Merry Christmas, Lest We Forget

Like most people I know, I've been following the tragic news stories coming out of Newtown, CT.  My heart goes out to the friends, families, and neighbors of those who were taken much too early and for a community who will fill the week before Christmas with funerals rather than parties.  The stories say that Newtown is removing its Christmas decorations and one high school student was quoted on his first day back to school as saying, "There's going to be no joy in school.  It really doesn't feel like Christmas anymore."  The early end to Christmas festivities seem appropriate.  After all, who could possibly be in the mood to celebrate much of anything?  The thought hasn't sat quite right to me, though, and I've mulled it over the last couple of days.  This morning it dawned on me that Christmas is exactly what we need to be celebrating right now.  I don't mean the shopping-party-food-commercial aspect of Christmas.  I mean the baby-born-in-a-manger-to-live-a-perfect-life-die-and-be-resurrected-to-redeem-all-of-mankind aspect of Christmas- the real Reason for the Season!

Who doesn't need to see a million nativity scenes to remind us that the Savior really was here and really did do what He came to do?  Or angels from heaven who proclaimed His birth?  Or candy canes- the symbol of the shepherds who were the first to seek the tiny babe after learning of his birth from the mouth of an angel of God?  What about the need for a star to guide us to the one place to find real, lasting hope and peace? A Christmas tree with it's evergreen leaves to remind us that life is eternal?  Lights to see reminders every where we go of the One who lights our way when things are darkes?  Red wrappings and bows and poinsettias the color of the blood that would be spilled to guarantee eternal life for each of those dear individuals and every other person who has ever walked the earth?  Bells to ring out the joyful news?  Music to give voice to that news?  Families, friends, and neighbors looking for more ways to serve and love each other?  Even Santa, who is a symbol of giving, loving, and caring for each other?  We need every one of these symbols of Christmas.

One does not need to be Christian to still find reasons to celebrate this time of year.  Though it came to a close the day after the tragic events, the lights of the menorahs celebrating Hanukkah served as a poignant reminder that there is a God in heaven and He does watch over his children.  There will be tragedies and heart break and hard times, but the tender mercies of a loving, all powerful God will be there to remind us that He's there.

So, may I shout from my virtual house-top:

Merry Christmas!!!

Yes, we do need Christmas, and this year more than ever.  Let's lay aside the commercial trappings, but let us never forget the real reason; for that is the greatest gift of all.  That is where our Joy will be found.

Sandwich Rolls

(Upfront apology:  I dutifully took pictures of every step of these sandwiches, but my camera was on a scout camp out and my phone did not do such a good job.  I could post them here, but they would make you wish you had a new prescription in your glasses- or that you had glasses if you don't already.  I got a headache looking at them as I tried to insert them today.  Maybe I'll try again and use the real camera, but probably not.  Sorry.)

Last week I read about an very ingenious idea on Everydayfoodstorage.net- make sandwiches cinnamon roll style, bake and freeze them.  The kids just grab one (or two if they are teenage boys!), throw them frozen in their lunches, and they're ready to eat by lunch.  I don't know why I have never thought or heard of this before, but I tried them for dinner on both Friday and Saturday and my family loved them.  We had them 2 nights in a row because the first night I tried ham and cheese.  The second night I tried pizza.  Both were good and both were gone.

The members of my family are not huge mustard fans, so I did make a couple of changes from the recipe at Everydayfoodstorage.net.

First, I used the basic bread recipe from Fasteasybread.com because I'd used it before and it was familiar to me. I also knew I could substitute some of the white flour with wheat and it would work fine.  It makes 2 loaves worth of dough which I made into 24-30 sandwiches, depending on how thick I cut them.  I rolled one half on the dough at a time into about a 13" or 14" x 9" or 10" rectangle.

Second, instead of a honey mustard sauce, which no one would eat, I improvised a ranch flavored sauce from a chicken recipe I use.  First, I mixed up one can's worth of a food storage Cream of Chicken soup mix recipe that I have.  It makes 2 or 3 cups of powder.  I mixed 1/3 of a cup of powder with one cup of water, brought it to a boil and turned it off.

Cream of Chicken soup mix
2 c. non-instant powdered milk
3/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 c. chicken bouillon (about 12 cubes smashed)
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp basil (optional)
1 tsp thyme (optional)

Mix 1/3 c powder with 1 1/2 c. water, bring to a boil while stirring.

For these sandwiches I only used 1 cup of water because I wanted it a bit thicker to spread.  You could probably use a can of cream of chicken soup, but I only had large ones on hand and didn't want to open one.

