Finally! A Sunday dinner at home! We had the added joy of having our college daughter, Alli home for a quick visit. Also visiting were friends, Bruce, Ellen and Claire Countryman. I love it when my kitchen is full of people!

I don’t really do this on purpose, but because I LOVE to try new recipes, our guests are often eating something I’ve never made before. I found a recipe for Chicken Breasts stuffed with Avocado, lemon zest and Goat cheese and had to try it. I did do a little trial run on Saturday to see if it needed anything. Glad I did that. The result was that I made a sauce for the chicken. White meat tends to be dry (especially when it’s been in the oven all morning).

Menu

Sweet Potato Knots (from Cooking Light)
This was the first time I’d made them and they need a little something – maybe a little sugar to the dough. I made a honey butter and glazed them when warm, and that helped. Not so light anymore, I guess, but they tasted good!

I’ve shared this Apple Cake before. We love it. It’s one of those recipes you have to make in the fall! The leftover caramel sauce is good for dipping apple slices into the rest of the week.

This is so moist and yummy, yet the outside of the cake gets a little crunchy.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

 

3 oz. Goat cheese

2 1/2 tbl Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

2 tsp grated lemon rind

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 (6oz) jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

4 6 oz. skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Combine first six ingredients; stir well.

3. Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4 inch thickness. Top each breast half with 2 tbl cheese mixture, roll up jelly-roll fashion. tuck in sides, and secure each roll with wooden picks.

4. Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. (Here’s my adaptation – spray the chicken breasts with cooking spray and roll in Panko crumbs.) Add chicken to pan, and cook for 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Place in baking dish and bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until chicken is done.

For a Sunday dish, I did steps 1-3 on Saturday, then put in the oven Sunday morning before Sunday school at 275 degrees and covered it with foil. Here’s the sauce I made for it:

1/3 Cup Lemon Curd

1/4 -1/3 Cup Chicken Broth

Place in a sauce pan and stir with whisk until lemon curd melts.

Pour over chicken.

It’s getting “fallish” here, and I’m anxious to pull out more of my recipes that suit the season. Thank the Lord for His many provisions to have good meals here in our parsonage!

What’s been cooking in your kitchen recently?

With cups of love,
 

I’m back! I’ve been unusually absent from here, but we have had some days away where there was no connection to the Internet. While life goes on without blogging, I’ve missed sharing my heart and the things the Lord is doing in my life.

My husband and I had the privilege of speaking at Ambassador Baptist College this week. Every time we visit that campus we are so impressed by the sweet spirit of the students. They are gracious, polite, and they love God!

What a blessing it was for me to be able to address the wives of men preparing for the ministry. Those ladies and myself share a kinship – we are ministry wives! We have a unique and wonderful calling. I was delighted to be able to speak to them and encourage them about the blessing of being called “the minister’s wife.”

Yesterday morning while my husband addressed the men, I got to speak to about 80 young college women; a privilege I don’t take lightly. To be able to speak to them about “The Woman God Uses” was a challenge to my own heart. God does not use someone who thinks they have something to offer Him, He uses an unlikely person in unusual circumstances to accomplish unbelievable results for His glory! If anything was accomplished in the days we were at Ambassador, He gets the glory for it, for I surely have nothing to say without His enablement!

Has the Lord opened a door for you to serve Him in some way? Don’t be hesitant or afraid to say yes! He will equip you and sustain you to accomplish His will. The blessing from being a vessel He can use is beyond words. We were saved to serve. Are you serving faithfully and regularly? If not, ask God how He might want to use you in the days ahead.

Under His feathers,

A swollen, sore finger with what looks like osteoarthritis has plagued me for a couple of weeks. My shoulder and ankle are also whispering something in my ear. Yeah, you know what it is – age! Right, I did just have another birthday, so I guess my body is celebrating! It gives me comfort that I’m not in this alone! What little reminders do you have that you’re aging?

Last night I was lying in bed thinking about all these little things that have sprung up and I thought about how they are all reminders that this body is groaning to be replaced by an incorruptible body. That won’t happen with a bottle of Oil of Olay, that day will come when Christ returns.

I Corinthians 15:52, 53 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

The body we have now isn’t fit for eternity, but our new one will be! Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. No more need for Tylenol or icy hot!

Even more amazing is that our sinful desires will be gone forever as well! I Cor. 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. It will no longer be a struggle to do what’s right. There will be no more wrestling with my sinful flesh. What a day that will be! We will be like Christ!

