My friend’s comments only confirmed what I had been feeling for a while. My to do list is large, but there are things on it that I haven’t been called to do. Though I thought I was doing a good job of committing my day to the Lord, I wasn’t. I’m slowly learning that I should do a better job of listening for His voice and heeding His reply. This means that as I’ve shifted my priorities, I’ve had to let go of a few things here and there.

As my priorities shifted, it became clear that God had set a new path before our family and I soon recognized that I didn’t want to miss one moment of the joy and excitement! So that I can devote my time and attention to moving along the new path God has clearly set before us and seize every opportunity He presents, I’m taking an extended blogging hiatus.

Last summer, we began our homeschool journey and though it is an awesome experience for us all, the teaching, preparation, and homeschool activities we’re involved in require much more time than I ever anticipated. I’m also moving into a new area of ministry within my church, and I want to make sure I have the time and energy needed utilize my gifts there. JT and I are prayerfully considering  growing our family, so we’re busy reading and praying for God’s will.  Finally, I’m working on a personal project that has recently gained momentum and I’d like to take time to  nurture it.

Over the past year and a half, I’ve had a wonderful time blogging! It has been my pleasure to share my observations, favorite recipes, and family stories with you. I thank you for stopping by to visit, taking time to read my posts, leaving such kind comments, and adding me to your blogrolls. Fellow bloggers have been a great source of education and inspiration to me and friendly readers have blessed me with encouraging words! I thank you all most sincerely!

I hope that I will be able to come back and post again. In the meantime, I pray that each of you will continue to get closer to God and embrace Him and the unique plan He has for your life!

The recipe is a bit long, but trust me, it’s worth the effort. To make preparation easier, use bagged shredded mozzarella cheese and jarred tomato sauce. Also, be sure to brine the chicken as it is what gives this dish such dynamic flavor. Until I tried this recipe, I had never brined chicken before, but I will seriously consider doing so from now on. Make sure you include the Panko bread crumbs as they add an extra crunch to the chicken’s coating. You should be able to find these bread crumbs in the International or Asian foods aisle of your local supermarket.

Slamma Jamma Chicken Parmigiana

4 (5-ounce) boneless, skinless, trimmed chicken breasts
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
1/4 pound Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus extra for garnish, grated
Olive oil, for frying (about 2 cups)
1 pound penne rigate, cooked al dente
Tomato Sauce
1/4 cup minced Italian parsley, for garnish

Lightly pound the chicken breasts to 1/2-inch thickness. Combine the kosher salt, sugar, and 1 quart of water in a 1-gallon size resealable plastic bag; shake until dissolved. Add the chicken breasts and soak at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Place the flour in a medium bowl. Remove the chicken from the brine. Shake off excess moisture and, with tongs, lightly dredge the chicken in the flour. Shake off the excess flour and transfer to a large plate.

Mix the eggs and milk in medium bowl and whisk thoroughly. In a separate bowl combine the bread crumbs, oregano, basil, parsley, sea salt, and pepper. Dredge the chicken in the egg and milk mixture with tongs and let excess mixture drain off. Now dredge the chicken into the bread crumb mixture, and lightly pat down in the bread crumbs to adhere.

Preheat the broiler.

Let the breaded chicken sit for 5 minutes before frying. In a medium saucepan on medium-high heat, add enough olive oil to come 1/3 up the side of the chicken. Cook the chicken in batches until golden brown on both sides. Remove from the pan when cooked and place on a sheet tray. Repeat with remaining chicken.

When all the chicken is cooked, sprinkle mozzarella and Parmesan evenly over the top. Place under the broiler until the cheese melts and is golden brown.

Serve chicken over pasta and ladle tomato sauce on top. Garnish with additional Parmesan and parsley.

I decided to test this recipe at the last minute, so I didn’t have time to prepare it in the Crock Pot. Instead, I cooked the chops and sauce on the stovetop and allowed it to simmer for a bit. The meat was very tender and the sauce was thick and tangy. Every member of our family enjoyed it…even the pickiest little eaters!

Tangy Barbecue Chops
4-6 pork chops
salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
12 ounce jar chili sauce (ie Heinz)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon hot sauce

In a large skillet, heat the oil to medium high heat. Season the pork chops with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Brown pork chops on both sides.

