BAD washcloth. BAD.

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Got it at last!

Wow.

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Seared Scallops with Tropical Salsa

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Ingredients:

3 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro, fresh             

½ cucumber, peeled & diced                           

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded & minced              

4 tsp lime juice                                      

½ C diced fresh mango                                     

Ground pepper,  to taste      

½ C pineapple chunks, diced

½ C diced red bell pepper                                

Salt, to taste             

1 lb scallops, rinsed & drained      

                

Combine pineapple, mango, cucumber, bell pepper, cilantro, lime juice, & jalapeno. Season to taste with salt & pepper, then set aside. 

Heat a large, nonstick fry pan over medium-high heat. Coat the pan with cooking spray. Season the scallops with salt & pepper. Add half the scallops to the pan, sear until golden brown on both sides (about 2 minutes per side). 

Transfer the scallops to a warmed plate while cooking the remaining scallops. Spoon the salsa over the scallops & serve immediately.

Serves 6

Advent arrives

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the four week period preceding Christmas. For many people, this has little meaning beyond an increasing sense of pressure to buy, wrap, decorate, and perhaps to steel oneself for the stress of having a house full of relatives. I've signed off from that rat-race and am trying to focus, instead, on what this season is really supposed to be about...

A time of preparation for the arrival of a little baby who would change the world.

As Catholics, we're supposed to use this time to do a bit of spiritual housecleaning: a time to look at ourselves and reflect on the steps we need to take to be ready to welcome the Son of God... in the form of a little baby in Bethlehem, and when He comes again.

What will you do to prepare?

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

- Matthew 24:42 

Walk in the woods

 I feel certain God has fun coloring the trees in autumn!

Let the trees of the forest sing, 

let them sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth.

- I Chronicles 16:33

 

What are YOUR favorite holidays?

 
I was listening to the radio yesterday and found myself annoyed when the announcer referred to "America's two favorite holidays" as being Halloween and Thanksgiving. This would not have been my answer had I been asked what my "two favorite holidays" are.

But then it occurred to me that my answer to that questions may not be in the majority. So I'm putting it to a vote. Please rate YOUR favorite holidays below. I'll keep the survey open for 4 weeks and then let you know how readers responded.

Thanks!

Now that the survey has closed, I've removed the survey itself and updated this post.

Here are the survey results.

1. Christmas - by far the most first-place votes
2. Easter
3. Thanksgiving
4. Halloween
5. Hanukkah
6. New Year's Day
7. Martin Luther King Day
8. Memorial Day
9. July 4th
10. Veterans' Day
11. Valentine's Day - No votes for first place
12. Labor Day - Again, no votes for first place

The political history of Thanksgiving

The article below was written by Matt Soniak and published by Mental Floss. 

HAPPY FRANKSGIVING: WHY FDR RESCHEDULED TURKEY DAY

On Thanksgiving Day 1924, when Santa Claus showed up in Herald Square at the end of the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, an unwritten agreement was struck between retailers and consumers: Christmas would not come to the stores before Santa did. For years after that first parade, stores waited until the day after Thanksgiving, which was then the last Thursday of the month, to bring out their Christmas decorations, launch their Christmas ad campaigns and remind everyone incessantly that they had so much shopping do to before the big day.

Now it feels like the Christmas shopping season begins earlier and earlier every year, but the pact between stores and their customers used to be taken very seriously by both sides. In 1939, merchants already reeling from the Great Depression were worried that the late date of Thanksgiving that year (November 30th) and the shortened holiday shopping season would sink them. They didn’t dare risk the public’s anger by starting their Christmas sales or advertising early, though, so they appealed to the most powerful man in the free world.

In August of that year, Lew Hahn, general manager of the Retail Dry Goods Association, warned Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins of the looming disaster and presented a simple request for Hopkins’ boss, President Franklin Roosevelt: bump Thanksgiving up by a week.

Roosevelt understood the retailers’ concerns and agreed to move the holiday up to the 23rd, theoretically giving shoppers an extra week to spend more money and give the economy a much-needed boost. The move was not as sacrilegious as it might seem today. While presidents had customarily declared a day of thanksgiving be observed, Thanksgiving Day was not yet a federal holiday and the actual date had, historically, moved around a bit. It was only since Lincoln in 1863 that the last Thursday in November had become generally accepted as the date. Roosevelt apparently thought it was within his rights to move the holiday again if he felt the need.

The American public disagreed, and made their feelings known almost immediately after Roosevelt’s announcement. Among the most notable complaints came from the board of selectmen of Plymouth, Massachusetts, the commonly accepted home of the first Thanksgiving. “Plymouth and Thanksgiving are almost synonymous,” the chairman of the board said. “Merchants or no merchants, I can’t see any reason for changing it.”

The date change also disrupted the schedules of many college football teams, who traditionally ended their seasons with rivalry games on the holiday. Bill Walton, head football coach at the now-defunct Little Ouachita College threatened to “vote the Republican ticket if [Roosevelt] interferes with our football.”

