Blessed Mother Teresa...

pray for us!

We love the Missionaries of Charity! In fact, I would love to have taken our celebration to them today, but our pastor made me promise years ago that I would never go down into that neighborhood without Husband... and that's where these amazing women not only work but live!

The girls brought out their "Sister Dolls" to help decorate our learning room and I displayed the books we have about Mother Teresa, both the children's stories and the biographies, as I have seen Dawn do many times and it always looks so cheerful. We read some of Mother's own words and discussed what life was like in the part of the world that she chose to answer God's call in.Our Coffee, Tea and Thee time was lovely. We made the naan together; the girls really enjoyed rolling it out. The Professor was in charge of the hummus (which was a total flop taste-wise... surprise, surprise)! They really didn't like it. I worked on the cake while they had some reading time and I feel the need to tell you... I chickened out on the glaze.

I made the cake according to the directions but realized by the time I got to the glaze part that the recipe had already been deficient in one area...what good is a walnut cake if you don't actually add walnuts to the batter? So after the glaze had boiled for 15 minutes and it still looked very runny, I was looking at this gorgeous walnut cake (yes, I added them... I'm such a rebel) and just couldn't bring myself to pour this very thin, brown syrup on top of it without knowing exactly what was going to happen. Perhaps it would have magically bubbled and hardened into a candy like coating in those final ten minutes in the hot oven, but since this was the centerpiece of our celebration, I decided not to risk it.

I took about 1/8 C. of the syrup and added some powdered sugar to it so the flavor wasn't missed. The syrup made it stickier than normal but the spices and lemon were a lovely compliment to the cake. If I were going to make it again, I would skip the simmering part and just use the lemon and spices to make a regular powdered sugar glaze (or maybe half lemon/half water). Or I might actually try to recipe the way it is written, pray for Mother Teresa's intercession and see what happens.

To make up for the hummus disaster, Providence saw to it that Jicama Chicken was on the menu for tonight. Seriously. I put myself on a two week rotation of menus thanks to a suggestion from Elizabeth that I read somewhere but can't remember now and this curry-spiced dish came up to bat tonight. I doubt its gonna be a home run but should at least be good for a single helping, maybe more.

I am looking forward to some quiet time later when I can spend some time listening to Nissa's podcast interview with Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle about her memories of Mother Teresa. Check it out if you get a chance and then... tell me what she said since that "quiet time" I was hoping for might be a few years off.

* * * * * * UPDATE: I just realized that the recipe I linked to is not the same one I printed out and that the linked to recipe does actually tell you when to add the walnuts. The instructions for the glaze are the same for both.