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| City Wife, Country Life |
| This blog follows a Catholic city wife and her adjustment to country living with her farmer husband. Also includes photos, recipes, and whatever else is happening on the farm! |
| Language: English |
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| Total Unique Visitors: 231396 |
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| Total Visitors Out: 1635 |
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| The Perils of Finals |
| 2011-05-06 13:22:00 |
We only have one more week of school here.
For my pupils, the anticipation is building, the adrenaline is rushing, and the excitement is bubbling over, but that makes the final push more agonizing than ever. Frankly, preparing students for finals is almost as rough as taking them myself (almost).
Consequently, this may or may not have happened today:
Image credit: William Edward Millner (1849-1895), The Afternoon Nap
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| Cream Puffs, Éclairs, and Profiteroles, Oh My! |
| 2011-05-05 14:59:00 |
I wanted a "wow" dessert for my husband for Easter week. But I didn't want to invest two days of my life for a few moments of eating (read: homemade puff pastry). Really, it looks like a barracuda feeding frenzy around here on the few occasions we have dessert -- several hours of work can be devoured in a few seconds.
So I set my bar a bit lower and decided on cream puffs. My Better Homes & Gardens cookbook claimed they could be made in about an hour. Perfect.
Then I learned, cream puffs, éclairs, and profiteroles all use the same pastry. Three desserts for the price of one!
What are the differences?
Cream Puffs:
Round (big or small). Filled with sweetened whipped cream and dusted with powdered sugar.
Éclairs:
Oblong (big or small). Filled with sweetened whipped cream or vanilla custard and top-coated with a chocolate glaze. My experimental variation: Filled with mocha cream cheese.
Profiteroles:
Round (big or small). Filled with ice cream (any flavor) and served with ho...
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| Guest Post: Where Do I Sign Up? |
| 2011-05-04 20:07:00 |
I started to type up a post and my wrists wigged out. I'm two-finger typing this little intro, but am so grateful to KLB who is sharing her great story with us today. Please welcome her to CWCL!
The most common question I’ve been asked in the past year is a variation on, “What made you decide to become Catholic?” The tone has differed, depending on the asker. I’ve dealt with excitement, curiosity, hostility, confusion, warmth, happiness, surprise, and disrespect.
I’ve also asked the question of others. It’s not so surprising to hear the myriad conversion stories when you think about the universality of the Catholic Church, and sometimes I’ve been a little embarrassed that I didn’t have an exciting adventure of religious epiphany to relate. My answer to the question is, in short, “I went to Mass and I liked it.”
Of course it took a lot to get me to Mass in the first place.
When I was a freshman at one of the most Catholic colleges in the country, my brother and...
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| Planning a House: Square Footage? |
| 2011-05-03 21:38:00 |
Yesterday I went out to "The Property," the five acres we are in the process of buying. As we try to get various county tests done on it before signing the dotted line, it's becoming more and more apparent that we need to plan out (roughly) where the future house will be, how many bedrooms and bathrooms it will have, and how much square footage.
I grew up in a three (tiny) bedroom 1 1/2 bathroom house. There were six of us living (I thought) quite comfortably in the house and apart from a few years as a teenager longing for my own room, I never thought our house was very small. Now I realize it was so comfy because my parents had given up their master bedroom (with two closets and a bathroom) for three of us kids to share. Until planning my own house, I didn't realize how selfless and generous that was!
I bring this up because we're beginning to plot but I, at least, have no idea what I'm doing. Any advice on how many bedrooms and bathrooms would be ideal (if this is our "forever" h...
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| Musings of a Monday in May |
| 2011-05-02 18:17:00 |
Right now...it is 4pm and I'm about to head out to our prospective property to take a look at a possible future homesite. Does it get any more tentative than that, and yet does it get any cooler? I can't wait!
This weekend... seriously? Divine Mercy Sunday. St. Thomas Sunday. Feast of St. Joseph. Second Sunday of Easter. White Sunday. Low Sunday. End of a 54 day Rosary novena. End of the Divine Mercy novena. The Month of Mary. Beatification of Pope John Paul the Great. Can you possibly get more grace cranked into one day? I submit that you cannot. I felt the graces all day and am still riding high on them.
Oh, on Friday I listened to a Prince Caspian Audiobook. Good gravy it was awesome. Now I want to hear the rest of them. Lynn Redgrave does an amazing job narrating (except her Aslan voice, which is a little creepy).
