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secret recipe for meatballs
This recipe for meatballs comes from a friend who married into an old Italian family ~ you know, the kind that lives on the east coast and can proudly say they have several generations of policemen and/or fire fighters who have faithfully served the residents of their city. The recipe has been passed down from generation to generation and family legend holds it was brought over “on the boat” by great-great-etc., etc. grandma when she immigrated to the US. This recipe was never to be given to anyone outside the family. Well, never ended when my friend and her old Italian family husband got a divorce. Then my friend couldn’t give it out fast enough or to enough people! Despite the fact that this is more of a revenge recipe than a secret one at this point, it makes the best meatballs I have ever had ~ and it makes a pretty good meatloaf, too!
1 – 1 1/2 lb. ground beef
seasoned bread crumbs (enough to hold consistence)
salt & pepper to taste
1/4c. Romano cheese, shredded
1/4 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 teaspoon each ~ garlic powder, oregano, basil & parsley
2 – 3 eggs
2 handfuls water
Mix all ingredients; shape into balls. Place meatballs in skillet; add ingredients for sauce. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and cover. Cook at light simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour or until meatballs are cooked through.
Of course the original recipe calls for homemade seasoned bread crumbs (made from toasted Italian bread with herbs ~ like the bread you get at Carino’s), freshly grated cheeses, fresh oregano, basil and parsley, and homemade spaghetti sauce. But I’m lazy and cheat by using packaged Italian bread crumbs, packaged grated cheese, dried herbs and spaghetti sauce from a jar. The meatballs still taste amazing.
Enjoy!
Edited later to add: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I don’t eat pork, so I honestly don’t know how this would taste or do with some Italian sausage thrown in. I’ve only ever made it with beef. Come to think of it, when my friend wrote out the recipe for me it didn’t mention anything about Italian sausage…
thanksgiving dinner
We’re pretty traditional when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner. Roger isn’t a HUGE fan of turkey, so I usually only make it for Thanksgiving. That way it’s still special and unique enough that he’ll eat it and enjoy it. 
Our menu generally consists of turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, gravy, dinner rolls, green beans, green salad and cherry cream cheese pie. I also make sparkling raspberry lemonade and hot cranberry apple cider. At times there are other additions, but these items are always present. This year I’m adding pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting (I got the recipe from a friend on Facebook).
Several years ago I discovered a recipe for a poultry brine that sounded so good I wanted to try it. We loved it, and have used it every year since. It’s a very simple brine: 1 cup kosher salt, 1 lemon cut into wedges, 1 organge cut into wedges, 1 medium white onion cut into wedges, 3 cloves garlic, 4 bay leaves, 1 Tbs. dried thyme, 1 Tbs. black pepper and 1 1/2 gallons (or more if needed) of water. Rub the salt into the turkey, and place remaining salt, lemons, oranges, onion, garlic, bay leaves, thyme and pepper into a large pot. Place turkey in the pot, then fill pot with water. Refrigerate overnight. Discard brine after removing turkey. Do not rinse turkey before raosting.
Another trick to make your turkey moist and flavorful: roast it breast-side down. I know, I know ~ all of the cookbooks and online cooking sites say you should tie up the turkey and roast it breast up. It does make for a pretty turkey, if presentation is what you’re going for. Personally, I don’t care about the presentation. We have always carved up the turkey in the kitchen, put the meat on a platter and put the platter on the dinner table. So presentation is not even in the equation for me. I want moist, flavorful turkey. Even without brining your turkey can be yummy, if you roast it breast-side down. That way all of the juices from the dark meat run down into the breast. You can even get away with NOT basting your turkey if you roast it breast-side down. That makes the turkey a snap ~ I’m all about easy Thanksgiving turkeys! I’m just sayin’…
One more recipe I’ll share today ~ cranberry apple cider. Yuummmm. This is another one of those items I save for the holidays, which only serves to make it all the more yummy! It’s simple, too: 2 quarts apple cider, 2 quarts cranberry juice, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 4 seedless oranges cut in half, 2 teaspoons whole cloves, 8 cinnamon sticks, 2 teaspoons whole allspice. Mix the apple cider, cranberry juice and brown sugar in a large pot or crock pot. Add the oranges. Put cloves, cinnamon, and allspice in a spice bag and add to juice. Simmer on stovetop for about 30 minutes or warm in crock pot for at least 2 hours (up to 6 hours).
I love to make special foods during the holiday season. My family seems to look forward to them just as much as I do. They’ve become part of our holiday traditions ~ traditions I hope will be passed down through more generations in the years to come.
hypothetical situation (part3)
Thank you to everyone for the comments here and on Facebook, as well as the private messages and emails. Your thoughts, perspectives, and points of view have been very helpful, and I truly do appreciate them ~ and you!
