Category — food

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” – Isaiah 26:3

Today’s verse for our church and the topic for the Word Filled Wednesday (anxiety) meshed together so well that I couldn’t NOT take part.

… or, How To Spoil A Dad in a few easy steps!

Yeah, I know, there’s a Sunday Setlist in here too – part of Fred’s carnival.  But I’m combining to save time or something.

The muzik:

• Sing, Sing, Sing [A]
• Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) [F]
• Fairest Lord Jesus [C-D] (Nockles)
• kids
• Love The Lord [D]
• announcements
• message
• Your Mercy [F]

Yep – a shorter service means fewer songs (but only by 1).  I think Sing Sing Sing gets longer each time we do it… Chris keeps adding a chorus here an instrumental there, another chorus (or 3)… I think the song is up to like 8 minutes or something now.  But it’s fun to sing (which is good with how repetative it has become these days!)  Seriously.  To Tomlin’s recording we have added a 2nd chorus @ the beginning, 2 instrumentals and 2 choruses @ the end.  yup.

But I skipped ahead of myself.

We only had 6 people today – 3 singers, 1 keyboard, 1 drummer and 1 injured acoustic player.  She did great, but man do I feel bad that she came to play anyway when she could barely stand up!  Next week it’s just her & the drummer… isn’t Summer vacation fun!  Chris switched to keys since it fills in the sound better than electric, and it was great… even though most of us are feeling under the weather.

Fairest Lord Jesus… this is a great version!  It’s the one from Watermark with the addedin chorus.  Once people figured out the melody it went really well.  Yeah, it grew a little longer too (but that was my fault!)  It just seemed too soon to end it after the 4th verse. *shrug*

Love  The Lord was a bit slower today as well, since Taya was hurting – I let her set the pace that she could cofortably play, and it worked really quite well.  Jen thought it was easier to do the motions too, which helps.  Your Mercy was… well, it’s just strange to me when there’s no electric.  I’m so used to the sound that without it seems, well, lacking.  But it worked out.

It being Washington and all and the first day of Summer AND a day that we planned a BBQ, we woke up to rain.  Beautiful, drenching, soggy ground rain.

And I was praying for sun.  I know – weird.  Me actually wanting sun!

By the time church was over, however, the sun was peaking out (although there were very light sprinkles even while it was shining) and everyone was able to hang around and fellowship.

Now to the best part of the day…

It’s Father’s Day here in the States, which means that we get to spoil the lone gent here in the Hudson household.  Poor guy is surrounded by girls – even the cat is a girl!

He mentioned about 3 weeks ago that he’d been craving some red meat… and seriously, who doesn’t from time to time!  No, we really don’t eat much meat around here (too expensive).  Strange since we are all such carnivores!  So, for Father’s Day I picked up a couple of steaks…

Yesterday we had a BBQ with Eric’s Mom, and Tami & Jason to celebrate both FD and mom’s birthday.  Complete with a Cold Stone cake!  The meat was a top round London Broil.  Two, actually.  And they were HUGE.  Marinated in a garlic hoisin sauce for a couple of hours then grilled to perfection… ah yes.  Tasty.

But today is Father’s Day, right?  LEftovers just wouldn’t do.  No, we had to have something new… like top sirloin.  Plus all of the fixin’s o’course.

• Top sirloin rubbed with Montreal Steak Seasoning and seared in a butter & merlot reduction, then broiled for 10 minutes.
• Herbed new potatoes – dry roasted in a 450F oven with chopped sweet onions, oregano and herbes de Provence.
• Honey-Ginger-Dill glazed carrots.  Oh, and they were sooooo good.
• Sauteed mushrooms – sauteed in the drippings from the seared steak with some balsamic vinegar and the rest of the secred ingredients.  Sorry, my Daddy’s recipe (tweaked, of course)
• Artichoke with herbed butter & herbed sour cream for dipping.
• salad w/ crumbled feta, cranberries and cucumbers .  While balsamic vinaigrette.
• Fresh Vienna bread (a Haggen’s thing – slightly sweet, slightly crusty french-style bread.  very good)
• Sparkling lemonade

Yep – that’s spoiling the gent!  Oh, and we left the house so he could take a nice nap too.  Had to go to the store to get ingredients!

