August 9th, 2012
Ingredients
(this was the perfect amount for 26 people)
two loaves of any hearty bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
3 onions
6-8 zucchini and/or yellow summer squash
1-2 large cucumbers
8 15 oz cans white beans
10 ears fresh corn
4 lbs fresh tomatoes (cherry or grape work well but bigger ones are fine too)
few stems of fresh thyme
1 bunch of fresh basil
s & p
olive oil
vinegar (red, white, balsamic–whatever’s around)
dijon mustard
Note: each point is a discrete task that can be delegated.
First:
– Preheat oven to 350° on “convect” setting.
– Boil a big pot of water for corn.
Then:
– Toss cubes of bread with plenty of olive oil, season with salt and pepper and the fresh thyme and put them in the oven to toast, spread evenly on two baking sheets, maybe stirring them at some point along the way. They are done when they are golden brown (watch so they don’t burn).
– Dice onions and saute in olive oil in a large pot till tender.
– Shuck the corn. When the water boils, put the ears in for 5 mins till tender. Cool till you can handle them, then cut the corn off the cobs. (Alternatively, if cutting the corn off the cobs seems annoying, you could just cut the cobs into smaller chunks and just serve it on the side).
– While onions are cooking, slice zucchini and summer squash once lengthwise and then into a half-inch thick half-moons. Add to onions, season with salt and pepper and more fresh thyme, saute till just tender.
– Drain and rinse the cans of beans and add them to the onions and squash, adding a little more salt and pepper. When the beans are warm, transfer the mixture to serving bowls.
– Wash and chop the tomatoes (just in half for the little ones, quarters for the bigger ones).
– Wash and tear the basil leaves from their stems; roughly chop (optional).
– Wash and chop the cucumber.
– Assemble all ingredients in one or two serving bowls.
– Dress with vinaigrette: 1 C olive oil, ⅓ C balsamic, 1 teaspoon dijon if you can find some in the fridge, S & P.
This recipe is also available as a google doc.
Prepared with our help by Sarah at St. Lydia’s on August 5, 2012
August 2nd, 2012
Dear Lydians,
Here’s “Day Is Done,” a bit of a St. Lydia’s tradition. It was our closing hymn for a number of weeks in a row when we were first starting out as a congregation. Now we sing it toward the end of the Summer, as we will this August. Not to be confused with the charming version by Peter, Paul and Mary, of course. Or Nick Drake. Or REM. Everybody wants to sing about the day being done, apparently.
Jake couldn’t find any existing recordings of this hymn that would be useful for the purposes of learning the harmony parts, so he created a version using sampled strings. (It sounds a bit syrupy as a result, but the sense of the harmonies come through.) Listen to the links below to learn the harmony lines, with piano illustrating the given part and the rest of the choir (represented by the strings) panned to the right.
We’ll sing the first verse in unison before breaking into parts on the second verse, so the recordings of the alto, tenor and bass parts begin with a piano lead in from the final phrase of the first verse: “Watch our sleeping, guard our waking. Be always near.” This will help you make the transition into the harmony parts. (The audio for the soprano part starts at the beginning of the hymn.)
In 2020, we updated the verse two lyrics, so make sure to use this updated version of the sheet music.
Enjoy!
Day is Done — Soprano
Day is Done — Alto
Day is Done — Tenor
Day is Done — Bass
August 2nd, 2012
Pebble Salad
2 cups cooked brown rice
2 cups cooked quinoa
1 1/2 cups corn off the cob
1 cup cucumber, chopped and seeded
1 cup carrots, chopped
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, minced
1/2 cup roasted pumpkin seeds
Dressing
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
Top with 1/2 cup slivered almonds
Mix together all ingredients, dress and chill 2 hours. Enjoy!
–Prepared with our help by Wendy at St. Lydia’s on July 29th, 2012
August 2nd, 2012
by Wallace Stevens
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night
Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The words were spoken as if there was no book,
Except that the reader leaned above the page,
Wanted to lean, wanted much to be
The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom
The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The house was quiet because it had to be.
The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:
The access of perfection to the page.
And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world,
In which there is no other meaning, itself
Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself
Is the reader leaning late and reading there.
–Read at St. Lydia’s on July 29, 2012
July 30th, 2012
The St. Lydia’s Enough for Everyone Garden, at 346 Bergen Street in Brooklyn, is an experiment in radical generosity, where growing and eating fresh, healthy food becomes a possibility for everyone. This is our first and pilot year, and we invite you to participate! We are building the garden together, so if you are interested in volunteering or just learning more about our garden or A Small Green Patch, the larger Greenthumb Community Garden we are one part of, email us at rachel@stlydias.org.
This Sunday from 1 PM to dusk will be the garden-wide Fall Harvest Party. There will be mural painting for kids, treats, and music for people of all ages. Come on down!
