Noetic Toe

PIG!

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:26:31 GMT

This makes me hungry.

Micah in the News!

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:38:31 GMT

Once again, Micah is in the news. :-) This segment on CASTLE aired last night.

Florence: City of David

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:41:14 GMT

Perhaps the most overexposed piece of art in Florence is Michelangelo's "David". It is everywhere -- cheap plaster reproductions, t-shirts, strategically screen-printed underwear. When Shell and I ducked into a cafe for a sandwich tonight, the music was even all David Bowie (a better choice than David Cassidy, I suppose; and the sandwich -- prosciutto, formaggio, and pomodoro on a freshly-baked, split ciabatta -- was heavenly).

None of that prepares you for the impact of the actual sculpture or spoils the experience.

Shell and I had some free time this afternoon after arriving in Florence and decided to take a chance on the lines at the Galleria dell'Academia, which houses the famous masterpiece. Emma told me she stood in line for 3 hours the day she came to Florence so we were prepared to wait. But, as luck would have it, the Accademia on this late October afternoon was almost deserted. We paid our €10 and strolled right through the doors.

The museum has done a fantastic job of presenting their most famous attraction. You walk through an initial gallery of important western Church art and turn right into a long hall lined with unfinished statues that Michelangelo left in his Florence workshop when he moved to Rome. These statues were intended to become part of the grand tomb commissioned by Pope Julius II, but Michelangelo never completed the massive project, which would have included more than 40 sculptures. The bits and pieces of the tomb that were completed were haphazardly assembled by Michelangelo later in his life, long after Pope Julius' death, and placed in the Basilica of St. Peter in Chains in Rome. (In a lovely serendipity, we visited that basilica and the extremely odd tomb of St. Julius just yesterday.)

These unfinished sculptures are extremely rough. There is no fine detail and chisel marks mar the surface. It appears that the images are trying to escape from the block of marble in which they are encased.

This series of imperfections seems the perfect contrast for the enormous image of David that stands at the end of the long hall, rising 17 feet from its pedestal into the dome of an apse, bathed in natural daylight from the windows that ring the dome. It is perfection in marble -- a contemplative David who has just slain a giant, his sling slung over his back, the veins in his right forearm still bulging from the effort.

As one of Michelangelo's contemporary critics remarked: once you have seen this, you do not need to see any other work of sculpture of any era. This one outshines them all. Truly amazing.

The Accademia also boasts an impressive collection of Orthodox icons, including a particularly beautiful and moving version of "In Thee All Creation Rejoiceth", an enormous "Theotokos of the Passion" (aka "Formidable Protection"), and an unbelievable example of a Menaion icon, with images that are almost microscopic -- probably painted with a brush consisting of a single hair -- but still easily recognizable. Of course, these are relegated to a stairwell (seriously) and the commentary that is provided remarks on their "primitive" aspects, singling out for highest praise one icon of St. Catherine that was very obviously influenced heavily by western aesthetics.

Treatment of icons aside, this was certainly a visit worthy of the €10. I would even wait in line to do this again.

Rome: more impressions

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 06:38:29 GMT

Canadians love Rome. We have met a ton of Canadians here. They all seem to be headed to a Mediterranean cruise.

Also, I think we are the youngest turistas in Rome at the moment.

Rome: first impressions

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:25:40 GMT

So, we are in Rome. I haven't slept in about 36 hours. But here are some random thoughts:

It was very cool to run into Fr. Timothy Cremeens at the airport, just after clearing customs. Small world!

So much history!! It is everywhere. There are, for instance, 13 ancient Egyptian obelisks in Rome. Ancient columns, walls, roads, buildings, monuments, etc., are around virtually every corner. It is inexhaustible.

There are nuns here. Real nuns, in real habits. All over the place.

Oh, my, the Churches! So much detail; such beautiful art. So big!

Driving lanes, stoplights, and rights-of-way are just theoretical constructs in Rome. I have seen no SUVs but Smart Cars are everywhere. Driving does inspire faith, of a sort.

There are more shops here than in NYC. And they stay open after 6:00 p.m.

The food has been amazing. For "brunch" I had a sandwich of fresh split cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella di buffalo, and fresh basil, on a crusty, chewy ciabotta. Washed down by cappuccino (which complemented it surprisingly well).

