Potluck

Here is a link to my Chef's Anonymous webpages. These are now going to start to be worked on again, since I lost the passwords to do so 12 years ago. Yes, I finally found my way back in, but things are rough. Check out the links if you will, this one is for bulk cooking -- two recipes from the Deli I worked in Canyon Lake Texas, freezable mashed potato recipe for 25 that I got from a caterer, and more... btw you must freeze those mashed tators for the recipe to turn out properly. Don't forget like I did the first time I made them. They were maybe okay, but after freezing them and heating them up? Why, they were to die for of course. Oh my. What a difference it makes to follow directions.

www.angelfire.com/ga/gcandjlibrary/g
ro
up.html

I have a soul food page I recommend, and the NM green chile sauce & recipe on the main page for our virtual kitchen. I'm so excited to get back in and start cleaning those pages up and filling them out, renewing links and more. Oh boy--oh boy--oh boy--oh boy.

Be an adult now, play with your food! It was illegal when you were a kid, but now the rules have changed. Who says getting older means you miss out on good things in this life?

I've always wanted to have Rabbit for Easter meal, to physically and symbolically eat the pagan ritualism opposing the true and proper Kingdom Easter - who is Jesus rising from the dead. We engage in that celebration by communion with each other as well as the ritual in our gatherings. Personally I like the idea of eating Lamb on Easter as well as Passover, but my wife is a little slow on approving that as my next cooking adventure.

I'm thankful for the cues for cooking Rabbit and Prime Rib.

At our church we have Family Night Supper one Wednesday a month and we invite everyone who would like to eat with us to come. My mom always makes a bread pudding that is the first dish to be emptied. She saves the leftover doughnuts from the Sunday before (from our after-service fellowship time) and makes the bread pudding from those. It's really good and people will hit the dessert table first before the main meal to be sure they get a piece! I have to admit, I had a small piece of it last night. Today I'm really counting my calories!

I see that we are a bit short of deserts, so I'll bring some Italian Gelato. (That is a sorbet type dish made with ice and fresh fruit, and little else).

A couple of the problems with my weight have their roots in Germany. One is the beer (bier auf Deutsch). It is amazing how much better it is than the standard American variety. By law, it can only have three ingredients: hops, malted barley, and water (the yeast is assumed). After we returned to the States, I began to make my own, and got pretty good at it. Unfortunately, the calories, along with the good food that goes along with a great beer, started the growth in my waistline.

The good food comes, at least in part, from both Italy and Germany. In all of our trips to and through Italy, we never had a bad meal -- most were excellent! So I got an Italian cookbook, and taught myself how to make some of the food. Similarly, we fell in love with several German dishes, so Dr. Oetker (the German equivalent to Paula Deen) taught me how to do Sauerbraten und Jaegerschnitzel und.... Needless to say, that didn't help things much either (except to expand the waistline more).

I don't cook those things much any more, for obvious reasons. There are plenty of Italian dishes that use lots of fresh vegetables, and if the portions are controlled, are actually quite healthful. The German dishes are a bit more of a problem, so we don't eat those much (but they sure are good....).

The meter did not move this week. I had a couple of days wherein I did not stick to the plan, and the results showed. I had hoped that I would lose a little; I was a bit surprised that the weight was exactly the same as last week. I will do better this week!

This seems to be the food thread, so I will share a food gratitude here. My daughter has been volunteering at the food bank in her neighborhood and they gave her a very fancy loaf of bread full of whole grains, nuts and seeds. She gave it to me. My husband and I froze it and are taking one piece each out every day and having a little tea time where we sit together and communicate about our day while eating this scrumptious bread. This new little routine has brought much comfort to us and seems to help decrease cravings.

I just looked up the name of the bread. It is Dave's Killer Good Seed Bread. Interestingly, Dave is an ex-con who straightened himself out in jail with exercise and good nutrition. His saintly bread (USDA organic) is 130 calories per slice and it is delicious without anything on it.

Since I have had such a Spirit filled day, I'm going to skip dessert this go-around (in fact I did just that a few minutes ago -- you'll see).

This morning, we got to the church and I got things set up the way I like them at the pulpit, and was welcoming the attendees, when in walked the District Superintendent. I welcomed her and chatted for a few moments when she asked where Steve (our pastor) was. I told her that he may not be there at all today as I was filling the pulpit for him. She took that in stride, then Steve walked in, though he did leave as the service started.

The service came off well, despite the sound system glitch we ran into when one of the choir was trying to get started on a music special for the day, but we got through, then the sermon went well (I managed to get the congregation going a bit!).

Later in the day, the leadership of several churches in our district met to discuss some ways that we can connect in bringing the Gospel to our area more effectively. That meeting was 2 hours long, but seemed more like 10 minutes. There were a lot of good ideas, and we will meet again in a couple of months to continue the discussions. The main thrust of what we discussed was to get our people back to the basics of Methodism. If you want to learn a bit about our history, find the book "Leadership in the Wesleyan Tradition" by Leonard Weems.

Once we left the meeting, my wife and I went to a little Chinese restaurant that we like, and I had a fairly low calorie meal of Hunan Chicken, then it was off to yet another service.

This time we went to another Methodist church in rural Stillwater to listen to a Gospel trio called 'The Ambassadors". WOW! Did they ever put on a show. An hour of gospel music that was moving, to say the least. At the end of the service, there was a dessert line for any who cared to partake. Both my wife and I were pretty tired from the events of the day, and we are both working at losing weight, so we declined.

We just got home a bit ago, and I'm going to sign off in a few minutes to go to bed. While my spirit is energized for the week, my body needs its rest so I can hit the ground running tomorrow.

Have a blessed week, and keep focused on your goals.

