Category: Family life

Dinner · entertaining · Family life · home · Home making · hospitality · main dish · Main entree · Make-Ahead · refreshment at home · Side dish

(L)Oven Monday – Successful Sunday Dinner Finale

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Today is the last post for Successful Sunday dinner.  I will continue to share my recipes and what I served at my house, but as far as the 1,2,3’s, we’re going to wrap it up and get you ready to dive into that great Sunday meal for your family!

Remember that if it’s your desire to make Sunday dinner special at your house, it’s going to take some intentional effort and planning. Here were the three crucial steps before getting the meal going:

  1. Ponder the needs –

  2. Plan the menu 

  3. Prepare ahead

  • Ponder the needs -Consider any allergies or health concerns, like diabetes.
  • Plan the menu around those needs, your time and budget.  Typically if I’m making a main dish or a bread that requires lots of time, I’ll make another part of the meal easier to prepare.
  • Prepare ahead by doing everything you can on Saturday (or before).  It will lessen your stress level!
    • Set the table
    • Chop all veggies
    • Marinate meat
    • Prepare the salad
    • Prepare the dessert
    • Get the side dishes started

Let me give you a little rundown on how my week may look when I’m hosting a typical Sunday dinner…

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Early in the week – 

Wednesday – 

  • Make Rolls and freeze
  • Check to see if tablecloth or napkins need ironing

Saturday – 

  • Prep chicken dish and  go ahead and bake it.  All it needs on Sunday is to be warmed up. I wouldn’t leave this dish in the oven during church – it would dry out.
  • Peel potatoes and place in water overnight
  • Cut up apples for salad and place in lemon juice/water mixture overnight
  • Make Vinaigrette for salad
  • Wash and slice strawberries
  • Make tea
  • Set table
  • Set out serving dishes

Sunday – Before church

  • Mix salad ingredients, except dressing
  • Put potatoes in crock pot, turn on high
  • Set rolls out to rise

Sunday – After church

  • Set out a light snack for guests, if needed
  • Warm chicken either in a large pan on the stove or in the microwave on a med setting.
  • Prep asparagus for roasting
  • Mash potatoes and keep warm
  • Bake rolls – Keep warm
  • Roast asparagus
  • Put into serving dishes

Enjoy the meal!!!

Serve dessert and then pray someone volunteers to help with the dishes!

I hope this series has helped you to see that you CAN make Sunday dinner something special and memorable.  Start out small and work your way into more complicated menus.  Do what you feel comfortable with and keep trying to improve your game plan.

 

Remember that the most important ingredient of any meal is THE PEOPLE!  Don’t make it about you and your inadequacies.  Make them feel welcome and important and they will love their time around your Sunday dinner table!

Is there an unanswered question that you have?  I’d be happy to address it!  Leave me a comment here and I promise to answer you!

Let’s eat!

Denise Signature 150 px

 

 

 

Family life · home · Motherhood · Parenting

Family Friday – The Price of Sparing the Rod

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When you bring a sweet little baby into your home, your last thoughts are about the time when you’ll need to correct them.  I mean, they’re so adorable and innocent when they’re little!  But those discipline days come sooner than you imagined, and you find yourself either taking up the rod and lovingly obeying Scripture, or you talk, reason, bribe and threaten until you’re sure someone will die in the process!

I can vividly remember one day with one of my daughters in which I learned a lesson the long, hard way.  She had been a “stinker” all day.  I had warned her and tried to use my words to correct her behavior  (using words as rods is just cruel!).  Late in the day I realized that I failed to obey God’s directives to take up the “rod,” and discipline her in love.  I pulled her to my lap and told her that what she was doing was sin, and that because she’d continued to disobey after my warning, I was going to have to give her a spanking because I loved her and didn’t want her to continue in her sin.  She bent over my lap and I administered the two or three swats with my little paddle.  She cried.  I cried.  I held her in my arms and we prayed that the Lord would help her obey.

Tears were wiped away and she merrily skipped on her way to continue her play.  She was so HAPPY!  Her attitude was completely transformed, as was our day!  It was as though she had been waiting for me to deal with her biblically to prove the amount of love I had for her.  

A parent who loves their child will discipline them as God disciplines us.  Over and out.  I had selfishly kept back from the training she needed.  But now, here she was, singing, playing, and happy after the loving rebuke.  She knew I loved her, and I had learned the lesson to give the correction when it was needed so we could both enjoy the child/parent relationship as God intended!

