Sixteen Ovens

 

“To those who have separated themselves from the Church, I say, my dear friends, there is yet a place for you here. Come and add your talents, gifts, and energies to ours. We will all become better as a result. Some might ask, “But what about my doubts?” It’s natural to have questions—the acorn of honest inquiry has often sprouted and matured into a great oak of understanding. There are few members of the Church who, at one time or another, have not wrestled with serious or sensitive questions. One of the purposes of the Church is to nurture and cultivate the seed of faith—even in the sometimes sandy soil of doubt and uncertainty. Faith is to hope for things which are not seen but which are true. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters—my dear friends—please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.” – Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Autumn Leaf

 

Chicken Noodle Soup is the ultimate comfort food; the one thing everyone craves when they’re sick or when it’s cold and nasty outside. This one will make your whole house smell wonderful ALL DAY LONG.

 

Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle

 

1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts

1 onion, chopped

3 carrots, coarsely chopped

2 ribs celery, sliced

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon rosemary

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 bay leaf

10 cups chicken broth

8 ounces egg noodles

 

Dump all ingredients except noodles into slow cooker. (Don’t you just love recipes that say “dump”?) Cover and cook on low 8 hours. Remove chicken and shred. Discard bay leaf. Return chicken to slow cooker and add egg noodles. Continue cooking until al dente, 20 to 30 minutes. Serve hot with fresh-from-the-oven dinner rolls or buttermilk biscuits.

Tulips in a Vase

 

I grew up watching horror movies Saturday afternoons. Back then, you couldn’t just watch what you wanted when you wanted. You had to first find it on TV Guide, and then make sure your chores were done in time. When I was a kid, horror movies weren’t Stephen King or Michael Myers. They were Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee: Dr. Frankenstein and Count Dracula. Cushing and Lee made two dozen movies together, and they became the best of friends. They frequently went to the cinema together. At one point, they were laughing so hard at Looney Tunes cartoons, they had to be asked to leave. George Lucas wrote the part of Grand Moff Tarkin in the original Star Wars movie for Peter Cushing. Christopher Lee didn’t appear as Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones until after Cushing’s death. But somehow it makes me smile to think of Tarkin and Dooku enjoying Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

Blue Patience 9-Patch

 

When John and I were married, we received several unexpected wedding gifts. There were three toaster ovens. My mom’s friend gave us an industrial-sized tub of Vaseline. (She’s probably still laughing.) One of John’s relatives gave us hand-made gifts: a sock monkey, a clown doll made of yo-yos, and an Afghan crocheted from hundreds of scraps of yarn. There was a set of days-of-the-week embroidered dish towels: Monday was washday, ironing was Tuesday. Wednesday was for mending, etc. I actually used the dish towels until I wore them out. To this day I mourn their loss. The yo-yo clown fell apart, and I didn’t know how to fix it. We re-gifted the toaster ovens. They quickly became presents at other weddings. It took us a decade to use up the Vaseline, but it was a genuine life saver. Diaper rash is a much bigger deal when you only use cloth diapers. I still treasure the sock monkey and the Afghan. 

Ravenchase

 

When I first heard about this, I thought it was a hoax. I did a bit of searching, and it’s true. During World War II, Steinway & Sons air-dropped pianos near the front line with huge parachutes and instructions on how to tune them. (Rolling an upright four feet across the room detunes it; a drop from 14,000 feet is bound to be much worse.) The project was called Victory Vertical or G.I. Steinway, and the pianos were meant to provide a bit of relaxation for the American troops and a boost to their morale. The pianos were painted olive, blue, and gray. By the end of the war, Steinway & Sons had provided about 5,000 pianos to the U.S. military around the world. The Steinway family had four sons in the service at the time. I’m thinking if they really wanted to help with the war effort, they might have dropped pianos on the enemy line. No parachutes necessary. 

Red Patience 9-Patch

 

I’ve been experimenting lately with slow cooker meals. We tried this one last week. I’d call it a success, though it was a bit more work than I usually associate with my Crock-Pot.