We aim to have open volunteer hours every weekend; if you are interested in hosting, please check out this sign-up sheet to find a time that works for you and email rachel@stlydias.org.
July 26th, 2012
We had a wonderful Garden blessing and popsicle party on Saturday the 21st–thanks to everyone who came out! Check out this album of photos. We also installed the sculpture And There Was Evening, And There Was Morning, made of eleven wooden ladders joined together, in the new bed along the wall. On Monday we planted decorative gourds, pumpkins, and assorted flowers at the base of the ladders, in hope that they will grow and vine up the rungs of the ladders by the fall. We also have a new bed along the west fence planted with many varieties of sunflower, and have transplanted the four donated pots of morning glories along the fence in the front. And there are Nasturtium seeds newly planted in the tops of the burlap sacks, so hopefully we will have some more flowers soon to keep Emily’s gorgeous Zinnias company.
This Saturday Eric will host open hours from 11 AM-2 PM. He’ll be harvesting beets and carrots and planting Kale, and possibly starting work on a new bed for the
We are looking for volunteers to host open hours at the garden during August and September, so please email me at rachel@stlydias.org if you are interested in spending a couple of hours maintaining the space and welcoming visitors. We are looking for volunteers for the following days, but are open to having open hours anytime, so email me if you are interested, even if none of these times work for you!
Sunday mornings/afternoons in general (anytime between 9 AM-6 PM, you can decide how many hours you want to do, it can be two hours, three, four…whatever works for you)
And these dates specifically:
August 4
August 5
August 18
August 19
September 22
September 23
Email me at rachel@stlydias.org if you are interested in hosting hours, or participating in the garden in any other capacity!
July 25th, 2012
Read Emily’s latest sermon, “Narc,” on her Blog, Sit and Eat. It’s about Joseph, the one with the fancy coat. Covet, covet.
July 24th, 2012
Sometimes from this hillside just after sunset
The rim of the sky takes on a tinge
Of the palest green, like the flesh of a cucumber
When you peel it carefully.
*
In Crete once, in the summer,
When it was still hot at midnight,
We sat in a taverna by the water
Watching the squid boats rocking in the moonlight,
Drinking retsina and eating salads
Of cool, chopped cucumber and yogurt and a little dill.
*
A hint of salt, something like starch, something
Like an attar of grasses or green leaves
On the tongue is the tongue
And the cucumber
Evolving toward each other.
*
Since cumbersome is a word,
Cumber must have been a word,
Lost to us now, and even then,
For a person feeling encumbered,
It must have felt orderly and right-minded
To stand at a sink and slice a cucumber.
*
If you think I am going to make
A sexual joke in this poem,
you are mistaken.
*
In the old torment of the earth
When the fires were cooling and disposing themselves
Into granite and limestone and serpentine and shale,
It is possible to imagine that, under yellowish chemical clouds,
The molten froth, having burned long enough,
Was already dreaming of release,
And that the dream, dimly
But with increasing distinctness, took the form
Of water, and that it was then, still more dimly, that it imagined
The dark green skin and opal green flesh of cucumbers.
-Read in honor of the St. Lydia’s Enough for Everyone Garden at St. Lydia’s on July 22, 2012
July 20th, 2012
by Ruth Stone
The shock comes slowly
as an afterthought.
First you hear the words
and they are like all other words,
ordinary, breathing out of lips,
moving toward you in a straight line.
Later they shatter
and rearrange themselves. They spell
something else hidden in the muscles
of the face, something the throat wanted to say.
Decoded, the message etches itself in acid
so every syllable becomes a sore.
The shock blooms into a carbuncle.
The body bends to accommodate it.
A special scarf has to be worn to conceal it.
It is now the size of a head.
The next time you look,
it has grown two eyes and a mouth.
It is difficult to know which to use.
Now you are seeing everything twice.
After a while it becomes an old friend.
It reminds you every day of how it came to be.
July 20th, 2012
When the Fresh Direct never showed last Sunday, Heather quickly improvised this delicious and nutritious asian salad with ingredients from the corner market!
serves 4 to 6
1 orange, juiced (alternately, 1/4 cup fresh orange juice)
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup safflower oil (canola or vegetable oil work too)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 romaine heart, thinly sliced
1/4 head green cabbage, thinly sliced
1/2 English cucumber, cut into thin half-moons
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 8-ounce package baked tofu, cut into small cubes (note: I use Soy
Boy’s “Tofu Lin” flavor)
4 ounces slivered almonds
1. In a jar, combine fresh orange juice, vinegar, oil, and soy sauce.
Shake to combine.
2. In a large bowl, combine romaine, cabbage, cucumber, scallions, and
tofu. Toss with dressing and top with almonds.
-Prepared with our help by Heather at St. Lydia’s on July 15,2012