Do you find yourself frustrated as the parent of a young child?  Have you obeyed God’s Word and lovingly administered discipline?  It’s God’s way, and if used lovingly and consistently, will produce the results of leading a child to recognize their sin, and their need to repent – both to God and their parents.  Stop the frustration, and obey so your child can do the same!

Don’t lose heart; train your children with love and your relationship will be refreshed in unbelievable ways!

I read this article this week that was excellent.  I pray it will encourage you as a parent!

Lovingly,

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Family life · home · Marriage · Uncategorized

Strengthening Your Marriage During Stressful Times

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Their baby was born very critical. She required intensive care for months after her birth.  Days in the hospital were long and emotional for her parents, a young couple who had never gone through anything that rocked their world so hard.  They felt frightened, shaken to the core of their beings, and so very alone.

Alone?  They had each other!  Why would they feel alone?  Because during this time of emotional heartbreak, while each of their emotions were so raw, instead of pulling together, and talking and praying as a couple, they were isolating themselves and pulling away like opposing teams in a game of tug of war.  They became critical of the other’s response to the situation.  They bickered over little decisions they had to make regarding the baby.  They spent all their waking hours with the child, only somehow saving enough energy to make it back home for a few hours of sleep before returning to the NICU to start another day just like the previous one.  They wondered if their marriage would still be secure when their daughter was ready to be discharged.

The previous description is about no one I know; I made up the people and scenario.  But the fact is, this kind of thing happens to marriages all the time!  Hard things step into our lives, and, if we’re not careful, a death, a child’s rebellion, a financial set-back, a terminal illness, or any host of crisis’ can step in and destroy a home at a time when the couple needs one other the most!

During my mother-in-law’s illness a few years ago, we saw how the fatigue and separation, with one staying at the hospital and one sleeping at home, could wear on our emotions and our relationship.  There were a couple instances that wouldn’t have normally been so sensitive, but because of the weariness and stress, they seemed much bigger.  Since we knew this could be a long ordeal, we were, with the Lord’s help, trying to stay sensitive to the need to stay tender, current and in touch with the Lord and one another as we went through this journey.

Near 10-11 PM one night, we had a “date” in the hospital cafeteria.  All I wanted was dry Honey Nut Cheerios (my night time snack at home!), but it wasn’t about the food, it was about staying in touch with one another.  So much happened in a day, we needed time to talk, to catch up on, not only my mother-in-law’s condition, but also one another.

We had many offers from people who were willing to come and sit at the hospital so we can get out for a bit.  We planned dates during those days!  We had to remind ourselves of God’s sovereignty to care for things without our help.  She would be fine, and so would we.

Every marriage goes through many times like I’ve described. Here are some other tips to survive stressful times:

  • Be on the lookout for times when your marriage needs the protection of time away, even just an hour or so.  If there was a floor in the hospital for Marriage ICU, it would be full!
  • Let the Great Physician step in and give you the prescription your relationship needs.  Stop and pray together.  Take this stressful time to Him. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
  • More than others need you, you need time together.
  • Don’t cleave to your children, they will be fine with a sitter for a while.  Go out on a date.
  • Don’t cleave to the media! Turn the television off and reconnect.
  • Hold hands.
  • Look into your husband’s eyes.
  • Listen to him.

Cleave to him. Love him unconditionally…for the health of your marriage. It’s the only way you’ll be discharged from the Marriage intensive care unit!

With love

Family life · Gifts · Husband

Valentine’s Day On a Low Budget

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Valentine’s Day is coming up and you have little money to celebrate! What do you do?

All is not lost!  There are a ton of ideas to make the day special for you and your spouse!  Let me give you a few affordable suggestions:

