Merry Christmas!

"Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery." (Hebrews 2:14-15)

That's why Jesus came. He came to die for our sins. His birth was for the sake of His death on the cross. As my pastor recently wrote, "Christmas+Cross=Freedom" for us. Oh, come let us adore Him! Merry Christmas!

Quick and Easy Baked Salmon

If you're running short on time, and who isn't this time of the year with all of the extra activities surrounding the holidays...This recipe is one that my husband and I enjoyed recently. It's fast, easy, and it's very healthy as well--something we really appreciate in a meal as we try to balance things out against all of the rich holiday foods.

Ingredients:
1 lb. fresh or frozen salmon (thawed)
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
garlic salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. fresh or dried parsley

Line a 9x13 baking dish with aluminum foil. Place the salmon on the foil. Brush melted butter on the top of the salmon. Season with garlic salt and pepper. Sprinkle parsley over the top. Cover the dish another piece of aluminum foil. Bake in preheated oven 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until fish flakes easily. Remove top foil and bake a few minutes more.

The Baby Quilt is finished.

I worked several hours on this project on Sunday afternoon and evening, and I'm really happy to say that the baby quilt is done and on its way to my friends and their new baby girl. This was a fun project, but I really was foolish to think that I could get it done this time of the year without a lot of struggle and stress...Why didn't I start this quilt when my friends first called me with their good news back in March or April? Of course, then it would have been harder to choose my fabric for this project, unless I'd looked for colors and prints that were fairly gender neutral.

Anyway, it was a good project for me to do because it was fairly simple, and I haven't done very much in the past few years in the way of complicated quilt top piecing. I think it turned out really pretty. The baby's name is Emma Rose, and the pink fabric has tiny little antique roses with leaves in a color that coordinates well with the color of the leaves in the green fabric. I chose green as well with this particular baby in mind because her mother (one of my old college friends) told me that she and her husband painted their baby's room sage green. And, I chose a simple, traditional design not only because it would be fast and easy, but also because my friend loves antiques and wants the baby's room to have more of an antique feel to it, instead of choosing a theme for the room (like Winnie the Pooh or Noah's Ark, etc.)

Charlie the Schnauzer

This is our miniature schnauzer, Charlie. We had friends here last night for a Hanukkah/Christmas party, and we were playing around with our new digital camera when I took this photo. Since I don't have much time to write today, I thought that it would be fun to post a shot of Charlie doing one of his favorite things...laying on the couch with his chin resting on the armrest.

I'm working a baby quilt for dear friends of ours who just had their first baby...Or rather, had their first baby prematurely in October when it was due at the end of December. I should have started this project months ago when they called to tell us the good news about the impending birth. Instead, I foolishly thought that I could work on it in November and mail it in December.

It's a simple checkerboard pattern with two borders, and I'm going to be machine quilting it today. I'll take a photo of it before I pack it up to mail...Time to go quilt! :-)

My Mother’s Danish Dumplings

This recipe has been passed down from generation-to-generation in my family. It’s a rich, tender dumpling that goes really well with turkey soup. I’ve also made it with homemade chicken soup, but turkey soup is our favorite.

Mix up the dumplings in a saucepan while your soup is simmering. When the vegetables start to become tender, add the dumplings to the pot. The 20 minutes they take to make in the covered pot should correspond pretty well with the time when your soup is ready to serve.

Bring to boil in a medium-sized saucepan:
½ cup water
¼ cup butter

Sift together in a small bowl and then add to the boiling water and butter:
½ cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. garlic salt

Stir this mixture vigorously and constantly until it forms a ball that doesn’t separate. Remove the pan from the heat, cool slightly.

Then add:
2 large eggs

Beat well until mixture is smooth.

Then add:
1 Tbsp. dried or fresh parsley

Stir until the parsley is well distributed. Then when your vegetables are just starting to become tender in your soup, drop tablespoon-sized dollops of the dumpling mixture into the bubbling soup. You should be able to make about 12 dumplings of this size. Cover your pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Then enjoy!

Ahhhh...Turkey Soup

We had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving this year, with family from Iowa and Minnesota. I’m so thankful to the Lord for bringing us all together for two days. We celebrated Thanksgiving and my father’s birthday, and we had a great time visiting and sharing meals.

There were seven of us in our little two-bedroom townhome, and our kitchen table seats six comfortably, but no one complained about being cramped. We have a sofa bed in the living room, a futon in the basement, and a twin bed plus a twin air mattress in the second bedroom upstairs. And I’m so thankful that my husband installed a shower in the main floor bathroom over the past year or so. That gave us two complete bathrooms for people to use for showers in the mornings. Oh, and we had two dogs, too, both our little schnauzer and their one-year-old German shorthair.

I roasted and carved the turkey the day before, as I mentioned earlier on this blog. That helped a great deal with getting thing without as much fuss on Thanksgiving day. I also assembled the stuffing in the slow cooker the day (chilling it in the fridge until it was time to cook it on Thursday). And I made two kinds of cranberry sauce (one with sugar and one with Splenda). The whole wheat rolls were made beforehand, too, baked a couple of weeks ahead of time and frozen until we needed them. That just left the potatoes, vegetables, and gravy on Thursday, and I had lot of help in the kitchen from my family that day.

My relatives from Iowa were very generous to bring three kinds of delicious homemade pies—homegrown cherry, regular pumpkin, and low-sugar pumpkin. They also brought cookies, Kringla, and little turkey-shaped treats made from candy and crackers…We were all very well fed for the holiday.