While pork chops are browning, combine the remaining ingredients to create a sauce. Pour the sauce on top of the pork chops. Turn the heat down to low, place a lid on the pan, and simmer for 30 minutes.

I love to read and before Sweet Pea and Sugar Plum were born, I attended a monthly book club with several other teachers from my school district. I always looked forward to our gatherings as it gave me an opportunity to have interesting, thought provoking, and sometimes intense discussions with a diverse group of women.

Though book club was wonderful, it didn’t take me long to see that the demands of caring for young children was going to make it difficult for me to keep up with my book buddies. Likewise, I doubted most of the ladies wanted to discuss the books I managed to read on topics such as breastfeeding, toddler discipline, or potty training. Consequently, I left the book club a few years ago, but my love of reading has remained.

This week during one of my daily surfs around the blogosphere, I was thrilled to discover that Katrina over at Callapidder Days is hosting Fall Into Reading 2009, a low pressure (thank the Lord!) reading challenge from September 22 to December 20. Katrina has asked us to compile a list of books and start reading.

Over the summer, I read a couple of wonderful books but the start of our first year of homeschooling and a plethora of church activities has threatened to slow my personal reading progress. This challenge is exactly what I need to keep a fire lit under my fanny as the busy fall season unfolds.

I’ve compiled a list of books I’ve started or have been wanting to read. Reading them all before Christmas is quite an ambitious undertaking, but I’m determined to read at least half of them. I hope to include reviews of finished books in case fellow bookworms like my friend Monica want to read them.

Here’s my fall reading list, in no particular order:

Get Out of That Pit by Beth Moore
Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard
In Praise of Stay at Home Moms by Dr. Laura Schlessinger
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
The Way They Learn by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias

Is there a book you’ve been wanting to read? Pick it up and fall into a good book with me!

If you’ve got a well stocked kitchen, you should be able to find every ingredient in your pantry, fridge, and freezer. If not, even the smallest supermarket will provide everything you need to prepare this dish. None of the ingredients are complex.

Once prepared, we found the chicken was tender, the sauce was sweet yet tangy, and the dish had great color and texture. Though I’ve only prepared the dish once, I’ve already got a few changes in mind for my next preparation. When I try the recipe again, I will omit the chicken bouillon, as we don’t need the extra salt. However, to ensure we still get chicken flavor, I’ll use low sodium chicken broth instead of water. I’ll also add some broccoli florets to make it a complete meal.

I suspect you could probably toss all of this into the Crock Pot as well. If you do, I recommend adding the peppers and pineapples during the last 30 to 45 minutes of cooking. I’ve found that if you add veggies and fruits to the Crock Pot too early, they become mushy and are not very appetizing. Also, I would cook the meal on low for about 3 hours and four hours at the most. Whenever I cook chicken breast longer than that, it becomes quite dry.

Sweet and Sour Pineapple Chicken is an easy, flavorful dish that has found a home in my permanent recipe file. Perhaps you’ll enjoy it too!

Sweet and Sour Pineapple Chicken
2 cups pineapple juice
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup vinegar
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons canola oil
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste
1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained
1 red green pepper, sliced thin
1 green pepper, sliced thin

In a saucepan, combine the pineapple juice through ginger and stir until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Set aside.

In a large skillet, heat oil to medium high heat. Season the chicken breast with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and brown in the skillet.

Pour sauce over the chicken and simmer on low for about 5 minutes. Add pineapple and green pepper and simmer for an additional 10 minutes or until pepper and pineapple are heated through.

Some of the ladies on the forums I frequent have long been singing the praises of homemade laundry detergent. The ladies claim their detergent is much more cost effective and works just as well, if not better than, supermarket detergent.

The cost of laundry detergent and fabric softener continues to rise and even with coupons and sales I’m still spending more than I want to spend on laundry supplies. Yesterday I decided to make my own detergent and see if all the hype was worth believing.

I found recipes for both liquid and powdered detergents but opted to create a powder because I didn’t feel like boiling soap and water on my stovetop. Before yesterday, I couldn’t remember the last time I used powdered detergent, but from now on I’ll definitely be using my own. The ladies were right. It works well, is easy to make, and is cost effective.

Because I wanted to make a large batch of detergent (15 quarts!), it took me a couple of hours to make the detergent. You can make much less in a much shorter amount of time. I found all of my ingredients in local stores, though I couldn’t find everything in one store.

