Traditions?

I honestly cannot remember any Easter traditions that my family did when I was growing up except for going to church service.  I do miss the "old days" when we would have Easter Sunrise services at 6:00 in the morning! Those were glorious services....they were always held outside.  The grass was wet with the morning dew, the folding metal chairs were cold, everyone was wearing jeans and their jackets, deacons had their baseball caps on, the sun was just beginning to peek up over the horizon.  There is something special about singing "Up from the grave He arose" as the sun makes its appearance in the sky!

I don't remember if my mother fixed anything specific for Easter dinner.  Our standard special on Sunday was pot roast.  I loved my mother's pot roast.  I have NO idea how she could afford to do it.  It can be so expensive these days.  The only holiday I truly remember what she made was Thanksgiving.

I guess I was yearning for that tradition yesterday as impulsively I purchased a large turkey that was on sale at Wal-Mart.  I put it in the oven before we left for church this morning.  I made my mother's stuffing recipe, mashed potatoes, corn, peas and carrots and deviled eggs.  I completely forgot to do any gravy or bread.  Sort of an epic fail but it was good.

I rounded that hearty meal with a nice afternoon nap with my sweetie.  It was a good day overall.  And the most important thing to remember about today? The celebration of our Savior's Resurrection.

Just as I was getting ready to close this post I suddenly remembered one Easter tradition.  My mother would keep a big white box in the garage with Easter hats and gloves.  Each year she would pull that box out and dress up my sisters and I.  This is a picture I found of it.  I am not in this picture as it was taken before I or my baby brother was born.  The oldest woman in the picture is my grandmother, Cora.

Taco Bar!

Today my sweet husband asked for soft tacos for dinner.  I decided to go a little crazy and give my family LOTS of things to add to their soft tacos!

Here is the list of what was on the table:

1. Seasoned ground beef (of course!)
2.  Fried chicken strips cut into chunks (no I did not fry them, got them from Harris Teeter pre-made and on sale!!)
3.  Fresh baby spinach leaves
4. Fresh salsa (courtesy of Harris Teeter again!)
5. chopped jalapenos (with the seeds left in!)
6.  Chimichurri sauce (which I made from scratch)
7. chopped tomatoes
8. chopped green onions
9.  bean sprouts
10.  alfalfa sprouts
11. Daisy sour cream (love the dollop! :) )
12.  Mexican blend of four cheeses, shredded
13.  chopped cucumber
14. re-fried beans
15. flour tortillas
16. Goya Spanish rice
17. Newman's Own Salsa con Queso
18. Broccoli slaw with fresh lime juice squeezed on it

Whew!! That was a lot to get ready! Of course, I cheated a little bit by using a few pre-made things from Harris Teeter.

The chimichurri sauce I made tonight was the best one I have made yet.  I did not follow any specific recipe, I just threw a bunch of ingredients in the blender and then blended and tasted until it was good.  I used a lot of it on my tacos.  It was delicious.  I love a "make it anyway you want" kind of plate! It was nice to have the whole family at the table.  My husband and children are such blessings!!

Billieanne's Pizza Pockets!

My oldest daughter, Billieanne, posted a recipe titled "Pizza Balls" on my Facebook page a few days ago.  I did not really feel like making dinner so I decided to stop on the way home and pick up the ingredients for the recipe she posted and let HER make dinner.

The ingredients are pretty simple:

(3) cans of buttermilk biscuits (eight in each can)
(1) package of pepperoni slices
(1) block of cheese (we used mozzarella)
(1) can/jar of pizza sauce
(1) beaten egg
garlic powder, dried basil

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.  Slice the block of cheese into squares as shown.  Open biscuits.  Smash one biscuit flat, put on a piece of cheese with a piece of pepperoni on each side of it.

Weird camera angle! Sorry!  That is one flattened biscuit with one piece of cheese and two pieces of pepperoni.  Wrap biscuit around the cheese and seal.  Put the sealed side down into a pan sprayed lightly with cooking spray.

Repeat until you have used up all three cans of biscuits (or however many you choose to make!).  Brush the beaten egg on top of the biscuits.  Sprinkle afterwards with garlic powder and dried basil.  Bake for approximately 18 minutes and serve with warm pizza sauce.

This is what the end result looks like! It was SOOO YUMMY!!  Billieanne did a great job making it and we all did a great job eating it!  I think this was quite a successful recipe find and I am proud of Billieanne for making it!

Scratch cake and allergies....

It is Wednesday! Youth group meeting night at church.  I made it home from work with about 2 1/2 hours to spare before leaving for prayer service.  I figured that would give me just enough time to get a dessert going and to make dinner!

