After canning hundreds of jars of jam, jelly, and fruit over the last few years I have been very, very lucky. Until today.

I broke my first jar of jelly in the canner!

Am I a real country woman now?

We had a real live Sunday Dinner today. Maybe for the first time ever in our own home.

Before church this morning I put country ribs, an onion, and a jar of sauerkraut in the slow cooker with a little salt to taste. After cooking on high for four hours the meat was perfectly cooked for our 1:00 pm dinner. I quickly made some instant mashed potatoes (for some reason my family loves these ???) and steamed broccoli in the microwave. Flower Child set the table with our pretty stoneware and I made sure to use the serving bowls that matched.

And it was so easy!

The only thing missing was company.

Growing up, Sunday Dinner was the domain of my grandmother and it usually consisted of donuts bought after church and brought to her house. But it wasn’t about what we ate. It was about my parents, aunt, cousins, and siblings talking, laughing, arguing… just being together.

We’ve lived most of our lives away from our parents, so my children have never had Sunday Dinner on a regular basis. Until recently our Sunday afternoons were spent at a soccer field somewhere, with all of us in a rush to get there on time as soon as church let out. Now that Rooster and Flower Child are no longer playing travel soccer we don’t have this time constraint.

And now I want to start a tradition of Sunday Dinner at our house. And I want to invite people over as often as possible. Older couples and family from our church. Friends from our community and homeschool group. Missionaries and visiting pastors. Young and old, saints and sinners, the popular and the lonely, rich and poor.

I want dinner to be ready in the slow cooker at home, ready for a spontaneous invitation!

Romans 12:10-13
Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

This recipe gets the award for being beautiful to look at, simple to prepare, and incredibly tasty. It is the entire family’s new favorite on our menu.

Noodles with Broccoli and Meat (Cambodia)
Kuy Tew Cha (goi dieu chah)
Serves 4

Cook according to package directions:

• 8 oz. Chinese noodles or thin spaghetti (250 g) (I use spaghetti.)

Drain. Add 1 T. oil (15 ml) to keep noodles from sticking together, cover, and set aside.

In separate saucepan, cook or steam until tender-crisp:

• 1 1/2 c. broccoli, cut in pieces (375 ml)

Meanwhile, in separate frypan saute 8-10 minutes in 1-2 T. oil (15-30 ml):

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 c. pork, cut in small pieces (125 ml)
• 6-8 shrimp, shelled and deveined

Add broccoli to meat along with:

• 1-2 T. soy sauce (15-30 ml)
• 1 t. sugar (5 ml)
• 1/2 t. salt (2 ml) (optional)

Toss with noodles and serve with additional soy sauce as desired.

Note: We make substitutions for the meat frequently, with great results. We’ve used pork, chicken, beef, and frozen imitation crab each on and its own or in combination with one of the other meats. I love that I can make it with whatever I have on hand.

— from Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook by Joetta Handrich Schlabach, 1991, Herald Press.

Not only is this dish tasty, it’s very easy to make and only dirties one frying pan. Our family eats this at least once a week now!

Like other forms of human affection, cooking delivers its truest and most enduring gifts when it is savored in intimacy — prepared not by a chef but by a cook and with love.

No Chefs in My Kitchen
By MARCELLA HAZAN
Published: November 29, 2008

The food Americans eat that is made fresh at home by someone who is close to them is shrinking compared with food consumed at restaurants or prepared outside. And while eating out or taking in may save us time or bring us enjoyment, I would argue that it deprives us of something important.

I am my family’s cook. It is the food prepared and shared at home that, for more than 50 years, has provided a solid center for our lives. In the context of the values that cement human relations, the clamor of restaurants and the facelessness of takeout are no match for what the well-laid family table has to offer. A restaurant will never strengthen familial bonds.

While I love to cook I am hopelessly lazy and addicted to eating out. I can see how this pulls my own family apart. Still, it was quite shocking to see someone else write about it!

I hereby propose Eat at Home Every Day 2009 for the month of January! I’d like to see families make a pledge to eat at least one meal together every day for a month. Maybe a month is too ambitious?