So even on days when I’m dealing my little issues, it reminds me of a greater day that is coming and I say, “Thank you Lord, for my pain!”

Looking for His return,

P.S. Do you have the assurance that you will be with Christ for eternity? Trust in Him today, my Friend, for without Christ, eternity will be far worse suffering than anything we could experience here on this earth. Christ has paid for your sin-debt; all you need to do is receive Him as your Savior. I’m praying you will do just that today.

Yum! Yesterday’s Sunday dinner was a church-wide fellowship. Food doesn’t get much better than a church dinner in the south! However, getting a meal ready to take out the door with you when you leave for church can be a challenge.

This week I decided I was going to do everything I could by Friday. So I made mostly dishes that could easily be made ahead of time. Okay, this London Broil I did on Saturday, but the meat was in the fridge marinating since Friday night. Talk about delicious! I found this recipe on the Internet and am so glad I tried it!

Can you see in the picture below how juicy the meat was? It was also full of flavor from the marinade. I cooked it medium rare on the grill on Saturday evening and then just warmed it up before I left for church.

This is my broccoli salad recipe from Cooking Light that I shared with you here.

I also took a potato casserole for the meal. It is supposed to be made ahead of time, so that was a perfect side dish.

I saw these cupcakes on Barefoot Contessa last week and decided this would be my dessert – Chocolate cupcakes with a peanut butter frosting and topped with salted peanuts.

Take a closer look…

Pretty much heaven in a cupcake liner!

The batter has sour cream in it which make them moist, and coffee which brings out the chocolate flavor.

Grilled Marinated London Broil
For marinade:

4 cloves of garlic, minced
4 TBL balsamic vinegar
4 TBL lemon juice
3 TBL Dijon mustard
1 1/2 TBL Worcestershire sauce
1 TBL soy sauce
1 TSP dried oregano
1 TSP dried basil
1 TSP dried thyme
1/2 tsp. hot red pepper flakes
2/3 cup olive oil
1 London Broil (2 to 2 1/2 lbs.)

Directions:
In a bowl, whisk together marinade ingredients until combined well. Put London broil in a large resealable plastic bag & pour marinade over it. Seal bag, pressing out excess air and set in a shallow dish. Marinate meat, chilled, turning bag once or twice at least 8 hours. Preferably 24 hours.

Remove meat from marinade, discard the marinade

.
Preheat grill and set meat on grill, turning each once, 9 to 10 minutes on each side, or until it registers 125 to 130 degrees on a meat thermometer for medium-rare meat. Alternatively, meat may be broiled. We cooked ours longer for medium-well done.

Transfer meat to cutting board and let stand 10 minutes. Cut meat diagonally across the grain into thin slices.

What was cooking in your kitchen this week?

With love,

It’s no secret – we all have birthdays every single year, like it or not! Mine is tomorrow – yes, 9/11. I don’t tell you that for any reason other than to praise the Lord for the gift of another year, and rather than grumble about being older, I just have to say how wonderfully blessed I am.

The Lord blessed me with a godly man to share my adult life with – Dale Cunningham. We just celebrated our 29th anniversary this summer. What fun we have together! What joy to share in the ministry God has called him to, and what a blessing to grow old together as a couple.

To have the blessing of being a mom of three sweet daughters was the dream of my heart. One daughter I’ll meet again in heaven, the other two bring me such joy on a regular basis by their love for their God and their desire to please Him. They make me laugh and help keep me young (and they loan me their clothes and jewelry! Nice!).

Serving at Boones Creek Bible Church is another unbelievable blessing. With people who encourage me, pray for me, read my blog and listen to me teach…how could I not thank the Lord for placing me in this ministry? We have the best church in East Tennessee and I love attending every service and activity because God is honored and the people there are real.

I recently starting teaching the 4’s and 5’s Sunday school class, and this is another blessing on this birthday. Children teach me so much about our Savior. They have such faith. They love so unconditionally. I am so grateful to be a part of these little ones lives. I can’t wait ’til the ones that aren’t saved have their first spiritual birthday! We will celebrate together!

You, Friend are also a blessing. Thank you for reading my blog. I am humbled that anyone would want to read what I write. May I point you to my wonderful Savior each day!

Those are seven things I’m thanking the Lord for as I celebrate my birthday tomorrow, but I will finish this list in my journal until there are 52 praises!

Thankful to be a year older,