Thank you dinner

This week, with apologies, I have no grocery bag to offer.   This is partly because we have been feasting on leftovers for most of the week!  This past weekend we hosted all of T's junior residents and significant others for "Thank you Dinner" for all their hard work during his last rotation at the VA hospital.  We had a great night with lots of fun people and wonderful food.  Here was our menu; since the leftovers have already graced our table in various ways this week, this is as close as I can come to a grocery bag :)

Thank You Dinner from T & B

(T made the menu--didn't he do a great job?)

Starters

Cheese Fondu

Sweet Tea with Lemon

Main Course

Caramelized Pork Loin with braeburn apples, sweet onions, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar

Old South Grits with Canadian bacon, red bell pepper and sweet onion

Whole Kernel Creamed Corn served Southern-style

Sweet Potatoes with brown sugar and vanilla

Sister Shubert's Yeast Rolls served warm

Dessert

Brownie Trifle with dark cherry chocolate, whipped cream and peppermint

Coffee

If any of the above sounds appetizing, you can find the recipes below.  I will admit that I tweaked several of the recipes just a bit to fit our tastes, but not in any substantial way.   All of the recipes below are either old favorites or new attempts that turned out great.  All worthy of repeats!

Caramelized Pork Loin with Apples from Health Magazine

(an outstanding pork recipe, easy enough for a beginner like me!)

Grits and Greens from Cooking Light Magazine

(wonderful savory grits recipe. Prepare right before serving to prevent grits from firming up)

Creamed Corn from Southern Living Magazine

(T's favorite creamed corn, tastes just like grandmother Johnson used to make)

Soul Sweet Potatoes from The Pioneer Woman

(My favorite way to make sweet potatoes, T could eat a whole batch himself.  

I confess that I only use 1/2 of the sugar called for in the recipe--

but sweet taters are so sweet that we never notice and no one ever complains.)

Brownie Trifle from Southern Living Magazine

(Outstanding trifle and easy to make!  We replaced the coffee and toffee candy with chopped peppermints and dark cherry chocolate.  It was delicious and pretty for relatively little work.)

Blessings on your kitchen this week!

I love my Valentine

How is it that I have had ten years with the best Valentine ever?He happens to be on trauma call tonight.I love you, T.

A Thankful Saturday

Today was a great Saturday.

Slept in with T until 8:30,

when the pitter-patter of little feet arrived in our room,

and we snuggled in bed with G-Bear, her blanket and some storybooks

until we heard E-Bear singing in his bed,

and we brought him down to join us.

Breakfast of strawberry smoothies, biscuits and ham,

lazy conversation around the table until 11am,

when we decided to retire to baths and showers 

and get ready for the day.

Plenty of playtime, laundry and crafts,

the kids making sticker collages at the table,

while T and I started prepping dinner for friends,

our favorite tunes playing in the background.

We finished dinner prep during nap time,
dancing to the music.

I love few things more than cooking with my love,

especially when we are cooking for friends.

Twelve of us gathered for dinner,

a 'Thank-you' from T and me to them,

his fellow residents from his last VA rotation,

a close-knit, hard working bunch.

And now we lay exhausted,

at the end of a sweet, sweet day,

baby cozy in my belly,

children nestled in their beds,

"I love you, mom, dad," each has said.

What more could we want?

Wish for? 

Desire?

Truly, 'Dat Deus incrementum'

that is, 'God gives the increase.'

(1 Corinthians 3:5-9)

St. Valentine's Party

"I love you more than there are stars in the sky or waves in the ocean..."

G-Bear's St. Valentine's Party was today at preschool.  Last night, we signed her princess valentine cards for her classmates and set aside her valentine treats that she would bring for the party: Nemo fruit snacks for the boys and My Little Pony fruit snacks for the girls.  This morning, she could barely contain her excitement as we packed them all in a bag for her to bring with her to school.

When I got home from work tonight we sat together on the couch as she excitedly recounted the IMMENSE excitement of her day and showed me each of her valentines and each treat from her valentine party bag.  What joy!  The best surprise was the valentines that she made for T & me with the help of her teachers.  Here is what she wrote:

To me:






To T:






Hard to beat love like that, folks!  Not bad for the first valentines we have received from our daughter.  My heart could have burst with love and pride.  We love you too, G-Bear.

Disagreement and Civility

How do you argue?

I have been asking myself that a lot this week.  I don't like to argue and infrequently find myself in circumstances in which I feel argument is warranted.  But I recently found myself confronted by another person in a way I felt was unfair, leaving me feeling defensive and wanting to justify my perspective.  In considering how to respond to the confrontation, I have struggled with how to combine my desire to defend my perspective with my desire to respond with Christian charity toward another person. 

To the rescue, T found a great essay perspective from one of our favorite Christian authors on the idea of Christian Civility.  The following is an excerpt from the essay, which was written by Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Church in New York City.  It helped me re-think my approach to disagreement and encouraged me to prioritize respectfulness, humility, and unselfishness if I choose to offer my opposing perspective to another person. 

"Os Guinness has said that civility is too easily dismissed as simply “niceness” or even squeamishness. Worse, it is seen as unwillingness to contend for what is right and true.  Civility, however, has to do with how you contend, and it is an expression of caritas—charity or Christian love. It is not a refusal to criticize. Indeed, uncharitable discourse makes no attempt to really persuade the opposition. Uncivil discourse merely castigates and caricatures the other side. It doesn’t try to win over the opposition with the truth, but only to marginalize and disempower them.
         Uncivil speech is designed to intimidate, silence, and stir up opposition. It does not aim to persuade more people to believe it. Ironically, when Christians speak this way, it shows no confidence in the Truth at all, but only in power, and that is a very secular view of the world....
         By contrast, what does Christian civility look like? First, it shows respect for persons in the image of God even as it argues that their views and positions are not worthy of respect. James 3:9 says we should not “curse men made in God’s likeness”—a remarkable warning against wishing ill on people.
         Second, it shows humility as you argue. That means a lack of eye-rolling, sighing, sneering, and pejorative vocabulary..........

