Two Blue Houses

 

We tried this recipe last Wednesday. If I were to change anything, I’d have used cubed butternut, and I’d have cut the carrots into smaller chunks. It wouldn’t have hurt to roast the veg a bit longer, either. But it did make my whole house smell wonderful!

 

Roasted Autumn Vegetable Soup

 

1 large or 2 small butternut squashes, halved and seeded

A handful of carrots, peeled

2 to 3 small sweet potatoes

1 large onion, peeled and quartered

1 to 2 large, ripe tomatoes, halved

A few cloves of garlic, peeled

1 bell pepper, halved and seeded

32 ounces vegetable or chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

A cup or two of heavy cream

 

 

Brush sheet cake pan with olive oil and spread vegetables on it. Brush vegetable tops with oil. Roast about an hour at 375F. Scoop squash flesh into Dutch oven or stock pot. Add remaining vegetables and broth. Cook on low for about an hour. Blend with stand mixture until desired consistency. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir in cream. Serve warm with crusty bread.

Three Aloes

 

March 13, 1781, William Herschel made note of an object in the nighttime sky. He was in his garden, using a homemade 6.2” telescope. He reported the object was a comet, although it had no tail. After several weeks of watching his “comet,” William determined the object must be a planet. In recognition of this momentous discovery, King George III offered a stipend of £200 (roughly £30,000 in today’s money) as long as William moved to Windsor so the royal family could enjoy using his telescopes. As the planet’s finder, William was tasked with choosing a name. He settled on “Georgium Sidus” or “Planet George” to honor his new patron. The name was more popular in England than elsewhere. It was argued the other planets – named for Roman gods – sounded more dignified. Eventually Planet George was renamed for the Greek god of the sky: Ouranos. I guess Uranus is more distinguished. But George is easier to spell. And pronounce.

Forty-One Butterflies

“Burying our weapons of rebellion against God simply means yielding to the enticing of the Holy Spirit, putting off the natural man, and becoming a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord. It means putting the first commandment first in our lives. It means letting God prevail. If our love of God and our determination to serve Him with all our might, mind, and strength become the touchstone by which we judge all things and make all our decisions, we will have buried our weapons of rebellion. By the grace of Christ, God will forgive our sins and rebellions of the past and will take away the stain of those sins and rebellions from our hearts. Our Heavenly Father and His Son, our Redeemer, have confirmed Their unending commitment to our ultimate happiness through the most profound love and sacrifice. We experience Their love daily. Surely we can reciprocate with our own love and loyalty.” – Elder D. Todd Christofferson

 

Three Star Puzzles

 

Michel Vaujour was a notorious bank robber who’d been incarcerated several times. In 1986, he was serving time in the high-security section of Paris’ Santé Prison. Michel’s wife Nadine was left to fend for herself. Another woman might have filed for divorce, applied for a job, or moved back in with mom and dad. Nadine took flying lessons. Under an assumed name, she learned to pilot a helicopter. Once she’d mastered this unusual skill, Nadine rented a chopper from a local airfield and headed to Santé Prison. There, she expertly hovered above the prison yard while Michel, armed with a realistic-looking toy gun, climbed a rope ladder to join her. The helicopter whisked them away over the Paris skyline. If this were an action movie, the end credits might have appeared at this point. But Michel and Nadine were captured only four months later. They both served jail time. Today, they’re free and living quietly under the radar. We hope.

Raspberry Cheesecake

 

“My kid hasn’t finished her homework but she did call a family meeting to show us the 20-slide presentation she created on why we should get a cat.”

“My husband accepted an invite to a BBQ for us and said we would bring a salad, like ‘we’ has anything to do with it.”

“My teen complained about my cooking, so I stopped fighting it and filled the freezer with frozen dinners instead of making dinner. After a week of frozen dinners, guess who’s asking me to cook again.”

“My kid cleaned the kitchen without being asked, and now we wait to see what she wants.”

“Sorry I’m late. I believed the washing machine when it said it only had one minute left in the cycle.”

“My teen is using chopsticks to eat Cheetos so she doesn’t get Cheeto dust on her fingers and can we just fast track her application to Yale now?” – Krista Pacion

Star Puzzle

 

This week I learned about Loose Ends, a non-profit that pairs unfinished textile projects with skilled volunteer artisans. Say you have a grandma who just passed, leaving a quilt or sweater or tapestry she started but never had the chance to finish. It’s an heirloom, surely, one she meant for you to cherish. But you never learned the necessary skills to complete it. That’s where Loose Ends comes in. You tell them about your unfinished project. (They’ve specifically asked not to send projects directly to Loose Ends, but they do accept cash donations.) They then match you up with a nearby textile artist who will gladly finish it for you. To date, Loose Ends has more than 28,000 volunteer finishers in 64 countries. Hand-made items are an expression of love. When a maker passes mid-project, the unfinished item is often sadly lost or discarded. Volunteer finishing feels like such a beautiful way to comfort someone who is grieving. 

Red House

 

Ida Holdgreve was born in Delphos, Ohio in 1881. In 1910, Ida moved to Dayton and began looking for work. She saw an ad in the paper that read, "Plain Sewing Wanted". Plain sewing was a common term a hundred years ago. It referred to fundamental skills, such as those that would be needed to repair clothing or household linens. Ida was an excellent seamstress, so she answered the ad. But the newspaper had messed up. The ad was supposed to say, "Plane Sewing Wanted" for Orville and Wilbur Wright. Ida became head seamstress at the Wright Brothers Airplane Factory, sewing covers for fuselages, wings and rudders. The fabric she stitched had to fit the frame exactly, stretched tightly so it wouldn’t rip in the wind. When there were accidents, Ida was required to help with the repairs. Despite her work with airplanes Ida did not take her first airplane ride until 1969 at age of eight-eight.