A Hearth Witch Kitchen

Thanks to Sharron for posting it, and to Diane and her beloved for making podcasting possible.  I’ll post the text in the sermons section soon. 

http://uucbpodcast.net/2010/08/15/chauma-smith-guss–faith-trust-and-optimism.aspx

Be well and blessed!

Chauma

My favorite birthday cake bar none is Scotch Chocolate Cake, made by my mother.  I was feeling unexpectedly nostalgic recently, and had the ingredients for brownies, but not quite everything for the cake.  With coconut and cinnamon on hand, there was really only one option left to me – Scotch Chocolate Fudge Brownies.  Enjoy!

2 1-oz squares chocolate
1/2 C butter
1 C sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla or Almond extract
3/4 C flour
1/2 C coconut
2 tsp cinnamon

Melt chocolate and butter over low heat.  Stir in sugar, then add eggs and extract, do not beat, just mix them in well, so it doesn’t rise.  Add flour, coconut and cinnamon.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Summer spiders spin,
A young bird rests in the eaves,
The rose blooms at dawn.

Chauma Smith Guss 2010

Easy fixins for a summer potluck:

5 large cucumbers, peeled and sliced thin,  2 tsp Penzey’s Mural of Flavor , 1 Tbsp salt, 1/2 bottle Italian House Dressing.

If ever there was a good excuse to bring out the mandoline, this is it – slicing ANYTHING.  So slice down the cucumbers, sprinkle with the salt, then the Mural of Flavor, pour the Italian Dressing over it all and then stir and chill.  Enjoy!

Since this all started with the image of my poor broccoli being devastated by a plague of caterpillers, it’s only fair to share the other things that Sunday brought.

Sunday marked the first new moon after the summer solstice.  According to the Farmer’s Almanac, it was a most favorable day for corn, cotton, okra, beans, peppers, eggplant and other above ground crops, seed beds and flower gardens.  I pulled up everything that was left except the peppers and the onions, and smoothed out the dirt.  Onto the bare soil, I put seeds for lettuces (red and bib), spinach and more broccoli.  Over that, I spread a layer of peat, and then another layer of topsoil, and then watered the whole thing well.  The heat and moisture should have them sprouted very quickly, and we’ll have salad for late August, September and maybe even into October. The peppers are going well, and the tomatoes in their hanging pots are experiencing a renaissance in blooms – just have to keep them watered, since we’re not getting a lot of rain.

The 11th and 12th were the new moon – a good time to start things that go deep (like holes or corn), and a good time to start things that will increase (like a diet to gain weight, or mow to encourage growth, etc).  Starting things at the full moon, or just after, is good for dieting to loose weight, etc – you get the idea.  This is one of my favorite “rule of thumb” almanac planting ideas.  It’s second only to sweeping your house as if you’re sweeping your troubles away, and hanging corn on or by your door as a luck charm for the prosperity of your neighbors.

Know, dear neighbors, that I do indeed have corn hung by my kitchen door, as a prayer for your prosperity.

Maite Zaitut!

The other significant struggle for the past year was our church’s Year Without a Minister.  With a surprisingly strong chemistry, my partner in crime, Susan, and I were able to pull off more than 52 weeks of programming, guest speakers from within and without the church.  It was difficult, though, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually – the hardest thing I ever want to do on a strictly volunteer basis, and while I did it gladly, I don’t think I will volunteer for that sort of grind again.  That and My Beloved’s support and encouragement have finally cemented the ministry as my next career choice – just have to finish stabilizing Samuel Guss Photography, get through seminary, pass the psych eval – err, the career assessment evaluation, and throw myself on the UUA’s mercy (not necessarily in that order).

Finding that our soon-to-arrive minister has experience shepherding budding ministers through the process actually smoothed over that cement.  Every objection I’ve ever raised to answering my call to ministry has been systematically removed or answered – and if that’s not an argument for the existance of God, I don’t know what is.  I’ve always been in the Deist camp, more or less, but it’s hard not to tip my hat to the argument. 

It’s given me new energy for our Adult RE program.  Having internet issues while I was experiencing that renaissance has been frustrating, to say the least, and as of Sunday I was behind on booking teachers for some of our offerings.  Easy enough to fix, I’m just still a little jumpy when sitting down at the computer.  The vision is to develop a two year cycle, starting with new UU’s and building on the idea that our beliefs and personal theology is something that can and should be explored actively.  

Sometimes, moving from thinking to doing is the hardest part, of course, but I have faith.

Having resolved our communications problems with the world, I can turn to other things that are just gnawing at me.

The past eighteen months have not been wildly delightful from a financial point of view.  Right now the “green” looks just like my poor broccoli did just after the catterpillars – skeletonized, with potential for new growth with some nursing.  I don’t like talking about finances, so they’re something of a 600 pound gorilla, but it’s not a new story, or a scandalous story, or something that will come as a shock or surprise to anyone who is weathering this recession.