I mixed the soup with 4 oz. of cream cheese (reduced fat) and a teaspoon or so of ranch dressing powder for flavor and spread it on the dough.  This ended up making enough "sauce" for 3 batches of sandwiches (about 36 rolls).

Next I covered the dough with a single layer of ham lunch meat and covered it with shredded cheddar cheese.

Rolling like a cinnamon roll was easier than I expected and cutting them into 1 inch slices was WAY easier than cinnamon rolls.  Usually with cinnamon rolls I use dental floss.  These cut really well with a sharp knife.  When I made the pizza rolls I used cheese only, no meat.  Those were easier to cut with dental floss.

The recipe from everydayfoodstorage says to bake at 400 for 10 minutes on a greased cookie sheet or in greased muffin tins for more a more "gourmet" look.  I tried both ways and found the muffin tins made rolls that stuck together better and were a more uniform size.

I let the sandwiches cool for a little bit in the pans, then all the way on a cooling rack, wrapped each in plastic wrap, and tossed them in the freezer.  The boys all took them for lunch yesterday and I thawed one for several hours on the counter at home to see what it would be like.  Obviously, they are much better right out of the oven, but they tasted pretty good thawed from the freezer.  The boys all took them again today, so that's a good sign.

This gives us something easy and different for lunches, at least for a while.  Plus, they have less fat than mayo on sandwiches, use less meat and cheese than a regular sandwich, I can get some wholewheat into the lunch bag, and there's less cleanup from lunch-making in the morning.  Wonder what other combinations we could try.  Roast beef and mozzarella?  Maybe with a little pepper and onion in there?  Turkey?  We ought to have a few weeks worth of experimentation ahead of us!

Top Heavy

 We removed the bush under our front window over spring break and replaced it with a 4 inch stump of a hibiscus plant.  It's a hardy variety bred to survive our winters.

It didn't seem to do much for about a month and then we noticed little green shoots.  Those little shoots grew like crazy, and now we have three- 3.5 foot stems.  Before we left for vacation they were loaded with blossom buds.  They began opening while we were gone. This is how the front of the house currently looks.

The hibiscus is actually supposed to become a bush about 4 feet high and fill in the space with green leaves and beautiful red flowers.  Can't wait for that.  Until then, these huge blossoms make the little plant look somewhat top heavy!  I hope it really does survive our winters.  A tiny piece of a Hawaiian vacation in our front yard would be nice.

 

Left on a Jet Plane

Just realized this morning I never posted this.  The 2 weeks are up and our superheros are not only on their way, they've already landed and gotten to work.  So far they love it.  We'll miss them but are so excited to hear how the work progresses!  Thank heaven for phones, blogs, Skype, and email.  They help make this huge world seem a little smaller.

They're Off! (sort of)

MTC missionary life during the day, our house being grandparents by night. Two short weeks of superhero life and they'll finally be on their way to Australia!

Happy April 22!

Nothing special today.  Just hoping you have a great one!

"Lazy" Chess

Chess is big at our house.  All those with Y chromosomes love it.  Those without?  Not so much.  I don't think we have any up and coming world champions, but the guys do all like to get together and play.  Joseph, Steven, and Ryan have all participated in the Chess Club held at the elementary school on Wednesday mornings.  Greg usually helps run it, so he and our elementary aged children have some fun together each week.  Last Wednesday was the last day of the club.  Friday of this week will be the tournament during school.  Then Chess Club is done until next year.  (Can you believe we're down to just a few weeks of school left?!)

As there was no chess club this Wednesday, Ryan and Greg had some extra time before leaving for school and work.  Greg offered to play a little chess with Ryan if Ryan would go downstairs and get the game.  Ryan got out the game pieces and timer, but not the board.  "Too lazy" he said to go back downstairs for the board, Ryan set up the game on the tiles of our dining room table.  It's 8 tiles long (just right), but only 4 wide (half right).  The benches each are 2 tiles wide, but only 6 long.  So, the "board" was set up with the two rows on each side being lower than the middle.  The four end squares on each lower section were made by dividing a regular chair into 4 sections with rulers and a tie.  They gave up using the timer because without black and white squares and with a two-level board, it was taking too long to figure out which square a piece moved to.

They ran out of time to finish before Ryan had to leave for school, so no body won.  But, they had fun and got a good mental spatial orientation workout to boot.  It even seemed to still be more worth it to Ryan than a quick trip downstairs for a real board!