Panhandlers stand on their knees on the cobblestones silently praying, their cup for change on the road in front of them. Pretty impressive. I can't decide if this is a tactic or true piety.

Plan for tomorrow: Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica.

Barbecue: A Love Story

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:44:36 GMT

For the unschooled: barbecue has a specific meaning in NC – first, it is a noun, not a verb. It is pig, not cows, sheep, goats, or what have you. It is smoked with hardwood – hickory is a favorite (none of that dang mesquite!) – and cooked over actual fire, low and slow. Finally, it is adorned with the simplest of sauces. There are important variations on the sauce theme but there should be nothing thick or sticky about it; the primary ingredient is always vinegar, which is the perfect foil to the smoky, sweet flesh of swine properly prepared.

Barbecue (as understood in the NC parlance) is known to excite passions. I, myself, am an addict, hopelessly hooked after serial childhood family reunions featuring pig pickin’s catered by a gentleman from eastern NC, reinforced by college years spent in western NC. I have been known to travel hundreds of miles out of my way to scratch this itch. I’ve also been known to fire up a grill a time or two and try my own hand at making the stuff.

So, when my wife suggested that I make some ‘cue for a parish dinner last month it didn’t take me long to find an afternoon-sized hole in my week during which I could tend a flame and whip up some sauces. Wheels began to spin; plans began to formulate.

On the Monday night before the Thursday night dinner, I prepped six Boston butt roasts – the top half of a pig’s front shoulder. I rubbed them thoroughly with a mixture of equal parts brown sugar and kosher salt spiked with some black pepper, wrapped them tightly in plastic wrap, and stowed them in the fridge. The sugar/salt mixture acts almost like a brine. Moisture is pulled out of the meat and then reabsorbed, seasoning the meat and helping to create conditions that will result in a lovely, dark crust after several hours of smoking. Unlike brining, however, the meat will not be waterlogged and mushy.

Tuesday, at about noon, I began to get my trusty Char-Griller Super Pro up to speed. I started a charcoal fire in the offset firebox, put two drip pans under the grilling surface, and filled the drip pans half-full with hot water.

By 1:00 p.m., the grill was cranking along at 225 degrees at the dome, 250 degrees at grill level. Perfect. I threw a chunk of oak and a couple chunks of hickory on the coals, closed down the vents, and put the roasts on the grill. I closed the grill top and waited for the magic to happen.

Of course, adding 40 or so pounds of cold pork shoulder to the grill dropped the temperature pretty dramatically. At about 1:15 I had to add some more coals and open the vents a bit to coax it up to speed. The wood was just smoldering and the smoke level was good. (There is no happier site in the world than watching smoke pour from a smokestack. Just my opinion, of course.)

At 2:00 p.m. I refreshed the coals and put on a new batch of wood. On my last ‘cue-making outing I used only oak. That wasn’t my favorite, so I skewed more heavily towards the hickory this time at bat. The temperature was staying low – even for low and slow standards. The grill was really struggling to get back to that optimal temperature of 225 degrees and I began to worry that I would run out of charcoal because I was really loading down the firebox, adding coals every 15 minutes or so.

At 3:00 p.m. I refreshed the coals and added more wood, shifting the roasts on the grill surface because the area just beside the firebox is a hotspot. I also began to think about a Plan B so that I would not be tending a fire all night long. The dome temperature was still on the south side of 225 degrees.

The point of barbecue is to take a basically inedible cut of meat and make it supremely edible. The pork shoulder is sinewy – crisscrossed with connective tissue, gristle, and fat. However, our forebears discovered that if you cook that chewy, tough piece of meat slowly over a low heat, bringing the internal temperature of the meat to a scorching 190 degrees or so (pork is “done” at about 140 degrees) over a very long period of time, a magical thing occurs: all that connective tissue, which is made out of collagen, melts into gelatin. That gelatin is really the secret of good barbecue. It bathes the meat in a glistening, lip-smacking flood of succulence. Couple that succulence with a kiss of hardwood smoke and a splash of vinegar and the results are nothing short of alchemy.

The goal is an internal temperature of 190 degrees. For a 6-8 pound pork shoulder, if the ambient temperature is about 225-250, it will take between 6 and 8 hours to get there – and you want it to take that long so all that internal rendering can take place.

