From my kitchen: Olive Garden, at home!

Good morning, friends. My guess is that you (unless you happen to live in a tropical climate) are as ready for spring as I am! Winter has held our area hostage - typically when we get snow, we get very little and it melts within a day or so. But not this year! It has been so cold for so long that some of the snow we got a week ago is still with is, and now another winter storm is forecast for tonight!

I find that when it is cold and snowy or icy, I tend to prefer to stay at home rather than go out...must be I am getting older (no comments on that are necessary!), but the nesting instinct kicks in. And when you can make the kind of meal I am going to share with you today, why go out? If you enjoy the soup, salad, and breadsticks meal at Olive Garden, then I have the recipes for you! The first one is for Chicken Gnocchi soup. I originally got this recipe from my mom (thanks, mom!), and I tell you, it tastes JUST LIKE the Chicken Gnocchi at Olive Garden! It is not hard at all to make, but let me give you a tip: have all your ingredients prepped and at hand before you get started and it goes much faster.

Chicken Gnocchi Soup
1/3 c. butter
2 cloves of fresh garlic, minced (I used more because we really like garlic!)
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced. (I don't cook mine ahead, but you could use leftover cooked chicken breast)
1/3 c. flour
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups half and half
1/2 carrot, shredded
1/2 celery stalk, chopped small
1/2 cup fresh spinach, chopped (you can use frozen chopped spinach that is thawed and well-drained, but I had fresh spinach and love using that)
3 teaspoons chicken stock base (like Tones) dissolved in 3/4 cup of hot water, or 3 bouillon cubes
pepper to taste
1 1 lb. package of Gnocchi (I cut mine in half so they were more bite-sized)

Melt butter in a large pot and sauté the garlic. Add diced chicken and saute until chicken is cooked, about 5 minutes. Add flour and stir into chicken mixture. Add milk and cream and stir well. Stir in all the veggies. Add the chicken stock and the pepper and stir in. Add the gnocchi last - you don't have to pre-cook them, as they will cook in 3-4 minutes. Mix well and soup will thicken. Cover and simmer a few minutes. If it's too thick, add some more chicken stock a little at a time. That's it! The whole thing takes 30 minutes from start to finish! So yummy, so easy, and it makes quite a bit. I served with a salad on the side.

So, what's Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi without breadsticks? (That's what my husband asked last night when I made this for supper and I DID NOT make breadsticks. Partly due to my not eating bread and partly because neither one of us NEEDS bread, when the soup is so filling!) But - I do have a wonderful recipe for Olive Garden-style Garlic breadsticks that I have made many times!

Soft Garlic Yeast Breadsticks
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water
1 pkg. active dry yeast
2 T olive oil
2 T sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp basil
3 cups bread flour

You can make these in the bread machine by placing all ingredients in bread machine pan and selecting the dough setting. To make by hand, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add all the other ingredients and mix well, adding more flour or water if necessary. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead until smooth and soft. Divide into 15 balls and roll each ball into a rope about 6 inches long, place on greased baking sheets, cover, and let rise 45 minutes. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and while warm, brush with a mixture of melted butter and garlic granules.

If you're in the mood for a good restaurant-style meal but don't want to go out, I hope you will give these a try! If you do, I would love to know what you thought. Stay warm!

Love,
Kathi

A Teachable Heart

Good morning, friends! As I write this, I am sitting at my desk where the sunshine is pouring in the windows and reflecting off the beautiful snow. Yes...snow!! We received a few inches of it on Monday afternoon and night, and since it is not something this area is accustomed to, life has slowed down around here a little the past couple days. I am enjoying the chance to stay home and get caught up on some home organization, as well as my reading and studying. We also have had the opportunity to Skype and chat with our children and our grandchildren. One of the joys of having grandchildren is seeing them learn new things all the time. Our oldest granddaughter, at age 6, is becoming a proficient reader in addition to learning to play the piano and completing her first school project. Our youngest granddaughter, age 8 months, is learning to crawl. And at all the ages in between, we have grandchildren learning everything from walking and saying new words to coloring in the lines and obeying their parents and teachers.