 

Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches

 

1 pound chuck or pot roast

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 10.5 ounce can beef broth or French onion soup

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 bell pepper, sliced

4 slices provolone

4 hoagie buns

 

Salt and pepper beef to taste. Brown all sides in oil. Deglaze pan with soup. Add both to slow cooker with onion, soy sauce, and garlic. Cook on low 8 hours. An hour before dinner, shred beef and return to slow cooker. Add peppers. Open and toast buns. Load with meat/pepper/onion mixture and top with cheese. Broil until bubbly and golden-brown. We had ours with butternut squash and green beans, but it might have been nice with chips and a green salad.

Thirteen Irish Chains

 

“We realized adding six words to our name would not be ideal for the media, but, as President Nelson foretold, ‘responsible media will be sympathetic in responding to our request.’ Thank you for extending to us the same consideration given cultural, athletic, political, or community organizations by using our preferred name. There will be a few who, hoping to diminish the seriousness of our mission, will continue to call us ‘the Mormon Church.’ With courtesy, we again ask the fair-minded of the media to honor our desire to be called by our name of nearly 200 years. The name of the Church is not negotiable. Let us go forward in faith. When we willingly follow the counsel of the Lord as revealed through His living prophet, especially if it runs counter to our initial thinking, requiring humility and sacrifice, the Lord blesses us with additional spiritual power and sends His angels to support us and stand by us.” – Elder Neil L. Andersen

Aunt Melvernia's Chain

 

When I made Thursday’s block, Crow’s Nest, I used the Eleanor Burns Quilt-in-a-Day method to produce the quarter-square triangle in the center. Her piecing methods have been around a long time, but no one has been able to improve on their accuracy or simplicity. Following Eleanor’s directions gave me two very precise 2" quarter-square triangles, and I only needed one. I couldn’t just toss it. With the price of quality cotton, I’m hoarding every square inch. Yesterday I pulled out the Quilt-in-a-Day ruler again and made eight more quarter-square triangles. Aunt Melvernia’s Chain might be pressed into service in the same bed cover as the Crow’s Nest. Or it might end up in the wall-hanging I’ll make when the big quilt is done. (Nearly every quilt I make is followed by a bone-bag quilt to use the scraps.) Or it may be an orphan block my kids will have to deal with someday. But I can’t just toss it.

Lori's Card Trick

 

It’s rare, but not unheard of – pet microchipping can fail. The microchip may “wander” after placement. The shelter might use a different scanner frequency. Stolen pets sometimes have their chips removed. Owners move and forget to update their account. Rachel Lawrence of Essex paid to microchip her cat, Barnaby, before he disappeared last year. For eight months his family waited for a call to say he’d been found. Then one day, Rachel called her vet to check on another cat, and she heard a familiar meow in the background. The vet said the crying cat was a stray who’d been brought in. Sure enough, the stray was her missing Barnaby. Thirty-nine percent of microchipped cats eventually find their way home. That sounds low, but only two percent of cats without a chip are ever returned. Have your pet microchipped. Register the chip and keep your account up to date. Because recognizing his voice over the phone is beyond unlikely.

Crow's Nest

 

Last Sunday, our congregation ended our worship service (as we always do) with a communal prayer. And, as has happened more often than not these past two years, the person offering the prayer expressed a heart-felt hope for a swift end to this pandemic. It’s become our favorite litany, repeated so often we almost don’t hear it anymore. But this time I found myself wondering what an end to the pandemic might look like. It probably wouldn’t mean COVID-19 or its long-term complications would just go away. But maybe it will gradually recede from being the third leading cause of death. Maybe terms like outbreak, quarantine, PPE, KN95, ventilator, staffing shortages, supply-chain issues, and R-naught will just drop back out of our daily conversation. Maybe COVID infections and deaths will slowly dwindle until they’re no longer newsworthy. Maybe we’ll go back to worrying about other things, like the economy, the weather or the next election. It can’t come soon enough for me.

