Fall is definitely in the air around here. It is only 49 degrees this morning. I know it’s a bit early to be thinking about Thanksgiving, but you may want to do a “trial run” with this before the holiday.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I have been the one to cook Thanksgiving Dinner for many, many years. I have never stuffed my turkey and I’ve always just cooked the dressing in a large casserole dish in the oven. This recipe is from a free online book club that I have subscribed to for several years. I was skeptical about dressing made in the Crockpot but I decided to try it anyway. We were not disappointed. It is delicious and I have made it this way several times. It’s especially great for taking to a fellowship meal. Following is the original recipe from the book club and below it is my version. We like cornbread dressing so I tweaked it a bit and cut the recipe in half.

Crock Pot Dressing
Serves 16-20

1-cup butter, melted
2 cups chopped onion
2 cups chopped celery
1/4 cup fresh parsley
2 cups mushrooms (if you use canned, drain them)
2 eggs beaten
3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups chicken broth or enough to moisten well
13 cups dried bread, cubed
1 1/2 tsp. Poultry seasoning
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Sage
1 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Pepper 

Melt butter in fry pan and sauté onion and celery until soft. Mix with remaining ingredients and toss well. Pack in large crock-pot. Cover. Cook on high for 45 minutes, then turn to low and continue Cooking for 6-8 hours.

I halved this recipe and it will serve 8-10.  Following is how I made it. jkg

1 stick butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
3 T. chopped parsley, dried
1 4oz can sliced mushrooms (can omit if you don’t like mushrooms in your dressing)
1 egg beaten
1-1/2 cans Swanson chicken broth. (14 oz. Size)
1-16oz. pkg. Pepperidge Farms Cornbread Stuffing (6 cups)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sage
½ tsp thyme
½ tsp pepper
¼ tsp marjoram
1 ½ tsp. Poultry seasoning

Follow directions above, except…cook on high for 45 minutes and on low for 1 ¾ hours.
This is a very moist and tasty dressing.

We have reached another Friday, seems as if this week had wings and flew away.

I was in one of my closets today looking for something, (which I didn’t find) and saw the boxes and boxes of photographs which I keep intending to organize. I made a mental note to do that soon and as quickly as I did the thought came into my mind that I’m not promised tomorrow”. I pushed that thought away with this one; “then someone else will have to do it”.

I have what seems like a kajillion things to do today and so far I’m not making much progress. So I’m off to start some of my errands. Hope you all have a terrific weekend!

Enjoy this bit of humor

Trust

Travel is hard enough without the airline industry scaring us with their terminology.

As I drive to the airport, watching for the signs that indicate what exits to take, I wonder what sadist named the place where you trust your all to a creaking bunch of nuts and bolts Terminal.

When I check in at the counter, I remember this particular flight was chosen by my travel agent for one reason—it was the cheapest available.

When it’s time to land, why does the flight attendant have to remind us that we are making our final approach? (On a recent flight, the attendant announced reassuringly, “We will be in the ground very shortly.”)

I have a busy day today so this will be brief.

We went on our walk this morning. The forecast last night was for rain, still haven’t seen one drop yet.

I have a busy day. I’m cooking a late lunch/early dinner for my Uncle and my Mom today and I’m headed to the kitchen shortly.

As I write I’m listening to “A Better View”. It’s a new podcast by some of my blogger friends; Amanda Sanders, Sarah Stirman, Paula Harrington and Steve Tucker. Today is their second podcast. They are a group of people who love the Lord and love the Church. You can check them out at http://www.abetterview.org

I hope you all have a great day!

Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.

I have heard this quoted another way too. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today is the present, treat it as a gift.

Yesterday slipped away, I didn’t get to write; still it was a very productive and fun day. Larry, Mom and I had planned an outing to Tulsa to do some furniture shopping for mom.  We picked her up at 10 and she had her sunglasses on in the house, (She looked a bit like Ma Barker) which made me laugh until I found out one of the lens came out of her regular glasses. Her ophthalmologist is here in town so that turned out to be our first stop. They fixed her up and next we stopped at our local library to drop off all of our bundled newspapers for recycling and finally we headed to T-Town.