I find myself these days being more of a teacher than a learner. However, I like to think that at my age of fifty-something, I can still learn new things. I enjoy challenges and acquiring new skills. But most of all, I am so grateful that even after being a Christian for over 50 years now, that God still teaches me new things about Himself and myself all the time.

The Bible is filled with verses about God teaching us. The Psalms alone have at least 25 verses where the Psalmist is asking God to teach him. One of them is Psalm 143:10 - "Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou are my God, thy spirit is good. Lead me into the land of uprightness." But as I read and meditate on these verses, it leads me to ask - "Am I teachable?' Or do I think that I know it all? We would say, "No, of course not!" But many times our actions prove otherwise.

In my reading, I came across Isaiah 48:17 and 18. "Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord thy God which teaches thee to profit, which leadeth thee in the way that thou shouldest go. O that thou had hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea!" Wow. God says first of all that He teaches us for our profit. It is for our growth and our benefit and our happiness that He teaches us and leads us. The problem comes when we fail to hearken to His teaching. "Hearken" means to listen, to heed, and to follow. When we don't listen or heed to God's lessons He is teaching us, then sometimes we have to learn things the hard way. The extent to which we listen and follow determines the depth of our contentment. God says if only His people had hearkened to His teaching them in the first place, He had good things in store for them. Their peace would have been like a river - gentle, flowing, and rarely disturbed. Their righteousness, or freedom from sin as a result of obedience, would have been as the ocean - deep and not affected by the rains or the seasons.

Dear ones, do you have a teachable spirit? Do you ask God to teach you His ways, and then determine to follow them? Do you practice what he teaches you? When we learn new insights or skills, we need to practice them so that they really become ingrained in us. God is a faithful teacher. What He needs us to be are willing students.

Love,
Kathi 

Saying I Love You

Happy Valentine's Day, friends! As I write this, it is 2 days before Valentine's Day and it seems like the whole world is focused on love, flowers, and chocolate. Of course I like being on the receiving end of Valentine's Day, but I mostly enjoy being able to have a special day when I can show the people in my life how much I love them. First and foremost is my husband. This year is kind of special because it is our 40th Valentine's Day together. Unbelievable. We have been through a lot together and have seen each other at our best and at our worst, and I am so blessed to have him. I'm looking forward to our Valentine celebration. I think this year we are going to make a special meal at home and enjoy a private Valentine dinner in front of our fireplace instead of a restaurant. We used to celebrate with special, just-for-two dinners at home when we had young children at home and we couldn't afford to go out or we didn't have a babysitter, and those were some of the best times! I made him a gift, which I can't show you until after I give it to him, but I am excited about it! Next week maybe I will share a picture of it, along with recipes from our Valentine dinner.

I also am blessed to have 3 wonderful children and their spouses, and 7 beautiful grandchildren. This week I mailed the grandchildren some little surprises for Valentine's Day because little ones love to get mail of their own, and I am looking forward to hearing about their reactions!

I thought I would show you some pictures of the Valentine treats I am making for the teenage girls in my Sunday School class and some other special people in my life. I got this idea from Pinterest last year and it was very simple, yet so pretty and very well received. All you need to do is bake your favorite cupcakes, and then top them with pink icing and pretty Valentine decorations. Put each cupcake in a short clear plastic cup, the kind you use for punch or fruit. Slip the whole thing into a clear, Valentine-decorated or plain cellophane treat bag which you can buy at the dollar store, and tie it up with a pretty ribbon. These are perfect for gifting because it keeps the cupcake from getting messed up while being very portable, and they stay pretty and fresh. I also made and decorated some giant heart-shaped sugar cookies and slipped those into the treat bags, closing them with ribbon.

