Saint Patrick's Day 2014

The Graphics Fairy

Saint Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday along with being a festival of food, music, and drink.

Saint Patrick was kidnapped as a child and brought to Ireland to look after sheep.   as It was as a slave Saint Patrick was reported to have had a spiritual awakening.  He would pray incessantly while alone with the sheep.

He escaped his slave owners as a young adult and joined the priesthood. 

Saint Patrick died a few hundred years before the first official canonization so while recognized as a Saint by the populous and the Catholic Church of Ireland he was never canonized. 

The celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day on March 17^th was brought to North America by Irish immigrants and took off. 

 Saint Patrick's Day is also celebrated in Argentina, Canada, Great Britain, the International Space Station, Japan, Malaysia, Montserrat, Russia, South Korea, and Switzerland.

 If you celebrated St. Patrick’s Day what did you do?

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2014

March 15th & 16th, 2014

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2014 twosnydergirls

Are you not thirsty?

C.S. Lewis is one of my favourite authors, his narratives are engaging and thought provoking so I was thrilled when I came across C.S. Lewis Readings for Reflection and Meditation by Walter Hooper in a thrift store for $1.00.  

The first excerpt that Walter Hooper provides is from The Silver Chair.  We read this story to our children on one of our many vacations and then later purchased the collection of books on audio tapes and listened again while we travelled.   Here is part of the excerpt from Hooper's book.

“Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion

“I’m dying of thirst”, said Jill

“Then drink”, said the Lion

“May I –could I – would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill.

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl.  And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience… The Silver Chair Chapter 2 (pg 19)

My Reflections

As God`s children we desire to draw near to drink from the never-ending river called love and to understand ourselves through God`s wisdom – to know ourselves as God knows us. 

At the same time we are afraid to approach because we know we will be forever changed by the experience.  This change is something that we both desire and fear at the same time. 

So we attempt to approach surreptitiously hoping that being near to the shadow of God will be enough to satisfy our desire without losing ourselves totally.

And like Jill we must acknowledge God is everywhere at all times, there is only God`s river and only one way to know ourselves and that is through God`s love.

Proverbs 28:1

The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.

It is only through knowing ourselves as children of God are we bold and so like Aslan in C S Lewis's stories God is both gentle and firm with us. There is only one river and only one way to know who we truly are -- it is through God`s love and wisdom and we can only surrender and drink from the river in God`s presence.

These are my thoughts and ruminations.  I have provided them not as a truth they are here for your consideration – to open a dialogue.

Grandma Snyder

Hooper, W. (1992). C.S. Lewis Readings for Reflection and Meditation. Great Britain: Fount Paperbacks.

©2013-2014 twosnydergirls

Gluten & Dairy Free Graham Wafer Cream Pie

March is a Birthday Month

In our immediate family there are four birthdays and within our extended family and circle of friends there are four more.

In a previous post I talked about how Miracle Whip Chocolate Cake was and is a traditional birthday desert as is  Graham Wafer Pie also known as Flapper Pie.

As a small child I have fond memories of mother standing over the stove with stirring hot milk in the double boiler.  One of the first independent cooking tasks that I was given was to stir the milk as this thickened for Graham Wafer Pie. 

Mother taught me to stir the milk by alternatively making a figure 8 followed by ∞, an 8 laid on its side.  In this way the milk did not burn to the bottom of the pot and scorch the pie filling.

Today with microwaves in most kitchens we no longer need to stand over hot stoves.

The historical writings on Graham Wafer Cream Pie first shows up in the early 19^th century cook books is thin at best and in the early 20^th century became a favourite of Western Canadian Cooks.

I was surprised to learn this as I always thought of Graham Wafer Pie as a traditional Mennonite Pie as it appears in the Mennonite Cookbook and in Food that Really Schmecks.

Here is my Dairy Free, Gluten Free remake, please enjoy:

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups Gluten free Graham Wafer Crumbs

1/4 Sugar

Melted Coconut oil enough to hold the graham wafer crumbs together in a pie plate

Cream filling:

½ cup sugar

Pinch salt

3 to 4 tablespoons corn starch (enough to thicken the cream filling)

Yolks of three eggs

2 ½ cups almond milk

3 teaspoon vanilla

375 degrees until topping is brown 

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2014 twosnydergirls