February 2011 - Page 4 of 4 - The Rev. Kenneth Allen

Confessions and Links

February 3, 2011

I see I am going to have to redo this entire site again. That’s not surprising given the fact that I’ve been having a lot of dust settling here and there. However, that should prove to be a simple matter.

When I first started in 2002, my site was called “Confessions of a Catholic Seminarian“, and that really only changed over time because… well, because. But I’ve wanted to change it back since Ordination, and things like deaths in the family, Katrina, presbyteral politics and such, always took a front seat.

That being said, I’m just going to start playing around with this, since I need a creative outlet.

Lynne’s Country Kitchen‘s sauces, and her buckwheat crepes.

Rao’s Sunday Gravy, linking braciola and meatballs.

Candlemas

February 2, 2011

The Feast of Candlemas, a perfect time for perusing through old icons. Of all places, an online guide to Belarus, which details the Belarus school of Iconography, has this wonderful icon on it’s site.

“An art critic M.M. Shchekacihinm wrote in 1926 about tis icon: ” It is outstanding in compositional freedom and realism, especially in facial expressions. The ornamental motiff on St. Simon clothes is very interesting”.

“Composition in the icon is based on the New Testament story [Luke 1; 22-39]. According to it on the 40-th day after birth of Christ Joseph and Mary took their child to Jerusalem Cathedral to baptise and made a religious offering – two pigeons. 360 y.o. St. Simon met them in the Cathedral. There was also St. Hannah the prophet, daughter of Fanuli, who had lived at the Cathedral for 84 years. The typical composition of icons, depictinmg the Candlemas Day is as following: Mary is on the right, giving child to Simon, Joseph is behind her. Joseph brings two pigeons. Simon God-acceptor and Hannah-the Prophet are shown on the left.

Shrimp Creole

February 1, 2011

Sometimes it’s all about the tomatoes.

Tomatoes and onions… And of course you have to peel a devein a few pounds of shrimp.

I really question this whole process of blanching, seeding and dicing tomatoes sometimes, and really want to use a can of Cento or something. Nonetheless! Blanch the tomotoes…

The skins peel right off…

Then dice them. After peeling the shrimp and peeling seeding and dicing the tomatoes, the hard work here is done.

Into a large dutch oven it all goes…

A few more ingredients at the standby: a bay leaf, some paprika, cayenne, a bit of tomato paste will do the trick. A pinch of sugar never hurts when it’s not the height of tomato season.

See, this all cooks down, the tomatoes dissolve and some carmelization starts to happen. (Did someone say Carmel?)

After it cooks down, which does not take an eternity, the tomato paste goes in with the peppers. The pepper and the paprika that is. Isn’t paprika a pepper?

Then some shrimp stock, here we’re using three cups.

After that cooks down, not quite a half hour, the shrimp go in. They release enough liquid that it’s quite alright to let the mixture get toward the thick side before adding them in.

The light also changed a bit, since it started pouring down rain outside.

But inside, everything was looking just fine.

A Cloud of Witnesses

February 1, 2011

“Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2

I love this image in Sacred Scripture, from the readings for today. (We also hear ‘Talitha Koum‘ today, but that’s a separate story. Or is it Hmmm….)

But the image of the Saints and Angels in heaven, cheering us on is something I often call to mind. And I love looking up art pictures about it….

On the angels, from Hebrews 1:14… “Are they not all ministering spirits sent to serve, for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”

Romans 8:35-39 – “Death does not separate the communion of the body of Christ because we are united in Christ.”

Ephesians 3:14,15 – “We are all one family united together, whether we are on heaven or on earth.”

Talitha Koum.