maintain the world as it was to create it. 'In Him we live, and move, and have our being' (Acts 17: 28). And it's true that being surrounded by His amazing creation certainly gives us thoughts of our great God. How good it is if our meditation of Him is sweet, as David's was. 


Although the plot, and my love of it, often becomes a joke here, there is no doubt that the wonder of God's creation is so evident there. 


Look at this Romanesco:

See the detailed swirls

What beauty God has given us in His world

Here is part of our plot just now

Some Calabrese in 'the cage'.

Calabrese is very similar to broccoli but it has side shoots which keep growing when you cut the centre part, and so it's got a long season of usefulness

Some onions and parsnips

Everything is so much slower this year because of the unusually cool summer we've had

And it wouldn't be a vegetable plot without evidence of the fall too.

You know, when God supplies our dinner table night after night with blessings from our plot, it really is a cause of such thanksgiving.

And so to tonight's dinner. (You may notice a bit of a vegetable theme over the week! That is, of course, because of what God has supplied us with)

Stir-fry and Rice

Carrots, calabrese, garlic cloves, red onion, and chicken (marinading with some chilli powder for a while)

And our dinner

So, there you go. Only tomorrow evening, and I suspect that'll be easy fare.  It's Saturday!

Day 5

Tonight, we have the Builder's sister and her family as well as the Big Brother.

We'll be feeding 11, so we have:

Roast Chicken
Smashed Potatoes
(I'm leaving the bacon out tonight - because we're budgeting. But I can vouch for them being absolutely delicious with the bacon.)
Roasted Carrots
Broccoli and Cheese Sauce
Gravy

I stuffed each chicken with half a lemon and some sage.

The Thyme I placed on top of each chicken

Here they are in all their glory, awaiting heat!

Someone out there who knows their herbs.... Is this a stupid thing to do with Thyme?

I think I'll go and open the oven right now and stick it inside with the Lemon and Sage.

What d' ya reckon?

For pudding, we're having a repeat of the other night: Hot banana loaf, toffee sauce and ice-cream.

I didn't have any time today to make another dessert, so we'll be having what's in.

Toffee Sauce

1/2 lb butter

1lb dark brown sugar

1 pt double cream.

Melt slowly and stir whilst it's heating. It's easy to store and freeze extra.

Then it's all ready in the freezer when you need it. And that could be often!

(As I said before, we're counting pennies, not calories!)

Day 4!

Tonight it's Stewed Sausages
(and some beefburgers too - just 'cos they were in) and
Mashed Potatoes

....stewing with our own carrots

Our kids (and us adults too!) love stewed sausages. 

One thing: I'd love to buy all our meat from a local butcher, but we just cannot do it, financially. However, sausages are my one 'must' from the butcher. I just cannot bring myself to buy supermarket sausages, so I always buy them from our local butcher. Very tasty.

No pudding tonight!

Dinner - Day 3

Tuesday:


Before I go onto the dinner for tonight...


Earlier today, our local shopkeeper sent 
this box down to me.

Not the nicest of presents, you might think.

But he knows I make Banana Loaves and Banana Muffins.

So, not wanting to disappoint, that's what I did.

Some muffins, and...

...a couple of Banana Loaves.

I'll take one of these loaves to the shop for him tomorrow. 

That way we're both happy!

Anyway, back to dinner...

Tonight was a bit of a mish-mash.

Scotch Broth - yep, you guessed it - our own veg!

Mackerel and potatoes - I wasn't expecting to have this fresh mackerel, but one of my brothers-in-law caught  some last night, and he gave some to us today.

For pudding, we had banana muffins, toffee sauce and ice-cream

One for me...

...two for you-know-who

Clearly, whilst we may be counting the pennies, we're certainly not counting the calories!