The first furniture store we visited was great. We were barely inside the store waiting for our eyes to adjust from being out in the bright sun when we were greeted by ‘Dave’. He followed us around for a bit and realized we might be awhile, so he left to help some people who came in after us.

Mom found a couch and a chest of drawers in less than an hour. I felt like shouting out “We Have a Winner”! If you recall our last furniture shopping trip just gave us all a bunch of tired feet after several hours of looking and driving. I’m feeling very optimistic at this point. She found two couches she liked in record time and quickly decided she much preferred the second one. After finding the chest of drawers she was afraid she wouldn’t remember where it was, so I asked Larry if he would find Dave. In a short time he came back with Dave, only it wasn’t the same guy. I looked at Larry and he very slyly said “his name is Dave too.” I chuckled and not wanting to get the first salesperson upset I explained to this guy that someone was already helping us. He assured me “all was well” and introduced himself as “Dave number four”.  It was a huge store, but I still found this a bit amusing, four “Dave’s”…

He was a nice guy, not pushy at all and mom really liked him, which is a huge plus. She pulled me aside to let me know that she was going to be making an offer other than what the asking price was. I just responded by saying “ok” and added a quick comment that they probably wouldn’t change the price and let it go. Remember, mom is 86 and that is how she likes to do business. If something cost a quarter she will offer you a dime and hope’s you will sell if for fifteen cents. It’s sometimes amusing and other times embarrassing.

We went back to sit on the floor model of her new couch and Dave began writing the invoice. Mom’s first approach at lowering the price was to ask if they offered a Senior Citizen Discount. They didn’t! Next she asked if the decorative pillows came with the couch. He laughed and said “sure”; he would throw in two pillows. Then he showed her that the price included two pillows. The couch was already marked down to $349.00 but mom wanted another $50.00 knocked off. Needless to say she didn’t get any discounts, but she liked “Dave number four” and she liked the items she picked out, so we headed to the back of the store to pay for her furniture and finish the paperwork.

In the meantime….Larry had found a really neat little storage cabinet he wanted for our office and while Dave was at the counter he leaned over to me and said “if you can get him to knock $50.00 off of that cabinet, we will get it”. I am cracking up, he has been hanging out with mom too much. I told him I would try but didn’t think I would be successful. As soon as Dave came back I told him I wanted to show him the cabinet and that we would purchase it if he would reduce the price by $50.00. He laughed and said he couldn’t do that but wanted me to show it to him anyway. So he and Larry took off and mom and I followed behind. When we caught up with them, Larry was standing by the cabinet by himself. He said “Dave went to check on something”. Mom was getting tired so she had sat down nearby to wait on us. Dave came back with a half-poker face and half-grin. He said that was a discontinued item and we could purchase it for $50.00 off and it would be the floor model which we were looking at. So we got a $300.00 cabinet for $250.00. I didn’t dare tell mom, I was afraid she might cancel her order. The delivery charge just for mom’s two items was $89.00 and from the furniture store we were only about 30 miles North of Tulsa. We all thought that was high. Since we were getting ours delivered with hers we told mom we would help with the delivery charges and take her to lunch. That made her happy.

We left the furniture store and went to the Lanna Thai Restaurant. Larry and I had  KHAO  PAD  Lanna  Thai  fried  rice  with  choice  of  chicken,  pork  or  beef,  egg,  green  peas, carrots,  onions  and  tomatoes,  topped  with  green  onions. Served with fresh cucumbers, lime and clear soup. I had mine with pork and extra hot for my spiciness. Larry had his with Chicken and medium hot. Mom had ON-SHORE  SEN-LEK  TOM-YUM  Noodles  with  choice  of  chicken,  pork  or  beef, bean  sprouts, and crushed  roasted peanut, topped  with  crispy  wontons,  green  onions and cilantro. She ordered hers with beef and medium hot. We had a very relaxing and absolutely delicious lunch. We caught our second wind and off we went again to another furniture store; this time looking for bookshelves.

We had more good fortune at the second store. Mom found a very nice bookshelf for her living room with sliding glass doors. It had to be ordered and should be here in two weeks. We will pick that one up to avoid another delivery charge, this place wanted $75.00 to deliver and $10.00 to set it up. Larry will take care of the assembly too.

So, for the three of us, today’s yesterday was a “present”, and all of our “today’s” are a gift.

