‘friday favorites’… movies, music, food, things that make our family’s life work better.

This was one of my favorite breakfasts when I was growing up.  My mom can’t remember if she made it up, or if it came from my dad’s family. Regardless, it is a treat now often requested by my own kids.   It is a simple recipe, a distant relative of eggs benedict, that consists of three basic things:  toast, sliced boiled eggs,  cheese sauce.

Creamed Eggs

boil eggs (5 or 6 for a family of four), and allow to cool slightly
while eggs are boiling, make the sauce

cheese sauce (triple this for a family of four)
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 cu milk – heated
salt & pepper
1/2 cu grated cheddar cheese
optional: ham chunks, browned sausage, or cooked bacon

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly until paste cooks and bubbles, not allowing to brown. Add hot milk, continue to stir. Bring to a boil. Add salt & pepper to taste, add cheese. Lower heat and cook 2-3 min stirring. Add meat, if preferred.  Remove from heat.

remove shells from eggs, and slice eggs into the sauce. stir gently.
serve sauce over toast. we prefer to cut toast into pieces before adding sauce.

adjust proportion of eggs and sauce as you like. feed to your family, and prepare to make it again.

On Fridays I post about ‘favorites’… movies, music, food, or something that just makes our family’s life work  better.

Sparky.... the wonder dog

This is our dog, Sparky. He has been a part of our family for one year now.
We can’t even imagine life without him. Except that it was less fur-covered.

We adopted Sparky in the middle of winter, and brought him home to our fence-less property.  He had a reputation for running away, so for about 3 months, we took him outside on a leash.  Delightful in January and February.

Our situation (both geographical and financial) doesn’t lend itself well to fences of any kind, so we weren’t sure what to do to make it possible to allow Sparky outside without a leash.  Then, we discovered this.

PetSafe Wireless Fence

This is the PetSafe wireless fence system.  Not underground wire… wireless.  The grey transmitter sits in our basement and emits a ‘safe’ zone with an adjustable radius.  Our dog wears the red receiver collar.  When he gets close to the boundary of the ‘safe zone’, his collar beeps.  If he crosses the boundary, he receives a slight shock (the intensity is also adjustable). It took just about a week for him to get used to the beeping and the boundary location after experiencing just 2 low intensity ‘corrections’. Now, he doesn’t ever challenge the boundary and we’ve set the collar to its lowest level, where it only beeps.  We totally trust the system and the dog; he spends lots of time outside by himself (weather permitting).  With the transmitter set to the largest radius, he has freedom to run in the yard all the way around our house, striking fear into the hearts of birds and rodents and cats as he goes.

The only weaknesses of the system are (a) a power failure takes out the transmitter, or (b) the battery runs out on the collar.  Power failures don’t happen that often for us, and when they do, I’m fairly certain Sparky is oblivious to this effect.  The collar pack gives warning lights when the battery is failing, and so far we’ve noticed it every time.

This system is sold at Petco and at various online sources.

I totally recommend.

Worship reflections are my musings about the worship services at First MB Church.

This was the third installment of our ‘Amazing Race’ series, which is a blaze through the entire Bible in seven weeks.  This week, our pastor taught about the ‘wisdom & poetry’ books (Job, Psalm, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,  and Song of Solomon), spending a little extra time on the story of Job.  We also took the Lord’s Supper together, which is an every-other-month thing for our church.

worship service

welcome/news
‘Blessed Be Your Name’ (Redman)
‘Mighty to Save’ (Laura Story arr.)
Lord’s Supper (songs: ‘You are My King’ and ‘Your Name’)
offering: ‘The Word is Alive’ (Mark Hall & Steven Curtis Chapman)
message

Songs emphasizing the sovereignty of God? the story of Job?  as potential vehicles for processing the many thoughts and emotions we’re all feeling during this week of the Haiti crisis?  Yeah. You can’t plan stuff like that.

In thinking about this series, I searched for songs about the scripture as a whole, which is how I found ‘Word is Alive’, recorded by Casting Crowns.  I had not heard this song before, but it is powerful.  Vocalists Greg & Dani did a great job singing it, and the band did a great job bringing the power.  Projected the words over this video loop, which fit beautifully. (Listen to entire song.)

I leave you with the lyrics (by Mark Hall & Steven Curtis Chapman)…

Looking out from His throne, the Father of light and of men,
Chose to make himself known to show us the way back to Him.
Speaking wisdom and truth into the hearts of peasants and kings,
He began to unveil the Word that would change the course of all things.
With eyes wide open all would see…

(chorus)
The Word is alive
and it cuts like a sword through the darkness
with a message of life to the hopeless and afraid,
breathing life into all who believe.
The Word is alive
and the world and its glories will fade,
but its truth it will not pass away
it remains, yesterday and forever the same
The Word is alive.

Simple strokes on a page, eternity’s secrets revealed
Carried on from age to age, it speaks truth to us even still.
And as the rain falls from the heaven, feeds the earth before it returns,
Lord, let your Word fall on us and bring forth the fruit You deserve
With eyes wide open let us see…

This post is a part of Sunday Setlists at theworshipcommunity.com. Check it out!


Every Friday I will post about something that is a ‘favorite’… food, movies, music, something that just makes life work better. We begin with something that is dear to my heart… the perfect, easy salsa recipe.

I love salsa.
I mean, I looooove salsa.
I choose restaurants based on salsa.
I only can handle ‘mild’, but I love it.
I’ve tried to make my own; I get caught up in what kind of peppers and what kind of tomatoes and how much of which. Mostly I end up buying something from this arsenal of amazing, fresh salsas.  Their only flaw is that they disappear and they are, all things considered, a bit pricey.

But then a friend gave me her recipe.  And ohhh my. Easy. Delicious. Perfect. No expertise in produce required.

1 can diced tomatoes (drained)
1 can original Rotel (drained)
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 c chopped onion
1/3 c chopped cilantro
1 clove minced garlic
1 T lime juice

Mix in a food processor to your desired texture.

To be honest, the first time I made it, I overlooked the tomato sauce, and it was totally delicious, although a little on the spicy side for me. The tomato sauce brings the heat down a little.

So try it and tweak to your liking!