Ba-nected

This morning Sydney was playing with her baby elephant, Emily, (build-a-bear elephant) and was telling Abby that Emily was "ba-nected". I thought she was trying to say "connected" but couldn't figure out why she was talking about getting an ambulance, etc. I immediately began to think they were talking about a live birth and wondered where they got this information. Abby said, "Don't you remember from the Zebra video?" I got nervous. I watched that Animal Planet special on zebras with them and there wasn't anything eluding to a live birth on there.

Then Sydney continued to play like her elephant fell down and was "ba-nected" again. She needed an ambulance again. Then it dawned on me. What a relief! The elephant was "infected". Whew. So I told them how to pronounce the word and what it meant. I escaped a very difficult conversation today!

How do I know?

How do we know when our young children are ready to become Christians? Loaded question. One of our pastors wrote a really great answer to this question:

http://childrenatgrace.blogspot.com/2009/03/q-how-do-you-know-when-young-child-is.html

All About Stephen

I don't think I've ever had a post all about Stephen. Someone else beat me to it. He was "highlighted" in a bio on Grace Church's website this week:

http://www.gracechurchsc.org/stephen-fowler/

Snow Fun

I am so grateful the snow did not miss Greenville this time. Abby heard the weather lady say it was going to snow in the Upstate on Sunday. Most everyone seemed to have "snow on the brain" at the church building Sunday morning. All afternoon I would catch Abby staring out the window to see if it was snowing. Sunday about 7 pm, it started coming down. We got out in it as soon as we could. We were not in it long because we had thundersnow, which I had never experienced before.

All of us had a great time playing in the snow and with friends yesterday. Here are some pictures from the big event:

Stephen, Abby and Sydney building Mr. Snowman:


Abby, Sydney and Brody trying out a sled:


Abby, Sydney, Brody and our good friend, Ella Fuller, posing with a snowball:




Abby, Sydney, Macy, Morgan and Kyia at the Taylors' house:

Maple-Roasted Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

This is a great recipe. We had it for dinner last night. It is from Real Simple. It was really simple to make.

I'm going to make it next time with all chicken breasts because Stephen doesn't like dark meat. It is cheapest if you buy the whole chicken and cut it into pieces yourself, but cutting it does take extra time. Oh, speaking of thyme. I have it growing here if you want to save the money and not buy the fresh thyme, just stop by and cut, no need to ask!

Also, I used the meat thermometer instead of just setting the timer for 1 hour and 15 minutes and it was done in about half that time. If you cooked the chicken whole, I guess it would take that long.

So here's the recipe with my changes for next time in italics:

Recipe for Maple-Roasted Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

1 chicken (3-1/2- to 4-pounds), cut into 8 pieces TRY 4 BONE-IN BREASTS
1 yellow onion, cut into 1-inch wedges
2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks TRY 2 LARGE SWEET POTATOES
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons maple syrup
6 sprigs fresh thyme TRY PULLING OFF STEMS FIRST

Heat oven to 400° F. Rinse the chicken and pat it dry. Arrange the chicken, onion, and sweet potatoes in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Drizzle the oil over the chicken and vegetables and season with the salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Drizzle with the maple syrup and top with the sprigs of thyme.

Roast, stirring the vegetables once, until the chicken is cooked through, about 1 hour, 15 minutes. USE MEAT THERMOMETER. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

TRY SHREDDING CHICKEN AND SERVING WITH JUICES POURED ON TOP

Tip: The maple glaze can also be used with a whole chicken or Cornish game hens.

Yield: Serves 4

CALORIES 625.18 (49% from fat); FAT 34.5g (sat 8.64g); CHOLESTEROL 222.91mg; CALCIUM 59.39mg; CARBOHYDRATE 19g; SODIUM 457.81mg; PROTEIN 56.66mg; FIBER 1.41g; IRON 3.98mg

Adapted from recipe in Real Simple, DECEMBER 2005
http://food.realsimple.com/realsimple/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1132509

Tim Tam on the Brain

Jordan Gons is a friend of ours in our Community Group. His sister spent a significant time in Australia, where she discovered the Tim Tam cookie. Target is temporarily selling this treats in the USA and Jordan bought several packs last week, leaving one-and-a-half packs at my house.

I'm hooked. Those 95-calorie-per cookies are just TOO good. I have been craving them ever since they've been gone. I want to try a Tim Tam Slam.

Anyway, here are pictures of the new package and of someone else's Tim Tam on their plate.

Cream of Something Soup

We all have them. Recipes we feel guilty about because they have the trans-fat-sodium laden cans of cream of something soup, but we love our recipes too much to quit making them. I was so excited when I tried this recipe - it was cheaper and healthier. I also added 1/2 cup of cauliflower puree to it, at times, to make myself feel EVEN better. The nice thing about this recipe is if you are cooking for someone with a milk, egg, soy or wheat allergy you can use substitutes to make it allergy friendly. Anyway, here's the recipe. I adapted it to my own taste but included a link to the original:

Recipe for Homemade White Sauce (Also known as a Bechemel Sauce)

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup whole or 2% milk (plus more for thinning)
chicken stock, chopped mushroom, chopped celery, etc.
1/4 teaspoon salt
4-5 grinds fresh black pepper
1/2 cup cauliflower puree (optional)

In saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Once melted, add flour and whisk with butter. You have now created a roux.

Add milk to butter/flour mix a little at a time and WHISK, WHISK, WHISK!

Cook on medium-high heat, stirring often. Once sauce begins to bubble (DO NOT BOIL), reduce heat to low and simmer for 5-7 minutes more until sauce thickens and has a velvety consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

If sauce is too thin, whisk in more flour. If sauce is too thick, whisk in more milk. (You now have Sauce Bechemel)

Add 2-3 tablespoons chopped mushrooms for "cream of mushroom". Add 3-4 T chicken stock for "cream of chicken". Add 1 tablespoon pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce for cream of tomato. Add 2 tablespoons of chopped celery for cream of celery.

Adapted from recipe on http://www.5dollardinners.com/2008/10/homemade-white-sauce.html