Some plans for the week: re-lose all of the weight I lost during Lent and promptly regained the first week of Easter. Oh, but the Octave of Easter was a merry one! ...
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| I Royally Do |
| 2011-04-29 12:08:00 |
I'll admit it. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to watch the Royal Wedding last night.
I was actually still awake anyway from thinking, praying, cleaning the kitchen, and dehydrating bananas (quite delicious, by the way).
I've become such a softie! When I saw Kate Middleton, now Princess Catherine, I welled up. She was just so beautiful, her dress was so gorgeous, and the whole occasion of sacramental wonder was exquisite.
I mean, how can you look at her and not say, "Wow!"?
Image source: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images
It, of course, brought back a flood of happy memories from my own blessed wedding.
I couldn't have been happier if I'd been marrying a prince myself. Because of course, I did.
Did you watch the Royal Wedding? What was your wedding day like, or what do you dream it will be like?
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| Guest Post: Fresh Apple Cake |
| 2011-04-27 13:00:00 |
Please welcome "Kansas Mom" to CWCL today! I have a bag of apples left from last fall and can't wait to try this scrumptious recipe she's shared with us.
I’m very excited to be a guest at City Wife, Country Life! Below you’ll find my aunt’s apple cake recipe. It is absolutely scrumptious, the best apple cake we've ever tasted (and we've tried quite a few). I have made it for my daughter’s birthday party two years in a row. I haven’t tried it with frozen apples, but I’d love to hear how it turns out if anyone out there has some in their freezer and wants to give it a try.
If you’re interested in a healthier version as a snack cake, leave off the cream cheese frosting. I’ve never done that because I adore cream cheese frosting, but I have no doubt it would be delicious.
Illinois Aunt's Famous Fresh Apple Cake
2 cups flour (I use whole wheat.)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil (I use applesauce; it seems appropriate for the apple c...
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| Guest Post: Quick and Easy Batter Bread! |
| 2011-04-26 19:49:00 |
I'm very pleased to welcome Mrs. N as a guest blogger today at CWCL!! Thank you, Mrs. N for sending in this awesome photo-essay recipe!
This is my favorite recipe for bread when I really don't have time to make bread. It bakes up with a nice crunchy crust and is soft and moist inside - it makes the best toast ever! It's perfectly good plain but gets even better if you add herbs to it, how much is up to your own tastes. My first choice for herbs is powdered rosemary(if you can get it), I use about 1 tsp, depending on how fresh it is.
Quick and Easy Batter Bread
1 package(2-1/4 tsp) dry yeast1-1/2 cups milk, warmed3 tbsp butter, melted1 tbsp sugar1-1/2 tsp salt3 cups all purpose flourHerbs(optional)
Assemble your ingredients.
Stir together the yeast, milk, butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl, let stand until slightly foamy.
Add the salt and herbs(if using).
Add flour.
Stir for 2 minutes until completely combined.
Spread batter into a greased loaf p...
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| Waddle Day |
| 2011-04-25 19:08:00 |
To all those who ate ginormous amounts of sugary candy, chewy cookies, rich cakes, decadent pies, juicy ham, plump rolls, buttered green beans, cheesy scalloped potatoes and all the other traditional foods yesterday, may I be the first to wish you a HAPPY WADDLE DAY!!
Wear your elastic waist pants today and rejoice that our Savior is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
Image Credit: Herbert Gustave Schmalz, Resurrection Morn
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| What to Pray For |
| 2011-04-21 18:43:00 |
Christ tells us to stay awake, but not for cards and dice, not for rowdy parties and drunken brawls, not for wine and women, but for prayer. He tells us to pray not occasionally, but constantly. "Pray," He says, "unceasingly." He tells us to pray not only during the day (for it is hardly necessary to command anyone to stay awake during the day) but rather He exhorts us to devote to intense prayer a large part of that very time which most of usually devote entirely to sleep. How much more, then, should we be ashamed of our miserable performance and recognize the enormous guilt we incur by saying no more than a short prayer or two, perhaps, during the day, and even those said as we doze and yawn.
Finally, our Savior tells us to pray, not that we may roll in wealth, not that we may live in a continuous round of pleasures, not that something awful may happen to our enemies, not that we may receive honor in this world, but rather that we may not enter into temptation. In fact, He wishes us...
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