Monday, November 29, 2010

Two Holiday Recipes


Cranberry Bread

Ingredients
Serves 8
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup whole milk
1 bag (12 ounces) cranberries
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar, for topping (optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees; butter and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan (8-cup capacity), and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine butter, egg, and milk. Add wet mixture to dry mixture, and whisk to combine; fold in cranberries.
Pour batter into prepared pan; sprinkle top with turbinado sugar, if desired. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack; let bread cool 30 minutes. Invert onto rack, then immediately turn right side up to cool completely.

I have extra cranberries to use up and I remember this bread recipe I make every year. Enjoy!

If you love casseroles and Thanksgiving, you'll love this one!

Turkey and Stuffing Bake
(comments and suggestions from my friend, Kristin)

Ingredients:
1 Jar (4.5 ounces) sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup Butter or Margarine
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 & 1/4 cups Ranch Dressing
2/3 cups water
3 cups Seasoned Stuffing mix (I just used Stovetop Stuffing)
1/3 cup sweetened dried cranberries (I used a whole bag because I like
cranberries)
3 cups coarsely shredded cooked turkey (about 1 pound, i went to the
deli and found just regular turkey and asked them to slice it in
between half and inch to 3/4 of an inch thick and two slices cut like
that were perfect. I just pulled it apart when i got hope to give the
shredded affect. Either do that or you can go to boston market and get
turkey from them.)

Directions:
Drain mushrooms, reserving the liquid for later; set aside. Melt
butter over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add celery and onion;
saute for 4 minutes or until soft. Remove from heat and stir in 1/2
cup ranch dressing, water and reserved mushroom liquid, mix well. Stir
in stuffing mix and cranberries until thoroughly moistened. Combine
Turkey, Mushrooms and remaining 3/4 cup dressing in a SEPARATE bowl,
mix well; spread evenly in a 8-inch baking dish. Top with stuffing
mixture. Bake @ 350F for 40 minutes or until bubbly and brown.
makes 4-6 servings.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Happy THANKSgiving!


This is my last chance to have internet until Monday, Nov. 29.
SO, HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you!
Have a wonderful day and time with family and enjoy all the wonderful food, make good memories and then blog about them so I can enjoy reading all about it next week :)
Lots of Love,
Rach

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Thankful!

It's almost Thanksgiving, which is good because I stink at posting things I'm thankful for. Doesn't help that we don't have internet at our house yet...

Thankful for generous friends who helped us move, brought us meals and are continually offering us help with whatever we would need.

Also thankful that tomorrow is my last day of work for the week and we will be off through Sunday. And my parents come on Thursday and we'll work on painting, finshing unpacking, hanging pictures, Mom and I can work on our window boxes and fun projects...will be a great time!!

Thankful for Jesus and the gift he's given us of salvation through his death on the Cross. That is the biggest and best gift of all!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Thursday, November 18, 2010

It's Done!!!

HOORAY!!!!!!!!
We own a house!!!
Can't believe how well it all went and fast too. Very thankful!!
Now on to moving - woo hoo!!!
Thanks for praying and for the encouraging words :)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Pray for Us!

Closing and move-in is tomorrow and the closing has already been delayed 4 hours due to miscommunication between the bank and title company....
Pray for us not to be stressed, for things to go smoothly and for all the moving to go quickly! I'm SO ready to be done!!!
Thank you!!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Thankful for Ethiopia


Today I am so thankful for Ethiopia.
November 7 was Orphan Sunday (http://www.orphansunday.org/) and our church had a presentation and Orphan focus both in the a.m. and p.m. service and it was so awesome. Just to understand that we are adopted by God and grafted into His family through Jesus and also understanding our call to love and care for the fatherless in this same way.

There is an adoption ministry at our church and there are several families adopting (one from South Korea) and a few from Ethiopia which includes Joe's brother and sister-in-law. Don and Sara are hoping to bring home a little boy (or twins!) in 2011. We are so thrilled to be adding another little Jones to the bunch -it will be perfect timing with our little one - they will be cousins and besties, I just know it!!

I just wanted to share with you guys a link to order a shirt to support their adoption - they are great shirts, so comfortable - I wear mine all the time.
http://donandsarajones.blogspot.com/p/t-shirt-fundraiser.html
Another exciting piece of news is that they received a matching grant, where if they raise $5,000, they receive another $5,000 from an organization! I'm so excited about this - that will be a huge help to them!! So if you are wanting to give in this way, here is a link to that as well or you can email me for more info too. I'm just so excited to share this with you and so thankful for this country where my little nephew will come from and for Don and Sara as they bring this little one into their home.
http://donandsarajones.blogspot.com/2010/10/matching-grant.html