  • Get a pad of sticky notes at the Dollar Tree.  On separate pages, write
    • attributes you love about  your spouse
    • a memory of special events/happenings in your relationship over the years
    •  clues to find a hidden gift (more on the gift below)
  • Put the notes
    • All over the inside of his car!
    • All over the house
    • Inside the shower
    • In his daily path –
      • inside his Bible
      • on the bathroom mirror
      • on his coffee cup
      • in his closet
      • in his shoes
      • on the computer screen
  • Give a loving gift
    • Fill a box with little things he loves
      • His favorite candy bar
      • A favorite pen
      • $5 gift card to favorite fast food or coffee place
      • A  favorite movie dvd (even checked out from the library!)
      • A favorite Bible verse printed out from the computer
      • The favorite cookie or brownie you make
      • A favorite picture of the two of you in an inexpensive frame
    • Get him a small journal where you can record your dates and what you do in the next year!
    • Go to a used book store and find a great book he’d love.
  • Dress up for an evening at home.
  • If you have children, make dinneritme a time for the family.  Set the table with red and white.  Add conversation hearts scattered on the tablecloth (yes, add a tablecloth), burn some candles or votives.  Serve salad first, then clear the dishes and serve the main course.  Dessert idea below.
  • Give the children little heart boxes of their own chocolates – if Whitman’s is too expensive, they have cute boxes at the Dollar Tree!
  • To make a heart shaped cake, mix up a box of cake mix and pour half in a round pan and half in a square pan.  After baking and cooling, cut the round cake in half.  Put the square cake on a platter so it looks like a diamond shape.  Put half of the round on the top right and the other on the top left – voila!  It’s a heart!  Cover with pink or white icing.
  • Give the children their dessert after supper.  Save yours and your husband’s for later.
  • After the kids are in bed, serve dessert by candlelight in your bedroom.  Serve it on your good dishes.  If you need to bring in a small table, do so.  Make it special!  Light candles in the room.  Turn on some soft music.
  • If you need a chocolate dessert idea, here’s a favorite of mine!

So, is there an idea here you think you could use?  I hope so!  I also hope you take these ideas and implement them into every day of your marriage!  Valentine’s Day isn’t the day to get caught up or to make up for what you should’ve been doing.  Make the day special, then keep it going all year!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Denise Signature 150 px
Dinner · Family life · hospitality · memories

(L)Oven Monday – Memories of Sunday Dinner

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The term “Sunday dinner” carries with it sweet memories of wonderful aromas and samplings of things like roast beef, gravy, Southern green beans, mashed potatoes, salad and rolls.  The meal was finished off with a special dessert – perhaps homemade pie or a layered cake.

In my mind’s eye we are seated at the dining room table, cloth napkins in the lap and beautiful dishes before us to hold the prepared feast. All this wasn’t to impress anyone – it was tradition, whether it was just family, or if guests were invited.

Sunday Dinner followed the morning worship service at church.  It was what happened after the gathering with believers for study, worship and the preaching of God’s Word.  We marched into the house after church, set down Bibles and purses, and  donned an apron over our Sunday clothes to finish the preparation necessary to get the meal on the table in a surprisingly short amount of time.

Because of the prep that had been done ahead of time, it wouldn’t be long before the call to dinner came.  The table had been set, the roast promptly put into the oven before leaving for church, the salad made the night before, and potatoes peeled and bobbing in the boiling water in the crock pot so they’d be ready to mash.  The dessert stood at attention under the cake dome and dessert plates stacked beside it, ready to hold the finale – to most, the best part of the anticipated meal!

In record time,  we’d set each filled bowl on the table, giving the meat platter the grandest place, like a bouquet of roses or a crystal chandelier in the middle of the table.  Those seated around the table held hands, and bowed their heads as they gratefully gave thanks – for not just the food before them, but for another opportunity to gather like this on Sunday, the first day of the week to worship at church, and now to share in this meal at home with all the warmth of fellowship, tradition and the best food on the planet.  It was time for “Sunday Dinner” and were thankful.

I wonder if you have memories of Sunday dinner like I do?  Did your family gather for a meal that was different from the rest of the week?  Recently my daughter was telling me that she’s finding it hard to do those Sunday dinners because of the time it involves.  It does take time, but once you gather some recipes that work well to make ahead of time, and learn some skills in starting your efforts early so there’s not even a ton of clean-up afterwards, you will be able to pull off Sunday dinner without spending the whole weekend in the kitchen.

Sunday dinner communicates to your family a desire to go above and beyond.  It gives that sense of family and belonging that I described earlier.  So why not learn and stretch yourself and go the distance at least a couple times a month for starters and make a fantastic meal and experience in your kitchen?  You’ll be making more than good food!

For some future Monday posts, I’m going to be sharing some recipes that are good for Sunday do-ahead meals.  They’ll be recipes that you won’t have to spend tons of time working on once you get home from church.  Please leave me comments here with any questions or problems you would have about making a meal like this.

  • What stumps you when you go to prepare a “Sunday Dinner?
  • What keeps you from making a home-cooked meal on Sunday?
  • Do you feel intimidated to invite people over on Sunday?
  • Do you feel confident about the how-to’s of a meal like this?
  • How could I encourage you?

I’m gathering some of my favorite Sunday dinner recipes and will have a list of entrees, sides, salads, and desserts that will be simple to make and serve to your family. I’ll also be sharing some TIPS that will make you feel confident to make Sunday Dinner a part of your weekly routine!

Let the comments/questions begin!

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