Playing Chopped

Have you ever watched the Food Network show called Chopped?  Every once in awhile I feel like I am playing the game while trying to make supper.  When the cupboards get low and the bank account empty, I am at my most resourceful.  Sometimes the meals are edible and sometimes not so much.  Mike and Lainey seem to like these impromptu dishes, but Moriah is not quite old enough to be so adventurous despite her adoration of the Food Network.

Tonight's meal was my newest version of "Pollo con Fruta" (which means chicken with fruit).  I say newest because I only make this when we have frozen chicken and rice, but little else.  Tonight's version used a bag of frozen chicken breasts and GV brand chicken fried rice.  I pan seared the chicken (cut into strips) with a little chili powder, red pepper flakes, basil, kosher salt, Mrs. Dash Poultry seasoning, and minced onion (just a little).  I then transferred the chicken to a baking sheet in the oven at 325 degrees to finish cooking while I deglazed the pan with about a cup of hot water.  I added grape-cranberry juice, honey, balsamic vinegar (a new ingredient for me) and a bag of dried mixed berries (blueberries, cherries, and cranberries), oh, and one packet of McDonald's sweet and sour sauce.  I let this simmer for about 20 minutes while I made the rice (to which I added about two cups of frozen peas just before serving).  I served this by spooning the sauce over the chicken on the plates.

It was delicious, though a bit spicy.  Next time I will probably leave out the red pepper flakes and substitute Mrs.Dash Southwest Chipotle for the chili powder, if I have it on hand.  In the past I have used quite a bit more sweet and sour sauce instead of the honey.  I have also used sparkling berry juice instead of the grape-cranberry juice, and raisins instead of the mixed dried berries  I had none of those things tonight. I really enjoyed the addition of the balsamic vinegar.  Our WalMart is carrying it now including a GV version that tastes pretty good to me.

I have no idea if anyone else makes a dish like this.  I doubt I have reinvented the wheel.  I just know I like it.

Oh yeah, Lainey wants to try the sauce on her ice cream for dessert.  She is tasting it now.  The verdict is....yummy, according to Lainey.  Now I have to try it.  ......................................................

To be honest, I could barely taste the sauce over the chocolate...........chocolate............ yum.

After Christmas

We got through Christmas just fine. I don't know that we started any new traditions, but we enjoyed it. It was peaceful. After thoroughly enjoying Winterlude on Sunday evening we were finally ready to slow down and enjoy the season. Winterlude is a blessed tradition put on by our music staff every year. All three of our music pastors are brilliant keyboardists, so they ask some of our other talented keyboardists to join them in a Christmas piano concert. It is lovely and, like I said, peaceful.

We spent Christmas Eve going to our church's vesper service, delivering blessings baskets, and with some dear friends who invited us over. We had been told about the vesper service every year, but we were never in town to attend. It was short, but quite sweet. We sang Christmas hymns followed by Pastor Jimmy having all of the children (and quite a few parents and teenagers) come up and sit on the platform around him. He told the real Christmas story (as opposed to that Hollywood movie) with the help of one of the "shepherds". The platform was overflowing from end to end. Moriah managed to get fairly close considering the crowd. Afterward the children sang another carol. Then they all descended on the front pews like a swarm of ravenous wolves to collect their Christmas candy. Okay, ravenous wolves is a bit of an exaggeration, but I am trying not to bore you.

After the service we picked up our blessings basket from the gym to deliver to the Mountain Gap Fire Department. It is a long standing tradition of our church to collect cookies from church members, add them to baskets (actually large plastic deli trays) along with some other goodies, and have the church members deliver them on Christmas Eve to those community service people who have to work on Christmas Eve so that we all can enjoy the holidays (i.e. police and fire departments, hospitals and nursing homes). This was our first time to participate. We accompanied some friends on their delivery to a local nursing home and then they joined us in our delivery. We even sang to the men at the fire department.

Then we were off to our friends home for a lovely Christmas Eve dinner and sweet fellowship. Before we sat down to dinner we shared in their families tradition of lighting the Advent candles. This is not something that I grew up with, but was very nice just the same. Dear Mendy makes a delicious venison steak I might add. Her cranberry salad reminded me of my mom's, yum. The best part was just sitting around talking in her living room while the men enjoyed their new electronic entertainment devices and the girls painted their nails over and over. Before we knew it, it was nearly midnight.

Christmas morning we tried to make as much like my mom and dad does it as possible considering that they could not be with us (Dad just had hip surgery and could not travel well). I made Mom's absolutely fabulous egg casserole and frozen fruit cups (THE best thing for cleansing your palette after eggs, cheese and sausage) the night before so all Lainey had to do was pop the casserole in the oven after she woke up. When it was almost done she woke us up and we all gathered in the living room so the girls could open their stockings, including Grandma's homemade ornaments. Mike even had a couple of surprises in his. Then we ate breakfast, followed by reading the Christmas story out of Luke 2. If there was no other Christmas tradition that we repeated this would be the one I would have to keep. I refuse to make Christmas about Santa and the gifts. It is only after we have spent time in God's Word that we allow the gifts to be opened.

When present time arrived we did not allow our girls to just descend on the tree like locusts. Our present time is done in an orderly fashion with each person opening one gift at a time while all the others pay attention. We hope that our children will then understand that the real joy is in the giving of gifts to others and not in the "getting." For instance, Lainey spent a long time knitting a jacket and scarf for Moriah's teddy bear. As pictured below I think Moriah's reaction made the hard work very much worth it for Lainey. I had few surprises for them that they all seemed to enjoy very much. My big blessing had come the day before when my two last minute gifts had actually arrived at the front door. Mike knew about Lainey's and Lainey knew about Mike's so they both assumed that my sneaky answering of the door and locking myself in my room to wrap the gifts was about the gift for the other one. The surprise was so much fun!

Christmas is over, but New Year's is coming. What shall we do?????????

New Traditions?

Christmas at home is a new adventure for us. In 16 years of marriage we have never spent Christmas by ourselves in our own home. Eleven years ago we spent it in our rental in Nicholasville, Kentucky, but our parents came to spend it with us. Lainey doesn't really remember it. Every other year we have either been at Mike's parent's home or at my parent's home on Christmas morning. A couple of days later we travel to the other home and do Christmas all over again. This year will be different.

It isn't that we don't want to go home for Christmas; we do. We love to see our families and frolic in the snow. Okay, frolic is not exactly what I do, but the girls try to get as much frolicking in as possible. Last year we had snow overload. It was wonderfully nostalgic of my childhood. Anyway, we don't get to go home this year because of Mike's job. He loves his promotion, but well, there is a cost called extra responsibility.

So what do we do with ourselves? That has been the question on my mind. We have no real traditions of our own. Last week I had the unique experience of trying to figure out what to cook for Christmas dinner. I have never even thought about it. Mike's family has a steak dinner with all the fixins. My family has a buffet at my sister's home with about every dish you can think of. Mom, brother and sister contribute and they are all great cooks.

Well, I took a break in writing to bake, make candy, make homemade pizza and watch Facing the Giants with my family. I guess those activities might make a good start at this new holiday experience for us....

First Blog

Well, I have thought about doing this for quite awhile, but I have never found the time to set it up. I doubt I will be very prolific, as I am too scatter-brained to remember to write in here. Besides, as a homeschooler, I am usually just swamped with all sorts of pressing needs and activities. For instance, right now it is three days before Christmas and we are still doing school. We are mostly done except in one subject for each of the girls. Best laid plans....