As usual I'm late. Not sure what to bring. I think I'll bring a Black Bean, Pepper and Corn Salad. It has some of my homemade salsa in it. And I have to warn you I use habaneros in my salsa. Just one or two to the pot along with a few other hot peppers, hotter than jalapeños but so flavorful. You will be surprised that it isn't hot, just good.

I have to admit that being a two clergy family we haven't been on vacations since we had kids, about 15 years ago. Not that we don't get time, just every time we try, something comes up like a funeral. So, our vacations have been camp, Annual Conference, visiting family in other states. And weekends just never happened in our house.

But, I just started a new job as a psychotherapist and I've been thinking about the trips I want to take our kids on. I want to take them to some places I went as a child and young adult. Some of this can be weekend trips. I want to take them to Pine Ridge, South Dakota where I taught school right out of college before seminary. Pine Ridge is on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. I want to take them to the Black Hills and to Wisconsin where their father and I would go to Mission Conferences when we were first married.
Cindi

Yum...but don't tell my wooly lawnmowers I said that.

We've got a pretty good meal going here. I'll bring a big cooler jug of iced tea so that we have something to sip on as we chat....

Conejo al ajillo. (That's Rabbit with garlic). I enjoyed that dish more than once in one of the nicer restaurants in Torrejon.

The dish I liked the most was their roast lamb. In fact, I adapted the means of cooking it to almost any cut that can be roasted. About all you do to the meat is pierce it and slip slices of garlic into the slits, then rub a little olive oil on it so that the cracked pepper that you sprinkle on will stick. (Be very generous with the garlic). Then roast in on a rack in a slow oven (about 275* if you do it inside) or do like I do and cook it in a smoker outside for about 4 to 5 hours. It works with lamb, pork, and beef, and renders a lot of the fat out of the meat. This is the means I used to cook a prime rib roast for Easter dinner -- the family thought it was wonderful (so did I).

Hi George,

MMMMM, I do remember the food there as being quite wonderful - except possibly for the night some folks in the group had rabbit.....not my thing.

We started out in Madrid and traveled around to Toledo, Cadiz, Barcelona... I would love to go back, as I know I would appreciate a lot of the history more now than I did as a teenager.

Green salad with avocado, diced tomatoes, goat cheese on the side and a variety of salad dressings. Grandson crumbles Cheese Its up in his salads. When I make them just for myself I use low fat cottage cheese and no dressing.

My sister's husband was a civiliam in the military. They lived all over the world and have been happily vacationing the world the last 20 years. My first niece was born in Germany. My sister is a very courageous person. I take most of my trips vicariously through her. She is turning 70 this summer and my daughter, granddaughter and I are flying to North Carolina to celebrate her birthday/family reunion. They have rented a large house for the event in the Black Mountains. It will be nice to see all the family we have not seen in awhile.

Dianneyme,

I was stationed at Torrejon AB, Spain for 4 years. That is about 30 kilometers northeast of Madrid. So for this round, I'll bring a Spanish Tortilla as a tapa (appetizer)-- it is a potato omelette that is quite good as a snack (again, recipe available).

We had a wonderful time there. In fact, of all the places we were, that is the one that my wife would go back to in a heartbeat.

The older parts of the cities were the most interesting to us also. The old churchs, the museums, etc. And the food was wonderful! The Madrilenos (there should be a ~ over the n) have made dining a new art form. They say that you can spend a whole tour (4 years in our case) eating each evening at a different restaurant in Madrid, and never go to the same one twice! The cuisine is really quite healthy -- lots of olive oil, fresh vegetables and fruit, etc. -- but portion control, as always, is a bit of a problem.

Edited by: K5GCM07 at: 3/27/2008 (15:00)

Well, since all our pot-lucks up here in ME are "baked bean suppahs", I will bring the baked beans. (No hot dogs though - not healthy enough!).

We have taken the kids to Canada several times over the years - Ottawa to see the changing of the guard, Montreal, and Quebec (traveling to St Anne de Beaupre to see their fabulous Stations of the Cross).

The only time I have been to Europe was when I was a sophomore in college. I was in the Chamber Singers and we went to Spain for three weeks. It was an amazing time - getting to sing in those big old cathedrals and taking in all the sights. I would love to go back some day...

We like to eat at our UMC too. I am bringing a pistachio fruit salad and am thinking very hard how I can make it healthier. I will use fresh fruit instead of canned, and ditch the marshmallows. I wonder if the grandkids will eat it.

My youngest son and his wife went to Europe last summer. They were not able to go up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. They had a fabulous time though and are planning on returning. They went with a tour group for their first trip and they made friends with some people from New Zealand.

Victoria BC is as far as I have gotten out of the US and it is only a day drive from my house. However, it is truly beautiful and worth seeing.

The title is an effort to get some discussion going. I know at our small congregation, all we have to do to get the talk flowing is to have a potluck.

So, I'll bring a main dish of Barbecued Brisket (recipe available it you want it) with plenty to serve whoever shows up. And, since I have lived in several parts of the world, I'll regale you with a tale of my travels.

I think the neatest thing I have done in the realm of travel was to take my family on a 12 day vacation to Italy while I was stationed in Germany. The highlights of the trip included seeing Vatican City, Rome, Pisa and Pompei. The most awe-inspiring site was the Sistine Chapel. At the time we went, the restoration of the ceiling was about 1/2 done. The contrast between the restored and unrestored areas was amazing.

The most fascinating time was the day we spent walking around the ruins of Pompei. That is something to be experienced if you ever get to go to that part of the world.

The neatest "gee-whiz" thing was climbing up to the top of the leaning tower in Pisa with my son (he was about 13 or 14 at the time). Within a couple of years of our trip, you could no longer do that as the structure had become too unstable. (They may have reopened it now -- I'm not sure.)

So what will you bring to the table in the way of food and conversation?