Challenging Week: Second Update

You may remember in a recent post I mentioned that we had a challenging week with baseball games, evening meetings, and late afternoon doctors appointments. Here's how the end of the week turned out.

Wednesday -- I had a dinner meeting, so Kathleen and Peter went to a nearby Chinese restaurant. Peter loves the way they prepare broccoli, so we never worry about whether or not he will have a balanced, nutritious meal.

Thursday -- I made spaghetti and meatballs, a family favorite (and the recipe is included in an earlier post). The trick was, Peter had a 4 p.m. doctor's appointment, which would last for an hour. And the doctor's office is about 20 minutes away from home. How was I going to pull off this meal with those time constraints? By planning ahead! I made the tomato sauce earlier in the day, refrigerated the amount we would need for dinner and put the rest in the freezer. I also started the meatballs by making the meat mixture, forming the balls, placing them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and then refrigerating them. I even got a head start on pre-heating the oven by using one of our oven's special features. So when we got home, all I had to do was start the pasta water, pop the meatballs into the oven and heat up the sauce. Even with a crazy afternoon, dinner was on the table 5 minutes earlier than usual!

Friday -- Peter had a baseball game starting at 6 p.m., so we needed to eat an early dinner. Once again, planning ahead saved the day. We had a broccoli and potato frittata (the recipe is also included in an earlier post). The potatoes were left over from Monday's dinner and I steamed the broccoli earlier in the day. With all that advanced work already done, getting dinner on the table was a snap: I just needed to complete the fritatta, make a salad and we were ready to go!

What made having everyday celebrations during this challenging week possible was planning ahead. Instead of panicking when at diner time wondering how I was going to get dinner ready in time, I looked at our family calendar over the weekend and planned accordingly.

Crazy days don't have to kill everyday celebrations. It's possible to make it happen!

Update on Challenging Week

In a recent post, I mentioned that this week is very challenging, with Little League games, meetings, and late afternoon doctor's appointments. Then on Monday we found that this already full week became even more challenging with an additional baseball practice tonight! How would I get dinner on the table in time, not just so we could eat, but also we could celebrate with meals nourishing both body and soul?

So far this week:

Monday -- For dinner before a Little League game we had sliders (get the baseball reference? Much cooler than calling them mini-hamburgers), carrot salad and oven-roasted potatoes. (Recipes for all three dishes can be found in earlier posts). To get dinner on the table quickly, I made the carrot salad and the slider patties ahead of time and set the oven to turn on automatically so it was at temperature when I was ready to put in the potatoes. We ate a delicious dinner and made it to the 6 p.m. game on time!

Tuesday -- For dinner before I had an evening meeting out of town, we had chicken salad with apples (the recipe can be found in an earlier post). I roasted the chicken a couple days ago, then earlier in the day I took the chicken off the bone and cut it into bite-sized pieces. I also made the dressing and added it to the chicken. Right before dinner, I chopped the apple and added it to the chicken salad. I served it on a bed of lettuce. We ate a satisfying dinner and I got out the door by 6 p.m. to get to my meeting on time!

Today (Wednesday) -- I have a dinner meeting. Peter has baseball practice. Kathleen has a meeting at 7 p.m. But what about dinner? Well, tonight Peter and Kathleen will have to celebrate without me by dining at Peter's favorite Chinese restaurant. His favorite dish there is chicken with broccoli (he really likes the broccoli!). This is a special treat, plus another opportunity for Peter to learn proper "dining out" behavior. The best way to learn is to do it! Kathleen will then take Peter to practice and I will leave my meeting early so Kathleen can get where she needs to go on time.

Challenging Week

This week promises to be a challenging week: two early evening Little League games, two late afternoon doctor's appoinments, an evening meeting for Kathleen, a dinner-time meeting for me. So how will we manage to celebrate every day this week by gathering together around the table to share a meal to nourish both body and soul?

Stay tuned!

Genghis Khan?

