Whatcha' Got Cooking?

Here is my #1 holiday survival skill. I've adapted it over the years to perfection. It matters not who you must break bread with. It matters not what comments are made about you and your food. I once had a guest straighten all my wall art, said it made him feel dizzy. I thought, it's the beer, not the paintings. We no longer serve beer at gatherings. Someone complained that my freezer was inconveniently arranged, said the ice for his cocktails was hard to reach. We no longer serve cocktails at our gatherings. Someone said I didn't let the bread rise long enough and baked it too long and did we have any Wonder Bread? We no longer serve bread at our gatherings. Let's see, the soup was too salty, the stuffing - mushy, the turkey - dry, the gravy - bland, the cake - not sweet enough and the coffee - too strong. We no longer serve bread, soup, stuffing, turkey, gravy, cake or coffee at our gatherings. It seems the only things I make well are Cranberry Relish and Sweet Potatoes. I've included these recipes below. So, if you are a host/hostess this year and folks complain about what you serve, tell them about a friend of yours that doesn't serve to folks things they don't like. We are down to 2 dishes and 2 guests ; )

Cranberry Relish:
Boil 3/4 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 jar Sorrell Ridge peach, all-fruit jelly, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 3 cups fresh cranberries and 1/2 cup golden raisins. Boil until cranberries "pop" and then mash with a potato masher. Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup chopped pecans. Serve hot or cold. Will keep in refrigerator for 2 weeks.

Sweet Potatoes:
Cook, peel and slice 6-8 sweet potatoes. Arrange in buttered 13x9" serving dish. Melt together 5 Tbls. butter, 1 jar Sorrell Ridge peach or apricot, all-fruit jelly, 1 tsp. salt and 1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Pour over sweet potatoes and bake in 375 degree oven until bubbly. Serve hot.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Operation Joy

These items will be joyfully placed in Christmas wrapped shoe boxes along with a message of love, hope and the good news of Jesus Christ. Every member of our family will write letters and attach pictures of themselves and our puppy, Bart. We will gather around the shoe boxes and bow our heads and praise God for the work He will do in the lives of the children who receive these boxes. We will ask that Operation Christmas Child and Samaritan's Purse be richly blessed as they deliver the Gospel to children all over the world. Finally, we will pray that the child who opens our boxes will read our letters, look at our pictures and write us a note back with the self-address-stamped envelope we include. We have had the joy of receiving letters from children in Russia and Romania. We have had the joy of watching our children use their own money to buy gifts. We have had the joy of knowing we gave even when it meant we would have less. We have had the joy of sharing our love for Christ with children who may have never heard the good news. But mostly, we have the joy of knowing Jesus Christ as our saviour. We have the joy of being the hands that serve. Truly, this is Operation Joy.

I'm Not SAD

It's beautiful outside today in New Jersey. It's just about 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Most of the leaves have fallen so there is nothing to stop the Sun from shining on you. I read that many people suffer with seasonal depression, called SAD. This is from a lack of sunshine and the many benefits the Sun provides. With shortened days and less UV rays, our bodies can react in a negative way. This article said that if you wanted to soak up enough sunshine to avoid seasonal depression and to obtain the right amount of Vitamin D, you need to expose 70% of your body to the Sun for 20 twenty minutes a day. Since I'm in favor of obtaining Vitamin D naturally and not a fan of depression I decided to take a walk today . . . in my bathing suit . . . okay, not really . . . but I did walk with my face towards the Sun. What this article failed to mention was that exposing 70% of your body to the Sun each day may have the opposite affect on nosey neighbors and neighborhood children. Plus, if I had to look at myself in a bathing suit every day, all winter, I may become suicidal . . . okay, not really . . . but SAD wouldn't cover my feelings. However, have you ever noticed how darn happy those folks in the Polar Bear Club are?

You Light Up My Life

I walk Bart everyday. I try to walk him in the late morning when the Sun is high in the sky. Today, however, I missed walking him in the daylight. It seems that added to my motherly duties is delivering cell phone parts to a forgetful college student and as long as I was meeting said college student, I might as well buy her and her quirky goat boy lunch. There went my daylight. It was a nice lunch except for the lady bugs, but now I digress. So, I had to walk Bart this evening, after dark. I grabbed a flashlight and went on my merry way. There is a beautiful, bright moon out but it is hidden by clouds and thus very dark. Our neighborhood is not well lit so it was essential that I lighted my path with the flashlight, lest I risk falling flat on my face. Here is the thing, that small circle of light needed to be directly in front of me the whole time. If I lit the path on my right or my left or behind me or too far ahead of me it didn't do me a bit of good. The light needed to be at the spot where my foot would fall next. It didn't matter what was next to me or behind me or way ahead of me, what mattered was the next step. Do you smell an analogy? God is my light and He is where my foot will hit the pavement. He wants me to focus on Him and the path that is directly in front of me, lest I risk falling flat on my face. God is present, directly in front of me, lighting only what I need to see next. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 119:105