And now, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story:
The “hypothetical” story I wrote about here and here is true (to the best of my ability). It happened to me. I am that best friend who was completely cut off. And I do mean completely. It is still a very painful subject for me ~ I think that’s why I had to write about it. It happened almost 3 years ago, and to this day I can’t talk about it without becoming tearful.
I pray for my friend every day. It has really been a lesson in forgiveness on my part. I’m not a very trusting person ~ it takes a lot for me to honest-to-goodness trust another human being. It’s not that I’m unfriendly or impersonal. I like to think I am friendly and personable, but there aren’t many people I implicitly trust. And that very small number has been reduced by one with the loss of my best friendship.
One day, about a year and a half after she just stopped talking to me, my friend finally returned one of my phone calls. I’m pretty sure what prompted her do that <insert small chuckle and slight shaking of head> was what I imagine to be a slightly panicked phone call from her youngest child (who was, at the time, an older teen) telling her I had called her house sobbing. It had been a while since I had tried to get a hold of her. It took me 6 months or so, but I did finally catch a clue and stop trying to get in touch with her. But that particular day was an especially difficult one, and I missed my friend so much that I broke down ~ in more ways than one ~ and dialed her phone number. She wasn’t home, but I did talk to her teenager. It had to have been obvious that I was crying, no matter how hard I tried to hide it. After learning she wasn’t at home, I simply asked her teen to let her know I had called. I really didn’t expect her to call me back, since she hadn’t returned any of my previous phone calls.
Surprisingly though, she did call me. She was at work and couldn’t talk for long, but she said she was calling to make sure I was okay. Wow ~ I was stunned. I told her that no, actually I wasn’t okay, and asked if maybe she could call me later that day after she got home. She said she would. And she did.
It wasn’t a very long conversation that evening, but it was long enough for her to tell me I hadn’t done anything to cause her to stop talking to me. That had been my biggest fear and concern. Then she told me about the leukemia, and about her decision to try this alternative method of treatment rather than dive right into chemotherapy. And then she told me that the main thing she had to do was to reduce the stress in her life, so she had cut just about everyone out. Including me.
I was shocked. On one hand, I wanted to chew her out for not telling me she had a life-threatening illness. On the other hand, I wanted to keep my voice calm and quite so as to not totally stress her out. I mean, even though she had hurt me deeply, I loved her as a sister. I was willing to forgive a year and a half’s worth of pain and tears at the drop of a hat simply for the opportunity to talk to her again.
We didn’t reconcile during that phone call. I don’t know why, other than what she told me ~ that it’s part of her alternative treatment that she maintain an extremely low threshold for stress.
I have struggled with forgiveness in this area of my life. I struggle with it daily ~ sometimes on a moment-by-moment basis. It would be so easy for me to become bitter. Actually, I do have moments when I am bitter. But mostly I mourn the loss of a friendship ~ a friendship that was so dear to me that to this day its loss is immensely painful.
So what’s the lesson here? For me, the lesson has been that no matter what the circumstance or slight, I have to forgive. While my friend may never ask for my forgiveness, she has it. It has to be that way. I have to walk in love and forgiveness ~ otherwise I would become bitter. That bitterness would grow and grow, and probably take over my life.
Unforgiveness is ugly, folks. It becomes this monster that rules every part of a life. How do I know this? Experience. Lots of experience with people who don’t know forgiveness, or how to forgive.
I know that my friend is ill. I can only imagine the difficulties she is experiencing. I wish it were different ~ I wish I didn’t have to imagine what she is experiencing. I would prefer to know first hand as her best friend what she’s experiencing. I would prefer to have the last 34 months back and be able to share them with her.
I won’t (and don’t) let that stop me though. I know she knows I pray for her ~ that is one of the things she told me when we talked on the telephone a while back. And she knows that when she’s ready I’ll be here.
We are quickly approaching a time of year when we celebrate our thankfulness to God for His provision both on this earth and eternally. This time of year also seems to be the time of the greatest number of suicides. People can easily become depressed, or bitter, or feel overwhelmingly hurt by the circumstances or events in their life. It’s easy to do ~ with all of the television programs, commercials, billboards, magazine ads and online access, there is more exposure today than ever before to what Hollywood thinks Thanksgiving and Christmas should be. A modern day Norman Rockwellian holiday season. And yet I don’t know a single person who can truthfully claim that type of existence.
