This Week's Feast

I have not had time this week to search for new recipes so, our feast will be our old favorites. We will be having grilled steaks, roasted potatoes, asparagus, and dinner rolls with honey butter. We have not feasted for a couple of weeks, I am looking forward to having the time with the family. We will have to do it for Sunday dinner. Bruce and Isaac will be on a Father/Son bike challenge. This is quite comical as neither one are huge bike riders and the ride is 24 miles. Somehow Bruce committed himself to being a leader. Obviously, they will want to fall into bed when they get home. Then again maybe they will not be able to move on Sunday. We'll see!

Quick Meals

I have been asked before to write to working moms to give advice on general quick meals and feasting meals. Any advice I had was just a shot in the dark because I was not a working mother. Well, I am going through a season now which I am working. I am working on a writing project for Veritas Press. If you have not heard they are providing daily lesson plans for all of the home school curriculum for grades K-6. I am helping with that. Thankfully I can do this at home, but my meal planning and prep time has really been limited. The first week we ate out 3 nights. Obviously, that was not going to work long term. I will tell how I have tried to fix this. First, I decided I really had to have a menu and stick to it. I know a week in advance what we will eat and if I get a chance throughout the week I do prep work. This also allows me to cook what I can when I get up in the morning to reheat later. Tonight we are having barbecued chicken. I cooked it in the oven this morning and will reheat it on the grill before we eat. I have been doubling dishes if I can. On Monday we had Spaghetti Casserole. I doubled it and will have the other one next week. Last night was pork chops and creamed peas and potatoes. I doubled the peas and potatoes for tomorrow night. As for feasting, I will still do the same type of meals as always. I will more than likely do more main dishes that can be put in the oven or on the grill and be left alone. These things have been helpful to me. If you have other ideas please tell me.

New Cookbooks

Summer equals very busy around here. We have a lot of traveling planned. This weekend we will be going out of town to a wedding. My Feasting menu ideas will be scarce over the next couple of weeks, but I just bought two new cookbooks which I would highly recommend. They have planned menus for feasting occasions. They are A Return to Sunday Dinner and A Return to Family Picnics.They are great books. If you cannot do both at this time, then get the picnic book. The recipes are just special enough to make a great feast, but they call for simple ingredients which the entire family will enjoy. You can purchase them from Abondante Living. Let me know what you think.

Liturgy #2

So, in my last post I encouraged you to let the head of your home take the lead in the liturgy at your feasting. Today I would like to encourage you not to stress. So you try something and it seems awkward, than try something else. Your liturgy does not have to look like mine. Our best traditions just happened naturally. I will go through our liturgy.It has taken two years for it to come together for us and sometimes it is hard. Sometimes we have grumpy disobedient children and it is a chore to just get through the meal. Other times we have an exhausted mother who would rather climb in bed by 7. SO, realize it will not always be easy, but the reward of starting the tradition and developing a love of the Sabbath in your home is well worth the work involved. So, our night goes something like this (it is subject to change on occasion)My husband reads the scripture text for our sermon the next day. Our pastor emails worship notes on Thursday of every week. He then does a Lord's Day Catechism question from the Heidelberg Catechism, then he gives a toast. I suspect as Our children get older, we will discuss the sermon topic and opinions on it as we eat dinner. After dinner we just do something fun with the children. Anywhere from game night to playing outside to going out for ice cream or a game of miniature golf. After everyone is bathed and ready for bed we do a family worship time. It is a little different from our week day worship times. We use the week to train for Sunday worship. This means sometimes discipline can occur if a child refuses to participate, sit still, or remain quiet at the appropriate times. On Saturday we are a little more laid back. The children prepare presentations of different things we are working on memorizing. They like to be creative and silly with it. We let them have fun. They love doing it American Idol style. Bruce and I will then have fun giving our opinion. They have never actually seen the show, so maybe it is Bruce and I that have the most fun with this:) Remember I have young children, as they get older things will change. Isaac already looks at us as though we are nuts sometimes. But, because it is a tradition that he is used to, he enjoys watching his younger siblings have fun. Bruce has started to include Isaac more in the Scripture reading and some of the other leadership aspects of Sabbath feasting. As Sarah grows I will include her in more of the planning and cooking. We like the idea of Bruce speaking a blessing over everyone, we have just not done it yet. Our church does a Psalm of the month. We have talked of singing that at the table before we eat. I would love to hear what others are doing. It is always fun to share ideas.

Liturgy

In the comment section a few weeks ago I had someone ask about our liturgy. Since comments are not read by everyone I thought I would spend the week talking about it. Today I would like to talk about the importance of not forcing this on your husband. As the head of your home it is very important he take the lead in guiding your family through this celebration. What if your husband is not into it? Then have a great meal and time of fellowship and be thankful for the memories your children will have of dining together as you celebrate the Sabbath. In our family my husband is all about liturgy, but a little slow to start anything. He felt stuck and not sure where to begin. So, he left it up to me to get ideas and he would implement what worked well and seemed to flow naturally in our home. I am not saying you cannot approach your husband, but if he knows your desire, leave at that. God will bless your obedience in following your husbands lead.

What are you Having?

My typical planning schedule is a little off this week, so I am just now planning our Sabbath feast. We will be having a Smoked Brisket, Tomato, Mozzarella Cheese, and Basil Salad, and Oriental Cole Slaw. For dessert we will do Killer Cookies. We just recently had these at a cook-out. Huge Hit in our family. Thanks, Chris! I will give you the recipe. I love feasting in the summer. It seems as though just eating outside makes the meal more special. What are your plans?

Killer Cookies

Spread cookie dough in the bottom of a greased mini tart pan. Disposable work great.The disposable ones are called pot pie pans. Bake the cookies and top with your favorite ice cream. Very simple, but delicious.

I'm Back

I'm Back!! I have been so busy planning for the gathering this past weekend. As I said before, my husband is teaching homeschool students on-line. We invited them to Lancaster this past weekend to meet one another. It was a blast. They had so much fun placing voices with faces. What does this have to do with feasting? If you had told me 1 or 2 years ago that I would be hosting 45 people for 4 days I would have flipped. I believe because I have become accustomed to entertaining and feasting(joyfully)through Sabbath Feasting, this weekend was more of a blessing than hindrance. When you entertain often there are routines that you go through to make things smoother. It all still applied this weekend, just on a little larger scale. The key to hosting and enjoying it is coming up with your routine to make things less hectic. The more laid back you feel, the more your guests enjoy themselves. Things can and will go wrong, but most of the time if you can laugh it off, or guests will as well. Do not stress, start out small, and above all enjoy your time to fellowship with others.