The one downside to my current living situation is that I don't have ready access to a kitchen. You see, I"m living at our Province Headquarters with 25+ other Sisters - many of them elderly. We are very fortunate to have a wonderful kitchen staff that keeps us happily fed with lots of yummy (and mostly healthy) creations. In fact, they've even been braving our snow and ice these past few days to come to work. The head cook came with a week's worth of clothing and has been staying here with us through the storms!So, how is this a downside you ask? Well, the only downside to being incredibly spoiled is that it means that our kitchen is a commercial kitchen and not available for puttering around in and/or the occasional baking extravaganza. Regular readers of the blog might remember that I find baking to be a very meditative exercise. I especially enjoy baking around the Christmas season.
What to do? I'd come up with the perfect solution to my dilemma, and reserved our vacation house on a lake about 45 minutes away for Friday & Saturday. My plan was to hole up in this cozy abode all by my lonesome and bake up a storm inside the vacation house kitchen. Of course, it turned out that we had this series of real storms come up outside.
Luckily, two things converged to make my baking retreat possible. A) The snow/ice stopped coming down for about a 36 hour period which coincided exactly with my planned trip to the Lake House and B) the car I'm driving these days happens to be all wheel drive and is equipped with all season tires that work in the snow.
I came back this afternoon after my 36 hour baking retreat. I listened to Christmas music, baked chocolate chip cookies (my favorite), cranberry almond biscotti, and gingerbread people, and generally enjoyed my alone time. This morning of course I cleaned up the giant floury mess that I made of the lake house kitchen, and returned home just ahead of the next round of storms.
It looks like we might be snowbound for a few days. Good thing I've got some yummy treats to share with the Sisters!
3 comments:
Your post reminded me of my days in the 70s at Notre Dame; my obedience was to clean the guest rooms attached to the retirement home, Holy Cross House. Since I had keys, when I needed to be away and think/pray/study, I always had a "hideout" from the bustle of the day. I always enjoy your posts, and have learned about M. Cusack, who I think is really quite cool!
Such spoiled lives in the kingdom.
Pray for us out in the highways and byways.
He is also OUR little Lord.
Barbara
Dr. Mooney - thanks for writing! Glad to help you discover Margaret Anna Cusack. She is very cool.
Barbara - rest assured, we are praying for all those who have to be out in this weather - especially the homeless and those in the service professions.
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