1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 English muffins, split and toasted
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese, divided
1 cup diced fully cooked ham
1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1/4 teaspoon pepper

In a large saucepan, bring 8 cups water to a boil. Add asparagus; cover and cook for 3 minutes.

Drain and immediately place asparagus in ice water. Drain and pat dry. Arrange six English muffin halves, cut side up, in a greased 13-in.x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Fill in spaces with remaining muffin halves. Sprinkle with 1 cup cheese, asparagus, ham and red pepper. In a bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, salt, mustard and pepper; pour over muffins. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
   
Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake, uncovered, at 375° for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the edge comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.

I have made this for our main meal, it’s very good!

Yield: 6-8 servings.

 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. Ps 42:1

I have read that when a deer is weary from being hunted that he/she will search out a place of water, such as a river or creek and that it will stay in the middle of the water, being careful not to touch anything that he could leave his scent on, and sometimes will even submerge his body in the water, except for his eyes and nose. The deer, being exhausted, is hot, tired and thirsty and pants after the water as a place of safety. Doesn’t that paint an appropriate description of the above verse from Psalms?

I know many times when we get caught in the heat while walking, I become hot and dry and ever so thirsty, and when I drink my water it is refreshing and ever so welcome. Have you ever been so thirsty you can hardly stand it, yet you‘re far from anything to drink to take away that longing your body is craving for? I have and I feel panicky when I find myself in that kind of situation. The desire to quench my thirst suddenly becomes priority, looking for and longing for. “Panting for”

The Psalmist writes that “his soul pants for God.”  We need water to live physically and we need God to live spiritually. Our souls should be panting for him, desiring to feed on his Word continually. So many times, we neglect what we have at our fingertips, choosing instead to do things that are enjoyable yet they really don’t bring us any kind of accomplishments or real satisfaction. Yet take it away and we become obsessed with having it. Is this not true?

Can you imagine if our bibles were taken away from us? I know my soul would be panting to have it back.

When I neglect God I start filling myself up with other things. Sometimes they are harmless and other times they are quite dangerous. The more I fill myself with things of no value, the more restless and unsatisfied I become.

There is nothing sweeter than deep personal communion with God. I can be in the deepest pit, yet if I start reading my bible I am directed to passages that fill my every longing. I am amazed over and over with those experiences. It starts with one….me …and ends with two….me and God. It’s real, it’s personal and it is intimate.

Worship is a stairway on which there is movement in two directions; God comes to man, and man goes to God.

Have you ever had to be the “bad guy”? You know; the one who has to say what someone else doesn’t want to hear. The ‘dreaded’ unpopular answer, the deal breaking decision. Most of us have likely had to wear the title at some point in our lives.

The apostle Paul often had to do a lot of bad guy stuff; reprimanding, scolding, reminding etc, as did other writers.

Winston Churchill said-You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life

Perhaps so, it doesn’t mean it makes me feel any better. I had to write a letter in response to one my granddaughter emailed me, and for sure it is not the answer she wanted. She and my daughter want to have what basically amounts to Power of Attorney for my handicapped daughter to make medically related decisions on her behalf. I said “no”.

So….I have a heavy heart today. I love my granddaughter very much and it’s not easy for me to deny her anything. I guess, just say a little prayer for me. I know I made the right decision and a little prayer for them, that they will trust my judgment and my decision.

This has been around for a while. It’s worth reading again as a reminder that we need to be in the Word and stay in the Word. Too many years I was guilty of “bible neglect.” Today is a good day to start a new practice!