The fuss was maybe bigger than it should have been. Since the day was not a federal holiday, Roosevelt’s date switching really didn’t mean much, and it was still up to the governors to decide when the holiday would be celebrated in their states. Traditionally, they’d simply follow the president’s lead, but the public backlash made things a little more difficult. They had to divine their constituents’ opinions, get a read on the state retail economy and decide if they wanted to cross the president or not.

It turned out that things split pretty evenly down the middle and along party lines. While a Gallup poll showed that 62% of Americans disapproved of the date change, 22 states had decided to go along with Roosevelt’s plan, 23 stuck with the old date and the remaining three decided to celebrate both days. In the press, November 30th was referred to as “Republican Thanksgiving” and the 23rd as “Democrat Thanksgiving” or, as Atlantic City Mayor Thomas Taggart dubbed it, “Franksgiving.”

Roosevelt declared an early Thanksgiving for the next two years, but had to face the facts in 1941. In March that year, the Wall Street Journal, armed with data from the last two holiday shopping seasons, declared the move a bust that provided no boost to retail sales. In the spring, Roosevelt admitted his experiment had failed. Later that year, he signed a joint Congressional resolution making Thanksgiving a federal holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

Stuffed after your Thanksgiving feast?

 I'm sure this cat feels stuffed-er!

 

A rabbi's recipe for Thanksgiving

The keys to having a happy Thanksgiving, or at least a happier one than you might otherwise be anticipating, have little to do with getting the turkey right, or managing the annoying relative who seems to be a part of everyone’s family. Those things help, a little, but they aren’t nearly as important as these steps, some of which I had the privilege to appreciate more deeply after spending four days with a group of ministers. And how often does a rabbi get to say that?

Picture a rustically beautiful room at a Texas retreat center, in which 30 pastors are seated in a circle. They gather annually for spiritual and intellectual growth, and this year I was brought in to be their teacher. But as is so often the case, I was also their student, and the lessons they taught me are crucial to making the most of Thanksgiving.

The retreat opens with a “check in” during which participants let each other know what’s going on in their lives – what they are dealing with, both personally and professionally. That kind of opening didn’t surprise me, but the stories I heard did. Within this small group there were three dead grandchildren, two dead children, a rape, a number of divorces, and a serious illness or two. I was speechless at the amount of suffering in the group. And I was also deeply moved by how they dealt with it.

As they shared their ongoing struggles with these events, some recent and some not, the pastors kept asking two questions: 1, what could they learn from the experience and 2, for what could they be grateful in the midst of their suffering. In that moment, the teacher became the student and two crucial lessons about Thanksgiving emerged.

First, those pastors reminded me that we need not pretend that all is well in our lives in order to experience thankfulness. This coming Thursday, try to find at least one thing for which you can be grateful despite the tough times in which you may find yourself this year. It’s amazing how much happiness this practice can generate, on Thanksgiving, and throughout the year.

The second key to a happy Thanksgiving is sharing with at least one other person the thing for which we can be grateful. Sitting in that room, surrounded by those 30 people, I was also reminded that what we feel becomes more real, when we share it.

The third key to having a happy Thanksgiving can be learned from the Pilgrims, who celebrated even though much of what they hoped to achieve had not been realized. Don’t allow your hopes that things were better get in the way of appreciating where they are already good.

It may be that things in your relationships are not ideal, that things at work are not as you hoped they would be, but that doesn’t mean there are not always things for which to be grateful. If the Pilgrims could declare a day of thanksgiving, despite all the death and deprivation which they were experiencing – if they could find some good despite how short they had fallen of their ideals – so can we.

Finally, knowing that the story is never over will help us to have a happy Thanksgiving. One year ago, my family was waiting to hear if one of our kids had cancer. She didn’t. But before we knew that, we were faced with the opportunity to publically acknowledge how thankful we were for her having gotten through surgery. Could we acknowledge the good despite the pain of not knowing what could be coming? We weren’t sure.

Ultimately, I realized that we were holding back because the story wasn’t over. Then I realized that in life, our stories are never over, so why wait? Not only was publically acknowledging our joy about what had already gone well the right thing to do, it gave our kid and the rest of the family enormous strength to deal with what was yet unknown.

So by all means, work on the menu and deal with your relatives, but no matter how all that goes, practice these four steps and find yourself having a happier Thanksgiving than you may have ever imagined possible.

- Rabbi Brad Hirschfield

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

First on a serious note:

If I were to list all the things I'm grateful for (or SHOULD be grateful for), I'd never get anything else done. Indeed our lives are full of blessings. As Patrick Henry Reardon said:

Suppose for a moment that God began taking away from us the many things for which we have failed to give thanks. Which of our limbs and faculties would be left? Would I still have my hands and my mind? And what about loved ones?

If God were to take from me all those persons and things for which I have not given thanks, what would be left of me?

So today... and every day... may we all remember to thank God for the many blessings we've received!



 And now, for a bit of levity:

May your stuffing be tasty. 