So that was our Father’s Day… relaxing, lazy and topped off with yummy food.  I’m getting ready to devour a leftover peice of birthday cake now… red velvet cake w/ strawberry ice cream.  Yum!

How was YOUR Father’s Day?

What a beautiful Spring day!  The clouds have rolled in a bit, but it’s still 61F outside this afternoon – I’ll take it!

We picked up our series on the King of Hearts this morning after taking a break for Palm Sunday & Easter, and our topic this morning was on friendship – as exemplified by David and Jonathan.  We all want a Jonathan, don’t we?  Someone who is willing to sacrifice everything they have for us… but God is calling us to more that having a Jonathan for a friend – He is calling us to BE a Jonathan to someone.  That, my friends, is much harder to do!

Well, since I wasn’t in the mood to sing Friends, and I don’t know too many other songs that have to do with friendship, we didn’t follow the theme too closely this morning.  Here is the list of what we did sing, however!

• You’re Worthy Of My Praise [E]
• God of Wonders [F]
• Reign In Us [F] (Starfield)
• The Solid Rock [D]
• kids msg.
• Love The Lord  (Lincoln Brewster)
• announcements
• message – Two of A Kind
• When I Survey The Wondrous Cross – CHOIR
• communion

The first two songs kinda call for a male/female lead… and I am so thankful that Art decided to go ahead and come today even though he wasn’t feeling well!  I ended up singing with him for a lot of it and letting the other 3 ladies do the echoes, since his voice was not it normal full-bodied self today.  Something I can relate with entirely too well lately!

God of Wonders posed a small problem during our rehearsal… we sang this a LOT at CCB, but we sang it slightly differently than the team is used to singing it.  Oops!  So there I was hapily singing along from memory and I started in on the alternate chorus as I am used to… and everyone else stopped.  They skip to the “Precious Lord” instead of starting over with “God of Wonders” (which I am used to doing).  Oops!  That also means that the charts I typed were… incorrect.  Oh well.

This was the 2nd week for Reign In Us, and a few more people were singing along (some were even raising their hands – yay!)  We skipped last week for it since it was Easter, so it had been two weeks since we sang it last.  I think we’ll do it next week to, just to help it get in there.  Fiting that chart all on one page (and still have it readable) is a challenge – and our chart has arrows all over it directing you to the next spot!  Eventually it will become second nature, but until then there will still be the pauses as everyone remembers where we are going to next!  We are getting it though.

The version of The Solid Rock that we do is the Passion one, and we stick pretty close to that.  We haven’t done it for a bit, simply because we didn’t have the chart.  It’s a great one though, and people really seemed to be entering in.

Then there’s the kids song…

I’ve seem Lincoln Brewster perform this live, and I LOVED it (even when I was sick of doing it).  Unfortunately, we don’t sound like Lincoln Brewster, and it often turns into the song that never ends – ever.  My sweet husband kept grinning in amusement during it this morning, and I nearly broke down because I know what he was thinking.  I hope it passed off as more of a hiccup that a giggle, but I can’t be too sure.  It’s a great song, and the kids love it… it just goes on and on and on and on…

It was a communion Sunday today, and instead of the band leading a song, we had the choir sing their song from our Good Friday service so that more people could hear it.  Karen requested that Jennifer join her on the solo since she is also fighting off a cold, and it sounded great.  From what I heard today, people were blessed by it.  This is a very different arrangement of it – set to a tune similar to “The Water Is Wide” that starts with a solo, addsin female voices, then adds in men and harmonies for the third verse.  It is gorgeous!

Again, the sermon was on being a friend to those around you.  If you are interested in hearing it, you can head over to FalconRidgeFellowship.com – it’s worth the listen, if only for the childhood stories and the hike.  Yes Chris, I’m making sure that those get heard!  LOL

Well, that was our day, how was yours?

As always, this is part of Fred’s carnival – click here to see what other churches are doing all over the world!

I know, I haven’t done this for a while (sorry!) but I have one for today, so I’m sharing it.

Fermented Foods

yep, I’m talking about making your own yogurt, kefir and breads.

With our family’s mega budget crunch that is happening lately I took a step back to see what we are spending more cash on at the grocery store. Our milk is already delivered, which saves on the gas & all of the temptations that the grocer has to offer, but what about the other stuff we use a lot of? We have been drinking smoothies about 3 times per week for breakfast, and those can get a little bit pricey.

