February Meditation

Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray, where nature heals and gives strength to body and soul alike. 

John Muir

The Worship of Nature by John Greenleaf Whittier

The harp at Nature's advent strung
   Has never ceased to play;
The song the stars of morning sung
   Has never died away. 

And prayer is made, and praise is given,
   By all things near and far,
The ocean looketh up to heaven,
   And mirrors every star. 

Its waves are kneeling on the strand,
   As kneels the human knee,
Their white locks bowing to the sand,
   The priesthood of the sea!

They pour their glittering treasures forth,
   Their gifts of pearl they bring,
And all the listening hills of earth
   Take up the song they sing.

The green earth sends its incense up
   From many a mountain shrine;
From folded leaf and dewy  cup
   She pours her sacred wine. 

The mists above the morning rills
   Rise white as wings of prayer;
The altar-curtains of the hills
   Are sunset's purple air. 

The winds of praise are loud
   Or low with sobs of pain,--
The thunder-organ of the cloud,
   The dropping tears of rain. 

With drooping heads and branches crossed
   The twilight forest grieves,
Or speaks with tongues of Pentecost
   From all its sunlit leaves. 

The blue sky is the temple's arch,
     It's transept earth and air. 
The music of its starry march 
   The chorus of a prayer. 

So Nature keeps the reverent frame
   With which her years began,
And all her signs and voices shame
   The prayer less heart of man. 

Goals for Next Week

Spiritual
     ABF/Church
     Daily Bible Reading

Physical
     Sit and Be Fit
     Healthy Lunch and Snack
     Water

Quilting
     Block #12

Reading
     Wartime Britain by Juliette Gardiner
     Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith (I am reading this with the GoodReads History Group.)
     The Emerald Planet by David Beerling
     Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Cooking
     Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
     Tuna salad
     Oven BBQ Chicken, Beans, Cole Slaw
     Applesauce Raisin Spice Cake

Home
     Installation of irrigation system

Personal
     50th Class Reunion planning meeting
     Houston Symphony
     Manicure

Slow Cooker Beef Burgundy

Slow Cooker Beef Burgundy

1 (5 pound) boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 ounces bacon (about 4 slices), minced
3 onions, minced
1 carrot, peeled and minced
1/4 cup tomato paste
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
2 1/2 cups Pinot Noir
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth, plus extra as needed
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 bay leaves
2 cups frozen pearl onions
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons sugar
1 pound cremini mushrooms, trimmed and halved if small or quartered if large

1. Dry beef with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat, brown meat (half at a time) well on all sides, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer to slow cooker. 

2. Cook bacon in skillet over medium-high heat until crisp, about 5 minutes. Stir in onions, carrot, tomato paste, garlic, and thyme and cook until onions are softened and lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes.  Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.  Slowly whisk in 1 1/4 cups wine, scraping up any brown bits and smoothing out any lumps; transfer to slow cooker. 

3. Stir broth, soy sauce, and bay leaves into slow cooker. Cover and cook until beef is tender 9 to 11 hours on low to 5 to 7 hours on high. 

4. About 20 minutes before serving, bring frozen pearl onions, water, butter, and sugar to a boil in a 12 inch skillet.  Reduce to simmer, cover, and cook until frozen onions are fully thawed and tender, about 5 to 8 minutes.  Uncover, bring to a boil, and cook until all liquid evaporates. Stir in mushrooms and cook until vegetables are glazed, 8 to 12 minutes. Transfer to slow cooker. 

Add remaining 1 1/4 cups wine to skillet and simmer until it is reduced by half, 6 to 8 minutes; transfer to slow cooker. Let stew settle for 5 minutes, then remove fat from surface using a large spoon. Discard bay leaves. (Adjust stew consistency with additional hot broth as needed.)  Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve. 

February Meditation

Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate, sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth...home.

Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut, 1971

The Rainy Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;

It rains, and the wind is never weary;

The vine still clings to the mouldering wall;

But at every gust the dead leaves fall,

And the day is dark and dreary. 

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;

It rains, and the wind is never weary;

My thoughts still cling to the mouldering past;

But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,

And the days are dark and dreary. 

Be still, sad heart, and stop repining;

Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;

Thy fate is the common fate of all,

Into each life some rain must fall, 

Some days must be dark and dreary. 

Around Oak Meadows

Around OakMeadows

We had a week of spring weather and it was lovely. Yesterday a cold front blew through and dropped temperatures down to near freezing. Once upon a time, I really loved cold weather but not so much now, in fact not at all. I now understand why people go to Tucson for the winter. Anyway, the temperature will be up to near 60 tomorrow so I can't really complain. (But I do anyway...)

We finished the well and the shed and have had the electrical lines installed. Now we are waiting for the irrigation system workmen to start work. 

We are watching David Attenborough's Life in the Undergrowth.  It is fantastic! I can't believe we have never seen it.  The camera work is incredible!

The goldfinches are cleaning out the thistle feeders as soon as Joe fills them up. The gluttonous blackbirds are scarfing down all the sunflower seed and the squirrels are fat  and sassy with all the peanuts. We found a large raccoon dead. He must have died of old-age or disease because he hadn't been torn up by the coyotes. 

The monster quilt is progressing s l o w l y. 10 blocks down--only 46 more to go. Ack!!

Lots of good reading! Wartime Britain by Juliet Gardiner is the best on the subject that I've ever read. The GoodReads History Group is doing a group read of Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith and it is good too. I just started The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah which is light historical fiction--good so far. 

Cooking: Shrimp Jambalaya, Chicken Parmigiana, and Veggie Soup. Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Lots of good eating. 

That's the news from OakMeadows where the people are all retired and the cats are all above average.