We had a great family dinner tonight.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia
Fettuccine
Red sauce, made with homemade tomato sauce
Sliced Tomatoes
Fresh Mozzarella

The fish came from Sam’s (but it was really yum-oh!). I served the fish off the baking sheet and the pasta and sauce out of their respective pans. The mozzarella would have been in its original container if it hadn’t been dropped on the floor and broken. As I was setting the sauce pan on the table, I thought to myself that I’d become a Hidden Art Dropout.

Still, we set the table and have a tall green glass vase with a sprigs of mint sitting in the center. The sauce was homemade and the pineapple tomato came from our garden earlier today.

And everyone was together. Always a nice thing.

Maybe not a total drop-out, just on probation

Confession. Growing up I thought I was a 100% left-brained, math whiz, without a stitch of anything artistic in my bones. I had help thinking that. My family told me so. Frequently. Yet, all these artistic ideas were whirling around in my brain. I didn’t know how to get them out and, even worse, I was afraid to tell anyone about them.

The first time I filled my creative need I made spaghetti sauce from a recipe in The New Basics Cookbook. The fact that I even owned such a cool cookbook was amazing. It was actually a huge matter of chance. I had bought a copy as part of a wedding gift for a college friend. On our way to the wedding, my dear husband and I got stranded at the airport for five hours (we could have driven to the wedding faster, but I digress…) What else was there to do but read this fascinating cookbook? I was so enthralled that as soon as we got home from the trip I went out and bought the cookbook. Several months later I was no longer merely enthralled, I WAS ENCOURAGED and my culinary adventures began. To this day, I find my most creative spirit in the kitchen, so you can expect lots of food posts and pictures on this blog.

I think the chapter on cooking is what drew me to Mrs. Schaeffer in the first place. I knew I had a creative spirit, I just hadn’t found the courage (or had the encouragement) to explore and develope my Hidden Art. When I read the chapter and realized that I had been doing just that all along in my cooking, I suddently had the encouragement I needed to try new areas. I also started playing the piano more, joined a choir, and bought a new alto recorder. No, I’m no virtuoso, but making music gives me pleasure!

As an adult, I now realize that I was a repressed RIGHT-brained person. I really hate math and logic.

Anyhoo, there is a point to all of this. I love to try new recipes in my kitchen and thought I’d share this recipe that my sister and I searched for after buying a couple at a Mennonite shop near where I live. This bar is a wonderful marriage of vanilla cake with creamy chocolate filling. YUM!

Can’t Leave ‘em Alone Bars (picture above)

1 box WHITE (not yellow) cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup butter
1 cup semi-sweet
chocolate chips

• Stir together the cake mix, eggs, and oil.
• Press mixture into the bottom of a 9″x13″ pan, saving about 1/4 of the mixture for topping.
• Melt butter, condensed milk, and chocolate chips together in the microwave in a glass bowl. (Be conservative… nuke for 15 seconds, stir, nuke another 15 sec, stir, etc. until mixture is creamy chocolate.)
• Pour this over the top of the cake mixture.
• Sprinkle remaining cake mixture on top.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 deg F. The top of the cake should be nicely browned.

I come from a long line of breadbakers. Even after my immigrant ancestors had settled down to modern life in the suburbs, my grandmother and then my mother continued to bake their own bread. My mother, now on a potassium-free diet, still bakes every other week.

Click on this link first and then use the “back page” button to read the rest. (I didn’t want to copy the picture into my post because I’m trying to avoid copyright infringement.)

Have you ever walked into a home and smelled the aroma of fresh-baked bread wafting from the oven? Boy, I have, and that smell can reach out and touch my very soul. (Even my many mistakes smelled much better than they tasted. ) No, not everyone will have time or energy to make their own bread every week, but why not give at least a try?

p. 119

Just as it is good to get one’s fingers into the soil and plant seeds, so it is good to get one’s fingers and fists into bread dough to knead and punch it. There is something very positive in being involved in the creativity which is so basic to life itself.

Because we are each uniquely created by God, that Hidden Art that releases our creativity won’t be the same. It could be that making your own bread is your very own Hidden Art!

In my own web wandering, I stumbled across this blog today. If you think you might like to try baking your own, check it out. Even if you don’t want to try baking your own bread, still check it out. The pictures are absolutely to drool for!

Do you yearn to to bake your own bread?



We’re going to spend the next year sharingbread-baking tips, techniques, resources, and recipes.
We’d love to have you bake with us.