May your turkey be plump. 

May your potatoes'n gravy 

have nary a lump. 

May your yams be delicious. 

May your pies take the prize. 

May your Thanksgiving dinner 

stay off of your thighs. 

MAY YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING

AND REASON TO GIVE THANKS THROUGHOUT THE COMING YEAR!

Remember summer?

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Why men are happier than women

Men Are Just Happier People -- What do you expect from such simple creatures?

• Your last name stays put.
• The garage is all yours.
• Wedding plans take care of themselves.
• Chocolate is just another snack.
• You can be President.
• You can never be pregnant.
• You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
• You can wear NO shirt to a water park.
• Car mechanics tell you the truth.
• The world is your urinal.
• You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.
• You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
• Same work, more pay.
• Wrinkles add character.
• Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100.
• People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
• New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
• One mood all the time.
• Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
• You know stuff about tanks.
• A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
• You can open all your own jars.
• You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
• If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
• Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack.
• Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
• You almost never have strap problems in public.
• You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
• Everything on your face stays its original color.
• The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.

• You only have to shave your face and neck.
• You can play with toys all your life.
• One wallet and one pair of shoes -- one color for all seasons.
• You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
• You can 'do' your nails with a pocket knife.
• You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.
• You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier.

A few other thoughts about the difference between men and women:

NICKNAMES:. If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah.   If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Bubba and Wildman .

EATING OUT:. When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back. When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

MONEY: A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale.

BATHROOMS: A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel.  The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337.  A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

ARGUMENTS: A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

FUTURE: A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

SUCCESS: A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.  A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

MARRIAGE:  A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.  A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.

DRESSING UP:  A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail. A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

NATURAL:  Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed. Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

OFFSPRING: Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.  A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

Candied orange peel

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Ingredients

Zest from 5-6 oranges, peeled off in thin strips about 2” long

3 C sugar, divided - Note: the recipe I used called for regular sugar to make the syrup and "sand sugar" to coat the zests once they've been simmered in the syrup. My grandmother always used regular granulated sugar for all of it. I have NO idea what "sand sugar is".

Water – 1 C

Make a syrup by putting 1 cup of the sugar & water in a pot & bringing it to a boil. Let boil over low heat til sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Add the zests and simmer until the zests turn transparent and the syrup thickens, about 10 minutes. Remove the zests with a slotted spoon and spread them on a plate covered with sugar. Turn the strips in the sugar to coat both sides well & leave them to dry in the sugar. (Note: save the leftover sugar for another dessert - it will add a nice flavor.) Store candied zest in a plastic bag or airtight tin. They keep indefinitely.

By the way: you can use the zest from any citrus fruit, or a combination of zest from different fruits.

 

10 virgins. 10 talents. 1 Samaritan

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Last week's Gospel reading was  taken from Matthew 25:1-13 - the story of 10 virgins invited to a wedding banquet. 5 of them came prepared; the other 5 were not. Thus the ones who had made preparations were able to attend, while the remainder couldn't gain admission.

We'd discussed this passage in our women's group and thought we'd "covered the bases" pretty well. But once again we found we'd missed an important angle, one which was later stressed by our priest. We discovered again that there are many meanings to be drawn from a few verses.

Our priest found a correlation between this story and that of the good Samaritan (found in Luke 10:25-37). When his discussion of the wedding banquet began to shift towards the tale of the good Samaritan, I thought he'd veered off track. But he pointed out that in each instance, Jesus was condemning those who do nothing. 

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, I'd always found myself focusing on the Samaritan who cared for the man who'd been beaten, robbed, and left for dead. If you'll remember, others - ostensibly "good people" - a priest and a Levite - had seen him and walked on by. The Samaritan - a member of a people despised by Jews of Jesus' day - saw him and responded. The care and kindness offered by the Samaritan very likely saved the man's life. 

To me, the thrust of the message had always been to follow the example of the Samaritan in helping those in need. But Father Thahn looked at these stories from a different angle. To him, the message was that we are given gifts, talents, and abilities to be used to serve others. And the question that logically flows from that is: am I using these God-given gifts, or am I doing nothing?

We have indeed been given gifts, although they are different and, at least to our eyes, not always given in equal measure. And although we certainly should be offering thanks to God for these gifts, we also need to remember that we're responsible for what we do with them. I suspect that if we were to evaluate our actions in light of this, the majority of us would have to acknowledge that we have room for improvement there.

There is yet another parable that seems to be relevant here; it is found in Matthew 25:14-30. This is the parable of the ten talents. When the master returned after entrusting three servants with varying amounts of his treasure, he found that two had made good use of what they'd been given while the third had buried it. To those who had been productive with what had been entrusted to them, the master said, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!"

Wouldn't it be wonderful to hear those words when we meet our Master? 

But as if all that weren’t enough to drive home Jesus’ point, this week’s gospel reading comes from Matthew 25:31-46:

Jesus said to his disciples: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?'

“And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'

"Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?'

“He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.'

“And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."