It would be easy for me to allow myself to wallow in bitterness and self-pity, and claim that since I lost one of the most important people and relationships in my life that the holidays are ruined. As I review the past year, there are a lot of things I could claim to have ruined any kind of symbolic celebration of life and happiness. But that’s simply not the truth.
Instead, I choose to see past those things. I’m not saying I go about my life blindly pretending that everything is just hunky-dory, or that I live in a Rockwellian-esque world. But I do have a God Who is bigger than anything and everything, and Who can do abundantly, exceedingly more than anything I could ever ask for, dream of, or even imagine. He heals the broken ~ broken people, broken relationships, broken lives. Does that mean God will repair my relationship with this particular friend? Possibly. But you know what? I’m okay with that, because I know that what He has planned is better than what I want. His best is infinitely beyond better than my best.
This same God is the God Who sent His only Son so that we ~ you and I ~ could have eternal life. He’s the One we’re to give thanks to ~ not just on Thanksgiving Day, or even just during the month of November. Every day should be a day of thanksgiving for those who believe, because we know we can never earn or deserve what He has given us. Every day should be the day when we count our blessings. Every day should also be the day we celebrate Christ’s birth and resurrection. We set aside a specific day in the year as a nation to give thanks, and a specific day to celebrate Christmas (which, by the way, breaks down to Christ Mas(s) which is the old way of saying Christ Celebration). But as believers in Christ Jesus as the Way, the Truth, the Bread of Life, the Living Water, the only way to salvation and eternal life with God, we have reason to give thanks and celebrate EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
During this season of reflection, take the time to list the reasons you have to be thankful. And if necessary, take the time to make a list of the things you need to take before the throne of God and lay at His feet. Practice repentance, which includes the turning away from sin and going in a new direction. And every time you’re tempted to relive or rehash whatever it is that you laid at His feet, remember this: God IS. Period. He IS. Bigger, better, more powerful, stronger, smarter…insert your own word here…and He wants you, and me, to learn to lean on Him.
That’s what I’m trying to do, every single day. I pray you are, too.
hypothetical situation (part 2)
If you missed “hypothetical situation (part 1), it may be helpful for you to read it here before going on to this post.
Please re-join me in imagining …
So, you’ve just been told you have leukemia. You’re feeling frightened by the diagnosis, but you’re also a bit relieved to at least know why you’ve been feeling terrible for a very long time.
You begin to do research. Lots and lots of research. Your degree in the medical field may not make you a doctor, but it did teach you how to research medical conditions ~ you’re pretty good at it. In fact, when the doctors told you your youngest child had Crohn’s disease, you researched it thoroughly and found a specific diet that actually helps the body heal itself. You’ve cooked, from scratch, everything your youngest child has eaten over the past 2 years, and the Crohn’s symptoms have completely disappeared. Basically, you rock at research.
You find some solid research that suggests there are ways to handle your disease without jumping right to chemotherapy. You discuss it with your doctor, and he agrees to let you give the alternative treatment a shot. There’s a specified time period in which you will follow alternative methods involving diet, exercise, stress reduction and stress control. According to all of the research you’re able to gather, stress reduction and stress control are VERY important aspects of this alternative treatment method.
You discuss with your husband ways in which you can reduce and control your stress level. One way will be to lessen your load at work. Your husband is a successful man who is self employed and has his own office with a small staff. You help out at his office, taking care of time-sensitive materials, but your main job is really to help your husband stay focused on what he needs to focus on. You’re his land line basically ~ hubby has a tendency to get bogged down, so you help him and his staff keep things moving along, meeting deadlines and handling peripheral situations. It’s easy enough for you to cut back on the amount of time and energy you spend at work. You will simply have to hire more office help as necessary, and train others to complete in a timely manner the jobs you would ordinarily handle.
Another decision you and your hubby make is to keep your illness pretty much under wraps. People are usually sympathetic and want help out when they hear someone is ill. You appreciate that sentiment, but since your disease involves an already compromised immune system, it’s probably better that you not have hordes of people around ~ you never know what kind of contagious illnesses others may have. You’ve lived in this same town for a loooooong time, and your husband’s occupation makes your family fairly well-known. Given these factors, you decide the fewer people who know you’re sick the better.
You’ll tell your kids, of course. And your parents. You should probably tell your siblings and their kids. But other than that, you’re not planning to spread the word.
Not even to your best friend.
And that leaves you with only one choice to make. You’ve got to stop talking to your best friend. Period. She knows you well, and she’ll instinctively pick up on the fact that you’re not telling her something. She already knows something is wrong, and she won’t let you just gloss things over and not talk about it. Even though she’s hundreds (closer to a thousand) miles away, you know she’ll know something’s up.