JANUARY:  A busy time for me. Most of the family decided to read me through this year. They kept me busy for the first two weeks, but they have forgotten me now.
FEBRUARY:  Clean-up time. I was dusted yesterday and put in my place. My owner did use me for a few minutes last week. He had been in an argument and was looking up some references to prove he was right.
MARCH:  Had a busy day first of the month. My owner was elected president of the PTA & used me to prepare a speech.
APRIL:  Grandpa visited us this month. He kept me on his lap for an hour reading from 1 Peter 5:5-7. He seems to think more of me than do some people in my own household.
MAY:  I have a few green stains on my pages. Some spring flowers were pressed in my pages.
JUNE:  I look like a scrapbook. They have stuffed me full of newspaper clippings – one of the girls got married.
JULY:  They put me in a suitcase today. I guess we are off on vacation. I wish I could stay home; I know I’ll be closed up in this thing for at least two weeks.
AUGUST:  Still in the suitcase.
SEPTEMBER:  Back home at last and in my old familiar place. I have a lot of company. Two women’s magazines and four comic books are stacked on top of me. I wish I could be read as much as they are.
OCTOBER:  They read me a little bit today. One of them is very sick. Right now I am sitting in the center of the coffee table. I think the preacher is coming by for a visit.
NOVEMBER:  Back in my old place. Somebody asked today if I were a scrapbook.
DECEMBER:  The family is busy getting ready for the holidays. I guess I’ll be covered up under wrapping paper and packages again…just as I am every Christmas.
-Borrowed

As the song goes…”I wake up every mornin’ I stumble out of bed Stretchin’ and yawnin’ Another day ahead.”  

My routine is a morning shower and yesterday was no different, except…the water never got past barely warm. Needless to say, I didn’t linger as I normally would. After I got dressed and woke Larry up, I told him “he may want to check the hot water heater before he tried taking a shower.” He did, and found out the pilot was out. Our house was built in 2001, which makes the hot water heater only eight years old. We have lived in this house for almost four years and have had to replace some little gizmo, (thermocouple) on it twice already.

Monday’s I usually attend Ladies Bible Class, that didn’t work out for obvious reasons. Instead we headed to Owasso to Home Depot after I researched Hot Water Heaters on the Internet. I was “quite surprised” when I saw the prices. Our existing tank was 50 gallons which is the size I was pricing. We had talked about going with a tankless if we ever had to replace this one, but with the labor costs of converting over etc., we decided to stay with the conventional gas heater.

We have not always had good experiences at Home Depot (or Lowe’s for that matter) with getting help. Yesterday was different; and pleasantly so. We had unexpectedly helpful service from knowledgeable workers. We chose a 50 gallon hot water heater with a twelve year warranty. It was cough…cough…$588.00 and just under $250.00 labor to have it installed. We didn’t know if we would be fortunate enough to have it installed yesterday, thankfully, they were able to do it.

Originally the installation was scheduled for between five and six; to our amazement the plumber showed up at around one and about three hours later we were back in business.

To my feminine readers-imagine spending just under $900.00 and leaving the store without a single bag!! That’s just wrong!! Not that I’ve ever spent that kind of money shopping, still….I’m just saying.

Actually, we “went on our way rejoicing.” In our almost thirty years of marriage we have never had to replace a hot water heater, so I’m thinking we have no room for complaints there. We had very good service and same day installation…AND…we both enjoyed hot showers this morning. We were also blessed to have the funds for the project and we stimulated the economy a wee bit.

So…unexpected things aren’t always bad. We did get caught in a torrential downpour on the way home and I got some great “cloud” pictures. You can view them on my FB page. I haven’t had a lot of luck putting photos on my website. I will have to check with the web guru one of these days for tips on putting multiply pictures on here.

I shall close with another thought concerning the unexpected. This one is for spiritual awareness rather than physical. This too will be a day of victory if we are ready.

So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Matt 24:44

1 medium-sized onion, chopped
Oil for frying
1 small (4oz.) can green chiles, diced
2 cups tomatillos, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons flour
1-1/2 cups chicken broth
2 cups cooked chicken
1 cup sweet cream, warmed
Salt to taste
12 tortillas
½ pound Monterey Jack cheese, grated

Fry the onion in hot oil until translucent. Add diced green chilies and sauté with the onions until soft. In a blender, puree the tomatillos, and add to the chilies and onions and stir. Sprinkle in the flour and stir over low heat for 2-3 minutes. Add chicken broth and simmer until sauce is quite thick. Take half the tomatillo sauce and add it to the chicken. Mix the remaining half of the sauce with the warmed cream.

Fry each tortilla in an inch of oil until soft and pliable. Dip each tortilla in the cream and tomatillo mixture. Arrange in baking dish; place a few tablespoons of chicken and some cheese in the tortilla, and roll, placing seam side down in the baking dish. Just before baking pour the creamy sauce over the entire dish and top with remaining cheese. Add salt to taste. Heat through (about 30 minutes at 350°) and serve.