TURKEY & DRESSING VS. BOLOGNA & LAY'S

First, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!
Secondly, let me introduce myself.
That was a joke because my posting has been anything but regular.
You do know who I am, right?
Okay, okay, now that you've assured me that you remember my quick wit and beauty (assumed), let's talk turkey.
Seriously, why do we break our backs (lower) putting together a meal large enough to feed a small village, when really, a bologna sandwich and some Lay's (yum) would work just was well.
We change the menu to sandwich and chips and take the money that we save from putting together the feast for millions which our family manages to consume over about three days, and we give it to families with children who worry about where their next meal is going to come from. 
Those same families whose kiddos go to bed crying because they're so hungry.
Yes, here in America.
And, another thing.
The waste.
Have you ever given thought about how much food we waste in America?
I have.
It's shameful and that's what we should be - ashamed.
We shell out a few extra dollars this time of year in an effort to make Christmas special by buying food and putting presents under the trees of the less fortunate. And then we go on with the rest of our life until next November. (I know that there are a lot of us that support charities, tithe, etc., but let's put those aside and give me a chance to make a point followed by what I think is a great idea).
Yeah, it's one of my soapboxes.
And soapboxes tick me off.
............We sat down to a lovely lunch yesterday to celebrate Thanksgiving. 
It's a misnomer to me the we celebrate Thanksgiving by stuffing ourselves with food that would bless so many unfortunate people that have nothing to eat but a bologna sandwich and generic potato chips. When I think of who the unfortunate are I think of single mothers and their children.
Yes, there's lots wrong with the "system", but that's not what I'm talking about here - I'm talking about meeting the needs of others like Jesus would want us to do.
Yesterday I decided to teach you how to make the best cornbread dressing ever made.
I'm doing this for a reason.
My idea is that you make a double recipe of your favorite dressing, bake it and quarter it, divide it into 4 Ziploc bags. Buy four chickens, one for each 1/2  9" x 13" pan of dressing and find some homes in your community and make a blessing delivery to them. If you need help, ask your church for some names, ask any church. And, you can do more, as much as you want, to make these blessings the kind that bless the socks off people.
Oh, and do it this winter, January, February, March, when a good meal is most appreciated.
AND, it's not during the holidays when everyone is doing everything from feeding the poor a meal to singing at the nursing homes (another soapbox - how we neglect our elderly).
....Just a seed that God has encouraged me to plant.


Okay, now for my recipe for the best cornbread dressing in the world to get you in the spirit!

VERMILLION CORNBREAD DRESSING

Yield: 2  9" x 13" pans of ah-mazing dressing

Ingredients: Cornmeal

2 giant cans of chicken broth

2 large onions

2 bunches of celery

8 'brown and serve' sausage links (it's a breakfast sausage)

2 - Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Stuffing (crumbs)

a good amount of salt and pepper

Here's what 'cha do:

brown the sausage in a small skillet

and then crumble it (food processor works great)

chop the onions into two piles

clean and chop the celery into two piles

(chop small, but if you are teaching your 24 year old son,

Blake, how to make dressing and how to use

a food processor, be careful and watch

his every move or you will end up with 

onion and celery puree.)

Barely cover the onion and celery (2 pans, remember?)

with water and simmer until translucent.

make 2 double recipes of cornbread OMIT THE SUGAR

(and, what I'm saying is that you double the recipe,

make one 9 x 13 and then double the recipe again and

make another 9 x 13)

(next, use your food processor if you have one)

I make one recipe at a time because, well,

vein' that my memory doesn't allow me to do 2 recipes at once.

So, that's how I'm going to tell you to put it all together.....

In a very large bowl

mix the sausage, onions and celery.

(I had to show you the puree. Pretty darn cute, isn't it?)

Add the bag of herb seasoning, S & P.

Mix.

Crumble the cornbread into the bowl.

Mix.

While you're doing this, be adding the 

chicken broth at times.

When it's all mixed,  

press into a PAM'ed pan

(Don't let this photo scare you. Keep reading.)

and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.

Oh, baby.

Okay, I'm sure you're sitting there thinking that 

I need some photography lessons so I can learn to

hold my camera steady while taking a picture.

Well, you're wrong.

I simply need to take off my readers 

before I look through the view finder and

focus my camera.

Now for some family pictures.....

This is Clay taking out the biscuits out of the lower oven

that he had left there the last time he was here.

We smelled them getting toasty as we pre-heated the oven...

(above is a re-enactment of getting the biscuits

out of the oven.....Oven too hot to put hand

all the way in and no potholder. Guh-reat re-enactment!)

