Our blog is filled with recipes we've cooked, poems we've read, sermons we've preached, pictures we like, and recent news. The categories on the left will help you explore.
1 red bell pepper, cleaned of seeds and cut to lay flat in large pieces
2 carrots, cut into hunks
2 sticks of celery, diced
2 zucchini, cut into hunks
1 cup chickpeas (tinned or cooked)
4 cups vegetable stock
½ cup risoni pasta (orzo)
2.5cm/1 inch piece of cinnamon stick
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/356°F
Place the cut apple, zucchini, carrots and chili onto a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with chopped fennel seeds and brown sugar.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes until the apples are soft. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
On a separate baking sheet, place the red peppers and broil them until they are soft and blackened at the edges. Remove the skins.
Once cool, place all the roasted vegetables (in batches) in a food processor with all the pan juices and pulse until smooth, check seasoning and add more sugar if needed and salt and pepper to taste.
Heat a small amount of olive oil in a large heavy based pot. Fry the leeks over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes, add the celery and continue to cook for a further 3-4 minutes.
Add the chickpeas and risoni and toss to combine.
Add the stock and puréed vegetable mixture, increase the heat and bring to a gentle boil. Simmer for 25 minutes, add the cinnamon stick and continue to simmer for 4-5 minutes.
Remove the cinnamon stick and serve hot with lots of tasty bread. Yum!!
Adapted from Veggie Num Num http://www.veggienumnum.com/2010/05/spiced-veggie-soup/ and served at St. Lydia’s on September 19
Last night I made my way to Penn Station and jumped on the train to Philadelphia, a pattern that will become a familiar part of my routine as I begin completing my “Lutheran Year” at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Completing eight courses at a Lutheran Seminary is one of my requirements as a candidate for ordination with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ECLA).
My role as the Pastoral Minister at St. Lydia’s has been the primary catalyst of my call to be an ordained pastor in the ELCA. It is the process of following the vision of St. Lydia’s, gathering around the table with our growing congregation, and building together will all of you that has thrown my call to ordained ministry into sharper focus. In many ways, you have drawn the call out of me.
As I’ve entered the candidacy process with the ELCA, I’ve also been engaging with a number of live questions about the future of St. Lydia’s. From the beginning, I’ve felt that it’s critical for St. Lydia’s to have formal and informal ties to the wider church. You can’t be a Christian alone, and being linked to a denomination means being in relationship with the whole Church. I find that relationship to be fundamental to what it means to be a church, and I’ve searched for us to find ways to be in relationship with the wider church while exploring and developing our own unique identity.
As we mark St. Lydia’s one year anniversary as a full time worshipping community, I feel that our second year will offer us the time and space to consider how we are and might be tied to the wider church. It is my hope that, over time, a supportive and nurturing relationship may be developed between St. Lydia’s and the ELCA. St. Lydia’s is already linked to the ELCA through our relationship with Pastor Phil and Trinity Lower East Side.
Creating a relationship with the Metro New York Synod means stretching our network of relationships wider: being in linked with all the ELCA churches in New York and their Bishop, Robert Rimbo. Beyond that, it means being in relationship with the National church and the global church. The most important part of this process has to do with you: the congregation. Choosing to affiliate with a denomination is a big decision that will impact how we grow and who we become as a congregation. My job is to give you, the congregation, an opportunity to learn about the ELCA and denominational affiliation in general, and to discern if nurturing that relationship is the appropriate way to go forward.
During September and October, we’ll have several opportunities to reflect on denominations together. I’ll be preaching about the formation of Christian community and relationships throughout the Fall. Pastor Phil and Daniel Simons will be guest preachers during October, preaching about what it means to be part of a denomination. Finally, we’ll continue the discussion at our Community Meeting on October 9. The process of will continue into the year, as we take all the time we need to listen to God and discern how to go forward as a congregation. I invite you to engage in this conversation, to ask our presiders and me questions and engage us in discussion.
A church is made of people, and I’m looking forward to hearing all of your voices as we move forward together.
