A new recipe

Tonight I made a fun and fast chicken recipe. I was pretty tuckered out after having a nearly full day of activity...something I've not done for a long time! So I wanted something fast, and this was a winner. I thought maybe some of you would enjoy it as well. It is called Chicken in Silver and is from a little out-of-print chicken book I have. This recipe is for two chicken breasts (two servings), but for more, just multiply. I made three servings tonight.

Make the following sauce in your blender or food processor:
1 tsp. minced ginger
2 small cloves garlic
2 TBS apricot jam
1 tsp. cider vinegar
2 tsp. butter
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp dry mustard or mustard seeds

For each serving, take a 12 X 12 piece of foil, place a thick slice of sweet onion in the middle, and place one boneless, skinless chicken breast on the onion. Divide the sauce among your chicken breasts, just spooning it on top. Atop each breast spread several julienne strips of carrot and several snow peas. Then join up all the corners of the foil and seal.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees (yes, 500 degrees). Put a cookie sheet in the over for the last dew minutes so it will heat up, too. Cook the pouches on the cookie sheet for 15 minutes, then remove from oven and allow to stand for 5 more minutes. Serve with rice or potatoes to soak up the lovely sauce, and a fresh salad.

It was a lovely meal!

Puzzler answer

For any of you who missed Shannon's excellent (and correct) comment yesterday, here is the answer to the grammar puzzle from yesterday:

John, where Jim had had "had," had had "Had had;" "had had" had had the teacher's approval.

Now there's a language for you: 11 hads in a row, and it still works!

A word puzzle

While visiting with Ben and Elsa, David Canfield, the composer and collector and brilliant host of their small group, posed us with a grammar challenge. You can make the following words a grammatically correct sentence by adding a total of 11 punctuation marks. Can you do it? I couldn't! Here are the words:

John where Jim had had had had had had had had had had had the teachers approval

Now, add eleven punctuation marks to make sense of it: don't change any words, remove any words, etc.

Good luck! I'll post the answer tomorrow.

A painting party

Today, we had a painting party at church. The stark, white wall behind the pulpit has been replaced by a warm, taupe wall, which I am sure will make our pastor even more handsome.

Above is our intrepid paint crew in a pose we call "American Gothic Painters". Below, Rachel, Kelley and Kris get started.



Above, Charlie did all the ladder work. We got to break in our new 10 foot ladder, which will be splendid for picking apples. Below, Kris shows the finished, and almost dry, product.

We had a great time of fellowship spending the day together, playing games with the kids between coats of paint, and finished the day with pizza together at church. What a lovely, productive day!

A quilting party

Today I had the pleasure of inviting over some dear friends (K. and R. and E. and M.) for a "quilting" party. The real motive was that I had two double-sized quilt tops that needed to be sandwiched and pinned, and I knew that I couldn't physically do it by myself right now. And having help and company is always more fun, anyway! So the Baer women, and two of the Watts women were gracious enough to spend two hours or so crawling around my living room floor, helping me with the quilts (the quilt pictured is for use in my new "office", which used to be the boys' room; the other is a very belated wedding gift for M. and A. G. in Ohio.) And then we enjoyed lunch together. What a sweet fellowship, and what a productive morning!

I must admit that I am just pooped. As I cleaned up after lunch, I knew my comfy chair was calling, and so I am headed there to nap until dinner. Still, what a joy to feel like doing something, then actually planning it and doing it! God is very good to me to allow a measure of energy to be returning, even if I have to nap afterwards. And He has blessed me with the friendship of these four ladies beyond measure.

The silly item of the day must be reported, too. I have never done this before, but as we laid out the first quilt, I realized that I had somehow measured the short-side twice, and had a square back instead of a rectangular one. Having to find this out in front of your friends is rather embarrassing. But then we discovered I had done it on BOTH quilts. Geesh! My dear friends laughed with me, and gave me time to add to the backing fabric, and pretended like it was no big deal. Which it wasn't, of course. But it does prove to me that my poor mind should not be trusted with anything important...

Red Envelope Day

Today, Gentle Readers, I am participating in a gentle protest, and wanted to give you the opportunity to join me. As a way of increasing the current administration's awareness of the devastating effects of abortion-on-demand in our nation, many are sending red envelopes to the President today. Here's what to do:
~Get any red, letter-sized envelope.
~Address it to:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

~Be sure to include your return address.
~On the back of the envelope, write:

This envelope represents one child who died because of abortion. It is empty because the life that was taken is now unable to be part of our world.

~Put first class postage on the envelope, and mail it today.

It's that simple. And let's pray that our President will have a change of heart in his promotion of the culture of death in our nation.

A "Soft Safari"

Here is my finally-finished quilt for Tim and Nikki. It was on track for their wedding last September when cancer interrupted, and now they will have it before their seven-month anniversary, anyway!


It is a extra-large queen size, which was a bit of a bear for machine quilting, so I kept it simple and stiched in-the-ditch. I am glad that it is finished, and that I like the way it turned out. The pattern is called "Four Square" and is from the book Big 'n Easy: Supersized Quilts for Queen Beds by Judy Hopkins. I called it "Soft Safari" because of the safari theme that Nikki chose.
Hopefully Tim and Nikki will love it!