March

In review photo style…

Hey good-lookin’

Whatcha been cookin’…

This one is great because you make it with stuff that you would already have….but the name doesn’t do it justice. It should really be called something like “Almost Lasagna’ or something like that. I added some italian seasaonings when I made it, just to add to the flavor. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/03/sour-cream-noodle-bake/ 

And then this delicious idea…why didn’t I think of that? Oh, right. I know why, because I am not a recipe “inventor”! But thank goodness we aren’t all inventors, because than who would try out the recipes and pass them on? It takes all kinds to make the world go around.

This one I tried because of the favorite men in my life. Dad-- Kelly LOVED this…and so did I! This is yummy!http://rachelleunderwood.blogspot.com/2011/02/upside-down-german-chocolate-cake.html

This french dip recipe I have made over and over—it is sooo good and so easy. Best au jus mmm..mmm…mmm. Making me hungry for them just thinking about it! http://www.beckyhiggins.com/recipes/?p=88

And another one we have been enjoying…a lot…is one I got from my friend Teresa. I am giving you the recipe as I received it, but I have simplified it. I just buy my favorite breaded chicken strips and cook those up instead of starting from scratch with that. And if bagged salad is on sale, I go that route as well. It is the dressing that makes all the difference.

Applebee's Oriental Chicken Salad Recipe

Oriental Dressing
3 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Grey Poupon Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
Salad
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup corn flake crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast half
2-4 cups vegetable oil (for frying)
3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
1 cup red cabbage
1 cup Napa cabbage
1/2 carrot, julienned or shredded
1 green onion, chopped
1 tablespoon sliced almonds
1/3 cup chow mein noodles
1. Preheat oil in deep fryer or deep pan over medium heat. You want the temperature of the oil to be around 350°F.
2. Blend together all ingredients for dressing in a small bowl with an electric mixer. Put dressing in refrigerator to chill while you prepare the salad.
3. In a small, shallow bowl beat egg, add milk, and mix well.
4. In another bowl, combine flour with corn flake crumbs, salt and pepper.
5. Cut chicken breast into 4 or 5 long strips. Dip each strip of chicken first into egg mixture then into the flour mixture, coating each piece completely.
6. Fry each chicken finger for 5 minutes or until coating has darkened to brown.
7. Prepare salad by tossing the chopped romaine with the chopped red cabbage, Napa cabbage, and carrots.
8. Sprinkle sliced green onion on top of the lettuce.
9. Sprinkle almonds over the salad, then the chow mein noodles.
10. Cut the chicken into small bite-size chunks. Place the chicken onto the salad forming a pile in the middle. Serve with salad dressing on the side. (http://www.topsecretrecipes.com) Makes 1 dinner-size salad.

Easter Subway Art

I have been really into the subway art you can find all over the web. I haven’t seen anything popping up yet that I could just use, probably because it is a bit early. But I also figured that any I found would be mostly about bunnies and eggs. I wanted one that focused on the meaning that is most important to me at Easter.

So…my very own subway art!

If you want one, just right click and tell your printer to print!

And if you want a different color combo. I can do that! Or here is a multi colored one.

Embrace It

Our weekend was sort of dictated to us—I always have a hard time with those kind of weekends. But I tried to use one of my new theories: “Don’t Fight it-Embrace It”. It worked! Almost perfectly!

My problem with the weekend was that Kelly was all booked up. First he left Friday night with the young men on a campout and then on a hike to Romero Pools on Saturday morning. I knew it was a good thing for him. I am just selfish and knew I would miss him, especially since it was Stake conference weekend and he had the afternoon meetings.

He did have a good time. He has always loved to hike and rarely gets the chance these days. He had a little bit of a hard time keeping up with the boys. They said they worried about him going up, but he was like a rocket coming down. They got in the water too. He said the water was cold but it was fun. And his knees held out! Looks like those miracle pills really are miracle pills.

Good thing about Saturday was Kelsey made it home for spring break—YEAH!! And the Saturday night session of conference. I was looking forward to that.

What a great conference--I had prayers answered, my testimony was strengthened. What is not to embrace right? For me it started off with the special musical number. As she sang the words to that familiar primary song my heart swelled with gratitude as I saw the scenes in my minds eye. Heavenly Father spoke, witnessing the importance of each of those events in the history of the world…and I felt the importance of those events in my own life. I have developed a love affair with baptisms. And although I don’t remember my own, I am so grateful that I made those covenants and entered the gate. I know that baptism is our first step back to our Father in Heaven. The story of Jesus visiting the Nephites has long been a favorite of mine. It testifies of His love for all of God’s children. When I read the account of the healings, the children and that each person was given their own special moment to touch the wounds, to feel and know, I feel His love for me. I would be lost without His love and the gift of the resurrection. The voice in the grove, testifying of His Son and delivering the greatest message in this dispensation brings such feeling of gratitude. I felt the warmth of the Spirit reminding me of when I knew that God and His Son had appeared to Joseph. My greatest blessings come from that event. And then another tender mercy this morning as I read of an additional time when the voice of our Father in Heaven testified of His Son. On the mount of transfiguration. Elder Haight said it was one of the most significant events in the New Testament. Christ was given the heavenly help He would need to fulfill His mission-administered to by angels. The priesthood keys were given to the apostles, who would in turn give them to Joseph. Amazing! It was perfect to read that today and be reminded of those tender feelings on Saturday. And to remember: Where would I be without the atonement?

I felt the spirit whisper to me that the Father’s command to Hear Him, is an invitation. Hear Him. Follow Him. Believe Him.