Homemade Laundry Detergent
2 bars soap, finely grated (Fels Naptha)
1 cup washing soda (Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda)
1 cup borax (20 Mule Team Borax)
1 cup Oxyclean (my own personal addition)

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Store in an airtight container. Use 2 tablespoons for a regular load of laundry and 3 tablespoons for a heavily soiled load of laundry.

While shopping for ingredients, creating the detergent, and using it I learned a few things that may help should you wish to make your own detergent.

1. You may need to stop at a few different stores to find the ingredients. I found 20 Mule Team Borax at WalMart in the detergent aisle ($2.98 for a huge 4 lb 12 oz box) and also picked up a generic version of Oxyclean called Sun Oxygen Cleaner ($1.96 for a 30 ounce tub). I purchased the Fels Naptha soap ($1.09 per bar) and Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda ($3.98 for a 3 lb 7 oz box) at Wegman’s. Both were in the detergent aisle.
2. Grating soap can be challenging.  I began by using the box grating method others recommended but quickly ended up with a clogged and useless grater. I abandoned the box grater, cut the soap into smaller chunks, and grated it in my food processor.
3. Some soaps grate more easily than others. It all depends on the hardness of the soap. Harder soaps are easier to grate than soft soaps. Fels Naptha soap and the Zest Ocean Spray are hard and grated much more easily than the Dial soap I first tried. I ended up using them all so as not to waste, but in the future, I’ll stick with hard soaps.
4. Choose a soap you like. Most recipes recommend Fels Naptha (I didn’t care for its strong odor), but you can use any type of soap you like. Just stay away from  soaps with oils or extra moisturizers (such as Dove) because they may leave stains or residue on clothes. Some ladies even save soap slivers and later grate them for use in detergent.



5. Don’t worry if all of the soap isn’t finely grated. Grate it as best as you can. Even after whizzing through the food processor, my soap still had a few stubborn lumps. This wasn’t a problem as the soap completely dissolved even in cold water washing.
6. Clothes won’t be heavily scented, but they’ll be clean. Since there aren’t lots of perfumes and dyes in this recipe (aside from what’s in the soap), your freshly laundered clothes won’t have the heavy perfume odor you may be used to. You’ll be able to look at the clothes and see that they’re clean and they’ll smell fresh too. They’ll just be lacking the familiar and heavy laundry scent.

My Downy Dependency was starting to pack a punch in my purse, so I also made homemade fabric softener. This was extremely easy to make and worked well too. The recipe does call for vinegar, but don’t worry. Your clothes will not smell like vinegar. In fact, the only person who’ll know it’s there is you!

When I use 1  1/2 times the recipe, it makes nearly 64 ounces of softener which is enough to fit in my old Downy bottle. When mixing the ingredients be sure to add the vinegar to the baking powder slowly. It will fizz (remember those grade school volcano experiments?) and may overflow if you don’t pour slowly. The essential oil is optional but lavender, rose, or grapefruit would be wonderful additions to the softener.

Homemade Fabric Softener
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups baking soda
4 cups water
5-10 drops of your favorite essential oil (optional)

Combine slowly and carefully pour into a plastic bottle. Place a lid on the bottle and shake. Shake well before each use.

If you’re looking for a homemaking challenge or want to save a few dollars, give these recipes a try. Your clothes and your wallet will thank you!

I’ve recently started searching for muffin recipes because muffins are a kid friendly snack that can be prepared using a variety of healthy ingredients. Last week I discovered a wonderful recipe for pineapple zucchini muffins and prepared them for the girls. The recipe seemed like a potential winner because it featured pineapple, one of the girls’ favorite fruits, and because it contained a vegetable (and a green one at that!) I could sneak in.

The girls love these muffins. Cinnamon and vanilla add a wonderful flavor and the muffins are incredibly moist thanks to generous amounts of crushed pineapple and a full cup of vegetable oil. Best of all, the zucchini is so finely grated, it’s difficult for my picky little eaters to tell that it’s there.

Though I serve the muffins for snack, they’re just as yummy at breakfast or lunch!

Pineapple Zucchini Muffins

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup vegetable oil
6 eggs
3 cups shredded zucchini
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
3 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 4 muffin pans, or use paper liners.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
Make a well in the center, and pour in the oil, eggs, zucchini, pineapple and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Fill muffin cups 2/3 to 3/4 full.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Normally, I prefer not to pull out my cheesecake recipes because conditions need to be just right in order for cheesecakes to turn out perfectly. In my opinion, the perfect cheesecake is rich and creamy, white and smooth, crustless (no graham crackers for me!), and free of cracks. To create such a flawless cheesecake, I find that several precautions must be taken.

