Parsley

Thyme

Handy to use, but also beautiful as a centerpiece!

I hope I can keep them thriving in their new surroundings.  Maybe when it warms up, I’ll put them outdoors, but for now I can enjoy having them right at my fingertips.

If you’re thinking of growing herbs this spring/summer, now is the thyme =) to purchase them.  They can get really scarce when May or June rolls around.  Some of my favorites are Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley, and Sage.  Keep them near a sunny window in your kitchen and snip off what you need while you’re cooking.  You’ll be amazed at how it freshens the flavor of your food.

From my parsonage windows,

Like the remote control by my husband’s plate?  Yeah, the  race at Bristol was on.  =) Thankfully for me, he watches it with no volume.

Lemon-Herb Roast Chicken with Pan Gravy

1 lemon
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Tbl. Fresh rosemary or 1 tsp dried
1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 roasting chicken
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 water

1.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Grate lemon zest and squeeze juice from lemon.
2.  Stir lemon zest, lemon juice, soup, rosemary, thyme and garlic in medium bowl.  Reserve 1 cup soup mixture for gravy.  Place chicken into shallow roasting pan.
3.  Roast chicken 20 min.  Brush chicken with 1/4 cup soup mixture.
4.  Roast 1 hour and 15 min.  or until chicken is cooked through.  Remove chicken to serving platter and keep warm.

5.  Spoon off fat from pan juices.  Stir in broth in roasting pan and heat over medium high heat to a boil, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pan.  Stir in reserved soup mixture and water and cook until mixture is hot and bubbling.  Serve gravy with chicken.

That creamy gravy is flavored with the lemon and those fresh herbs.  DE-lish!

To make this for Sunday dinner…
Turn the oven to 260 degrees.  Follow steps 1 and 2, Brush 1/4 cup soup mixture over chicken.  Place in oven and go to church.  =)  When you get home, proceed with step 5.

Tender, juicy and flavorful Sunday Roast Chicken!

This Salad is a great side dish.  It mixes up really fast and adds a little bit of sweetness with your meal. 

Banana Pineapple Salad
1 egg
1/4 – 1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbl. lemon juice

Mix in small saucepan and stir over medium low heat until it just begins to thicken.

In a bowl, place 2 bananas, 1 small can pineapple chunks and 1/3 Cup chopped walnuts or pecans.  Pour sauce over all.  Serve immediately.

The No Sugar Apple Pie is a recipe a friend at church made for us a long time ago.  I’d forgotten how good this is!  If you want to cut back on sugary desserts, this is a great recipe!  It still has sweetness with the help of Apple juice, but it’s flavorful and a perfect ending to a Sunday dinner (or Monday, or Tuesday or…)

1 6 oz. Can Frozen apple juice concentrate
1 tbl. margarine
2 Tbl. cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
6 cups sliced delicious apples (don’t use a tart apple)

Place apple concentrate in saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Combine margarine, spices in small bowl.  Add a small amount of apple juice.  Sir until well blended. Stir cornstarch mixture into apple juice.  Pour over apples.  Stir carefully to coat.  Pour into unbaked pie crust.  Place top crust over.
Bake 425 degrees for 30 min.  Reduce to 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  You may need to shield the outer edges of the crust to keep them from browning too much.

Do you have a dish you make frequently, as I do chicken? What was cooking in your kitchen this weekend?

With love from my parsonage kitchen,  
      

I have used the lint roller to remove the fur and it takes of some of it.  I bought a cat lint brush that has bristles that are supposed to remove the fur from furniture, but it only removes it partially.  Then recently the idea popped into my head to just take a damp paper towel and run it across the fabric.  Boom!  It picks it up wonderfully!  It rolls it into a little lint roll that comes up so much easier than any other method I’ve tried!

Refresh your home using this simple method.  Your guests will thank you!  =)

See you in church Sunday!

Be refreshed,

I saw a funny card yesterday.  The front of the card showed a woman talking to the reader of the card.  She said, “It’s your birthday, but don’t worry, I won’t ask you how old you are.”  Then you open the card and it says, “How much do you weigh?”  =)

Of course, we would NEVER ask a friend how much they weigh, but if you knew you had to jump on the scales in front of your friend on a weekly basis in an effort for you to both lose weight, don’t you think you’d be a bit more disciplined?

In a recent post of a favorite magazine (Better Homes and Gardens), they talked about the New Year’s resolutions some may have made, such as weight loss or exercise.  The encouragement of the writer was to find someone to whom you could be accountable.  After all, if you know that someone else is going to be waiting for you at the bottom of the hill in your subdivision, you’ll be much more motivated to lace up your walking shoes.

Accountability is good advice.  It’s good in your spiritual life too.  Paul encouraged the Philippians in chapter 3 to mark them which walk so as you have us for an example.  He encourages them to follow his example to follow Christ, but to avoid them who are the enemies of the cross of Christ.

One way to follow Paul’s example, is to have a godly friend who will point you towards the right goals.  Lone Ranger Christians get lonely along the path of doing right.  They stand there in their “unlaced shoes, staring at a plate of donuts.”  Spiritual discipline is the last thing from their mind.  But for someone who has an accountability partner, they can ask the necessary questions to keep you on the spiritual jogging path.

What might you and a friend ask each other?  Consider:

These questions aren’t asked in an effort to be as rude as the woman on the card I saw, but in humility, we might need to ask someone to help us stay disciplined.  If we care enough to get a partner for our physical health, we understand even more the need for accountability in our spiritual life.

P.S. Hope your birthday is free of rude cards!  =)

Do you have someone that holds you accountable?  How does that work for you?

With love,