But if the ambient temperature is hovering at 200, you may never get to where you want to be. Six to 8 hours can stretch to 12 pretty easily. I needed to get things moving along a little faster if I was going to get to bed that night. Thus, Plan B.

At 4:00 p.m., after three hours of smoking, I moved four of the roasts to a 300 degree oven. Some hardliners may scoff – so be it. It is well known that after 3 hours the meat has absorbed as much smoke as it is going to absorb, so you really don’t lose anything by finishing in an oven. Just in case that dictum is wrong, however, I continued to add wood to the coals for the duration of the cooking so that the two roasts remaining on the grill could offset their oven-finished brethren.

All that meat had certainly been a drag on the grill’s performance. After implementing Plan B the temperature in the grill immediately shot up to 240-250 degrees at the dome. I was able to easily maintain the optimal temperature of between 225 and 250 degrees for the remainder of the evening.

At about 4:30 I began to monitor the internal temperature of the roasts. At that time the smallest roast in the oven was registering 147 degrees so I knew there was still a fair amount of time to go.

The performance curve of a roasting pork shoulder is not a straight line. Rather, it moves up the thermometer in fits and starts, rapidly jumping up a few degrees within a few minutes then costing along a plateau for 30 or 40 minutes. It can be maddening. I fell into a rhythm of feeding the fire, checking the temperatures, for the next few hours.

At 6:30 p.m. the small roast in the oven was clocking in at 185 degrees. The roasts on the grill were at about 175 degrees. Things were looking good. I made my sauces – a piquant eastern NC concoction of cider vinegar, red pepper, salt, and black pepper, and a classic version of the tangy-sweet, tomato-inflected “dip” preferred in Lexington, NC, and parts west.

It was now just a waiting game. By 7:30 p.m. the smallest roast was done and out of the oven, waiting to be shredded. The rest were running at about 178-180 degrees.

Once you’ve done this a couple of times you come to know that those last 10 degrees can take forever. But by 9:15 p.m. all of the roasts had hit the 190 degree mark and were just waiting to be pulled. They were beautiful, covered in a caramelized crust, dark from the smoke, full of flavor.

At 10:00 we started the pulling – I removed the fat caps and pulled the bones out of each roast (if the bone comes out cleanly, you know you’ve done it right) and watched the meat literally fall apart. Each roast had a beautiful, dark red, inch-thick smoke ring. We then shredded them with forks, leaving the meat quite coarse, with very little chopping. Shell doused it with a liberal splash of the Lex dip and we put it in the fridge to wait for the dinner on Thursday (a very difficult thing to do!).

The ‘cue was reheated for the dinner on Thursday night and was very well received. The Lex dip and eastern-style sauce turned out exceptionally well, too (if I do say so myself … and I do). One diner told Shell he had made it to fourthsies before quitting. There was not a lot left over and what was left over was claimed quickly. We managed to secure a small amount of ‘cue to take home – it was a big hit.

I love sharing the good news of NC barbecue.

Barbecue Pics

Acquisitions: VSTI and Memex

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:26:11 GMT

After a whirlwind couple of months, I have managed to close two substantial acquisitions for SAS. Yesterday's target was VSTI, a professional services company in Maryland that delivers advanced analytics to the US intelligence community. Very cloak and dagger stuff. This closely followed our acquisition of Memex late last month. Memex delivers intelligence and information management solutions to law enforcement and other government agencies to combat terrorism, organized crime, and fraud. Can you see a trend?

These transactions were back-to-back marathons and I have been able to think about or accomplish little else since about the middle of May. I always enjoy these kind of projects but I do look forward to getting my life back a bit. Hopefully there is a breather before we spot another attractive target.

Press releases here and here, for the record.

Fun Facts from Larousse Gastronomique 1961

Sat, 29 May 2010 17:41:55 GMT

LION—Lion meat, though edible, is seldom used in cookery. It is rather tasteless and must be steeped in an aromatic marinade before cooking.

All recipes for beef are suitable for lion.

Fun Facts from Larousse Gastronomique 1961

Tue, 25 May 2010 01:20:45 GMT

FORK. Fourchette—A table utensil designed to pick up meat and other food. It is of very ancient origin as it is mentioned in the Old Testament, in Samuel, but it served first of all as a ritual instrument to grip pieces of meat destined for sacrifices; only later was it used in the kitchen. According to the eleventh century Italian scholar, Damiani, forks were introduced into Venice by a Byzantine princess and thence spread through Italy. They are mentioned in 1379 in an inventory of the French King, Charles V, and Edward II of England had a favorite, Piers Gaveston, who is recorded as having eaten a pear with a fork in the early fourteenth century, but these instances do not mean that forks were in general use. In fact, eating with forks did not become at all fashionable until the seventeenth century.

