Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday

Every year this would be a very special time. But of course, it is very different this year.
Palm Sunday!
The bishop didn't want the churches to distribute the palms this year so I went into the woods and tried to put some sign of this special day into our front yard. I don't think I quite succeeded.

It was a glorious day though. After the online service (!) we went for our daily walk. We ventured into the next neighborhood and onto the grounds of the High School. Not a soul around. But it was very interesting. Lots of areas signed as wildlife protected. And lots of sport fields. 

Couldn't help it. Thought these were cool photos. A healthy crop of dandelion.

Our church St. Martin's Episcopal has live services on FaceBook on Sunday and Wednesday mornings with communion. Suddenly I had remembered that we had an open bottle of red wine and ancient baking wavers. It made it more meaningful for me and James agreed. 

So, I dug for my recipe from the times when we provided St. Matthew by the Lake Lutheran Church in Benton, Kentucky, with communion bread. It must be easily 30 years old. I found it but it asked for wheat flour which I didn't have on hand. So ... google.

This is what I found on allrecipes.com. Very easy:

"This recipe has been used for years in our church for Communion bread. Easy to make and stores well in fridge. Watch carefully when baking, ovens vary in time needed.”

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil   (I used olive oil)
• 1/3 cup water

Directions

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Mix flour, oil, and salt together in a bowl; add water and mix using a pastry cutter until dough is soft. Form dough into 6 balls and press into disks onto the prepared baking sheet using your hands.
• Bake in the preheated oven until bread is cooked, 8 to 10 minutes.

When you mix the ingredients you might think in the beginning that this can’t be right especially when you add the water. I mixed it with a fork and pretty soon it was perfect. 

I divided it into more than 6 balls. I just pinched off something less than a ping pong ball and flattened it. As there is no yeast the size will stay the same. You can lay them fairly close together.  

Success!

Since our visits to the grocery store are very limited one has to compromise. Instead of fresh greens a white cabbage salad is a good alternative. One head will do for many days. Shredding with my German "mandolin" and we have suppers for a good number of days. Pepper, oil, vinegar, halved grapes, diced stop-light peppers, whatever is on hand. Nice!

And then there are pleasant surprises. A present arrived from Helen. A puzzle. We started the same day. See the edges all around? I will share the progress later. It occupies most of our dining room table.

And then Sarah stopped by with flowers. Can't help getting teary-eyed about my sweet daughters.

More humor on FaceBook! The recommendation now is to wear face masks when out in public.

Of course there are also serious notes which make you think!

And then our priest contacted me with this and whether I could sew some of those masks for people in the congregation who needed them. He liked that quilting fabric had pretty good results. Yes, I already have the pattern because ... see last blog. We are a very close-knit little congregation. We are all friends.

Today I was busy all day sewing. It feels good to be productive. The church had announced in today's weeklies to contact me if you needed a mask and I already got requests. We agreed that there will be a box outside the back door (with the brick on top) where I can leave things. James and I ventured out to drop it off. 

A quick walk through the church's memorial garden made us happy too. So beautiful. We were happy to get to see it.

And then there was the Maundy Thursday service. We are ready.

And we are grateful. We have so many blessings ... including all our gadgets. We can talk with our family members in Europe. We can worship over the internet. We are old enough to know how it was without telephone and even without TV. Imagine that, grandchildren! I don't think they can. Ha-ha.