Williamsburg Inn Turkey Soup

Here's the soup I'm making with the carcass this week. I already made up my stock and it's in the fridge. Looks like we'll have this on Sunday. It's SOOOO yummy and everyone in the family loves it. I hope you enjoy it too!

Williamsburg Inn Turkey Soup

1 turkey carcass

4 quarts water

3 large onions, chopped fine

3 stalks celery, chopped fine

2 large carrots, chopped fine

½ cup uncooked long grain rice

1 cup butter or margarine

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 pint half and half

3 cups diced cooked turkey

½ tsp. poultry seasoning if desired

1 tsp. salt

pepper to taste

In large kettle, cook turkey carcass with water to make 3 quarts stock. (I cook it with carrots, onions, celery and garlic with peppercorns and thyme). Strain stock, set aside. In saucepan, combine onions, celery, carrots, rice and 1 qt. of the stock. Cook for 20 minutes; set aside. In a large soup kettle, melt butter. Blend in flour and heat until bubbly. Add half and half and remaining 2 qts. Stock to butter/flour mixture gradually; cook and stir until bubbly. Stir in the reserved vegetable mixture, turkey and seasonings to taste. Heat slowly to serving temperature. Yield: 4-4 ½ quarts. (this soup freezes well)

Have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving!!

I just want to wish everyone a very blessed Thanksgiving. Let's not ever forget the greatest gift we have ever been given - even more than a country where we can worship God freely - the gift of eternal life and a chance to be a child of the Most High. What an amazing privilege.

Last night, we had our Thanksgiving Eve service and I honestly think it was the best we've ever had. Worship was incredible and the testimonies - well, let's just say that God was so glorified by those testimonies. From the man who was electricuted 2 weeks ago and was able to get up in front of the congregation and praise the Lord that he's here to the mom with her 2 young children who is now away from her abusive husband and safe (he's in prison for 20 years). We heard 2 of the Chinese students who we've been ministering to tell of how they came to this same service a year ago as athiests and this year they are covered by the blood of Jesus and living for Him.

A most amazing part of the service was at the end after we did our offering (which is always collected to split amongst our missionaries). The young mom with the 2 kids spoke of how she's so grateful to God that even though they struggle financially, He's blessed them with a home and a church family. Well, Pastor said that he's never done this before but he felt God's nudge to do this - that the mom and girls would stand in the front of the church and whoever wants to bless them with a financial gift, they can. EVERYONE went forward, hugged this family, prayed with them and gave them money. Understand that there were about 800 people there last night!! This poor woman has been afraid for her and her children's lives for years and now that her husband is in jail (for more than just the domestic violence), and now she's being blessed in such a concrete way. I gotta say, there was not one dry eye in the place. God moved. There's no question.

God is amazing. He's sovereign and the Most High God yet He touches His children with love, grace and mercy. He's interested in each of us and our lives- even the little parts of it. What an amazing privilege.

Why must I buy toys for my kids??

My 8 year old just came into the kitchen while I was cleaning. He had a laundry basket tied to his back. I told him "Put that away and help me to clean up!" to which he replied "But mom! I'm a turtle!!"

So why do I spend money on toys when string and a laundry basket seem to be the in thing today??

LOL - I love their imagination. :D

Teen Friendships

So I have two teen daughters. My oldest is a freshman in college (still living at home) and the other is 16 and a junior in high school. My 16 year old has a friend that she met in preschool and they've been friends ever since. She goes to our church and her parents have worked for the church. Well, this girl is not always the kind of girl that I want my daughter to emulate but I've seen my daughter being strong and able to see the good and bad alike in others. So we've allowed the friendship to continue - although not too close that they're spending all their time together but they still have a connection.

