Palm Sunday – begins the Holy week leading to Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It commemorates Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem where people put palms down in front of his path.
Palm Sunday, palms are distributed in church and blessed during the mass. People take them home and place them around religious pictures, statues or other objects. They remain there for a year until the next Palm Sunday when they are replaced by newly blessed Palms.
When discarding palms, remember it is a blessed religious object and should be burned or buried. Some gardeners bury it in their home garden, believing it will bless the coming year’s crop.
Did you Know? The ashes you receive on Ash Wednesday are from the prior years palms.
March 28 and celebrates things on a stick. What comes on a stick? Anything. The first thing that comes to mind is a Corn dog or popsicles and fudgesicles.
Then there is marshmallows on a stick cooked during a campfire. Shrimp and Chinese treats like pot stickers. When you use chopsticks, everything is on a stick!
You can put Cocktail wieners or cheese on a toothpick. Wooden skewers used when cooking on the grill, contain meats and vegetables. Even dessets like Cake Pops are on a stick.
The list goes on and on for what you will find on a stick. You can get just anything on a stick when receiving food samples at a store or festival. Celebrate this fun day by serving food for meals and snacks on a stick. The kids will love it.
Corndogs:
prep: 20 mins cook: 20 mins total: 40 mins Servings: 16 Yield: 16 corndogs
Ingredients
16 Original recipe yields 16 servings Ingredient Checklist
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1 cup milk
- 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
- 2 (16 ounce) packages beef frankfurters
- 16 wooden skewers
Directions
- Step 1 In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, salt, pepper, sugar and baking powder. Stir in eggs and milk.
- Step 2 Preheat oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat. Insert wooden skewers into frankfurters. Roll frankfurters in batter until well coated.
- Step 3 Fry 2 or 3 corn dogs at a time until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels.
March 28 a day to go out and hug the common weeds found in your lawn or garden. Why appreciate weeds, you ask? What possible good can weeds be?
Definition of a Weed: A weed is any plant that is not in a place where you want it to be. Edible, medicinal, herbal plants, and flowers, are considered weeds to those who don’t want them where they pop up. In the lawn dandelions are weeds but they are edible, and used in salads and to make dandelion wine.
For example:
- Flowers can make their way into you vegetable garden, you can pull them out, like weeds.
- A common flower, vegetable or herb would be considered a weed, in the cracks of sidewalk.
- No one but a child considers dandelions, to be anything other than a weed.
- I don’t know a single person who likes ragweed in any way, shape or form. Do you?
- Queen Ann’s Lace a popular flower in English gardens however, it is considered an invasive weed in the US.
- Has anyone found a use for Tumbleweed?
Now, consider the reverse…..
- Imagine your lost in the woods for days with no food or water. You come upon purslane, a common and pesky weed in the vegetable garden. This leafy, nutritious green, is edible, and may help to save your life.
- If you love salad greens, then the tender inner leaves of dandelion plants belong in your fresh garden salad
- Dandelions are certainly not a weed, if you are a vintner and want to make wine.
- Weeds offer food and shelter to birds and wildlife.
- Many weeds can produce an attractive flower.
- Weeds offer medicinal value. Imagine if an obnoxious weed in your flower garden, is identified as a cure for cancer or the common cold.
Common weeds do offer some benefits because they provide the very oxygen you breathe. Weeds take in carbon dioxide we you exhale.
Take time today, to hug your weeds, water your weeds, fertilize your weeds, or whatever you prefer to do to enjoy your weeds.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
