Happy feast of the Annunciation!
This year, because we are now in the throes of Holy Week, the Feast of the Annunciation will be celebrated on April 8, but the Impossible Novena starts today and it is also International Tolkien Reading Day. JRR Tolkien has the hobbits destroy the Ring of Power on the feast of the Annunciation. We celebrate this feast because it is when the Lord becomes Incarnate; the Word became flesh. So many things to celebrate!
My teenager and I participated in a Lord of the Rings bookclub for the last several months; we read through all three books and attended discussions led by one of our parish priests. We had our final reading and celebratory feast day on Palm Sunday (rather than on today’s Monday feast). In a pot luck style, we had meat and potatoes, cake, hobbit hole cupcakes, gummy Béorns, Gollum’s Swedish fish, mushrooms, cheese and bread, and a lovely cake topped with sweetened whipped cream and fresh berries. It was a beautiful evening of books, food, and friendship (and even pipe smoking among the gentlemen). I think Tolkien would have thoroughly enjoyed himself!
What we ate:
Open-faced sandwich with roasted brussels sprouts, bacon, blue cheese and balsamic vinegar — strawberries on the side
Eggy spaghetti - my dad’s variation of spaghetti carbonara (again, far from authentic but absolutely delicious)
Chicken tikka and rice
Husband-made oven baked ribs and beans
Hungarian lecsó (from Roasted Figs and Sugar Snow) with leftover rice and sour cream
What I read:
Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power, Josef Pieper
Beyond Egypt: Learning to Walk in the Freedom of Exodus, Kari Minter
What I/they/we listened to:
The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings, Philip and Carol Zaleski
Our Island Story, H.E. Marshall