I don't buy pre-mix cake mixes very often.  It seems like a waste of money when making a cake from scratch is just as easy.  I dove into my trusty "The Good Housekeeping Cookbook" copyright 2001 by Hearst Communications Inc.  It is one that I like to use a lot. Page 652 is a recipe simply titled "Yellow Cake"  It only has 8 ingredients (not including the frosting).  I mixed this up and decided to add some green food coloring since it is March!

While I am whipping this together I am talking on the phone to a sweet friend whose kids also go to youth group with mine.  She asks me what kind of frosting.  Obviously, my immediate answer is "chocolate".  HMM...she says.  He can't have chocolate.  So I switch it up to straight vanilla buttercream.  And I am happy to do it.  I am already aware we have a peanut allergy in our youth group so I make sure I never send anything with peanut butter.  I was very happy to be able to accommodate this allergy as well.

I didn't really think about it too hard until I actually started making the frosting.  I have never made buttercream without a splash of milk in it.  I confess, I like to use milk when I make my buttercream.  Tonight was a first.  My buttercream was strictly butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and green food coloring.  I used extra butter and extra vanilla.  I think it turned out pretty good.  It must have, as the pan came home completely empty!  And of course, there was that text message from my daughter.  The young man told her to tell me "I was the best".  That made my whole evening!  I am glad I could do that because I don't ever want anyone to be left out on goodies!

Something has just occurred to me.  Typically I cannot bake when I am sad.  It always flops.  I am sad but the cake and frosting did not flop.  And I know why.  I was talking to my sweet friend.  She and I are both going through a deep valley and we are both learning to "be still".  Her love and concern carried me while I was trying to show care and concern for her and for my kids at youth group.  Is it any wonder the Bible tells us:

" not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another,and so much the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:25 NKJV


Makes sense to me! Thanks for your love sister! You know who you are!!  I really don't know how people make it without a church family? I know that I cannot.

Probably not a good idea for me to be in the kitchen right now...

I have a very close family member in the hospital.  I am so stressed that I am not even sure what I am going to type will be coherent or even spelled correctly. So I guess just bear with me.

The good thing that happend to day was that I got to spend the evening with my favorite three girls.  They belong to my associate pastor.  We try to get together at leaast every other month for a marathon of Barbie movies and chocolate.  It was fun.  We watched the new Barbie movie with the pink shoes.

I am home now.  I am sad.  I am probably hungry because I am trying to cope with my emotions.  I ate a croissant but it just did not do it.  So I did the following:

One box of Kraft mac and cheeese, noodles boiled till tender
one cup of frozen peas, thawed and heated in the microwave
3/4 cup of butter, in slices
1/4 cup of milk
Cheese packet from the Kraft mac and cheese box

I combined all of the above and then I ate it.  The only thing missing was the Spam in cubes.  I did not have any.

Sad + hungry equals gross.  I dropped a macaroni noodle on my bed somewhere.
I don't care.

Oh well, when I feel better I will go back to making something real and good.  Until then, oh well, icky food it is.

Another desperation dinner!

So it is Sunday and I did not do very much grocery shopping yet.  I had declared tonight to be "Family Night" and we were all going to watch the new mini-series on the History Channel called the "Bible".  I promised the family we would have dinner together in front of the TV while we watched it.

BIG PROBLEM.  I have not really been shopping yet.  I stood around in the kitchen and tried to figure out what in the world to do.  I had two extra large boxes of beef Rice-a roni.  I threw those in the pot to start that going.  I also had about a half a bag of frozen Italian meatballs in the fridge so I threw those in the microwave to heat up and chop up.  The meatballs (chopped) went into the rice-a-roni to cook.  Add a large portion of frozen peas in a separate pan with some butter and I found an unopened can (and NOT expired) can of cranberry sauce.

THIS WENT BEYOND DESPERATION INTO THE LAND OF TOTALLY WEIRD DINNER!

Yes, I went there.  I was too tired to shop today beyond getting the basics of milk, bread and toilet paper.  So I made the above dinner and surprisingly, everyone liked it.  There were not many left-overs.

The new series on History Channel was very good.

I am not sure I like the way it jumps and chooses some areas to cover while not covering others.  I mean, when you are used to Charleston Heston declaring "LET MY PEOPLE GO" it is kind of hard to watch another in its place.  I am glad we watched it as a family even if two of the kids gave me a little grief about it.

This is our house and we will serve the Lord.
Thank you God for all of these blessings!