Solution: culture your own yogurt and kefir for the smoothies!

It’s really not that hard – kind of a no-brainer really. Put the kefir grains into a jar of milk and let it sit on the counter for 12-48 hours, strain it and put the grains back into the jar with more milk and let the grains do their thing on and on into eternity.

I have an old milk jug that we use to keep the kefir in, and to that I add some raw honey and occasionally dried fruit. Put it into the fridge, and it’s ready to use for the next smoothie!

As for yogurt, I have a starter culture for that too – just put a Tablespoon into a jar with some milk or half-and-half and let it sit in the oven for a day or so (depends on the culture you get, but mine takes a cooler temp). Fresh, yummy yogurt! Again, I add some honey to this – plain yogurt is not my personal fav.

The other huge money waster is bread. THe girls take a sandwich to school every day, and Eric often does as well. That is 6 slices per day, then you add in toast for breakfast, and you are up to 9-10 slices each day. EACH DAY. That’s like half of a loaf!

Costco sells a 50lb bag of bread flour for $16, and I can get about 8-10 loaves out of a 10 lb. bag. That’s 40 loaves for 40 cents each. I call that markup! The loaves at the store are averaging $4.50 these days, and my loaves are from a longer bread pan. Yes, I am making sourdough bread, so the ingredients are water, flour and salt. One batch makes 2 loaves, and I make them about every 5-6 days.

Bread baking has this aura of mystery surrounding it “I could never do that!” “Baking bread is so hard!” To that I simply say Pish-Posh! The only thing hard about it is waiting for the loaf to cool down before slicing into it! Yes, there is a time issue, but bread really is much more forgiving than most baker will let on. The sourdough sponge that I make sits for 24 hours, then you add the rest of the flour, water and salt and knead it for 5 minutes. Let it sit again for 2 hours (give or take) and form it into loaves. Let those sit while the oven warms up and bake them. Wow, that’s hard. I get so tired of bakes who make it sound like it’s an intensive thing – IT’S NOT!

OK, off my soap box now.

That’s my tip for this Thrifty Thursday – see what foods you consume regularly that you can make at home for a fraction of the cost – you just might be surprised!

I have begun a new experiment… in cultured dairy products!

Yes, I have started to make my own yogurt and kefir. Wow. Health benefits aside, I have to say that this stuff can be made pretty tasty and for cheap! Then you get to the benefits… well, let’s just say that no matter your age or health level, consuming cultured dairy is a pretty good thing. Many people who have a lactose intolerance can easily consume kefir, and some even more so if it’s homemade from raw goat or cow’s milk.

Our kitchen that was already filled with lots of active yeast is now filled even more with yogurt cultures and kefir grains. My oven is the happening place to be these days!

Homemade yogurt = plain yogurt… to start with. But add a little bit of honey or agave nectar and some fruit, and it becomes something delectable. I even tried making it in a jelly jar the other day with fabulous results. It was one of those times that you just can’t get the last bits of jelly out of the SQUARE jelly jar’s corners, and you don’t want it to go to waste. What’s a girl to do? Toss in some yogurt cultures and fill it 3/4 of the way full with milk. Takes a couple of days, ad you have yummy homemade yogurt! The little people even like it… well mostly.

The Eldest was a bit put off by the idea that Mommy was making one of her favorite treats. She tried it plain and determined that this was NOT the thing for her. She wouldn’t even try it after I doctored it up a bit. So, enterprising Mommy that I am, I made a batch in the yogurt container that she is used to seeing me get her bowl from. Bwa ha ha ha ha *insert evil laugh*. She had two – yes TWO – bowls of it on Saturday, lightly flavored as honey vanilla chai, and LOVED it. Asking for more and everything. Then she found out that I made it and won’t eat anymore. Ugh. Kids, they just have to be difficult, don’t they!

As for the kefir, the hubby has been drinking a smoothie every morning, and loves them. Aside from the fact that he’s using about 4x the fruit he needs to be (yes, as of today I’m OUT!) he is hooked on them now. *another evil laugh* He has even gotten used to his smoothies having a bit of natural carbonation in them – that’s the kefir. The girls say that “it sparkles on your tongue!”