        Third, it would be good to follow the ancient rules of debate. One is not to attribute an opinion to opponents that they will not personally own, even if you think it is the logical outcome of their views. Another ancient rule is: before arguing with your opponents you must state their position positively and so well that they say, “Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Then and only then may we proceed to argue. "  ~Tim Keller, January 7th 2011

Food for thought.  

Grocery Bag

Here is our plan for to get through dinner this week!

Day One

Irish Beef Hand Pies from Everyday Food Magazine

and Spinach, pear & craisin salad with balsamic dressing

These hand pies are great to make ahead and freeze.  

I can bake them from frozen when I get home in the evening.

Photo and recipe at MarthaStewart.com

Day Two

Coconut & Chicken Curry Soup from Tasty Kitchen

with steamed honeyed carrots

This will be a new recipe for us this week, but it gets rave reviews on Tasty Kitchen.

Photo and Recipe at TastyKitchen

Day Three

"Healthy Mac & Cheese" from Joy in My Kitchen

with steamed broccoli

My friend SnoWhite makes a mean mac&cheese, and this recipe makes us drool.

You will never know there is sweet potato in the sauce, and my kids LOVE this dish.

Photo and recipe from Finding Joy in My Kitchen

Day Four

White bean and turkey chili from Cooking Light Magazine

with Mini cornbread puddings from Everyday Food Magazine

and spinach salad

Photo and recipe from MyRecipes.com

Photo and recipe from MarthaStewart.com

Day Five

Curried Lentils in Tomato Sauce from Everyday Food Magazine

with couscous 

This is a quick and easy vegetarian favorite in our house.

Recipe at MarthaStewart.com

Blessings on your kitchen!

Winter Family Time

Ah, February, you have already been good to our little family.

G-Bear's poem from Sunday School last weekend.

This weekend was filled with pure, uninterrupted, unadulterated family relaxation time.  We soaked it up.  We make a good team.  

"My Family" 

By G-Bear

G-Bear's first family portrait.
From L to R: Daddy, Mommy, G-Bear, E-Bear

We have been doing a LOT of reading in our house.  G-Bear is not yet reading on her own, but that doesn't stop her from memorizing her books or making up her own stories so that she can "read" to E-Bear.  Here we were able to catch her in the act.  Are these two peas in a pod or what?  Makes a heart want to melt.

G-Bear, reading to E-Bear.

We have also been doing a LOT of puzzles in our house.   In fact, this is yet another thing that G-Bear has taught E-Bear recently.  Under the tutorage of his big sister,  E-Bear is suddenly very proficient at putting together Disney Princess puzzles.  Just call him prince charming.  We're so proud ;)

We celebrated the end of our big week with a night out to dinner together.  We waited an hour for our table (now THAT is dedication!), but the Bears were great.  We brought books and read them on the floor together, eyed the dessert case and checked out the mall while we waited.  What a treat.  

Out to dinner.

We capped off our weekend with a post-church trip to an indoor play-place, ate dinner leftovers for lunch, and had a soup and popcorn supper watching the Superbowl.  Simple.  Family.  Weekend.  Thank you, Jesus.  What a blessing.

Neurology round-up

I am done with Neurology today, the last required rotation of my medical school career, provided I pass my last med school SHELF exam this afternoon.  Then I have 5 weeks of elective rotations to finish up and then I am done.  But, I am not the only one passing milestones this month.  T finishes his last week ever at the Veterans Affairs hospital next week.  Both of these accomplishments bring us even closer to our big graduation finale this spring.  It is hard for us to believe how close we are coming to the end of these stages of our respective professional lives.

It has been a busy week, and I haven't yet decided how best to celebrate this weekend.  We'll take suggestions!

Dinner Conversation

Here was our dinner conversation with G-Bear last night:

G-Bear: "Mommy, what do you call another word for when your tummy hurts?"
Me:  "Do you mean a stomachache?" 
G-Bear:  "No, like what Madeline had?"
Me (realizing her reference to the book, Madeline):  "Oh, an APPENDIX."

G-Bear:  "Oh, thaaaaat's right, appendix."
Me:  "Your appendix is in your tummy just like your stomach is, it's just in a different place.  See, your stomach is up here (pointing) and your appendix is down here (pointing again).  So, when your appendix hurts your tummy hurts in a different place than when you have a stomachache."
G-Bear:  "Oh, thaaaaat's right, but sometimes my my stomach is over here too (pointing to her middle), like after I eat."
Me:  "That's right, because when you eat your stomach gets bigger, doesn't it?"
G-Bear:  "Yes, aLOT bigger.  Sort of like your tummy, Mommy."
Me (smiling):  "Sort of like my tummy, sweetie."

That's our budding diagnostician for you :)
Is this what you get when you grow up in a medical family?

E-Bear's Dinner Prayer

E-Bear started out dinner last night with his first solo prayer ever.  We were all proud of him and certainly blessed by it:

"Bless our food, bless our cups, Amen, AMEN!"

Amen, buddy!

Is there anything that warms a heart like hearing a kiddo pray?