Nine Irish Chains

 

When it opened in 1967, Blue Bayou was the only restaurant INSIDE a theme park ride. Pirates of the Caribbean runs alongside and even UNDER the restaurant. Immediately after boarding boats in Pirates, riders find themselves floating along a lazy river at night, past what looks like a backyard soirée at a stately southern mansion. There are paper lanterns gently swaying in the evening breeze, and the aroma of Cajun cooking fills the air. Diners near the “river” watch the boats drifting by. They’re also treated to fireflies, chirping crickets, and a lone banjo. Walt originally planned for diners to be entertained by a band of roving pirates. Later, he decided the food should be the star of this show. We haven’t eaten here in a long, long time, and it may be even longer before we go back. Between social distancing and staffing shortages, reservations have become next to impossible. Maybe we should just ride Pirates, and cook our own Cajun.

T-Squared

 

I love Costco’s rotisserie chicken. It’s probably the biggest bargain in the store. You can pick up a hot bird while you’re grabbing groceries and have a meal ready to eat as soon as the rest of the food is put away. Or you can snag a container of pulled rotisserie chicken and have meat for two or three meals, like Hawaiian haystacks, chicken pot pie, chicken salad sandwiches, or:

 

Grandma’s Chicken Casserole

 

3 cups cooked chicken, coarsely chopped

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 cups shredded cheddar

3 cups bread crumbs or croutons

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, coarsely chopped

 

Spread chicken in 9x13” pan; spoon soup on top of chicken. Sprinkle cheese and croutons over the soup. Dot with butter. Bake at 350F about 40 minutes. Serve with steamed green beans or a tossed salad.

Sixteen Maple Leaves

 “I invite you to learn about and apply the Savior’s teachings about interactions and episodes that can be construed as offensive. ‘I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.’ ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ Interestingly, the admonition to ‘be ye therefore perfect’ is immediately preceded by counsel about how we should act in response to wrongdoing and offense. Clearly, the rigorous requirements that lead to the perfecting of the Saints include assignments that test and challenge us. If a person says or does something that we consider offensive, our first obligation is to refuse to take offense and then to communicate privately, honestly, and directly with that individual. Such an approach invites inspiration from the Holy Ghost and permits misconceptions to be clarified and true intent to be understood.” – David A. Bednar

Daisy Chain

 

“There are nine minutes during the day that have the greatest impact on a child: the first three minutes right after they wake up, the three minutes after they come home from school or daycare, and the last three minutes of the day before they go to bed. Make those minutes special and help our children feel special, loved and accepted. Each day children need meaningful eye-to-eye conversations with a parent. It is especially important to slow down and look them in the eye. Listen and respond with love. Hug your child, straighten their hair, pat them on the back and tell them how proud you are every day. A simple touch makes them feel connected in ways that words never will. Remember, actions speak louder than words! The larger the sphere of positive emotions a child has with a loved one, the more likely they are to become a productive and happy member of society.” – Dr. Jaak Panksepp

Chloe's Friends

 

The last time I was in a middle school library, I found “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman” in nonfiction. It’s a mistake I hope I wouldn’t have made if I’d ever become the school librarian I’d dreamed of being at age ten. I know school libraries have limited shelf space, and a limited book budget. I’m amazed to hear debate over removing “Out of Darkness” from secondary school libraries.  What seems clear to me is none of the people arguing have read this book. I have. I can tell you it deals with racial prejudice in 1930’s Texas. It also contains graphic depictions of sex and violence as well as those words most parents try to keep out of their kids’ mouths and minds. It’s well written, but to call it teen fiction is itself fiction. Banning this book won’t keep it from being read – quite the opposite. But I’d like to know who thought it belonged in school.