My Beloved was laid off not once but twice last year.  The first time, he recovered and got a new job that actually had better hours and more reliable pay, and that new job allowed us to fact the prospect of going forward with our plans to buy a house.  That was fine.  We managed the house, and the rebate neatly tied up a couple of things that were long standing on our debt sheet.  We continued planning for the wedding, and much of all of it was paid with part of that same rebate (hooray house!).  Two weeks before the wedding, the second lay0ff happened.  We kept the news fairly quiet, and with the same sort of quiet consideration, we decided that it was time for his photography business to have  a real opportunity.  There was some initial upkeep, but it’s paid for itself as its grown.  I’m hoping that by the end of the year, he will be able to actually see an income that isn’t immediately put back into marketing.

While we were fighting that particular dragon, my own employer has been fighting its own dragons.  It’s no secret that pay has been cut and positions have been eliminated, and I’ve taken four unpaid weeks of furlough in the last year.  The most recent short paycheck was last Friday; hopefully it will be the last.  There is some concern that we’re on the cusp of the second dip of this recession, I am hopeful that the gradual uptick in the markets (all of them), keeps on, no matter how slow.

Our savings are at an all time low; the car accident and some other miscellaneous happenings have tapped us pretty closely.  That said, my stepson, Jordan, starts his new job tomorrow.  This is his first full time, longer term official job as a worker over the age of 18 – I’m very proud of him, and his help will make a significant difference in restoring our status quo (and feeding/clothing him, etc).

This feels like a “downer” sort of post, but I think I’ll keep it.  Things are lean, but with one significant exception, we’ve been able to keep up with our obligations.

Maite Zaitut!

In the past few weeks I’ve replanted a great deal, mentally, spiritually, and in the garden.  I have come to realize that I can take that image of the broccoli, eaten by caterpillars until it was only skeletal veins and stems, and apply it as a metaphor for much of what’s been going on in our lives.

It’s always easiest to apply a metaphor from the most basic and high-level perspective, and from there to just go where it follows.  From this most high level, I can triumphantly announce that the ongoing problems we’ve had with our cable internet have been the result of the predatations of squirrels upon our cable lines.  Yes, squirrels.  There were a lot of times when we could connect, and things were good, but then unexpectedly, the internet would go down.  It preyed upon my desire to do anything involving computers at home, since frequently in the process of working on a project I would be suddenly ambushed by a couple of angry red-haired men, equally and righteously outraged because their connection to the outside world was suddenly sabotaged.  It was made worse because the technicians sent out by our ISP could sometimes fix things, and sometimes not, and sometimes treated us with thinly-veiled disbelief when they came out and it was functioning.  After all, if it’s working they don’t have anything to fix.  And if it goes down, it will be a couple of days before someone can come out again – finally it took an assistant supervisor to simply climb the pole to find out that we were feeling the squirrley wrath of the squirrels who taunt our dogs several times an hour, with their twitchy tails and noses, and cheeky come-hither attitudes.  The problem with the cable has been resolved; at this moment, Molly and PJ are demanding that we release them into the back yard, because they are out there…

We saw this on Friday evening at the dollar theater, and honestly I wish we’d seen it first-run.  We will definitely own it.  It’s made the top three of my list of outstanding animated films, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles being the other two.  The Last Unicorn is in its own category, as a book adaptation and something perhaps more holy than the other three, since it’s about reclaiming dreams and recognizing them for what they are.

How to Train Your Dragon is a startlingly Unitarian Universalist film, for something about vikings and dragon fighting, and being  a weakling who can’t measure up do Dad’s expectations.  Add to that a remarkable resemblence between our dog Molly and one of the main characters, and I’m just sold.  Underneath that lies deep themes of seeing and understanding that the other person, despite their appearance, might harbor fear and anxiety and passion, and a desire for freedom and friendship.  If we treat strangers by only categorizing their strengths and weaknesses and summarize the encounter as a “Kill on Sight” scenario, we’re just not going to break the cycle of  rebuilding razed houses, rebreeding stolen sheep, and training our children to perpetuate our fears for generations.

Language isn’t relevant when you are willing to eat the regurgitated half of the carp just to prove that your friendly overtures are sincere.  Besides, we all fly better with someone else to make up for our shortcomings.

Maite Zaitut!

This I made for a bridal tea I attended; it was going to be ham and cheese pinwheels, but alas, there was no ham.  Fresh Basil, though, I have in the garden.

1 can Pillsbury crescent rolls or equivalent.  12 medium to large leaves Basil, stems trimmed off.  1/2 c mozzerella cheese.  1 beaten egg, 3 tbsp sesame seeds.

Roll out the crescent roll pieces, pinch the triangles together along their edges to make one flat sheet, and roll out further with a rolling pin.  Spread the basil leaves out across the dough, leaving an inch margin along the furthest long edge.  Sprinkle Mozzarella cheese across the whole thing, minding that 1 inch margin. 

You will roll the whole thing, cinnamon roll style, along the long edge closest to you.  Just like with a cinnamon roll, you’ll start from the edges and roll towards the middle, and coat that last edge with egg-wash and press it into place.  Roll the whole thing in the sesame seeds, and then cut in 3/4″ – 1″ rounds, should be 12-14.  Arrange the pinwheels on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350.