With a little imagination and effort, and not that much money, you can make Valentine's Day special for the loved ones in your life. It's all about the thought. However, Valentine's Day is NOT "Make-Up Day" for the rest of the year. It does not mean we can neglect our relationship with family and friends and then try to make up for it on Valentine's Day. We should be making an effort each and every day to let the people in our lives know how much they mean to us. Many times in the day-to-day craziness of life, we forget to show love. Or perhaps you have been married a long time like I have, and we just get lazy. So what are some simple ways we can say "I love you" to our husbands?

Smile at him. Listen to him. Pray for him and let him know you are praying. Try to do little acts of kindness, like buying his favorite ice cream or picking up something you know he likes or needs when you are at the store. Write him a note. Send him off or greet him with a hug and a kiss. Call him or text him just to ask how his day is going.

Philippians 2:3 and 4 are good verses to memorize. "Let nothing be done through strife, or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." These verses are a lot harder to put into practice than it would seem. It our sinful human nature that makes us self-focused. I'm hoping this post will inspire you to show your love this Valentine's Day, and every day!

With my love to YOU,
Kathi

Problems and Peace

Happy Friday! I hope that wherever you are, the sun is shining like it is here and that you are encouraged by the blessings of walking with God. In our home, this has been "one of those weeks." Not only was the first half the week unusually busy for us, but it was unusually trying! Do you ever have those weeks when everything seems to go wrong at once? It began last Sunday when I went to print out and study the lesson I had prepared for my Sunday School class of teen girls, and the computer was completely unresponsive. No matter what I tried, it would not come up and my husband's efforts were fruitless as well. This was after a night of very little sleep, which probably magnified my frustration. Sunday afternoon I sprained my ankle. As the week progressed, we had breakdowns of two other technology items, an unplanned trip to Richmond to diagnose and repair said computer, and I came down with yet another cold!

It is during times like this that I have to remind myself of what I know to be true about God - that He is sovereign, good, and His ways are always wise. It is tempting to resort to thinking and talking about our "bad luck" - but if we believe that God is sovereign, then there is no such thing as "luck." We understand that God superintends every event in our lives. And you know what? He is more interested in our Christ-likeness than our comfort! The question then becomes, what do we do to know God's peace during these times? This week, as I so often do, I returned to Philippians 4:6-9.

1. Verses 6-7 are a reminder to pray right - talk to God instead of yourself! The word "but" suggests that we are to replace worry with prayer. Every time you begin to worry, try replacing that worry with praying. We are also told to pray "with thanksgiving", which is an expression of faith when you are in the midst of trials. Praying with thanksgiving before anything happens tests what our hope is in. It means being willing to let God choose the outcome. The result is that the peace of God will "keep your hearts and minds" right through Jesus Christ. "Keep" means to guard - not letting anything dangerous in.

2. Verse 8 tells us that we not only have to pray right, but we have to think right. That means we have to practice "selective thinking" - not just letting our minds go to whatever thoughts come, such as "this is not fair" and "God isn't caring about me." We are to think of the things we know to be true, which only comes from reading the Word, and not the "what-ifs" or the "if-only's." Those "what-if's" and "if-only's" are expressions of a lack of trust in God.

3. Verse 9 says that we have to follow up on praying and thinking by doing right - acting on these things. I can know I am supposed to pray right and think right, but not practice it. Lest you think that I am a paragon of virtue, I had to discipline myself this week to respond right - it was much easier to fret and complain! The word "do" here has the idea of ongoing activity, practicing over and over like you would practice a skill to perfect it. And once again, we are told that the result is peace.

Have you had a trying week? If not, you will, sooner or later! I hope these thoughts will help you to respond the right way.

By the way, my ankle is much better, I am feeling better from my cold, and we were able to get ALL of our technology items fixed at NO COST. When God answers prayer or blesses us, we need to be as quick to give Him the praise as we are to complain!

Blessings,
Kathi