Unfortunately, this weekend something happened and it's obvious that this other girl does not respect anyone but herself. They went away with the youth group and they roomed together with 2 other girls and my poor daughter, who worked just before and was going to be working right after the trip, couldn't get any sleep because the other girls were acting like 12 year olds. In the little time that my daughter DID sleep, they drew on her face and took pictures - putting them up online. My daughter saw the pictures and IMed her friend asking her to take them down and the "friend" refused saying that my daughter needed to lighten up. She then went on to say nasty things to my daughter about her and her father and I (she's never had good things to say about us). She finally at the end said she'd take the picture off of the internet - but she still hasn't done it a few days later. Other things have gone on (I've typed up a lot and deleted it because I don't really want to pass around gossip) and the bottom line is that my daughter's heart is broken because her "friend" has chosen her own pride and popularity over my daughter. 12 years of a friendship is down the tubes. Dad and I aren't sad over losing this friend necessarily but my heart hurts for her. After she came home from the trip and explained some of what went on to me, I encouraged her to find some better friends - friends who had an obvious relationship with the Lord who would encourage her and pray for her - sharpening her as Christian friends do. She never had that with this friend.

SIGH

Raising teens is so rewarding and I have not had any of the terrible things happen that people kept warning me about but there's always going to be things out of our control. All we can do is pray that they would be wise in their dealings with others and surround themselves with wisdom rather than fools.

Gotta love my hubby!!!! Yeah he's a pastor but....

He can fix a furnace!!! Woo-hoo!!! We have a large OLD gas furnace. I noticed the last time it got cold that our bedroom was FREEZING and since it ended up warming up, we didn't do anything about it. Well, now it's back to the 40s with snow predicted tonight so it was time to check it out. While he's a pastor, he was an electrical/computer engineer in his former life so he started with his meter trying to figure out what was up. He's never dealt with a furnace before but he figured it was either the thermostat or the circulator pump since the furnace itself was working fine and 2 of the 3 zones worked. So last night he checked it out and figured it was the relay box that powers the pump. This morning he went out to get a new box ($75) and took an hour and a half to install it and make sure it all worked. IT DID!! WE HAVE HEAT!! Woo-hoo!! That would have been hundreds of dollars if we needed to call in the plumber and instead it just cost us $75. Thank you Lord that he was able to do this. :)

So we're set for now. We're praying the furnace makes it through another winter. We were told 8 years ago that it would break any day now. LOL

But BOY did it get cold fast! Saturday was in the mid 60s and today it's in the mid 40s. It should get even colder this week too. Brrrr!! Winter's coming on fast!

A new "Challenge" Recipe

Well, I tried another new recipe that I cut out. It was wonderful because it's a soup in the crockpot AND it had plenty of meat and filling stuff so DH would consider it dinner. Whew!! It was rated a 9.9 by the family because I made the meatballs too big. Next time I'll be sure to make them tiny so that you can eat them easily on the spoon. :)

Italian Wedding Soup
from Family Circle 11/1/08

1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
3 Tbsp. plain bread crumbs
1 Tbsp. + 2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
1/4 tsp + 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp + 1/4 tsp black pepper
8 cups low sodium chicken broth
3 large carrots, chopped
1 small head escarole (8oz.) washed, trimmed and cut into 1/2" strips
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 1/4 cups acini di pepe pasta

1) In a large bowl, stir together egg, beef, onion, bread crumbs, 1 Tbsp. Parmesan, 1 Tbsp. barsley and 1/4 tsp. each of the salt and pepper. Form into 1" meatballs (about 45) and place on baking sheet. Refrigerate while preparing soup.

2) Combine broth, carrots, escarole and oregano in slow cooker. Gently add meatballs. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours. Stir in pasta for the last 20 minutes of cooking time. Stir in remaining 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Sprinkle each serving with remaining parsley and Parmesan cheese and serve.

UPDATE on the messy room

Well, nothing like peer pressure and the need for teens to hang together to be a motivator to clean a room. My 16 year old is a hard worker when she wants to be. Well, she wants to go out with her friends today and she knows that she's grounded until the room is clean. She still has a little more to go but here's where she stands as of first thing this morning (the right side is still my oldest's part of the room and knowing her, I highly doubt she can get it done in time).