Retreat Food (Friday)

BREAKFAST:

Burrito (scrambled egg, sausage, home fried potatoes with peppers and onions, shredded Cheddar/Jack cheese, salsa...in a tortilla)

Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake with Walnut Topping

Pears

LUNCH:

Thai Style Chicken with Peanut Sauce

Basmati Rice

Steamed Broccoli

Mandarin Oranges

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, since today was National Oatmeal Cookie Day!

True story: This morning I was flipping through the camp's recipe book trying to decide what kind of cookie to make for dessert. I picked oatmeal raisin because I have not had them in a long time. After they were baked I found out it was "their special day". (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of them but they did not all get eaten so if anyone really wants to see them let me know.)

SUPPER:

Cheese Lasagna

Green Beans

Caesar Salad

French Bread (there was none left for me)

(Does anyone know how to officially count the layers of a lasagna? Is it how many layers of noodles, or how many layers of fillings, or how many layers of noodles plus fillings, or something else? Just wondering)

Dessert was

SMOKIN' SMORES

I first saw this idea at the camping conference we went to last month, and have noticed it several times since on catering and specialty food websites. This mens' group seemed to be the perfect time to try it out.

Use melted chocolate (either a good ganache or candy melts - anything that will harden after being melted) to "glue" a marshmallow or 2 to a graham cracker square. Leave 1 corner dry for a clothespin. After the chocolate has set attach a clothespin to each cracker. This will give you something to hold on to as you torch the marshmallow, and a safe way to pass it out.

As with any trend there are fancy and expensive presentation options available for purchase. I just arranged mine on a sheet pan with parchment paper. It's best to have them all set up a good amount of time before you need them.

Then comes the best part....use a butane torch to roast the marshmallow. Go around the edges and as the top part flames up, give it to the guest who will be eating it so they can blow it out.

This one's a bit well done. Do you know how hard it is to hold something and light it on fire and take a picture of it all at the same time? It's hard!

This dessert was a huge success. It is not expensive and makes a memorable experience. One guy ate 6 of them.

Food on a stick = fun

Food on fire = fun

Food on a stick AND on fire = so much fun

Retreat Food (Thursday)

I thought it would be fun to blog about my menu for a weekend, and give you an idea of the kind of meals I serve. We have a group of 35 men here now. They are one of my favorite groups because they eat well (and a LOT) and are very friendly and vocally appreciative of my work.

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day so I made the "traditional" corned beef and cabbage dinner, complete with boiled red potatoes, carrots, and soda bread. I think it was only my 2nd time ever making this meal but it came out well. There were about 10 potatoes left so I brought them home and mashed them. I love mashed potatoes!

Dessert was a fudgy brownie with creme de menthe frosting. It tasted like a Shamrock Shake!

Signs of Spring?

I occasionally hear people say that Montana has 2 seasons: snow and mud. Today we are right in the middle of those 2 seasons. The weather has been warmer (40ish) for the past few days allowing the top layers of snow and ice to melt. As they melt, they are mixing with the dirt underneath to make mud. Lots and lots of slushy mud!

On the plus side, I did get to wear my oh-so-cute polka dotted puddle jumper boots. They kept my feet very dry as I splashed around and made footprint trails with one of my little friends.

And I am LOVING the extra daylight too.

Pajama Day!

Yesterday was one of "those" days. You know the kind, where there's lots of little things that one at a time might not be discouraging, but all together can really knock you for a loop. So, yea...I was definately kind of loopy!

I got home from work around 6 and collapsed on the futon for a little pity party. I thought to invite you but it really was not a fun time so please don't feel like you missed out on anything. Soon enough I fell asleep there for a couple of hours. I wish I could say I felt better when I got up, but I didn't. For some reason I still wanted to "nurse those wounds" a bit longer. So I had a light supper (YAY for leftovers) and got caught up on reading my friends' blogs and played a few Facebook games before heading up to bed early, all the while grumbling out some "woe is me" type laments. Pitiful, right?

Now I don't normally sleep well and last night was no exception. I did sleep longer, but still not well. That means I woke up tired again. And crabby. And sore...all...over. So I made the decision that instead of exposing the rest of the world to my bad attitude I would just stay home. Since I was staying home there was no reason to get dressed, and today became a pajama day. I love pajama days and have not had one in a very long time.

After grousing around bored for a couple of hours (I really need to get cable service), I realized that it would be a shame to totally waste this day so I opened the windows, put on a CD and started some organizing projects. The bookshelves got rearranged, some old papers were filed or tossed, a care package was put together to go in the mail, and I emptied off the stairs leading up to my bedroom. That last part was the biggest accomplishment of the day, as the corner where the are usually becomes a "catch all" for things that I don't know what else to do with at the time!

I loaded up the car with things that did not need to be in the house anymore: recycling and thrift shop donations in the back seat, outgoing mail and store returns in the front seat.

Once I felt I was done for the day, I went to pick up a movie from Redbox (Life as We Know It)and a frozen pizza (Red Baron's philly cheesesteak) to cook for dinner. Both were pretty good. Yes, I went in my pajamas. With a coat on. No big deal.