"Christ does not appear until the priest disappears"

Tue, 04 May 2010 23:51:01 GMT

I love this observation from a non-Orthodox pastor:

We could take a cue from Orthodoxy, whose priests stand with their backs to their congregation, leading a liturgy that is neither clever nor impassioned, but simply beautiful, like stone smoothed by centuries of rhythmic tides. It's an austere ritual, in the sense of - there's nothing new here; it's sublime, in the sense of - creating a clearer view into Heaven. The priest can be any priest. Who he is, what he looks like, how he speaks, and what he thinks matter little. He hasn't written the service that he officiates. It isn't about him or his prowess. He's an interchangeable functionary draped in brocaded robes, obscured by incense, and, as such, never points to himself, a flawed human, pointing ever and only to the Perfection of the Mysterious Divine. That is the role of every priest or preacher - invisibility, while making God seen.

HT: Mystagogy via Orrologion

Joshua's Version of Pascha

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:54:02 GMT

During the midnight Paschal service, the congregation assembles on the darkened porch of the Church and we hear the first hopeful, victorious heralding of Christ's resurrection. At the end of this portion of the service the priest bangs on door of the Church with a cross and proclaims, "Lift up your heads, O gates! And be exalted, you everlasting doors, that the king of glory may enter in!"

From within a person cries out in response "Who is this king of glory!?"

But in Joshua's version of Pascha, the response comes from a giant who says "WHO DARES ENTER MY CHURCH!"

Great Human Race

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:46:07 GMT

Micah is walking in the Great Human Race in support of CASTLE, the pre-school program for pre-lingually deafened children that Micah attended and for which he now volunteers. In short, these folks teach deaf children to hear. Pretty miraculous!

If you would like to sponsor Micah, you can do so on his very own fundraising page or on the main CASTLE sponsorship page linked above. But use Micah's page so he gets credit for it. :-)

Every dollar you donate to CASTLE not only helps a deaf child learn to hear, but also how to speak, sing, listen to his iPod, play the piano, ...

So, please join the team and help Micah help CASTLE!

Perfect Breakfast

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:14:24 GMT

I can't recall the last time I ate breakfast on a Sunday morning. Orthodox Christians fast completely from midnight on days we are preparing to receive communion and communion is an every-Sunday affair in the Orthodox Church. So, it's been more than 12 years since breakfast was part of my Sunday routine.

Today, all services were cancelled due to the snow and ice in the Triangle, which meant I could sleep in (I'm usually up at 5:00 a.m. on Sundays) and eat breakfast. Menu: bacon, eggs, and hash browns. And this was one of those meals where all the stars align and everything was absolutely perfectly done. Simple food, made well, perfect.

Emma and the Dean

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:59:05 GMT

Emma, I am pleased to report, made the Dean's List in her first semester as a college student. I could not be more proud of her. She took a very challenging load of courses, including Calculus (which she aced). It is a tremendous way to get things started and a trend that I hope continues.

As if that wasn't enough, she went out this week and got herself a job! All the things that warm a dad's heart. She is a great example for her younger siblings.

Sueanna - Volunteer of the Quarter

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:17:03 GMT

Every week our Sueanna volunteers at Horse & Buddy, a therapeutic horseback riding program that allows children challenged by a host of physical or mental maladies—everything from autism to cerebral palsy—to spend time on the back of a horse. Studies show that such children benefit greatly from regular contact with animals, especially horses.

Yesterday, we received H&B's quarterly newspaper, which announced that Sueanna was named Volunteer of the Quarter!! We are so proud of her!

The announcement from H&B follows:

Sundays are often lean and mean compared to other days, but the volunteers sho show up on Sunday are some of the best. Of particular note is Sueanna Keim.

Sueanna is sweet, slight and has a beautiful smile. As diminutive as she is, the horses respect her, and we typically have her as a leader. She also has fantastic rapport with the riders—which is something to see and admire with kids this age. She is the one to whom we throw all the new volunteers and she shows them the ropes in the getting and dressing of the horses.