Besides, you think telling her would be too stressful. Your friend isn’t a drama queen by any means, but you know she won’t react well. She’ll probably want to come visit, which would add stress to your life, and right now the main goal is to reduce the amount of stress around you, not add to it. You love her dearly and you know she loves you as a sister, but you really think it would just be best to cut off all communications with her.
Your friend is a prayer warrior. At the very least you know she’ll be praying for you, even though she won’t know what’s going on.
Okay. Here we are at question time again: is cutting off all communication with your best friend the decision YOU would make?
I promise not to drag this out forever. Depending on what kind of comments and insights are offered, I think there will probably just be one more installment of “hypothetical situation.” Hang in there with me folks! Keep the comments coming ~ I really do appreciate them, more than I can say.
hypothetical situation (part 1)
Imagine with me:
You’ve been feeling crummy for a while. A long while. You’re tired, feel like you have a never-ending cold, and your hair seems to be falling out in record amounts. These symptoms come and go in no discernible pattern ~ one day you’re feeling well enough to go to work, and the next day you’re completely wiped out and have to spend the entire day in bed.
You’ve tried just about everything you can think of to feel better and boost your immune system ~ rest, vitamins, exercise, proper amounts of sunlight, organic foods…you’ve even cut certain foods out of your diet, but nothing really seems to help. Your amazing and wonderfully supportive hubby decides to take you and the kids (who are teens and can care for themselves) on a vacation ~ a couple of vacations, actually. You go to the beach and enjoy the sand in your toes, listen to the sound of the surf, and sit in a beach chair under an umbrella trying to recouperate. You go to an exclusive, five-star resort on the Nova Scotia coast where hubby and the kids can play golf all day, and all you’re required to do is rest, relax, read a couple of books, and try to regain your energy and strength.
For whatever reason though, nothing helps. You’re frustrated, exhausted, overwhelmed, discouraged, and just plain fed up. Another visit to the doctor seems like a waste of time (since you’ve seen the doctor probably 10 times in the last 12 months), but you go anyway because you desperately want to figure out what’s wrong with you. You want to get better.
A few days later the doctor’s office calls. The doctor would like to see you ~ in person ~ to discuss some results from your last battery of tests. You’re pretty savvy when it comes to medical stuff, since you have a degree in the medical field, and you’re fairly confident whatever the doc wants to discuss with you probably isn’t good news.
To this point, you haven’t discussed your symptoms in depth with anyone other than your husband and your doctor. Your best friend knows you’ve been feeling a little “off” but you haven’t, for whatever reason, really opened up to her and filled her in.
Now, let’s say your best female friend is truly your best (female) friend. She’s more of a sister to you than your “real” sisters ~ you consider her your family, and that’s the best thing in the world because she’s the family you’ve chosen, not the family you have because of a biological connection. For several years you and your best friend lived in the same town, went to the same church, regularly got together to let the kids play, went to Bible studies together, and even had lunch out together about once a week. When her husband took a new job in a state 19 hours away, you didn’t let it stop you or even make a dent in your friendship. Now you talk on the phone 3 or 4 times a week, usually for at least an hour each time. You visit one another about once a quarter ~ sometimes she comes to stay at your house, sometimes you go to stay at her house. Your friendship is solid. You’ve been through a LOT together ~ in your 10 years of friendship, the only human being on this earth you could claim a closer relationship with would be your husband. You love your best friend because you’re really, truly friends. Friends in the Lord. Solid chosen sisters. There’s nothing she can’t tell you or you can’t tell her.
Except, for some reason, you’re holding back from her the full knowledge of your illness.
The doctor’s report isn’t good. He tells you that you have leukemia. He wants you to start chemotherapy right away.
What would YOU do, in this situation??
(hypothetical situation, part 2 coming soon)
chicken with basil cream sauce
Here’s an easy recipe that tastes amazing!
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup dry Italian seasoned bread crumbs
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 oz. sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy whipping cream (half & half will do in a pinch)
1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup minced fresh basil
freshly ground sea salt and black pepper to taste
8 oz. angel hair pasta, cooked al dente
fresh lemon wedges
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place milk and bread crumbs in separate shallow bowls. Dip chicken in milk, then coat with bread crumbs.
In a skillet over medium heat, melt butter; add olive oil. Brown chicken on both sides in butter/olive oil. Remove chicken and place in glass casserole dish. Bake in preheated oven until chicken is no longer pink in the middle.
Saute mushrooms in skillet.