Last night I started reading Genghis Khan: And the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford.

You may be wondering: why? Why would a United Methodist pastor who blogs about meals to nourish body and soul be reading a book on Genghis Khan?

One reason I am reading this book is because I was given a gift card to a bookstore. As I looked through the store, this book caught my eye. I thought, "Gee, I don't know a lot about Genghis Khan. This could be interesting."

I never considered how this book would intersect with my life.

Until last night.

Weatherford describes a particularly precarious moment in the life of the great conqueror. His father has been killed, and the young boy's very existence is in jeopardy. His mother was an outsider who depended on the clan -- not only for her own survival, but also for the survival of her young children.

Weatherford writes: "The message that she was no longer a part of the band came to her, the way Mongols always symbolize relationships, through food. In the spring, when two old crones, the widows of a previous khan, organized the annual ceremonial meal to honor the family's ancestors, they did not inform Hoelun (Ghengis Khan's mother), thereby cutting her off not only from the food itself but from membership in the family. She and her family were therefore left to feed and protect themselves. As the clan prepared to move down the Onon River toward summer grounds, they planned to leave Hoelun and her children behind." (p. 19)

Centuries later, in a very different time and place, we also symbolize relationships through food. We symbolize our relationships with God, with family, with friends, with enemies, with complete strangers, through food. With whom do we eat? Who is seated at table with us? Who is excluded?

Celebrate Every Day Is Back

As you can tell, up to this point I have not posted much in 2010. Why?

It's not because I no longer make it a point to share meals that nourish both body and soul; in fact, as you will see below, this passion to celebrate every day is one of the reasons I have not posted frequently over the last several months.

My lack of posting is also not because I have lost interest in this project. I believe that Celebrate Every Day can make a difference -- it certainly has in my life.

Instead I have posted so rarely this year because life has been busy. Our church recently moved to a new meeting place, with our grand opening on Easter Sunday, April 4. The preparations for the grand opening included:
+ Wading through the process of obtaining the necessary permits from various government agenices on the municipal and state levels. This process was not completed until days before Easter!
+ Working with the landlord for needed improvements to the space that were the landlord's responsibility
+ Working with carpeting, electrical and sign contractors for their work to improve the space
+ Cleaning, painting, moving and arranging along with a host of volunteers. This was a lot of fun; it was also a lot of work.
+ Planning for the grand opening itself, two open houses and the follow up from each.
So, as you can see, life on the church-front has been busy. Very busy.

Life on the home front was busy as well. Don't worry, all is well. We've just been very busy with many appointments that have touched our whole family -- including the dog!

On top of all that we had a lot of snow this winter. And I mean a lot of snow! Three blizzards. Nine snow days from school. Three Sundays when worship was canceled. And a lot of shoveling.

With all of this busy-ness, something had to give. But what?

I have made a commitment as a husband and father that we will sit down to dinner and eat a delicious and soul-satisfying meal every day possible. I decided I would not give this up. And since I've posted about the importance of celebrating every day, shouldn't I practice what I preach?

So what I gave up -- temporarily -- was the Celebrate Every Day project. I knew that when some of the extraordinary busy-ness calmed down, I would return to it. After all, this is a passion.

The good news is the snow has melted, and no more is on the way till next winter. The busy-ness has calmed down. So Celebrate Every Day is back.

During these last several months, I have experienced much that I will share with you, bit by bit.

I hope you will also share with me: your experiences, your observations, your suggestions, your comments.

It is good to be back!

Priorities

This blog is dedicated to giving recipes, hints and tips for everyday celebration, creating that meals can be spiritual, social, succulent, simple and special. This is truly an important goal.

Yet for all of the importance of this blog's purpose, I have added few new posts so far in 2010. What's going on? Do I not understand the importance of everyday celebrations?

Actually, what's been going on is that I do understand the importance of everyday celebrations. The first two months of this year have been filled with church obligations, family obligations, three blizzards and more. I have had many critical, short-term responsibilities that have filled my days.

