Food for Thought

Saw this written about on another blog, they were doing it as a personal challenge, something to think about -

Mother Teresa’s Humility List

1. Speak as little as possible about yourself.
2. Keep busy with your own affairs and not those of others.
3. Avoid curiosity.
4. Do not interfere in the affairs of others.
5. Accept small irritations with good humor.
6. Do not dwell on the faults of others.
7. Accept censures even if unmerited.
8. Give in to the will of others.
9. Accept insults and injuries.
10. Accept contempt, being forgotten and disregarded.
11. Be courteous and delicate even when provoked by someone.
12. Do not seek to be admired and loved.
13. Do no protect yourself behind your own dignity.
14. Give in, in discussions, even when you are right.
15. Choose always the more difficult task.

Lemon Mustard Pork Chops

Lemon Mustard Pork Chops

I made these a few days ago, it wasn't bad, but it really didn't strike us as amazing. My husband doesn't like pork chops that much so I was hoping fixing them a different way would help them go over better, it didn't. He ate them and didn't complain, but gave me the 'meh' look when I asked him what he thought. Perhaps your family will like them better.

Lemon Mustard Pork Chops
Serves 4
Source: Taste of Home

4 boneless pork loin chops
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 tsp salt
Lemon wedges

Drizzle pork chops with lemon juice. Combine the parsley, mustard, garlic, lemon peel, rosemary, and salt; brush over both sides of chops.

Place pork on a greased broiler pan. Broil 3-4 inches from heat for 4-6 minutes on each side. Serve with lemon wedges.

Of course I adapted this since we don't use our oven. I did ours in a skillet and they came out fine. Paul thought it was too lemony, I thought it didn't have enough lemon, so who knows.

Crockpot Cabbage Rolls

When I first tried making cabbage rolls I just threw stuff together and it never turned out well, in fact my first attempt was more like cabbage casserole instead of cabbage rolls. So I started searching for a recipe and found this one and it is a hit! We have made this recipe several times and it is always good, the leftovers even freeze well.

I believe the trick to good cabbage rolls is using savoy cabbage, the leaves separate easily from the head and after they are steamed, they still maintain their shape and can easily be filled. Once we made the rolls with ground turkey and the rolls were very moist and tasty, much better than made with ground beef. The best part of the recipe is the sauce, it is what makes the dish perfect.

Cabbage Rolls

• 12 leaves cabbage - I recommend using savoy cabbage
  
• 1 cup cooked white rice
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 1 pound extra-lean ground beef or turkey
  
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil cabbage leaves 2 minutes; drain.
2. In large bowl, combine 1 cup cooked rice, egg, milk, onion, ground beef, salt, and pepper. Place about 1/4 cup of meat mixture in center of each cabbage leaf, and roll up, tucking in ends. Place rolls in slow cooker.
3. In a small bowl, mix together tomato sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over cabbage rolls.
4. Cover, and cook on Low 8 to 9 hours.

Recipe from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cabbage-Rolls-II/Detail.aspx

Cheesy Acorn Squash

Another new vegetable we've tried recently was acorn squash. While I love squash and zucchini, I've never really tried anything beyond the basic green zucchini and yellow summer squash. So when we received an acorn squash in our food co-op box I was very excited. Hitting allrecipes for inspiration, I came upon Cheesy Acorn Squash.

This was so good, we will be having this dish again tonight for dinner. It was hilarious when I went to the store to purchase more acorn squash, the cashier picked up the squash and asked what it was, I told him and said "oh it's so good too" to which he replied, "oh you eat it? I thought it was a Halloween decoration." On the way home my husband was laughing over this and asking if the cashier really thought we were decorating for Halloween in the middle of July.

Here is my version:

Cheesy Acorn Squash

1 acorn squash, halved and seeded
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 c onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
6 slices bacon, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
1 Tbsp parsley, chopped
1/2 c shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Place squash cut side down in a glass dish. Cook in microwave for 20 minutes on HIGH, until almost tender.
3. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and onion and garlic; saute until transparent. Stir in bacon; cook 2 to 3 minutes more or until cooked. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parsley. Divide mixture in half, spoon into the squash.
4. Cook 15 minutes in the preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven. Sprinkle with cheese and put back in the oven until the cheese bubbles.

Enjoy!

Adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cheesy-Acorn-Squash/Detail.aspx

Mushrooms in White Wine Sauce

Since we have signed up for our delivery of local fruits and veggies, we have taken advantage of trying some new vegetables we would normally never purchase at the store. This week we received a huge portabello mushroom in our box. Now, I've never been a huge fan of mushrooms, they always seem rubbery to me, so I set it aside and ignored it for a few days.

Yesterday I knew I had to do something with it or it was going to go bad, so I pulled out some steaks and decided to make the husband sauteed mushrooms and onions to go on his steak. I went to my favorite site allrecipes and searched for a recipe to try. Mushrooms in White wine sauce sounded like a perfect one to try. I tweaked their recipe a little and Paul loved it. He encouraged me to try a bite and WOW, it was so good, I could actually learn to love mushrooms after this meal.

Mushrooms in White Wine Sauce

Olive oil, just enough to coat skillet
1/3 c chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
1/2 c water
1/4 c white wine
1 tsp chicken bouillon granules
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in onions and garlic, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in mushrooms, 1/2 cup water, wine, chicken bouillon and butter. Season with basil, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, reduce liquid by half.'

