Smorgasbord #7

Processions, gift, port

Hello friends! This is Peregrino, a newsletter about the journey. Welcome to another edition of Smorgasbord, a self-service buffet of ideas. If you’re new here, welcome! It’s good to have you. If you haven’t subscribed, I will make it easy for you to do so.

Big thanks to those of you who took the time to vote in last week’s poll! The majority has spoken, and the name of my upcoming series of essays on Mexican gastronomy is—drumroll please— The Tortilla Stack! It’ll launch in early 2024.

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Thinking

This week, in bullet points.

• Pope Pius XI established the Feast of Christ the King in 1925 to be celebrated on the last Sunday of Ordinary Time. My home parish had a Eucharistic Procession on Sunday to celebrate this feast day. We processed with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament along the parish’s neighborhood. I had the honor to be one of the canopy bearers. The canopy creates a sacred space for the priest/deacon holding the monstrance to walk under. It was a fantastic experience to see about two hundred people processing and singing hymns in the streets.

• The threat of busyness. Diana and I realized we bit more than we could chew on Sunday. We booked one too many activities, and even though they were all good things like ministry work, the procession, and fellowship, we lacked time for proper rest. This is an excellent reminder to pump the breaks and discern what’s best for our family during the holiday season, especially going into Advent/Christmas.

• I took a quiz for one of my Kino classes and got an A—please forgive my humble brag; I have a point, I promise. However, my initial reaction was to be upset. The good news is that I could catch that and ask myself, why is this a big deal? My instructor's feedback was solid; I realized I could’ve answered a few questions better and then moved on. This is an ongoing battle with the perfectionist in me.

• I got back on the horse. Since the last Smorgasbord, I’ve logged three rowing workouts, one hike, and one BJJ class. Making a public commitment to y’all, my dear readers, as I do not want to disappoint you, even though that might not be the case. Either way, keeping it real and reporting on my progress seems to work, so thank you.

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Reading

• Four Score by

  Andrew Smith
  explores the vigesimal system and quirks of language. Andrew is good at getting me to think. I’m always fascinated by the origin of idioms and phrases and they why behind the way we do things. This piece is an excellent example of that.

• Be Thankful (Grateful, Blessed) by

  Sara Dietz
  was an excellent reminder to recognize that everything is a gift.

• Grieving Backwards by Xavier Resendiz via

  The Joyful Dwelling
  made me cry with my nephew’s account of the impact of his father’s death when he was two years old.

• I’m reading “A Christmas Carol” and enjoying all the little details, like Dickens’ description of Scrooge’s fireplace.

  The fireplace was an old one, built by some Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures. There were Cains and Abels, Pharaohs’ daughters; Queens of Sheba, Angelic messengers descending through the air on clouds like feather-beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats, hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts — and yet that face of Marley, seven years dead, came like the ancient Prophet’s rod, and swallowed up the whole.

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Mixing

Let’s talk about the drink Fezziwig serves at his party in “A Christmas Carol,” Negus. This drink is attributed to Colonel Francis Negus, who created a diluted version of the Bishop, a sangria-type concoction of rum, red wine, simple syrup, and lime juice.

To make the Negus, you’ll need:

• 3 oz Tawny port

• 1 oz Lemon juice

• 1/2 oz Rich Sugar Syrup (2 parts sugar to 1 part water)

• Boiling water

Pour all the ingredients into a Toddy glass, top with boiling water, and stir. You can dust nutmeg on top or dunk a cinnamon stick in the glass. Tawny Port is a fortified wine with notes of caramel, peanut brittle, apricot, plum, raisin, and walnut. I think it would be fun to make this into a punch by dumping a 750 ml bottle of port into your favorite punch bowl and adding 8 ounces of lemon juice, 4 ounces of rich syrup, and 25 ounces of boiling water. You’d have about 62 ounces of punch, yielding north of fifteen 4-ounce servings.

Disclaimer: I haven’t made this drink, but it’s on my radar for the holidays. If you make it, let me know how you like it.

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Sobremesa

1. How do you fight busyness?

2. Are you a perfectionist? How do you deal with that?

3. Did Thanksgiving leave you with a few extra lbs? What are you doing about it?

4. What are you reading?

5. What do you think about the Negus? Would you want to try it?