Good Friday; Foodie Post
Hello, All. I hope you're doing well this evening. :)
It is Good Friday, a special day for Christians. I'm sure many people see it as a somber, sad day and say, "Why would you celebrate this day, when a man was tortured, beaten, spit on, and crucified? That's horrible!" It is, but this man did it voluntarily for a very important reason. He was the only Person Who could bridge the way for all of mankind to go to heaven. We can't go by good works. The Bible is very clear about that; read Romans 3 and Romans 6. We will never be good enough, and our works will never be good enough because we are imperfect. But the Lord Jesus is perfect, and He loved each of us so very much, He made the way possible with His death on the Cross. Can you imagine loving all of mankind so much that you would die for each and every person born and yet-to-be born? He does! It's a love so deep, no man can understand it. But it's 100% true, and He wants us to love and serve Him here on earth and be with Him in heaven when we pass. All we have to do is acknowledge He is God, that He is the only way to heaven, ask Him to wash away all our sins, and write our name in the Book of Life. That's it! Good works come afterward as a way to serve Him in thanks for the amazing gift He gave us. This gift is available every day, any time of day until He comes back. Absolutely the best decision I've ever made. I could not have endured the tough times in my life without Him and His love! I encourage you to ponder this amazing gift and consider accepting it for yourself.
On this day, I worked a lot in the kitchen. Dishes were waiting for me when I got up, and then I planned to make banana bread. All was going swimmingly: the bananas mashed and the dry ingredients measured out, until I went to mix the wet ingredients. No vanilla. Not a drop! Ugh. So I had to cover up everything and head to the store. The rest of the banana bread adventure went smoothly, and it turned out beautifully. It's so hard not to slice into it, but it's going to Mom and Dad's house for Easter lunch.
After I made the banana bread and cleaned up, it was time to make deviled eggs for our Easter lunch. Luckily, I checked the paprika before heading to the store; mine was old and tasteless, so I asked Jon to pick up a bottle. He got what I think must be the biggest bottle in the store! I have no idea what I'm going to do with all this paprika! Anyway, I'm always a little hesitant when I make deviled eggs because it seems like eggs nowadays are hard to peel. I've run the gamut on different techniques from using older eggs, baking them, putting baking soda in the water, salt in the water, etc. Today I put salt and a little bit of apple cider vinegar in the water; when they were finished, I ran cold water in the pot just until I could handle them easily before peeling. They peeled so much more easily! However, the yolks wanted to stick to the white, causing a few of the whites to rip. I noticed, though, that the yolks came out more easily on the eggs that'd been given more time to cool, so I think the next time I make deviled eggs, I will peel them while they're warm, then let them cool down before trying to scoop out the yolks.
After resting for a while, I decided to make dinner. I had planned to make lasagna and salad, but I forgot to thaw the meat so it was on to Plan B. I settled on homemade macaroni and cheese. I usually make it the way my maternal grandmother and great-grandmother did by layering noodles, butter, and cheese, then pouring in milk just about 3/4 of the way up, then baking for an hour. This time, though, I switched it up. I used 8 oz each of New York sharp cheddar and regular sharp cheddar, a small wedge of fontina cheese, and ricotta cheese. My grandma and great-grandma would use cottage cheese, but it gets soupier than I prefer it (although it won't stop me from eating it...heheheh). Then they use their secret ingredient: evaporated milk. It makes the dish so much richer! But...I forgot the milk before I put it in the oven! I didn't realize it until a half hour into the baking...much too late to add it. Thankfully, the dish tasted very good, albeit a little dry. Despite that small snafu, dinner was a success.
I asked Jon to wash the dishes tonight. I usually wash up dishes as I cook so it's not such a huge job. Jon had it pretty easy. To my surprise, after he got done with the washing, he came in to tell me he was making gingersnap cookies!! Wow! He did it all by himself with no help from me, not even any questions. He simply followed the recipe. I'm so proud of him! I knew he could do it, he just had to prove it to himself. He even washed up his own dishes...even after washing the supper dishes. (grin) He's learning, Y'all! He has been listening! :p
As I'm sitting here typing, I noticed an itchy feeling on my left hand. When I looked down, there was a stinkbug crawling on my pinky. A stinky on my pinky. Heh. It sure made me jump and yelp. We often get at least one in the house, so I've just taken to calling him Stinky Peterson, after the off-screen character from the Red Green Show (an older Canadian comedy). I don't want to squish him and make him truly stinky!
Well, I'm getting silly now so I'll close this for tonight. I hope and pray you're all doing well. Jon and I are fine. Makenna the Dog and Polo the Cat are fine, too. If you have time, go check out my son Jonathan's journal, millerman01, which is up right now and be on the lookout for posts on my mom's journal, pafarmergirl, She's planning to return to it in the near future. She has lots of stories to tell about her childhood and her life with Dad.
My love to you all! Goodnight!
Always,
Kelly