November's Supper Hour

Let's start with dessert since it is not the norm at our house

but guests always give a great reason for a treat, which was the case last night.

So what is a quick go-to when you suddenly realize 

there's nothing in the house and we need dessert?!

Banana Pudding!

Scald 3 cups milk

While it heats mix 1/4-1/3 cup of cornstarch with 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp. salt.

blend and add 1/3 cup COLD milk.

Add to scalded milk whisking briskly all the while.

Reduce heat to med-low and stir until mix says 'blub-blub-blub',

then add a splash of vanilla extract , stir

and pour over sliced bananas!

Serve warm or chilled and topped with fresh whipped cream.

This dish makes me feel like a little girl

on those rare nights when supper was either tapioca of cornstarch pudding.

Simple and satisfying.

The main course was a mix of Sunday-Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday's meals rolled into Thursday!

How does this happen??!!

Well, it started with Sunday, coming home from church, 

anticipating a crockpot holding nicely browned potatoes and roast beef.

Alas, because all the words are worn off the settings I had turned the knob too far 

and it was not set at high but on the 'keep warm' setting, 

leaving lukewarm, still hard potatoes.

All was not lost however because they still cooked

 (though not in time for lunch)

 and turned out to be a big help during fall housecleaning midweek.

On Wednesday I shredded them, added chopped chicken 

leftover from Tuesday night's roast chicken dinner 

( plus a bit of chopped ham), sprinkled in some corn, 

made a sauce with leftover gravy, 

leftover swiss-chalet-dipping sauce 

and a can of cream of mushroom soup+water.

Toss and pour in pan

(The crumb topping under the shredded cheese is ground up rosemary-cheese scones

 which Victoria tried a while ago but they were not edible! 

I was not home when she made them

or I might have told her that 1/2 cup dried rosemary is definitely a misprint!

But ground and used sparingly these 'flopped' scones are great as a savoury topping!

I named it Chicken Cordon Blu Casserole because of its richness and ham-chicken-cheese.

It was a big batch so we had enough for last night's main dish...

 

Monday's contribution; Cabbage Rolls... 

The Cabbage Rolls take a bit of time to prepare but are well worth the effort!

An autumn highlight at our house after the winter-cabbage is gathered.

(I use green cabbage in a LARGE pot of boiling water)

Last but not least...the salad, not leftover😊

consisting of a base of mixed spring greens, topped with thinly shredded red cabbage, 

shredded red beet, chopped cucumber, crumbled feta and roasted unsalted sunflower seeds.

Drizzle with dressing of your choice. (I prefer dressings on the side)

Something about the rain lashing at windows 

and the wind rattling at loose shingles and soffits (hopefully not!) and doors

makes us feel extra-humbly blessed to have a roof over our heads

and a place to call home-sweet-home!

 

These days the dark falls early

Deep blue turns to ebony

November’s rain taps windowpanes

The wind moans like a sea

And front-porch lights hail ‘welcome’

From heav’n-on-earth’s modest dome

And heavy hearts turns lithesome

At the sight of home-sweet-home

Where it is not ‘the dressing’

That makes this place so dear

But the precious, sacred blessing

Of gathering loved ones near

And thanking God for mercies

That we could never earn

Glad, as the dark falls early

For each loved ones safe return

© Janet Martin

November's Signature

Yesterday we were treated to what I call November's signature prints...

Two contrasting ribbons melded, of gray and gold.

I was concerned when the snow came early and stayed,

that we might miss this bit of brooding beauty!

(yesterday's temps at last were mild enough to make melodious melting-snow music!)
"What's that sound? " asked little girl yesterday as we played outside.
"That, my dear, is the best sound in the world!" I replied
as I showed her where the water was running from the down-spout.
"That is the sound of melting snow!"

The sharp contrasts of bronze and brooding blue

Are signature prints of November’s art

Spellbound am I by earth and heaven’s hue

As landscapes, leaf-bereft still thrill the heart

Precious intermission, as rain and snow

Duel in unrelenting tug-of-cloud

Before autumn surrenders and lets go

And Old Man Winter gloats, star-stoked and proud

But now let November bid us farewell

In panoramas steeped in rum-hued sweeps

Let us first feel, like a slow-pealing bell

Wild longing in the wind that moans and weeps

…and let us stand stock still, drawn by an ache

Akin to motherhood as child is weaned

And starts to stretch the ties that cannot break

While what must be keeps soulful senses keened

November is like autumn-song’s postlude

A sax solo played by the barren tree

Or penetrating hymn of gratitude

That wafts across the field and out to sea

© Janet Martin

A Rhyme For Time's Fellow-travelers

PAD Challenge day 21:For today’s prompt, write a travel poem...

 

We’ve come so far together, by time’s common tether bound

The shift of days to years endears us to its trampled dust

While well-known yet uncharted territory breaks new ground  

As on yon brink dawn yawns, bright pink and unveils frames of trust

Evidence of fresh favor fills a tray that brims with grace

Daybreak is like a scepter stretched across a waking world

Where pilgrims of love’s providence cannot one mile retrace

Where we are all trailblazers on dawn’s virgin breadth unfurled

How well we should have learned by now the way we ought to go

But somehow human nature is a stubborn mule to train

And bent on taking wrong turns, blazing through Caution-taped ‘no’

Till oh, the reason for its warning becomes very plain

I’m glad, aren’t you, that we never travel the same day twice

But always we embark upon the verge of bygone years

To leave within its wake testaments of virtue and vice

While molding crowns of wisdom with the spoil of smiles and tears

…as seasons surge and merge, its color-wheel is like a loom

That weaves time’s fallen leaves; how swift its subtle shuttle flies

The momentum of moments metes the mortar for the tomb

As the tempo of tick and tock composes lullabies

Some say that time is nothing but dust on a wayward wind

Some think that life's highway leads to, not through the silent grave

Some do not want to think about what soon is left behind

Or that which stems time's tide like the shoreline annuls the wave

Time brings us all together, voyageurs of day to day

To weathered high and lows in this who-knows-what-waits- sojourn

Where hope-and-dream’s horizon line is always far away

But here and now runs rife with life’s momentous no-return

© Janet Martin

Like Shafts of Light

PAD Challenge day 20: For today’s prompt, write a light poem.

Futile to try to stopper ears

Or tie a blindfold good and tight

A poem disregards all spheres

And filters like a shaft of light

Through places that would not exist

Without a poet’s urge fulfilled

As jots and twirls of ink untwist

Into the art where Her heart spilled

Futile to steer Her by her arm

While poem’s unforbidden fruit

Dangles like plum-spangles, sun warm

And sweet as frost-kissed parsnip root

Where wild like ocean’s ebb and surge

Of waves that wash across the beach

She grapples with the tides that merge

With shafts of light just out of reach

© Janet Martin

Of Lifelong Learning...

...this is one of those days where poetry would pour from each pore

but Cutie-duty...

 ...and not-so-cute-Duty prevails!

 ...pegged this poem between phone-calls, hair-dryer hunt,

fire-tending, breakfast, etc.

Hope you all have a happy day!

 

We cannot thwart God’s hand unseen

But oh, we sure can make a mess

As we, impatient, ‘intervene’

In frames of would-be happiness

We cannot void the grace of God

But oh, we sure can prove its need

As we misinterpret Wait’s rod

And impatiently ‘intercede’

We cannot change what God has willed

But oh, we sure can leave a path

Of chaos and hard knocks fulfilled

In lifelong learning’s aftermath

© Janet Martin

Isa.55: 7-9

 Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts;

 let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, 

and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, 

 neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. 

 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

 so My ways are higher than your ways 

and My thoughts than your thoughts.…