If you keep your ears open for long, you’ll hear someone say how expensive groceries are getting. Why?  Because it’s true!  So, we have to shop smart.  Even if you’re not a coupon-er, you can do yourself a favor and help your grocery bill by shopping and stocking up during the sale cycles.

(Most) All foods go on sale at different times during the year.  Right now, with the holiday approaching, baking items ~ pie fillings, evaporated and sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, cake mixes, sugars, and the like will be on sale.  Also, holiday food items like turkey, ham, dressing mixes, whipped toppings, and canned vegetables will be marked down to draw in holiday cooks.  Canned soups – a cold weather food, are also marked down right now.

Soooo, freshen up your pantry AND your pocket book by stocking up, if you’re able.  I went to Kroger yesterday and spent a couple weeks worth of my grocery budget to fill my pantry FULL!  I won’t have to shop again, except for perishables, for a very long time.  We eat soups for lunch a lot.  Campbell’s chunky soups were $1.  That’s a really cheap lunch!  Pillsbury Cake mixes were $.50!  Green Giant vegetables, Campbell’s creams soups and canned tomatoes were also fifty cents. I use Whole Berry Cranberry sauce for a vinaigrette dressing.  It’s expensive in February, but it’s marked down in November!   I saved a total of $89 by buying during the sale cycle!

While I was at it,  I reorganized my pantry so I can find everything easily.  This is a part of the homeyness we talked about yesterday.

I love these little chalkboard signs. They help me to keep things organized in my pantry.

Knowing that the pantry is full and ready for a cold snap or a snowy weekend when you’re snowed in, will bring no worries for your household!  Hmmm, sounds like Proverbs 31, doesn’t it?  It’s not about hoarding, but be prepared and stocking up so you can wisely use the funds the Lord provides.  Even if you can’t fill your pantry, just buy a can or two extra so you’ll save on next week’s groceries.

So freshen up your Friday by knowing that what you need to cook with is ready in your cupboards.  You will have saved money and time…and just think of all the good meals you’ll get to share with others!

Be refreshed,

The year was 1978 and I was a freshman in college.  Being a Kentucky resident, my new college in South Carolina put too many miles between me and home.  Oh, the homesickness that would flood over me during that first semester!  As Christmas neared, I could hardly wait to put my feet inside the door of our house!

I traveled home with a car full of college students, the rest of whom were headed farther north, but were happy to drop me off on their way.  I’ll never forget driving up the long gravel drive to our country home situated on five acres.  Would the car never stop so I could get out?!  It finally did, and when I stepped inside the door of my home, my travel companions on my heels, I was greeted with the warmth of that place and the reasons I had missed being here.  Oh, yes, the temperature was toasty inside, but the warmth didn’t come from the fireplace or thermostat – it came from the atmosphere my mom had created.  Twinkly lights, fragrances of food – warm hot chocolate and treats were awaiting us.  I could have cried right there on the spot (maybe I did!), and the very memory of it today brings tears to my eyes.  That kind of warmth is never matched anywhere else but…home.

Who creates that kind of atmosphere and how do they accomplish it?  I believe God gave that responsibility to us, as women.  There may be some men who have that kind of touch, but primarily I believe God put it in our nurturing nature to make home a nesting place of warmth and invitation.

                                                                                                                               ~ Ellie Rodriguez

A Peek Into My Life This Week

Once or twice a year our church ladies are blessed to take part in a Pinterest party held in our church gymnasium. It’s headed up completely by one ambitious, generous, creative and godly woman, Christina.  She gets it all organized and all we have to do is come!  (No, you can’t have her! She’s ours!  All ours!)  This is a ministry she loves to do.  She has a heart to bring women together for a time of crafting, fellowship and time in God’s Word. You do not have to be on Pinterest, or even understand it to be a part of this fun day!  It’s just the place where she found all the ideas we work on during our time together.  I’ve shared about our previous parties and you can go here to learn all the details about hosting a Pinterest party of your own!

Let me give you a peek into our recent time together…

Picture descriptions will follow, going left to right.

1. We always start with lunch.  Everyone brings a recipe that they found on Pinterest!
2. Christina’s husband cut these pieces of wood and she crafted them for centerpieces for the tables!  How adorable is that?
3. One of the ladies brought this cute cheese and fruit tray!
4. Everyone really gets into their crafting!  See the intensity going on here?
5. This is Christina – the organizer of our fun day!  She let me give a challenge after lunch, then she had a few door prizes and instructions before we headed down to start crafting.
6. There were so many different stations set up to work on different crafts!  This one was a canvas in which you could do a myriad of things to create artwork.
7. Another crafting station. Not sure
8. Some of the ladies…hoping their name will be called for a door prize!
9. She had a Pinterest photo booth set up; so fun!

Here was the recipe I brought to the party.  I found it on The Girl Who Ate Everything…

You can’t go wrong with bread, cheese, butter and garlic!