Nine Maple Leaves

 

“Several years ago, I invited a Buddhist monk to speak to my senior elective class, and quite interestingly, as he entered the room, he didn’t say a word. (That caught everyone’s attention.) He just walked to the board and wrote this: ‘EVERYONE WANTS TO SAVE THE WORLD BUT NO ONE WANTS TO HELP MOM DO THE DISHES.’ We all laughed. But then he went on to say, ‘Statistically, it’s highly unlikely that any of you will ever have the opportunity to run into a burning orphanage and save an infant. But, in the smallest gesture of kindness – a warm smile, holding the door for the person behind you, shoveling the driveway of the elderly person next door – you have committed an act of immeasurable profundity, because to each of us, our life is our universe.’ This is my hope for you for the new year – that by your smallest acts of kindness, you will save another’s world.” – John Perricone

Card Trick

 

Most dogs are perfectly capable of becoming lost without any help at all. They slip their leads when they’re out walking. They jump over fences or dig under them. They bolt the minute a door or gate opens. But Cassie didn’t disappear on her own. Cassie was a chocolate-colored cocker spaniel puppy who was stolen from her own front garden in Sussex in 2013. Eventually her family gave up all hope of ever seeing her again. But last November, police received a tip and raided a series of puppy farms. They discovered Cassie with three of her own puppies, and were able to reunite her with her loved ones. After eight years of separation, Cassie is settling in well, enjoying her daily walks and lounging around the house. Her puppies have all gone to loving homes, as well. Sussex police are glad to have played a part in this happy ending, and encourage everyone to microchip their pets.

Four Maple Leaves

 

If you’ve ever eaten at Texas Roadhouse, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The most tempting item on their table isn’t on the menu. It isn’t their salmon or stuffed potatoes or salads (yes, salads) or fried pickles (although they all run a close second). It’s their soft sweet rolls, fresh from the oven, served with cinnamon honey butter. They’ll bring a basket-full to your table without being asked, and when you finish them, they’ll bring you more. I don’t eat these anymore (white flour is not my friend), but I CAN make:

 

Cinnamon Honey Butter

 

1 cup unsalted butter, at ROOM TEMPERATURE

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons raw honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt

 

Dump all ingredients in stand mixer bowl. Beat with paddle until fluffy and uniform. Refrigerate up to a month. Serve with hot rolls, toast, cornbread, waffles, banana bread, pancakes, or French toast.

Four Irish Chains

 

“God’s love is not found in the circumstances of our lives but in His presence in our lives. We know of His love when we receive strength beyond our own and when His Spirit brings peace, comfort, and direction. At times it may be difficult to feel His love. We can pray to have our eyes opened to see His hand in our lives and to see His love in the beauty of His creations. As we ponder the Savior’s life and His infinite sacrifice, we begin to understand His love for us. We reverently sing the words of Eliza R. Snow: ‘His precious blood he freely spilt; His life he freely gave.’ Jesus’s humility in suffering for us distills upon our souls, opening our hearts to seek forgiveness at His hand and filling us with a desire to live as He did.” – Susan H. Porter

Three-Inch Maple Leaf

 

“Many years ago, as I was reading a biography on Thomas Edison, I came across this statement he made: ‘Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious mind.’ During sleep your conscious mind is not engaged in thought. It takes a much-needed break to rest and heal.  But the subconscious never sleeps. The mind is like an iceberg. The conscious mind is the little part we see about the surface of the water.  The subconscious is the part under water. It’s by far the biggest part, but we must use our conscious mind to direct it.  If we don’t, it’s like a powerful car without a steering wheel.  If we just feed it our worries and fears we’re directing it toward our worries and fears. What Edison was trying to say is we must consciously direct the subconscious to work on what we want—thereby enlisting its great power in our cause and for our benefit.” – Stewart Hughes

Betty's Basket

 

Betty White died a week ago today, just a few weeks short of her hundredth birthday. There aren’t many entertainers who can die at ninety-nine years of age and still “leave ‘em wanting more.” Here are a few of my favorite Betty White quotes:

“Get at least eight hours of beauty sleep, nine if you’re ugly.”

“People have told me that Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with old friends. At my age, if I wanted to keep in touch with old friends, I’d need a Ouija board.”

“I have a two-story house and a very bad memory, so I’m up and down those stairs. That’s my exercise.”

“My mother always used to say, ‘The older you get, the better you get. Unless you’re a banana.’”

“Butterflies are like women — we may look pretty and delicate, but baby, we can fly through a hurricane.”