Yogurt, frozen fruit, kefir, honey, cinnamon and a small handful of salad greens… blend them until smooth, pour, drink and enjoy! Yes, salad greens. They are so good for you, and you will never taste them in with all of the fruit. Trust me on this one…

One thing I will warn against though… don’t add some kefir to moderately warm hot cocoa… the results can be a bit, er, surprising. Did I mention that kefir grains like to be warm? Ideally around 70F. Cocoa seems to be the equivalent of a spa for them, and they will multiply very quickly! A bit off-putting when you aren’t expecting them.

Add to this the savings you will have over buying them at the store, and it’s a win-win. Kefir seems to be averaging around $4.50 a quart, and yogurt is around $0.99 for a single-serve container – for the good stuff without HFCS. The starters cost around $10, and they will last indefinitely.

If this seems to be interesting to you at all, and it should, you can get your own yogurt cultures and kefir grains from culturesforhealth.com

Go on, try it! There are so many health benefits, and it’s tasty too!

We are going to hit on a topic that is near to my heart today… waste.

The average school child who brings their lunch to school generates 67 pounds of lunch related trash each school year. That is PER CHILD. The average American school generates more than 18,000 pounds of waste each year. 18,000 pounds!!! And that is just one school.

Wow. That’s pretty impressive, right? It’s downright scary!

So, what can we, as parents, do to help cut down on the amoung of waste generated by our kids? Well, we can start by packing a lunch for our kids – that’s the healthy part – but make sure that we pack it into a container that will not generate waste!

I know, you walk through the grocery store and you see all of those easy, single-serve packages of stuff that your kids beg to have in their lunch, and it’s tempting! Believe me, I know the temptation! But I have found that with the right lunchbox system, I can make sure that my girls are getting a healthy, balanced lunch and cutting down on the waste!

What’s the secret?

First, I made sure that they have lunchboxes that either have compartments for everything, or that they are able to hold the containers I can re-use.

Our favorite lunchbox is the Laptop Lunchbox. I like them so much that I got one for my hubby too. They come with 2 large and 2 small containers, a mini container with a lid and a fork and spoon. One of the large containers has a sealing lid, so you can send “wet” things in there – applesauce, yogurt, etc.

laptop lunchbox

Yes, they are plastic, but they are tested to make sure that it is food safe. Laptop Lunches was started by 2 moms who wanted to cut down on waste and find a better alternative.

One thing that I love about them is that I feel this sense of obligation to put something healthy into each container. This helps me make sure that I get a good, balanced, healthy meal each day to send with them.

We picked up a couple of fabric bags that they carry them in each day, and we toss in a cloth napkin and a milk or their Sigg water bottles for a beverage.

Happy Balloon Bento Box

The other lunchboxes that we use come to us from Asia. I found some adorable bento boxes at Daiso for a few dollars each and the girls love to use them. The ones we use most are 2 levels with a lid for each. I put the sandwich in on e level, and put the rest of the goodies in the other. Ours have a strap that keeps them closed, but there are many styles that are self-locking. A fun thing about these in particular, is that they have a space set aside for the matching chopsticks to just fit inside the lid. My daughter loves anything Chinese (well, Asian, actually!) so this just made her day.

If you look online or have an Asian market nearby, there is a plethora of fun little things that you can use in a bento box – the Japanese use them daily, and they get quite creative with some of their lunches. As you can see above, these small boxes can hold quite a bit of food.

Now that we have the container squared away, what do we put inside? Think bulk. Think homemade. I buy a large jar of applesauce (or make it) and put it into smaller containers to send to school. I buy a large container of plain or vanilla yogurt and add some fruit to it in a smaller container to take to school. I buy lunchmeat and portion it out for the week – then freeze the rest for another week. I bake bread once a week, and occasionall bake muffins or cookies. I make granola. I slice up farm fresh veggies.

Each day they get a sandwich, some veggie sticks and dip, a treat – cookie, yogurt, applesauce, poki stick, etc – and either milk (that doesn’t have to be refrigerated) or water in their Sigg’s. I will usually toss in some fresh fruit too. All of this goes into their lunchbox, the box goes into the bag with a napkin and drink, and they are good to go! The only thing that goes into the trash is their milk carton.