Add broth to skillet. Bring to a boil over medium heat and stir to loosen browned bits from pan bottom. Stir in whipping cream; boil and stir for 1 minute. Reduce heat. Stir in Parmesan, basil, salt and pepper, and cook until heated through. If necessary, mix 1 teaspoon corn starch with 1/4 cup chicken broth and stir into skillet to thicken sauce.
Pour sauce over chicken, reserving about half. Pour reserved sauce over angel hair pasta. Serve chicken and pasta with lemon wedges ~ squeeze lemon over chicken and pasta just before eating. Enjoy!
christmas dress
This is the Christmas dress I picked up for Attison today. I’m totally in love with it ~ it will look SO cute on Atti. I made sure that there aren’t any scratchy parts or fabric that will touch Attison (that’s Ashley’s biggest complaint with this kind of dress). She has some cute little black MaryJanes she can wear with it. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE dressing a little girl? 
a new direction?
A few months ago I wrote this post about the possibility of writing a book. Since I wrote that post, there have been a few developments behind the scenes, and things have been….well, redirected(?)…in a way that I hadn’t really considered even a possibility.
I’ve been sporadic about posting about the goings-on in my family, mainly because I’m still unsure about how much to share. I haven’t had any real clear release from God telling me to write (or not to write) much of anything.
So, since you (the readers) have stayed with me this long, I’m going to assume that you’re still interested in reading this blog. That, my friends, is so encouraging to me. I can’t express the depth of my appreciation of your comments here, your emails, and Facebook communications. When you’re in the middle of something, it’s so easy to feel as though you’re the only one who knows what you’re going through. That’s never the truth ~ there’s nothing new under the sun, nothing that God has never seen before, and nothing that God doesn’t already know the solution to or the outcome of. (That’s terrible grammar ~ especially coming from someone known in her homeschool circles as “the grammar nazi”!! But this one time we’ll just ignore the structure of the previous 2 or 3 sentences and move on.)
I don’t mean to be evasive or to try to string you along. I truly am working on figuring out what direction I should take with this blog. I enjoy blogging, even though right now with a toddler in the house my free time is severely limited, as is my stamina and brain cell power.
For now, please continue to hang in there with me ~ as soon as I know what I should do, I’ll do it. I promise!
it’s a long drive from minnesota
Ashley, Mike and Atti, Nov 9, 2009
Ashley and Mike were here this past weekend to visit us and Attison. They left Minnesota Friday afternoon and drove pretty much straight through, arriving at our house Saturday morning. They were in town for 3 nights, and spent Atti’s every waking moment and then some with us.
Ashley is about 22 weeks pregnant now. This one is a boy ~ he’s due March 1, 2010. Attison was 3 weeks early, so we’ll see how things go with this one. I think this pregnancy is pretty much the opposite of Attison’s. Atti carried very high under Ashley’s ribs ~ this one is so low that Ashley can place Attison on top of her “belly” and carry Atti around. This child is quite rambunctious and has given Ashley fits from the start ~ Atti was fairly mellow. The first pregnancy is always slower to show, but Ashley didn’t really need maternity clothes until about 7 months. She’s already wearing her maternity clothes at 5 1/2 months pregnant this time ~ she’s concerned they might be so small by the end of this pregnancy that she won’t be able to wear them! Of course I laughed at her on that one ~ if you’ve ever met Ashley in person, you’ll understand why I laughed. The girl is ssooooo tiny, and has such a tiny bone structure, that it’s next to impossible to imagine her too chunky to fit into her maternity clothes. She has gained a good amount of weight so far, but for her that’s an extremely GOOD thing. She was down around 85 pounds again when she got pregnant, and was way too thin. Her doctor has told her to eat every high calorie food she can get her hands on, and to keep eating them. (Must be nice!!) That’s not a piece of advice any doctor has ever given me! Ashley definitely got her metabolism from her father’s side…
Attison loved having Mike and Ashley here ~ she played, and played, and played some more with them. Their stay was short, but it was a good beginning. Atti and Ashley haven’t seen each other since the very beginning of July; it didn’t take very long for Attison to warm up to Ashley and Mike. Once they sat down in her room and played with her, trying on her plastic mixing bowl “hats” and bouncing the ball with her, she knew she had them wrapped around her little finger. It’s hard not to be wrapped around Atti’s little finger though ~ she’s a sweet little girl who’s very cute! (Spoken like a true grandparent, no?)
I’m not sure how soon Ashley and Mike will be able to come back down to Arkansas. We don’t have anything set as of yet. It’s a very long drive from Minnesota to Arkansas, even when you’re young and can take long hours of driving like that. There are several other factors that have to be considered as well, especially given that Ashley is pregnant and Mike needs his job to support his growing family.