According to instructor Laurie Pate, Sueanna recently saved the day during a lesson. "She was a heroine when she caught little Elena and stopped the fall when Hope fell to her knees one day (and she was leading the horse!)" [DBK Note: The Force is strong with this one.]

Congratulations to Sueanna; our volunteer of the quarter!!

Ham³ - A New Method

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:57:34 GMT

My legal assistant makes ham in a unique, delicious way and I have stolen her method from her. Actually, she very generously shared it with me, so HT to Janice!

Last night I took a 8.5 lb shank-end ham (Smithfield, ready-to-cook, a steal at $.87/lb) and wrapped it tightly in a double layer of heavy-duty foil. I did not trim off any fat or rind. I did not rub it with spices or glaze or stud it with cloves. I did, however, remove the little plastic thing that they put on the eye bone. I placed that aluminum-clad package of porcine joy on a rack in a roasting pan and added about an inch or so of water.

I pre-heated the oven to 400 degrees and then slid the ham in (about 11:00 p.m.). An hour later, I dropped the temperature to 275. Then I made my way to bed and drifted off to sleep, with visions of ham hocks dancing in my head.

At 8:00 a.m. my eyes popped open and my nostrils were assaulted (in a good way) with the smoke-inflected aroma of slow-roasted ham.

I removed the foil package to a large mixing bowl and drained off about two cups of demi-glace au cochon—pure, concentrated essence o' ham. I removed the drippings to a fat separator and let it sit.

The meat was moist, succulent and so tender that it threatened to fall apart just from the pressure of its own weight. The color ranged from deep, brick red at the center to ebony at some spots on the rind. I accidentally dropped the ham into the bowl from a couple of inches (it was kind of slippery), but this proved to be Providential as the tender meat conveniently split into its component muscle masses.

The bones were thus removed cleanly—the connective tissue having almost completely rendered into the luscious gelatin that now enriched the meat—and the rind lifted right away. The remaining meat was effortlessly shredded into bite-size chunks with two forks. I anointed the pile of ham with about half of the drippings, tossed it all together and then took a sample for myself.

Wow. Think of the most intensely flavored city ham you ever tasted and then cube it. Seriously, most commercial hams prepared in the normal way are insipid, texturally-challenged, and so lightly smoked as to be largely flavorless (because the meat certainly isn't going to add any flavor). One has to rely upon glazes and rubs to make it tasty. This method, by contrast, reveals a ham's inner haminess; it transforms it to Ham³. Perfect texture, unctuous mouthfeel, and a great contrast of caramel and smoke on the tongue.

All that with about 3 minutes prep time on the front end and maybe double that on the back end. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, and good eats to boot.

Icon: The Nativity

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 17:45:49 GMT

'tis the season

Χριστός γεννάται. Δοξάσατε.

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Icon: The Nativity

As you lean in, you'll surely apprehend
the tiny God is wrapped
in something more than swaddle. The God

is tightly bound within
His blesséd mother's gaze—her face declares
that she is rapt by what

she holds, beholds, reclines beholden to.
She cups His perfect head
and kisses Him, that even here the radiant

compass of affection
is announced, that even here our several
histories converge and slip,

just briefly, out of time. Which is much of what
an icon works as well,
and this one offers up a broad array

of separate narratives
whose temporal relations quite miss the point,
or meet there. Regardless,

one blithe shepherd offers music to the flock,
and—just behind him—there
he is again, and sore afraid, attended

by a trembling companion
and addressed by Gabriel. Across the ridge,
three wise men spur three horses

towards a star, and bowing at the icon's
nearest edge, these same three
yet adore the seated One whose mother serves

as throne. Meantime, stumped,
the kindly Abba Joseph ruminates,
receiving consolation

from an attentive dog whose master may
yet prove to be a holy
messenger disguised as fool. Overhead,

the famous star is all
but out of sight by now; yet, even so,
it aims a single ray

directing our slow pilgrims to the core
where all the stories meet,
the crux and hallowed cave and womb,

where crouched among these other
lowing cattle at their trough,
our travelers receive that creatured air and pray.

Copyright © 2001 Scott Cairns.
Used with permission of the author.

