{bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
I made English muffins Thursday for my husband’s Friday morning breakfast, which I guess falls somewhere on a spectrum between habit and tradition.
He normally has a modest breakfast that he fixes for himself — bagel or cereal. If there is a pot of oatmeal out for the kids, he’ll have some.
Sundays we all have a big brunch, so the only other day he allows himself an egg (this is a holdover from the “eggs are bad for your cholesterol” days that I can’t shake him of, also he may not like eggs as much as I do) is Friday, when, coincidentally, he also takes the time to do the New York Times crossword.
For those of you who don’t know, the Times crossword goes from easy on Mondays to epic on Sundays. Fridays are pretty hard. Back in the days when we got an actual newspaper delivered, he’d do the Monday one without picking his pen up off the paper, the way you or I would fill it in if we didn’t care what letters we used.
I started doing them too, so he would let me do Monday through Wednesday, help me with Thursday, and take over for the rest of the week. (Actually, Wednesdays are annoying because they usually feature “popular culture” which neither of us knows much about — still, he can do that one in a matter of minutes).
Friday does take him a little longer, so he settled on a slightly bigger breakfast too on that day. An egg and an English muffin is his indulgence!
Here’s the thing though: English muffins annoy me! They have great texture, what with those nooks and crannies, but if you ever leave one out on the counter and then go to eat it while it’s cold, it tastes exactly like it’s made out of the dust of annoyance. Plus they are not cheap.
I would pay if I found good ones, don’t get me wrong. Standing at a griddle hoping you’ve nooked and crannied the darn lumps of dough is not so great. So although I won’t buy them, I often don’t make them either. Too hot, forgot, too tired, too much other bread to make… Poor Chief… sometimes his egg comes with toast like the rest of the unfortunates.
Well, Thursday was the day. And of course when I posted on IG about it, people wanted a recipe, which of course I don’t have. So I thought I’d tell you what I do here.
Aaaand, I was all ready to write it out, when I realized I have already not given you a recipe, in detail! So you can read that. Rosie linked to someone else’s actual recipe in this post. (Not without some good-natured kidding about my not giving recipes. Deserved.)
The difference is that now I put some sourdough starter in it as well as a little yeast, and that does seem to make the texture even better. I’m still not 100% satisfied in the N&C department (you know, nooks and crannies), but these EMs are pretty darn good.
I hope that if nothing else, I give you confidence to play around with your dough.
The honey is from our bees :)
On to our links!
This week marked the 50th anniversary of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, On Human Life. Never has there been a more controversial document from the Catholic Church. I hope that people(including those in the Church herself) begin to see the fullness of the Church’s teaching on marriage. Humanae Vitae isn’t the only — or even best — expression of that teaching, which is why I wrote about Casti Connubii here on the blog and in my ebook (which I hope to update soon and produce as a paperback).
The Singular Witness of Dr. Herbert Ratner.
Ministers, not masters, of life: Fr. Pokorsky.
A friend shares this quote from the psychiatrist Thomas Szasz: “Traditionally, sex has been a very private, secretive activity. Herein perhaps lies its powerful force for uniting people in a strong bond. As we make sex less secretive, we may rob it of its power to hold men and women together.” John Cuddeback revisits The Odyssey and The Secret of the Marriage Bed. His reflection is powerful and poetic. We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).
Other links:
We know so much about health, and we have forgotten a lot too. The Peckish Patient and recovering nursing wisdom.
Socialism, a failed and brutal, murderous ideology, is somehow gaining traction with younger people. I think this is due in part to confusion as to terms; what is capitalism, something that Catholic social teaching has warned against, as opposed to free markets, something it has taught as being in accord with the natural law? And perhaps a failure to make a distinction between free markets and crony capitalism in our highly regulated, technological society has left the door open to even more confusion. A writer I admire, Dr. Samuel Gregg, explains what that is and why we should oppose it: Crony Capitalism: Inefficient, Unjust, and Corrupting.
European socialism! Really? Like in Sweden, where a woman can’t stay home with her child, and children suffer from “emotional poverty”?
In “what is the internet for, anyway” departmental matters, the obligatory cat post.
Masculine dads raise confident daughters.
I don’t know how to evaluate the stats in this article about happiness and our surroundings, but it makes sense, doesn’t it? It made me think about how orderliness is connected to our sense of well being, and that the person who facilitates it is truly taking care of those around him or her. I think there is value in making a good place for people to be.
For a long time, I just didn’t understand medieval art. Definitely a child of my time, I thought art should move me emotionally and without the filter of symbolism. I remember when my mother began to study Fra Angelico and his works; I just couldn’t relate to any of it. Gradually over the years I have learned more; when the Chief and I went to Florence, I definitely fell in love! Peter Kwasniewski writes a short piece on the artist and a painting of his.
If you need to meditate on how important “wasted time” is, I offer you Fr. Schall on the subject.
Chant camp!
From the archives:
I think that besides my (ancient) freezer organization post (great photos, not), this one about how to work with your almond fixtures in the bathroom is the most looked at! How funny is that!
Several saints today! Sts. Nazarius and Celsus, St. Victor I, St. Innocent I.
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