After all that cooking, my tendency would normally be to stay out of the kitchen for a while. But my father and husband and I all love homemade turkey soup. So we boiled the turkey carcass, which I had saved after removing most of the meat, to make a wonderfully rich and flavorful broth. I also added leftover broth from the giblets and neck, and leftover defatted drippings from the turkey roasting pan. Then I chopped a bunch of carrots, celery, onion, and potatoes…Or rather, my dear father helped me to chopped them while I worked on removing the last of the meat from the bones after boiling them for a few hours. (It’s amazing how much meat you “harvest” from the bones this way.) I also threw in a generous amount of minced garlic, plus sage, thyme, garlic salt, and black pepper to taste.

You really don’t need a recipe for this soup. You make it with generous amounts of vegetables and meat, and then add seasonings until it’s rich and flavorful. Simmer this on the stove until the vegetables are tender, but not soft. At our house, we’ve all agreed that we love this soup as much as the roasted turkey, especially when I add my mother’s Danish Dumplings to the pot!

Rethinking My Priorities

I finished my first knitted hat last night. It really turned out well! I’m still following along with a free podcast called Knitting Step By Step. It’s really easy, and I’m just amazed at my success! The hat turned out looking very professional, and it fits great as well! I might not keep it for myself, though, because it’s more sporty than feminine. It would probably make a great gift for one of the guys in our family.

In fact, right away I thought that my husband might enjoy wearing it. He did say he likes it, but generally wears baseball caps, even in the winter time. And he’s a very practical man in terms of clothes. He doesn’t see any point in having more than he needs.

Anyway, I finished the hat last night while we were reading. And while my husband praised my work, he did say something later that made me think again about my priorities. He told me that while he understands my need for a creative outlet, he would rather have my hugs than my hats…I was hugging him at the time, and I held him closer when he said that. You see, we both had to wait a long time before God brought a spouse to us. I was nearly 35 and he was nearly 53. We believe that we appreciate marriage more because we had to wait so long. But even so, we are already finding that it’s far too easy to slip into a comfortable mode of relative independence. I could easily lose myself in my craft projects, and my husband could lose himself in music or sports. And after some bad news from his side of the family yesterday, we were both thinking about the priceless value of our relationship.

One of my husband’s relatives served divorce papers on his wife yesterday. They had been married for 20 years, and this man is ready to throw it all away. We both responded with anger, sadness, and disappointment. We had heard that this couple was arguing a lot, but they have never sought counseling. Each claims that the other is the problem.

They’re not believers. So they don’t have the support of the Lord or a church family, and we’ve been praying for them for several weeks now. We’ve been asking God to do whatever it would take to bring them to Himself.

We’re also looking at this situation in terms of what went wrong. One thing we can see is that this couple has grown comfortable living lives that a fairly detached. He works early morning to mid-afternoon, so he goes to bed really early at night, while she’s a night owl, staying up late to watching TV. Then he’s up early again and she doesn’t wake until the middle of the day…With that schedule, it’s probably a wonder they’ve been married for so long.

My husband would probably more naturally be a night owl, too. But we put a priority on spending time in the evening. We both go to bed early so that we have time to read and pray together. But for the past year or so, I’ve often brought a craft project with me to bed when it’s his turn to read. I didn’t know that he was bothered at all by that. He really tries to understand my needs, and he knows that I don’t have a lot of time during an average week for my crafts. But last night, he told me that when I sit with my crochet or knitting or quilting while he reads, he feels like I’m detached from him.

So this morning, before I left for work, I took all of my knitting things out of the bedroom. I waited so long to have someone like him, who really wants me to be close and to connect emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I know that because of our age difference, it’s very likely that I’ll be alone again someday…unless the Lord takes me first or returns for us before death. And if it happens that I’m alone, I know that I will regret taking doing my crafts during our special time of the day. In fact, at that point, I would be willing to trade all of my crafts and pastimes and hobbies for even just one more hug from him.

As an aside, there is a bit of a solution in sight for my desire to have time for creative pursuits. As much as I love to cook, my husband encouraged me last night to consider spending less time on the weekends in the kitchen so that I can enjoy my sewing room more often. He said that as much as he enjoys everything I make for him to eat, he is willing to have soup and sandwich meals more often if it gives me more time for my crafty pursuits on the weekends…I have such an amazing husband. It’s an incredible gift from the Lord.

So next weekend, after all of the cooking for Thanksgiving is over, I’m going to try to set aside an hour or two to work in my sewing room. I can still do my crafts over lunch at work, and I can still bring them along with us when we go places (because he’s always willing to drive so that I can knit or crochet). But then, at night time, when we have our special time together, I’m going to leave my crafts in the sewing room so that I can enjoy his warm embrace…It seems there’s a lesson for me in this for my relationship with God as well. How many times do I choose to spend my quiet hours with God? His arms are always open for me, too.

Slow Cooker Stuffing

This recipe came from the Taste of Home Recipe collection online. I adapted it a bit for my use, and I’ve been very pleased with the result…moist, flavorful stuffing to go with roast turkey and the trimmings.

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup butter
14 cups cubed bread (use a variety of types)
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. dried thyme
2 tsp. rubbed sage
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 cup turkey broth (I use the broth I make from the turkey giblets, or you could use a can of chicken broth)
2 eggs

Saute onion and celery in butter. Stir in seasonings. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat the eggs and then combine with broth. Add the sautéed mixture and stir to combine. In a large mixing bowl, toss your variety of types of bread cubes to combine. Pour liquid mixture over the bread cube and continue to toss to combine. Then transfer the stuffing to your slow cooker. (I have a nonstick interior in my slow cooker, but if you don’t, it might be helpful to prepare it first with a coating of cooking spray.)

Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours or until heated through. This recipe will serve 12 or more.