Nine Green Pinwheels

 

The best vacations – for me – always inspire creativity in the kitchen afterwards. The surprising thing here is this inspiration didn’t come from our Disney cruise. The food on board the Magic was, as always, wonderful. But this particular “aha” moment came from the otherwise uninspiring fare at Landscape of Flavors in the Art of Animation resort. At breakfast there, John stumbled upon what he thought was muesli. When he asked, he was told they were overnight oats. They’re delicious and so easy! Before bedtime, stir 1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats, a tablespoon each of peanut butter and chia seeds, a pinch of cinnamon and half a cup of milk in a half-pint Mason jar. Top it with a handful of walnuts and blueberries, and a drizzle of maple syrup. Put the lid on and refrigerate it until morning. It’s good for five days, so you can make enough Sunday night to last through Friday.

Irish Chain

 

Fun Foot Facts: There are twenty-six bones in your right foot. Add twenty-six bones for your left foot, and that’s a total of fifty-two bones. In your whole body, there are only 206 bones. That means that one-quarter of your bones are in your feet! Each foot has thirty-three joints, nineteen muscles, and 107 ligaments – all to help you walk, run and jump. The skin on the bottoms of your feet is thicker than anywhere else on your body. Each foot has more than 250,000 sweat glands, and they can produce up to half a pint of moisture every day. (Remember that next time you’re tempted to go sockless.) Seventy-five percent of us suffer from foot problems like ingrown toenails, fallen arches, corns, bunions, neuropathy, hammer toes and heel spurs. Most of these problems can be avoided with proper nail care, good arch supports and well-fitted shoes. Do take care of your feet. There’s a lot riding on them!

Four Green Pinwheels

 

Sylvia and Alvaro Fernandez were high school sweethearts. When they met, Sylvia was just fifteen. Last year they celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary. NBC Los Angeles reports they both passed away December 19 – victims of COVID-19 and of misinformation. The CDC reports more than 70% of Americans have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, but that blacks and Hispanics are less likely to have been vaccinated. Alvaro had heard his diabetes put him at higher risk for complications, but felt he couldn’t believe everything he heard on the news. Instead of being vaccinated, he said he wanted to “wait and do more research.” “This is an eye-opener for everybody,” said Alvaro’s sister. “Whoever is not vaccinated definitely should have their vaccinations." Alvaro and Sylvia (also unvaccinated) died within hours of one another, days after testing positive. They leave behind four children; the oldest are seventeen-year-old twins. Alvaro was just forty-four years old, and Sylvia was forty-two.

Forty-nine Economy Blocks

 

"In December 1976, my father suffered a major heart attack that he would not recover from. I spent several nights in the hospital with him. You’ll forgive me if I admit somewhere in the early hours of Christmas morning, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. Of all the times to lose your dad, did it have to be the time when dads are the greatest guys in the world? Then and there, Heaven sent me a small, personal pre-packaged revelation – a tiny Christmas declaration as powerful as any I have ever received. In the midst of mumbling, I heard the clear, unbroken cry of a baby. It truly startled me. Only then did I realize I had wandered near the maternity ward. 'Jeff, my boy,' my Heavenly Father seemed to say, 'I expected a little more from you. Christmas is joyful not because it is without pain or privation, but precisely because life does hold those moments for us.'” – Jeffrey R. Holland

Green Pinwheel

 

Think you know all there is to know about “Jingle Bells?” Think again. First, it isn’t a Christmas song. It never mentions any holiday, though it may have been first performed around Thanksgiving. It was actually written for a minstrel show, so it was probably first sung by white men wearing blackface.  The author, James Lord Pierpont, was son and brother of two Unitarian ministers and uncle to financier J. P. Morgan. When James wrote “Jingle Bells” – which he called “One-horsed Open Sleigh,” the lyrics were racy enough to make his whole family blush. But James was never what you’d call a family man. At 14, he ran away from boarding school to become a whaler. In 1849 he abandoned his wife and children to join the gold rush. The Pierponts were staunch abolitionists, but James supported the Confederacy. In 1965, astronaut Wally Schirra and played “Jingle Bells” on harmonica, making it the first music broadcast from space.