1. Do not overmix the batter. Overmixing adds too much air to the batter and results in unsightly air bubbles, weird textures, and deep cracks. As you mix, use a low speed and simply mix long enough to combine ingredients well.
2. Be sure that the cream cheese is softened. If the cream cheese is too hard, you may end up overmixing the batter in an attempt to smooth out the lumps.
3. Keep still as the cheesecake bakes. Cheesecake is very delicate and vibrations it experiences while baking can result in cracks or sunken centers. While the cheesecake is baking, refrain from banging cabinet doors, opening the oven too soon, or running across the the kitchen floor.
4. Bake the cheesecake in a water bath to help it bake gently and evenly. Create a water bath by sitting the filled spring form pan inside a larger pan and adding enough hot water to reach halfway up the side of the spring form pan. Just be sure to wrap the bottom and sides of the spring form pan with a couple layers of foil so water cannot seep into the pan.
5. Do not overbake the cheesecake. Figuring out when cheesecake is done can be tricky. Even when a cheesecake is done, it may look undone. The cheesecake is actually done when the center is still a bit jiggly or wobbly.

Key Lime Cheesecake

Crust:
1 1/2 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl stir together the graham cracker crumbs and sugar, then stir in the butter well. Pat the mixture into the bottom and 1/2 inch up the side of a buttered 10-inch spring form pan. Bake the crust in the oven for 8 minutes. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool.

Filling:
4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1/3 cup key lime juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the sour cream, flour, lime juice and vanilla. Beat the mixture until it is smooth.

Pour the filling over the crust. Bake the cheesecake in the oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 250 degrees. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes more or until center is barely set. Let the cheesecake cool on a rack and then chill it, covered, overnight.

Condensed soups are a staple in my pantry because when they’re combined with a few other simple ingredients, they make quick and great tasting sauces. Simmering Pork Chops feature a can of cream soup and have become a favorite in our home.  JT likes the chops because they’re always fork tender and I love them because they’re easy to prepare.

If you want to reduce salt, feel free to use low sodium soup as I’ve used them with success. Serve the chops and gravy over rice and enjoy a filling and comforting meal.

Simmering Pork Chops

4- 6 pork chops
salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup white wine

Heat oil in medium skillet over medium high heat. Season pork chops with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Place pork chops in the skillet and brown them on both sides. Remove the chops from the skillet and set them aside.

Add the cream of mushroom soup, milk, and white wine to the skillet. Whisk to combine. Place pork chops back in the skillet and allow them to simmer on low heat for 30 minutes. Serve over rice.

Photo: Courtesy of turtlemom4bacon (Flickr)

Most corned beef recipes I’ve come across require you to boil the meat before placing it in the oven to finish. To me, it’s just an extra step I don’t want to be bothered with, so my solution is to toss everything into my Crock Pot with a wonderful sauce and let it slow cook all day.

I usually use a brisket weighing about 3 pounds or so. Add potatoes and other veggies into the Crock Pot for a complete meal. You can serve the meat without placing it in the oven, but I like to have a sweet crust on top of my brisket so I broil it before serving.

Wondering what to do with the leftovers? Make a yummy Reuben sandwich by piling the corned beef on bread and topping with Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing.

Sweet and Hot Corned Beef Brisket

1 corned beef brisket
1 cup apple juice
1 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup bourbon (may use ginger ale as a substitute)
1 tablespoon mustard
1 ½ teaspoons red pepper flakes

In a medium sized bowl, combine the apple juice, ketchup, brown sugar, bourbon, mustard, and red pepper flakes.

Place the brisket into the Crock Pot and pour the sauce over it. Cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 4 hours.

Just before serving the brisket, remove it from the Crock Pot and place in it a baking dish. Transfer the sauce to a pot and bring it to a boil. Add a teaspoon or two of cornstarch to thicken it. Baste the corned beef with the thickened sauce and place under the broiler for 3-4 minutes. Basting may be repeated as many times as you wish.

When ready to serve, slice the meat across the grain and drizzle with the remaining sauce.

Photo: Courtesy of stu_spivack (Flickr)