Bloomin’ Onion Bread

Ingredients

1 unsliced loaf sourdough bread – I used French bread loaf

12-16 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, thinly sliced

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup finely diced green onion

I added about a 1/2 – 1 tsp garlic powder

2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the bread lengthwise and widthwise without cutting through the bottom crust. This can be a little tricky going the second way but the bread is very forgiving.

Place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Insert cheese slices between cuts. Combine butter, onion, and poppy seeds and garlic powder. Drizzle over bread. Wrap in foil; place on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Unwrap the bread and bake 10 more minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Christina always challenges our ladies to host a Pinterest party in their home – on a smaller scale, of course.  How about inviting over a few friends and working on a Christmas project?  This was one of the things I did. Easy peasy!

I’m thinking about adding little hats for them, then they’ll be all set!

So why not try this at your house?  Maybe this is one way you could show hospitality to a new friend!  Get together and craft, share some coffee and cookies and build a relationship!

With love from my country porch,

Open the New Testament and read about Jesus and you will find that He spent His days (after prayer with His Father) with people.  He was always with someone.  I can’t think of a time (again, except for His times of prayer and temptation in the wilderness) that He was doing something alone.  He invited others to join Him.  He invited Himself to people’s homes and lives!  How else could He share the Gospel with them if He didn’t spend time with them?

How will you and I be able to share the Gospel and Christ’s love unless we, too, are hospitable?  Oh we love entertainment, but hospitality?  That’s much harder.  Entertainment is about things.  Hospitality is about the heart.  Our heart must be open, which then opens our front door.

Hospitality is seldom convenient!  It is usually always an interruption.

There are ways that we can be prepared for interrupted hospitality. Consider:

1. Stock up your freezer:
Cookies, cakes, icings, pie crusts, waffles, pancakes, breads, soups, stock, Puff Pastry, ice cream

2. Stock your pantry:
Pasta, pasta sauce, crackers, pretzels, brownie mix, (You can make your own, too), canned pie fillings, caramel or chocolate sauce, coffee, tea
Replace items after using them!
You don’t have to have all these things – choose several components to have on hand.

3. Remember hospitality is to bless, not impress!  
Put your guests at ease by:
a. letting them help.
b. Make it buffet so they serve themselves
c. Think more about them than yourself or your home. Don’t apologize for the dust bunnies!

4. Maintain your home each day so it’s presentable – not perfect.  None of your guests live in perfect homes either!  Make it a habit to keep the living room and guest bath clean.

5. Be spontaneous.  If the Lord puts someone on your heart, invite them home – or go to their house with a pot of coffee and pan of brownies.
When?
a. After church Sunday night soup and sandwiches, or cheese dip and tortilla chips
b. Roast marshmallows on the fire pit or grill
c. Movie (or game) and popcorn night – Watch Fireproof or Courageous
d. Decorate Christmas cookies – or do Cookie exchange
e. Dessert and coffee

Will you be ready for hospitality that interrupts your messy little life?  Open your heart and let others in so you might share the Gospel.  It’s an interruption that will bless you and those you welcome in!

What is the one thing you would keep on hand so you can entertain easier?

With love,

Someone told my  husband recently that the read my blog, but they still aren’t convinced the cooking is fun!  That made me smile, because, I enjoy it so much.  I hope that comes through in my posts here, but mostly, I hope those that eat my meals know how much enjoyment I get in preparing that food!  It’s a creative outlet, really.  I enjoy making new recipes, then presenting them in an appealing fashion.  

Some foods are just pretty on their own.  Take today’s chicken recipe – Co-Jack Chicken.  It’s pretty on the outside and on the inside!

Co-Jack Chicken

The chicken breast has salsa and  Monterrey Jack Cheese stuffed inside.  Then it’s rolled in seasoned crackers and baked until golden.  This keeps the white meat so moist and full of flavor!

Here’s the scoop:

2# Chicken breasts, pounded thinly
4 oz. Co-Jack Cheese – Cut in pieces enough for chicken breasts and shredded for serving
Mexican salsa
2 cups crushed crackers ( I used Ritz)
1 pkg. Taco seasoning mix

Place chicken breasts between 2 sheets of waxed paper, pouond with meat mallet or rolling pin to flatten.  Place 1 slice of Co-Jack Cheese and 1 tbl salsa on each breast, wrap breasts around filling and secure with wooden toothpicks.
In shallow dish, combine crackers and 1 pkg. taco seasoning, blend well.  Add chicken bundles, press crumbs into chicken to coat.  Place bundles in greased 9x9x2″ baking dish.  Bake in 350 oven 20-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.  Top with shredded cheese to serve, if desired.

You can serve this is Spanish Rice, instead of potatoes to carry out the Mexican theme.  Whatever you add to it will only be a lovely addition.  This chicken dish is company-worthy and delicious!

So tell me, do YOU enjoy cooking?

With love from my country kitchen,