Last Sunday we celebrated the one-year anniversary of regular weekly worship at St. Lydia’s. Denise brought amazing miniature cupcakes, and we had an almond raspberry torte contributed by our new friends from New Jersey as well! Here are some photos of our elaborate and unique birthday-honoring ritual:
all ignorance toboggans into know
and trudges up to ignorance again:
but winter’s not forever, even snow
melts; and if spring should spoil the game, what then?
all history’s a winter sport or three:
but were it five, i’d still insist that all
history is too small for even me;
for me and you, exceedingly too small.
Swoop (shrill collective myth) into thy grave
merely to toil the scale to shrillerness
per every madge and mabel dick and dave
–tomorrow is our permanent address
and there they’ll scarcely find us (if they do,
we’ll move away still further: into now
The Marriage
You have my
attention: which is
a tenderness, beyond
what I may say. And I have
your constancy to
something beyond myself.
The force
of your commitment charges us—we live
in the sweep of it, taking courage
one from the other.
The Marriage (II)
I want to speak to you.
To whom else should I speak?
It is you who make
a world to speak of.
In your warmth the
fruits ripen—all the
apples and pears that grow
on the south wall of my
head. If you listen
it rains for them, then
they drink. If you
speak in response
the seeds
jump into the ground.
Speak or be silent:
your silence
will speak to me.
Straw and Hay Fettuccine Tangle with Spring Asparagus Puree
by Heidi Swanson from Super Natural Cooking
Serves 4 to 6
1 bunch asparagus spears, trimmed and halved crosswise
3 handfuls baby spinach leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
1 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for topping
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
4 ounces dried spinach fettuccine or 6 ounces fresh
4 ounces dried egg fettuccine or 6 ounces fresh
Bring 2 pots of water to a rolling boil, one large and one medium.
You’ll use he large one to cook the pasta and the medium one to blanch
the asparagus.
To make the asparagus puree, salt the asparagus water and drop the
spears in the pot. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the spears are a
bright green and barely tender. Drain and transfer to a food
processor (preferably) or a blender. Add the spinach, garlic, the 1
cup Parmesan, and 3/4 cup of the pine nuts. Puree and, with the motor
running, drizzle in the 1/4 cup olive oil until a paste forms. It
should be the loose consistency of a pesto; if too thick, thin it with
a bit of the pasta water. Add the lemon juice and salt, then taste and
adjust the seasoning. Add black pepper if desired.
Salt the pasta water well and cook the pasta until just tender; you’ll
need less time for fresh pasta, more fro dried. Drain and toss
immediately with 1 cup of the asparagus puree, stirring in more
afterward depending on how heavily coated you like your pasta. Serve
sprinkled with the remaining 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts, a dusting of
Parmesan, and a quick drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.
A few weeks ago we read Luke 15:11-32, the story of the prodigal son, and read the Elizabeth Bishop poem One Art. Kathleen mentioned that Bishop also wrote a poem about the prodigal son. Here is the text:
The Prodigal
The brown enormous odor he lived by
was too close, with its breathing and thick hair,
for him to judge. The floor was rotten; the sty
was plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung.
Light-lashed, self-righteous, above moving snouts,
the pigs’ eyes followed him, a cheerful stare—
even to the sow that always ate her young—
till, sickening, he leaned to scratch her head.
But sometimes mornings after drinking bouts
(he hid the pints behind a two-by-four),
the sunrise glazed the barnyard mud with red;
the burning puddles seemed to reassure.
And then he thought he almost might endure
his exile yet another year or more.
But evenings the first star came to warn.
The farmer whom he worked for came at dark
to shut the cows and horses in the barn
beneath their overhanging clouds of hay,
with pitchforks, faint forked lightnings, catching light,
safe and companionable as in the Ark.
The pigs stuck out their little feet and snored.
The lantern—like the sun, going away—
laid on the mud a pacing aureole.
Carrying a bucket along a slimy board,
he felt the bats’ uncertain staggering flight,
his shuddering insights, beyond his control,
touching him. But it took him a long time
finally to make his mind up to go home.
-Elizabeth Bishop
The poem reminds me of this folk song performed by my friend Sam Amidon. Sam is on tour in the US right now, so if you like it, look up the tour dates on his website and check him out, he’s amazing!