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Mushrooms-in-White-Wine-Sauce/Detail.aspx

A Stop in the Road

Thinking consumes a lot of my time, I am even more convinced that I am a person that must remain busy, and with a light load of school this summer, it leaves time for thinking, but perhaps that isn't a bad thing. I keep thinking of my past post about passion, and I've come to the conclusion that I don't need something to be passionate about, I need to stop and enjoy. Enjoy my life at this moment, enjoy the bright sunshine, the loud summer storms, snuggling with my husband and sleeping in late on the weekend, enjoy learning to cook new recipes, getting frustrated with my quilting attempts, all the little parts of life. All these things are my passion, life is my passion. I don't need to have one thing, I have hundreds of things. However, another darker side of reality reminds me, we won't always have these good times, there will be periods of sadness and sorrow, but it's all balanced with periods of happiness, contentment and at times a stop in the road to just enjoy.

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing. ~Agatha Christie

In the Still of the Night

It was around midnight, I lay in bed wide awake, tired but not sleepy, a summer electrical storm was going on outside, lightening was flashing continuously intermixed with large crashes of thunder. It was fascinating and scary all at the same time. Lightening was striking all around the house, the electric was flickering on and off. Then suddenly the electric went entirely out, the only sound that could be heard was the thunder and the strikes of lightening. I lay there watching the lightening, when my husband rolled over put his arm around me and snuggled up close to me, he was sleeping soundly. In this still of the night his breathing and the storm were the only sounds I could hear, it was deathly silent, the soft breathing of my husband was comforting. I realized how glad I was he was there with me, normally such a storm, no electricity and him far away at work would cause me worry and fear, but tonight was different, I felt safe. Then it hit me, why should I worry, I am never really alone, God is always there with me. I knew that while I lay safe in my husband's arms, God's arms were all around both of us, protecting us, and He would be the one staying up watching the storm and listening to us breathing.

Psalms 91
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you make the Most High your dwelling - even the Lord, who is my refuge - then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
"Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."

Passion

Passion, how do you find your passion in life. I need something to be passionate about, something that spices up this life. One would think that working fulltime, having a wonderful husband and embarking on a new career would be enough for anyone, but for some reason it just isn't. I want something that causes me to leap out of bed with excitement, not the normal throw the blanket over my head and sigh. Perhaps it's a dream, perhaps that really doesn't exist and we just need to learn to be satisfied with how our life is or perhaps, I just don't have enough to do at the moment and the idleness leaves my brain time to wander.

Stocking Back Up

We always try to keep the house stocked with food and basic necessities, however after the crazy last semester of school we were pretty low on everything. Yesterday, I started stocking back up and working on filling up the freezer for the upcoming semester of school. Paul will do all the cooking (and all the other household duties) again in the fall, so I try to make up a bunch of meals that are easy and quick to make.

Friday we put together 3 large containers of homemade vegetable soup. If you aren't making your own vegetable soup, you should start, it's so easy to do and tastes wonderful. We keep a tupperware container in the freezer and after every meal any left over beef (preferably roast) and veggies goes into the container, once the container gets full, it's time to start thinking about making some soup. It worked out perfectly this week that we were going to have company over for dinner so I made a huge pot roast with tons of potatoes and carrots, at the last minute though they had to cancel, so we were left with a huge amount of leftover. We took the leftover pot roast, shredded the beef, took broth, vegetables and the soup bucket containers (we had 2) and dumped them all in the large soup pot. Add a can of tomato juice and in a few hours you have great homemade vegetable soup. Sometimes if I don't have enough vegetables in my soup bucket and I'll add them when I make this soup, like this time I added corn. One of the things I love about this soup is it reminds me of my mother, growing up every weekend usually starting around October she would make a big pot of homemade soup, she rotated between vegetable, chili and potato. I also love the fact that this is a cheap meal, it saves food that otherwise would have been thrown out, every penny saved helps.

My next task this weekend was chicken. Kroger had an amazing sale on split chicken breasts ($1/lb). I didn't end up buying as much as I planned but I brought home about 12 pounds of chicken and Paul and I started de-boning the chicken. We had three piles, one the bones, another for the little pieces of meat that came off the bones and another for the breasts. Some of the pieces of breast were huge and we were able to split them into two servings. After we were done, I threw the bones into a pot, added onion, celery and carrots, filled the pot up with water and salted well and set it on the stove to simmer. While Paul was bagging up the chicken into serving size bags, I took the little pieces of meat and cooked them on the stove in some oil, salt and pepper. After everything was done we ended up with enough chicken for 20 meals and several gallons of delicious chicken broth.

It's wonderful to see the freezer starting to fill back up.

I mean them more today

I said these two years ago tomorrow and I still hold them close to my heart and my love for you grows each and everyday.

Our Vows:

Sarah, in the presence of God, and before our family and friends, I, Paul, with joy and in love, take you to be my wife, to be the mother of my children, and the companion of my days. I promise to fully share my life with you, through days of happiness or sadness, abundance or want. I pledge to you my unfailing love always.

Paul, in the presence of God, and before our family and friends, I, Sarah, with joy and in love, take you to be my husband, to be the father of my children, and the companion of my days. I promise to fully share my life with you, through days of happiness or sadness, abundance or want. I pledge to you my unfailing love always.

Ring Exchange

As a ring has no end, neither shall my love for you. I choose you to be my wife this day and forevermore. Take this ring, as a sign of my love and commitment.

As a ring has no end, neither shall my love for you. I choose you to be my husband this day and forevermore. Take this ring, as a sign of my love and commitment.

Thinking of Return

My husband suggested I return to blogging, perhaps I will, a lot has been on my mind lately and this is always a good place to journal and share.