I had a choice: I could continue to post to this blog, taking the critical time necessary to produce it well. Or I could re-direct that time to make sure that our family continued to have everyday celebrations. Should I write about the importance of everyday celebrations, or actually make sure our family has them?

The choice was obvious. And the lack of new posts in the last two months reveals the choice I made.

I posted a delicious recipe for one of my favorite desserts -- chocolate chip blondies (recipe below). I'll also be trying out some new recipes this week, and if they turn out to taste delicious, I will post them as well. I also plan to devote more time to research and writing, so you should see the fruit of that work in the coming weeks and months.

As important as this blog is, even more important is that I practice what I preach.

Chocolate Chip Blondies

I love blondies. Let me modify that: I love some blondies. Blondies at their best are moist, chewy, sweet-but-not-too-sweet and satisfying. I have eaten blondies at some bakeries, coffee shops and restaurants that just do not measure up. I have tried to choke down bone dry blondies. I have wondered whether my teeth would shatter when I have bitten into some hard-as-rock blondies. I have wondered whether my teeth would develop instant cavities as I munched on some way-too-sweet blondies.

Just as I have been disappointed in some blondies I have purchased, I have also been disappointed in every blondie recipe I have come across. Each seemed to be missing something.

And yet, there are times when I absolutely crave a blondie. What to do? I realized that my only option was to develop my own blondie recipe.

But first, a warning: if you are looking for a quick dessert you can whip up in a flash, this blondie recipe is not it. This recipe calls for two different waiting periods that can seem to take forever, but the wait is necessary. Trust me, these blondies are worth the time.

8 tablespoons butter (1 stick) – plus about ½ tablespoon room-temperature butter for greasing the pan
2/3 cups brown sugar – packed (I use light brown sugar, but dark brown sugar is fine)
¼ cup sugar
1 cup flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chocolate chips (I prefer semi-sweet chocolate)

Melt butter in a large, heavy saucepan. When the butter has melted, increase the heat to medium-high and boil while stirring constantly, until the butter has turned a golden brown, about 3-4 minutes. (Be sure not to let the butter burn.) Remove the butter from heat.

Add the brown sugar and sugar and stir until well incorporated. Cool for at least 10 minutes; this is the first critically important waiting period.*

While the butter and sugars mixture cools, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8 by 8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving a 2-3 inch overhang on two opposite sides of the pan (you will use this overhang later as a handle). Grease the foil with the ½ tablespoon of room-temperature butter.

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a large sieve or sifter. Sift this dry ingredient combination into a large bowl; set aside.

When the butter and sugars mixture is cool, add the egg, egg yolk, corn syrup and vanilla. Stir until well combined. Then, while stirring, slowly add the flour combination. Finally add the pecans and chocolate chips; mix lightly until well incorporated. Pour the batter into the foil-lined pan, being sure to scrape so you get every drop of batter possible. Spread the batter to the edges of the pan to form an even layer.

Bake for 28-32 minutes, until the top is golden brown. To be sure the blondies are baked through, insert a toothpick in the middle; if it comes out clean, it’s done.

Then for the second critically important waiting period: place the pan on a wire rack for 40 minutes to an hour until the blondies are cooled completely. I know you’ll be tempted to eat right away; the smell is wonderful. But if you do not wait, the blondies will crumble. While they will still taste good, they won’t look their best.

After the blondies have cooled, use the foil overhang “handles” to lift the blondies out of the pan and unto a cutting board. Peel off the foil and cut into bars. I like nice big bars, so I cut the blondies into 9 squares.

Enjoy!

*If you do not let the butter and sugars mixture cool before adding the rest of the ingredients, the eggs may begin to cook resulting in scrambled eggs (not what you’re looking for here!) and/or the chocolate chips may melt. While the resulting chocolate streaked bars look interesting, the taste is not nearly as good. So be patient and let this mixture cool before continuing; your patience will be rewarded!