Here's some after pictures of my work today.

And I'm in a much better mood now.

Nothing like spring cleaning to put a smile on your face.

Tomorrow is another day. Bring it on!

This cabinet was used as a tv stand before I got a bigger tv.

Now it is being repurposed as craft and stationery storage.

Above that cabinet is a card board, filled with lots of Encouragment, and Thank You, and I Love You notes from friends, staff, campers, and other guests!

These hanging pockets are from IKEA and can hold just about anything.

Very practical for keeping items tucked away but still easily accessible

This magazine rack is also from IKEA and matches the hanging pockets.

I keep all my magazines in the living room but this is good for holding my iron, and sometimes purses and stray socks.

FINALLY! A clear path all the way up the stairs.
Let's see how long it stays that way....

Souper Sunday

This afternoon YAA hosted Souper Sunday.

We invited the C&MA church in our town and it's sister church in the next town over.

(Russell, why are they always called sister churches?)

Over 100 people came for good eats and fellowship.

I set tables with our "finest china" and baked loaves of French Bread.

The new napkin holders look great.

Each family was asked to bring a crock pot of soup.

There were plenty of yummy soups, stews, and chowders to go around.

The crackling fire provided a great background for conversations.

In fact, this is where we usually have our staff meetings!

(FYI...I helped build this fireplace. And by helped, I mean I got to hold 1 small section of stone in place for a short amount of time. Plus I fed all the workers for a week. That counts, right?)

Notice the stone work spelling out YAA.

Our beverage bar had coffee, tea, and hot chocolate available.
We really need to finish off the wall behind it.

I suggested a bright, colorful tile mosaic.

One other option is stone to match the fireplace.

Of course, no snowy day at camp would be complete without a run on the tubing hill!

A good time was had by all.

We are thankful for this enjoyable day with good friends.

Adventures in Ice Cream

Sadly, I have not done any food related blogs in a while. That's probably because I have not tried any new recipes recently. In fact, I think the last time I made a new dish was at Christmas.


This week I was looking through the Costco Connection magazine. After reading the sappy stories about people who had Costco weddings I came across the recipes page. The first one was for Popeye's Ice Cream. They give credit for the recipe to "The Fresh Blends Cookbook" from Blendtec (http://www.blendtec.com/). Blendtec is the manufacturer of what they claim to be the world's best blender. Once in a while they will have a big demo table set up at Costco and a guy will be making all kinds of shakes and stuff for people to sample. Basic models are $400. so it will be a long time before I ever think of buying one!



Anyway, I decided to try making the Popeye's Ice Cream. Can you guess what's in it? It started as a joke because we have someone here who goes crazy over ice cream but is not a big fan of veggies. He promised to try it if I made it though!



Here's the recipe:
3/4 cup half and half or coconut milk (I used coconut milk - usually have some in the pantry)
1/4 cup agave nectar (Costco sells this for less than half the price of WalMart)
2/3 cup nonfat powdered milk (good to have in the pantry)
2 cups fresh spinach, lightly packed
1 1/2 TB vanilla extract (I use pure instead of imitation - it's worth the extra cost)
2 1/2 cups ice cubes


Makes 3 3/4 cups








Add all ingredients to a blender pitcher and secure the lid. It would be best to add the ingredients in order (which I did not do) so that they blend quicker and more evenly.























Blend at medium speed for 20 seconds, then high speed for 25 seconds or until smooth.

Since my ingredients were upside-down I had to press them down with a spoon between the blending cyles. Looks good so far, right?


















It came out of the blender watery so I put it in the freezer.
















Tune in tomorrow to see how it turned out!

Step By Step

(This blog evolved as my very long comment in response to a comment left on yesterday's blog)

There have been several people (myself included) who have written about waiting on God. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. In fact, it is a very good thing to wait on God and seek His way.

Psalm 38:15
Lord, I wait for You; You will answer, Lord my God.

Isaiah 30:18
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore He will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!

Micah 7:7
But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.

God's answers are not always just a quick "yes" or "no" - there's also "later". That's the hardest one to hear, I think.

What we really need to remember is to not just sit around waiting. If you read through different character stories in the Bible, you will notice that God's specific leadings and His blessings often came AFTER people had taken their 1st steps of obedience. Maybe that's what is meant by blind faith?

Imagine you're outside on a pitch-black night (not an easy scenario in NJ, but an everyday one here). You need to walk a mile in the darkness. You do have a flashlight. How much of the path will the flashlight illuminate? Maybe 5 feet? Not enough for you to see your whole journey from the starting point. Now take a few steps. You still can't see all that lies ahead, but you can see further along than when you started. The light cannot move unless you do!

Taking those first timid steps can be the hardest - and I am speaking from experience here - but God gives you just enough guidance for the immediate steps. I think it's a blessing of sorts that He does not usually reveal His whole plans at once. That would be too overwhelming and keep us from trusting all along the way. It might even scare us away from the journey all together!

Sometimes By Step (Rich Mullins)
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You'll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days