I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  Mine was great.  It was filled with getting some needed tasks done, spending time together as a family, worshiping our great God at our church, serving together by packing Gospel DVD’s to be given out at the World Cup this summer, and enjoying fellowship with dear friends.  

We also enjoyed some good food this weekend.  I made a roast chicken for Sunday dinner – our favorite!  Earlier last week, however, I made one of our favorite types of meals – Mexican food.  I’ve shared other enchilada recipes, but the one I’m sharing today is my very favorite and I’ve been making it for years!  It is a great do-ahead dish.  You can make it the day before and slide it into the fridge until you’re ready to bake it, or you could put it in the freezer for later use.  

It only has a couple of steps and has a great payoff!  The sauce is so yummy to scoop up with tortilla chips while you enjoy the meal!  If your family likes Mexican, you need to make this…soon!

You make the sauce…

Brown the meat…

Then fill the tortillas, roll and place into baking dish…

Beef Enchiladas

Sauce:
1 medium onion, minced.
2 Tbl oil
2 Tbl flour
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 4 oz. can chopped, mild green chilies
2 cups canned tomatoes, drained and chopped

Filling:
1 lb ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
12 tortillas
2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Saute Onion in oil until soft.  Stir in flour and cook for 1 minutes.  Add broth and garlic powder, cook until thickened.  Add chilies and tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes.
Brown meat in large skillet with onion.  Drain fat.  Add vinegar, chili powder, and salt.

Dip each tortilla in sauce to soften it.  Place a large spoonful of meat, a little cheese and a spoonful of sauce in each.  Roll up.  Place in baking dish, seam side down and repeat with remaining tortillas.  Pour remaining sauce over all, top with cup of grated cheese and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes.  Serve with toppings, lettuce, sour cream, and Guacamole and tortilla chips.

This freezes nicely!

What has been cooking in your kitchen?

With love from my country kitchen,

Though we had SNOW this week, I’m still thinking about springtime!  I know it’s just around the corner.  With the spring weather come birds that have been wintering elsewhere (smart little guys!).  I’m hoping to lure some of them to the tree near the window that’s beside my desk.

When I saw this simple little bird feeder, I knew I wanted to make one – first because it’s just so stinking cute!  Then I really would like to see some birds coming for some seed near my seat at the window!  I hope it will do the trick, but even if it doesn’t, this little craft was fun to make and will be cute in the tree out back.

Cut a piece of fabric to fit a clean can…

Put fabric glue or decoupage glue on can.

Roll fabric onto can and glue.

Add lettering – stenciled letters or craft letters, a Popsicle stick and twine to hang it…

 Refresh yourself and any birds that may be in your area with this cute little bird feeder!

I hope Sunday finds you in a Bible preaching church!

Be refreshed,

Have you ever gotten to pick fruit?  Apples, strawberries, peaches, blackberries – when they’re ripe, they’re ready to be snatched off the limb or vine.  Most of the time I’ve picked fruit, it wasn’t to my credit – I just came by at the right time – when the fruit was ready!

Last night I happened by at another fruit-picking time.  You see, I had the blessing of going to church. That in itself was good, but that wasn’t the fruit.  After the service was over, I walked into the sanctuary after serving in another part of the building, and my husband told me he had a visitor he’d like me to meet.  I walked towards the front of the auditorium where “Kim” (not really her name) was seated.  Kim had come to church because she was carrying a heavy burden of a physical illness.  As we chatted, and she told me she works at the grocery store I patronize, she said that her co-workers noticed that she wasn’t happy like she normally was.  “What’s going on in your world?” I asked her.  She shared with me the fright of her physical situation.  “What do you do to handle times like this?” was my next question.  She told me.  I asked her if she had an assurance that she’d go to heaven.  When she said, “yes” I asked what she was basing that on.  “There has to be an angel watching over me after all I’ve gone through in my life.  I feel like I would go there.”  Her answers were her feelings and hopes – nothing backed up with the Bible.  My last question was, “If you were believing something that wasn’t true, would you want someone to tell you?”  With solemnity, she nodded her head.  I asked her permission to take the Bible and show her what God says about heaven, hell, and eternal life.  We opened the Scriptures and she read out loud:

• “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
• “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
• “In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again'” (John 3:3).
• “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'” (John 14:6).
• “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame'” (Romans 10:9-11).