2010 Feasting/Fasting Calendar

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:48:52 GMT

The 2010 edition of my patented Orthodox Feasting/Fasting calendar is available for preview and criticism right here. If you have a moment, feel free to browse by and let me know of any errors you may find.

Micah Update

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:50:29 GMT

Micah has been participating in a long-term NIH study on pediatric deafness. As part of this study, each year he undertakes a comprehensive battery of testing that evaluates his progress in speech and language. And when I say comprehensive I mean soup to nuts—verbal skills, diction, comprehension, speech, language use, vocabulary, reading, etc., etc., etc.

This year's testing took place over the past couple weeks and this week we received the results: for the first time, Micah has tested into the bell curve for his age and grade!! Yay! He progressed the equivalent of one year and eleven months since last year's test. WooHoo!!

Truly, excellent news.

Peace and Quiet

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:35:46 GMT

Every morning as I leave for work I make the rounds of all the boys, saying goodbye to them and wishing them a good day. This morning, I found Micah sitting on my bed reading a book, sans cochlear implants.

"Why don't you have your implants on?" I asked him, exaggerating the words so he could read my lips more easily.

"I'm reading," he responded.

I gave him a quizzical look.

"I just want some peace and quiet!" he said, with mock exasperation.

I can understand that.

For Fr. Andrew -- Jefferson Davis Pie

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:45:50 GMT

1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
1 (9-inch) pie shell, chilled in pie plate for 30 minutes
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup packed light brown sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
5 large egg yolks
1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Pulse raisins, dates, and pecans in food processor until finely ground. Transfer mixture to chilled pie shell and gently press into even layer.

2. Combine flour, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in small bowl. With electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat sugar and butter until just combined, about 1 minute. Mix in yolks, one at a time, until incorporated. Add flour mixture and cream and mix, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary, until just combined.

3. Pour filling over fruit and nuts in prepared crust and bake until surface is deep brown and center jiggles slightly when pie is shaken, 55 to 65 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack, about 4 hours. Serve with Bourbon Whipped Cream (recipe follows). Pie can be refrigerated, covered in plastic wrap, for 2 days.

BOURBON WHIPPED CREAM

1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons Bourbon
1 1/2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

With electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream, Bourbon, sugar, and vanilla until stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes. Can be made ahead and refrigerated for 4 hours.

Travel

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:53:19 GMT

I want to go here.

DD Miller Crate Patent

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:45:14 GMT

After years of searching, I finally found the Patent Office's record of my great-great grandfather's patent on a collapsible crate, issued in 1914.

For some reason, the inventor's name was listed as "Mashek" in the Patent Office's index. His actual name was Daniel D. Miller.

Perhaps of interest to my Menno friends and family ...

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:07:40 GMT

This weekend Fr. Paisius McGrath, a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, will be visiting my parish. Fr. Paisius is the son of William McGrath, former minister at the Minerva, OH, Beachy community (with my uncle Johnny Miller).

Fr. Paisius pastors Ss. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church near Pittsburgh. I hope to compare notes and family stories with him after vespers this evening.

Shortbread

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:00:03 GMT

Shell is away this morning, taking Micah and Asa to an annual autumn activity day for kids in the hearing impaired community. It is a great opportunity for Micah to stay connected with his friends from CASTLE.

The elder children, being teenagers, are still asleep. Joshua is watching TV.

I have the kitchen to myself. Naturally, therefore, I am making shortbread.

Noetic Toe

PIG!

Micah in the News!

Florence: City of David

Rome: more impressions

Rome: first impressions

Barbecue: A Love Story

Acquisitions: VSTI and Memex

Fun Facts from Larousse Gastronomique 1961

Fun Facts from Larousse Gastronomique 1961

"Christ does not appear until the priest disappears"

Joshua's Version of Pascha

Great Human Race

Perfect Breakfast

Emma and the Dean

Sueanna - Volunteer of the Quarter

Ham³ - A New Method

Icon: The Nativity

'tis the season Χριστός γεννάται. Δοξάσατε. Christ is born! Glorify Him!

2010 Feasting/Fasting Calendar

Micah Update

Peace and Quiet

For Fr. Andrew -- Jefferson Davis Pie

Travel

DD Miller Crate Patent

Perhaps of interest to my Menno friends and family ...

Shortbread

'tis the season

Χριστός γεννάται. Δοξάσατε.

Christ is born! Glorify Him!