Monday, Monday

I love Sundays.

But, look at what I will wake up to tomorrow.

It was clean this morning!

Work: A Thing of Beauty

I wish I could get to Japan. I would love to work and help them clean up.

One thing I know how to do it work. I love to work. Even when it is hard.

And I love the results you can see from hard work.

Last week we spent several hours helping out at an eagle project. The main goal was to clear and create a safe walkway for the children being dropped off and picked up. Ironwood Elementary was the setting where a “transformation” took place. Many, many hands came together and created something beautiful, where before there was overgrown desert and trash.

Here are before and after shots

And some of the fun along the way

Thinking about Japan today brought these images to mind. Many people working together for a good cause is a thing of beauty.

I am amazed at the Japanese people, their example of how to act in crisis. And I imagine watching them work together--many, many hands cleaning up and working hard—will be another example of just what can be accomplished.

I just wish my hands could be a part of it.

Christ Watches over Us

(Taken from DES fireside by Elder Holland  http://lds.org/ensign/1998/04/come-unto-me?lang=eng )

One last piece of counsel regarding coming to Christ; it comes from an unusual incident in the life of the Savior that holds a lesson for us all. It was after Jesus had performed the miracle of feeding the 5,000 from five loaves of bread and two fishes. (By the way, let me pause here to say, Don’t worry about Christ running out of ability to help you. His grace is sufficient. That is the spiritual, eternal lesson of the feeding of the 5,000.) After Jesus had fed the multitude, he sent them away and put his disciples into a fishing boat to cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. He then “went up into a mountain apart to pray” (Matt. 14:23).

We aren’t told all of the circumstances of the disciples as they set out in their boat, but it was toward evening, and certainly it was a stormy night. The winds must have been ferocious from the start. Because of the winds, these men probably never even raised the sails but labored only with the oars—and labor it would have been. We know this because by the time of “the fourth watch of the night” (Matt. 14:25)—that is somewhere between three and six in the morning—they had gone only a few miles. By then the ship was caught up in a truly violent storm, a storm like those that can still sweep down on the Sea of Galilee to this day.

But, as always, Christ was watching over them. He always does, remember? Seeing their difficulty, the Savior simply took the most direct approach to their boat, striding out across the waves to help them, walking on the water as surely as he had walked upon the land. In their moment of great extremity, the disciples looked and saw in the darkness this wonder in a fluttering robe coming toward them on the ridges of the sea. They cried out in terror at the sight, thinking that it was a phantom upon the waves. Then, through the storm and darkness—when the ocean seems so great and little boats seem so small—there came the ultimate and reassuring voice of peace from their Master. “It is I,” he said; “be not afraid” (Matt. 14:27).

This scriptural account reminds us that the first step in coming to Christ, or in his coming to us, may fill us with something very much like sheer terror. It shouldn’t, but it sometimes does. One of the grand ironies of the gospel is that the very source of help and safety being offered us is the thing from which we may, in our mortal shortsightedness, flee. For whatever the reason, I have seen investigators run from baptism, I have seen elders run from a mission call, I have seen sweethearts run from marriage, and I have seen members run from challenging callings. Too often too many of us run from the very things that will bless us and save us and soothe us. Too often we see gospel commitments and commandments as something to be feared and forsaken.

Let me quote the marvelous Elder James E. Talmage of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on this matter: “Into every adult human life come experiences like unto the battling of the storm-tossed voyagers with contrary winds and threatening seas; ofttimes the night of struggle and danger is far advanced before succor appears; and then, too frequently the saving aid is mistaken for a greater terror. [But,] as came unto [these disciples] in the midst of the turbulent waters, so comes to all who toil in faith, the voice of the Deliverer—’It is I; be not afraid’” (Jesus the Christ [1916], 337).

Elder Talmage used the word succor. Do you know its meaning? It is used often in the scriptures to describe Christ’s care for and attention to us. It means literally “to run to.” What a magnificent way to describe the Savior’s urgent effort in our behalf! Even as he calls us to come to him and follow him, he is unfailingly running to help us.

Finally recognizing the Master that night, Peter exclaimed, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water” (Matt. 14:28).

And Christ’s answer to him was as it always is to all of us: “Come,” he said.

Instantly, as was his nature, Peter sprang over the vessel’s side and into the troubled waves. While his eyes were fixed upon the Lord, the wind could toss his hair and the spray could drench his robes, but all was well—he was coming to Christ. Only when his faith and his focus wavered, only when he removed his glance from the Master to see the furious waves and the black gulf beneath him, only then did he begin to sink. In fear he cried out, “Lord, save me” (Matt. 14:28–30).

In some disappointment the “Master of ocean and earth and skies” (“Master, the Tempest Is Raging,” Hymns, no. 105) stretched out his hand and grasped the drowning disciple with the gentle rebuke “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (Matt. 14:31; see also Frederic W. Farrar, The Life of Christ [1994], 310–13).

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. This is his true and living Church. He wishes us to come unto him, to follow him, to be comforted by him. Then he wishes us to give comfort to others. However halting our steps are toward him—though they shouldn’t be halting at all—his steps are never halting toward us. May we have enough faith to accept the goodness of God and the mercy of his Only Begotten Son. May we come unto him and his gospel and be healed. And may we do more to heal others in the process. When the storms of life make this difficult, may we still follow his bidding to “come,” keeping our eye fixed on him forever and single to his glory. In doing so we too will walk triumphantly over the swelling waves of life’s difficulties and remain unterrified amid any rising winds of despair.