January finds us celebrating three birthdays. My mother-in-law’s was last week and we celebrated by making her a special dinner at our home. I had a new cookbook with some great recipes by Ina Garten (a favorite of mine!) and I was anxious to try out a few new recipes! We set the table with the china and crystal…

Then with the help of my Family Consumer Science major (and lovely daughter), we set to work preparing the meal. Allison tried a new recipe for Vanilla Bean Cheesecake that she found in my Cooking Light Cookbook. Oh, my! This was so yummy!

A couple changes she made were to double the crust. One recipe of the crust just wasn’t enough to bring up the sides of the spring form pan. She used blueberries in the topping and left out the port. We found vanilla beans at the health food store. The difference that some special ingredient like that makes is incredible. You could see the specks of vanilla in the cake. Mmmmmmmmm!

Lettuce Wedge with Ranch was a nice change from a tossed salad.

Couscous with pine nuts – so delicious and another welcomed change from rice or potatoes.
I made half the recipe and it was more than enough for 4.

This cooks up in 10 minutes. I sauteed onions first then added the couscous.

Roasted Butternut Squash
My recipe also called for 1 tbl of thyme. This added a nice flavor in the squash.

Here’s the birthday honoree’ with her birthday cheesecake.

Lemon Chicken Breasts

1/4 cup olive oil

3 Tbl minced garlic

1/3 cup chicken broth

1 tbl grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves

salt, pepper

4 boneless chicken breasts, skin on

1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add the garlic, and cook for just 1 minute but don’t allow the garlic to turn brown. Off the heat, add the chicken broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, and 1 tsp salt and pour into a 9 x 12 inch baking dish.

Pat the chicken breasts dry and place them skin side up over the sauce. Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle them liberally with salt and pepper. Cut the lemon in 8 wedges and tuck it among the pieces of chicken.

Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breasts, until the chicken is done and the skin is lightly browned. If the chicken isn’t browned enough, put it under the broiler for 2 minutes. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot with the pan juices.

We had fun trying these new recipes. The best part was tasting them! If you try them, I think you’ll think so too! By the way, though this wasn’t a Sunday dinner as I usually post here, everything but the Butternut Squash would be very doable ahead of time for Sunday. I’d bake the chicken very low while at church. If the onions were sauteed beforehand for the couscous it would be done very quickly once you returned home. This would be a great menu for a Sunday to make dinner at home a special one!

Happy Cooking!

I’m a pretty structured person who needs routine. Life really flows easier with one, don’t you think? I’m not talking about a whistle-blowing schedule, but a regular flow of how a day goes. Especially with a family living together in a household, routine will help everyone know what’s going to happen and when.

Morning routine involves getting the coffee going, feeding the kitty, pouring the coffee into mugs, then heading to my Quiet place for devotions. I don’t make the bed, throw in laundry or empty the dishwasher until I’ve spent time with the Lord. Why not? First of all, I know that I need the Word of God to direct me. I need the Lord to direct my steps and guide my hours and my day. I also realize that one task leads to another. If I get started emptying the dishwasher and notice fingerprints on the microwave, I get out the glass cleaner and remove the smudges, then notice that a new towel needs to be hung on the rack. I get out the towel and straighten the linen drawer and then …well, you see where that’s headed!

After devotions, I make breakfast, clean up the kitchen, then get myself ready for the day. Then I start on the household tasks of laundry, vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms, etc.

After lunchtime I try to make sure that something is started for supper. I set the meat out to thaw, prepare potatoes for baking, cut up vegetables for a salad or begin making the bread. Even if it’s a meal that can’t be cooking in the crock pot, I feel a step ahead if I do a little prep after lunch.

Suppertime should be as close to the same time of day as possible. If everyone knows supper’s at 5:30, they can plan their schedule around that. Every family needs that time to connect and be a family.

After supper is an especially important time to have a routine if you have young children. Things should begin to wind down after the meal. Baths are given, books are read to quiet them, family devotions are shared together and prayers said. Then have a good routine of tucking in your children. I was blessed to have a husband that took on this responsibility with our girls. Each night he would read to them (the Mandy series was their favorite!), then they would pray and he would tuck them in. A regular routine makes the child feel safe and secure.

Another great routine is the after the kids are in bed. This should be time for Mom and Dad to spend together. This was often our date time when we had no one and no money for babysitters!

