Another Manic Monday

What a lovely Thanksgiving. The family did a wonderful job with dinner. (There was the incident with the burning cheesecloth.....but the smell is almost totally gone) A delightful time was had by all. I avoided the ‘black friday’ shopping thing. No bargain is worth battling with so many of my fellow citizens. Besides, I had work. I was under the impression that it would be a quiet day and I could get caught up on a lot of stuff. Not exactly.

On Saturday I was able to convince a few family members to accompany me to morning Mass while I supervised the thrice yearly missalette switch (the Advent drill includes the ‘Music Issue,’ too. What fun.) If we can catch the parishioners after Mass and prevail upon those availabe to work on a few pews it isn’t too bad a job. But just another reason that I use “OCP” as an alternative cuss-word.

The cranberry ice worked out splendidly. Here’s how to do it.
1) boil one quart water and two cups sugar for 5 minutes.
2) wash one quart (about a 12 oz. bag) of fresh cranberries and boil in 1 and one half cups of water until the skins pop.
3) press berries and water through a sieve (you should have very little left in the sieve after pressing.)
4) add the strained mixture to the syrup; cool and then freeze. (here I add my plug for the KitchenAid heavy duty mixer. You can freeze your ice in the mixing bowl and the mixer beats the frozen stuff with great ease.
5) when frozen, beat mixture and return to freezer. Beat at least one more time when re-frozen.
6) serve in sorbet dish or parfait glass. This also makes a delightful shrub with champagne or soda water.