On the rare occasions that I use a “traditional” lunchbox, I have some small Tupperware containers that everything goes into. Snack cups and sandwich keepers work great, and I have yet to have either of the girls forget to bring something home. They remember to put everything back into the bag, and their school has a big bin outside each classroom for lunchboxes to go into.

When I figure that our school lunch program increased the cost to $2.75 per student, per day this year, I figure that I am saving a few dollars, and my kids aren’t eating chicken nuggets and pizza every day. Fortunately, the split is about 50/50 between kids that bring lunch and kids that are “hot lunch” so they don’t feel weird about being the only ones eating a cold lunch.

Is this what we really want them to eat?

So, skip the individual sized packages and send reusable containers with your kids to hold their lunch. Get creative with it! You may just surprise yourself with what you find to use! Just don’t fall into the ziploc bag rut now that you have cut out wasteful packaging… that would be a bit redundant, no?

Some friends mentioned pizza today while we were out & about… and me being the suggestible foodie that I can be, it got me craving pizza!

Most people know that when you are making pizza from scratch, you need a couple of hours for the dough to rise. We didn’t get home to start dinner until almost 6 tonight… that doesn’t give much rising time!

What is a girl to do?

Google is what a girl does!

I found a great recipe for pizza dough that only calls for a 5 minute rise! Cooks.com to the rescue! I just used the dough recipe – changing it to 2 cups unbleached white flour & 1/4 cup whole wheat flour to give it a bit more taste – and we made out own sauce. It was almost pizzeria quality, if I may be so bold as to compare.

The dough – as found at cooks.com

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 c. warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. salad oil
2 1/2 c. flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in remaining dough ingredients; beat vigorously, about 20 strokes. Allow dough to rest (about 5 minutes).

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare topping/sauce. Divide dough in half. On lightly greased baking sheets, pat each half into a 10 inch circle. (Continue to flour fingers when patting dough into circles.) Spread sauce on each circle. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and oregano. Arrange your choice of topping on top and sprinkle with Mozzarella cheese. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until crust is brown and filling is hot and bubbly.

Makes 2 pizzas

For the sauce:

olive oil
2 roma tomatoes
2 cloves garlic – minced
1/4 medium onion – diced
1 small can tomato paste
Saute the onions & garlic until translucent. Add in the diced tomatoes and cook down slightly (about 2 minutes). Add the tomato paste & 1 can worth of water. Stir over medium low heat until the right consistency.

We topped our 2 pizzas seperately – one for the kids, one for the adults. The kids had pepperoni, salami and cheese. The adults had sauted chicken and onions, thin sliced red potatoes and sliced zucchini covered in a thin layer of cheese, fresh basil & oregano.

YUM!

For a short rising dough (it actually had about 30 minutes) this was very tasty.

There is nothing quite like the smell of fresh baked bread… there is just something wholesome and timeless about it. Add into that lovely scent the smell of roasted garlic and caramelized onions and you will know what my house smells like tonight.

It is amazing.

Once the garlic begins to dissapate I will be adding the uniquely delicious scents of dark chocolate brownies and pumpkin muffins… yes, home is a very good place to be right now!

Why all of the mouthwatering scents? Why all of the baking? Well, we are heading out to help feed a mini multitude of friends!

We are embarking on the largest camping trip in the history of our family… we usually take one, maybe two families with us, but this time it seemed to take on a life of its own.

Let’s just say it this way… we have a group site reserved. It holds up to 7 families… 50 people… and we have other sites reserved as well

So, back to the baking… I think I may just run out of flour again! I have a loaf of White Sandwich Bread, Wheat Sandwich Bread (the white with 1 cup of whole wheat flour substituted & maple syrup instead of honey… I ran out of that!), Sunday Dinner Rolls from What Geeks Eat (yes, go there, it’s AMAZING!!!), and a modified recipe for an Italian garlic, onion, herb bread (thus far I have added the garlic… we’ll see what else I do!). That’s the breads… after we slog through baking those, we will begin the Dark Chocolate Brownies (without the cherries this time – I ran out!) and Pumpkin Cookies/Scones. Yes, the house will be smelling good for a while. I hope the kitty enjoys it!

I just had to share while I am waiting for a batch of dough to rise… it was smelling too good not to!

Have a good one…