Then before you go to bed prepare the coffee maker so it’s ready to turn on in the morning. Set out breakfast cereals and the muffins, the bowls and napkins. Make sure book bags and lunches are packed and outfits are ironed and ready. Take a swift walk around the house and pick up misplaced items so that when you wake up in the morning you’re greeted with a neat house. It’ll make you happy to get up!

What routines do you follow to make your day run smoother?

With love,

In Sunday school recently I asked my little ones to draw a picture of something they needed God to help them with. Are they afraid of the dark? Do they have a hard time obeying or telling the truth? Do storms frighten them? A few children had a hard time coming up with something. One even said, “I don’t need ANY help!” No one wants to admit their weakness, but you know, the truth is we should all understand how much we need God.

I need Him to help me:
be kind with my words, use my time wisely, think right, discipline my life, convict me of my sin, love my husband more than myself, serve others, not have a critical attitude, share the Gospel, use my resources wisely, to be used of Him…

Do you admit your own need for the Lord every single day? Too often we sit and listen to a message, or we read a devotional (like this one) and we say, “That’s not me. I’m fine, but so-and-so really needs to hear that!” We should be keenly aware how weak we are in our own strength.

Not only do we need to admit our need for the Lord, but we also need to voice it. In prayer, we need to cry out to the Lord for His help. Then, I think it would also be helpful to share our need for Him with our family. Your little ones should hear their mommy saying, “I need the Lord to help me with all the laundry that needs to be washed today. God needs to help me be more patient, and so on.” When they hear you admit your need, they will more readily understand their own. If they aren’t yet saved, they will also see their sin more easily and will come sooner to the realization that they need a Savior! Isn’t that our heart’s greatest longing for them? This brings us to another need – we need God to do a work in our children’s hearts!

I need Thee, Oh, I need Thee.
Every hour I need Thee.
Oh bless me now my Savior,
I come to Thee.

What is your need for God today? Admit it then voice it.

With love,

We love a bowl of hot oatmeal on a winter morning, but here’s a nice change from a regular old bowl of oats – Easy Granola. This recipe came from Real Simple Magazine and is really good and suits its name in being oh-so-simple to make.

4 Cups old-fashioned rolled oats (though I only had quick-cooking and it was fine!)
1 cup sliced almonds or chopped pecans
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 shelled sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pure maple syrup (I used the regular pancake syrup that’s not as “pure”)
2 Tbl canola oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup dried fruit (such as cherries, cranberries, raisins, or currants)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss all ingredients.

Bake, tossing once, half way through baking, until golden and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool. The granola will keep in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 3 weeks – if it lasts that long! With a little milk poured over it, this is a hearty cereal and one that’s good for you too!

Surprised while burgling a house in Antwerp, Belgium, a thief fled out the back door, clambered over a nine-foot wall, dropped down the other side, and found himself in the city prison.* Now, there’s someone who got just what they deserved! We all feel a little better when we see justice done, don’t we? Seeing someone get their comeuppance makes us feel like justice is being well-served.

Yesterday I read Genesis 28 where Jacob leaves his mother and father and heads to his Uncle Laban’s to find a wife. As he makes his journey, he stops to rest, and while sleeping, he has an incredible dream where angels are ascending and descending a ladder to heaven. God spoke to Jacob in this dream and reminds him of the promises to bless him and his family, and He also reminded Jacob that He would be with him. Whoa! Isn’t this Jacob the one who had just lied six times to his father and blasphemed God? Shouldn’t the Lord be issuing a warning or dishing out some sort of punishment instead? It seems so, but then, is God acting out of His character in speaking to Jacob in such a way? Oh no. Here we see God’s mercy, love, patience, and compassion. Jacob will reap the consequences for what he’s done, as we all do, but just as that ladder extended from heaven to earth, so is God’s mercy extended to us!

I was so thrilled to read how God responded to Jacob, because I realized that this is exactly how God works in my life. He allows His precious Spirit to convict me before I get too far away. He reminds me of God’s great love for me, and draws me back to Himself.

At the end of the chapter Jacob says, “If (since) God is with me and will do all this for me, the Lord shall be my God!” God is at work in each of His children’s lives in the same way He worked in Jacob’s life, and He desires that our response be the same as Jacob’s – “You, Lord, will be my God too!”

Are you drawing near to Him by confessing and forsaking your sin? He loves you, Friend. See the ladder? His mercy is extended to you!

With love,