Kim’s heart was ready to hear the Gospel. She was “fruit,” ready to be picked! She willingly understood her need for a Savior and was truly joyous at finally  hearing the truth!    When she prayed to receive Christ, she said, “Lord, people have been telling me all kinds of other things – that there’s some good in all of us, that if I won’t focus on hell I won’t go there, but I’ve been afraid, and I am now confessing with my mouth to be saved!”  Hallelujah!  She trusted Christ as her Savior!

Showing someone how to be saved is the best thing in this world to do!!!!  I can take no credit for it – all I did was show up in the place where the fruit was ready to be picked.  Am I ever glad I was in church so I didn’t end up with an empty basket!

Let me ask you a few questions:

What’s more fun than a shower?  A wedding or baby shower is just a special occasion and deserves some extra special touches.  A bride or a new mommy needs a little pampering and doting on!  We had fun getting ready for Alli’s shower last weekend.  I got to help with the decorations (a favorite hobby!).  I got some good inspiration from Pinterest, of course!  Here are some shots of the what we put together…

Rather than using a lattice background that we typically use at church, I thought we’d go with something unique.  I used about 1 1/2 rolls of each color of crepe paper, making this background cost under $10 with the balloons.

The gym walls are carpeted, so it was easy to staple the crepe paper streamers into place.  I did 11 streamers in the middle (white) section, then 10 of the yellow and silver on either side.  It made the background about 9 feet wide.  Creating a header with the balloons covered the top of the paper, so it doesn’t matter if they’re not perfectly straight!  The balloons were blown up ( we were dizzy headed after that!), then tied into groups of three, and stapled into place.

The chalkboard was part of my gift to Alli.  It was an old picture that was faded and dated.  I painted it with a few coats of chalkboard paint.  The brown frame was sanded, then painted with acrylic paints.

 These block were also painted with chalkboard paint, so the words can be changed to say whatever the bride would like – “Welcome to our home!”  “Happy Resurrection Day!” or “Merry Christmas!”

Liza had to send her regrets that she couldn’t make it to the shower, but she did enjoy the decorations while she could!

Last weekend was a lovely event – Alli’s wedding shower at our church.  Her sister is going to be her matron of honor, so she helped with some of the planning and orchestrating of this lovely event.  In lieu of a devotional, she wrote to ladies beforehand and asked them for advice that they would want to share with Alli regarding marriage.  There was much wisdom and godly advice written and tucked away inside a notebook, for Alli’s keeping.

The whole project was a secret from me so as to be a surprise.  I loved it.  I was given the encouragement to add my advice to the notebook in the days following the shower.  Wow.  To sit and ponder what brief advice I’d give to a new bride is a little mind boggling.  I can’t write a book; this is to be a page!  Then I thought back to a proverb I had read just last week –

A “good thing?”  That’s what the Scripture says!  That doesn’t mean we’re just an object, but it indicates that how we respond as a wife is to be a good thing to our husband. The way we treat him, love him and speak to him is to be a good thing.  He might even have the response, “Wow!  It’s a good thing the Lord brought her into my life!  Where would I be without her?”

I think it’s essential, too, to see that it doesn’t say, “A wife who turns her husband into a good thing obtains favor of the Lord”!  You and I, as wives, are to focus more on being the best wife, rather than having the best husband.  If I focus on my attitudes, words and actions then I can be a good thing.  If I’m more concerned about how I can bless my husband than how he can be a blessing to me, I’m a good thing!  If I treat him the way I would want to be treated, goodness is the name of my game!

So, Alli, my advice to you is, “Be a good thing” to Andrew.  Focus on being the best wife, rather than having the best husband.  The cool thing about that is, the latter is usually always the result of the former!

May others say of each of us that are married, “You’re his wife?  Wow!  What  a good thing!”

With love,