Yes, those are the biscuits.

This is Blake cleaning up some dishes.

When he saw I was taking pictures, 

I kiddingly asked him to flex while washing.

Not a problem!! ( check out those guns!)

We had a great day as we enjoyed being together.

The meal gave Blake and myself some special time

together as he really did help me with a lot of the cooking.

Clay was in charge of clean-up and

he did a great job of being the boss.

The only thing missing was Craig and Jana.

This Thanksgiving was her family's turn.

We've got to figure something else out.

I'm not lovin' this taking turns. 

Thank you for stickin' with me if you're reading this.

That means that you have kept looking for me between posts

and that you were having a slow day - this thing is lo-o-o-o-o-ong!!!

Blessings to you all,

Jan

P.S. I hope no one has read this post and thought I was lecturing. And, I want you to know that my chicken and dressing idea? It just came to me yesterday and it's on my calendar this winter to do exactly what I suggested that you do. Let's do it together!! (And, it doesn't have to be chicken and dressing - fix your favorite foods! Just do it!!:)

IT'S WORTH RE-TELLING. . .OH, YEAH, THIS IS FUNNY! . . .POOR BAXTER. . .

I originally posted this "Poor Baxter" story below earlier this year. But my sister, Jean, emailed me about this picture of Baxter I had sent to her *and others* several days ago. She had never seen a picture of Baxter before and just thought he was the cutest thing.
Well, when I realized that she had never seen a picture of Baxter, I realized that she has not been keeping up with my blog as well as she should *which will be reflected this Christmas* so I sent her the POOR BAXTER story.
Then I re-read it because I've had a hard day and I knew it would make me laugh.
Oh, my gosh, I died - all over again - it's still funny. SO funny!
I decided that I needed to re-post it.
I know some of y'all could use a good gut wrenching laugh - so here it is, for the second time, POOR BAXTER:

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

POOR BAXTER
*disclaimer: this story is a lot like the short stories I used to write in the past......a bit of sick humor........if you have a love of animals that is so strong that it would not allow you to see the humor in a story entitled "Poor Baxter" knowing that Baxter is a family pet, a dog, then don't read this.If however you can appreciate me laughing until my stomach hurt and I couldn't breathe, read on and enjoy yourself......

*do not look at the pictures yet.....first read this:

We own a dog named Baxter.
He was found running around the Office Max parking lot in Kerrville in the middle of the summer about three years ago and a friend picked him up because he had no collar, no tags, and it was over 100 degrees.
To make a long story short we ended up adopting the little dog.

This was Frank the Tank's idea, not mine.
Baxter didn't seem quite right and I couldn't get past the fact the he never closed his mouth and his tongue was about 1/2" too long so you could always see it.
Oh, and he had an underbite.

He looked ridiculous.........he had these Fruit Bat-like ears, too, and he walked like an armadillo (really slow and rocking-like) - he was a goober.
I let Frank keep the little mutt but I got to name him.
Thus, his name "Baxter" *from Anchorman*.

This afternoon I was working in my studio and a friend stopped by - Amanda Jones.
After we finished visiting and she was fixing to walk out the door to the driveway she looked out the window in the door and said to me *as she giggled*,"Baxter looks dead!

"NOW YOU MAY LOOK AT THE PHOTOS BELOW"

I looked out the window and sure enough, Baxter was dead.

You can see by where the truck is parked that Frank evidently hit him when he pulled in to park going his usual 110 miles per hour.

Oh, my gosh, Baxter was dead.
Oh, wait.
No he wasn't.

That's just the way he looks when he sleeps because his mouth never closes, his tongue always sticks out and his underbite shows.
It's quite confusing to visitors, but Baxter was simply napping.

The visual, however, was enough to send Amanda and myself into a fit of giggles.
I couldn't breathe.

Oh, my gosh. We were dyin' here.
Why, we must share this reason for laughter; what with Hillary and Obama duking it out for the presidency we are always looking for reasons to laugh.......what could we do?

Oh, I know what we could do.
We could make Frank think he had run over Baxter and killed him.
Oh, stop it. It was funny.

The problem was that Amanda wouldn't run into the living room where Frank was, yelling, "Frank, Frank, you ran over Baxter and he's dead!!"
Well, I couldn't do it, I'm married to the man.
What could we do????

Oh, I know.
We could prank the boys!
Craig's home for the weekend and he and Clay were both home.............I knew I could handle this because I wouldn't have to look in their faces as I pranked them - I could just yell through Clay's bathroom at them.
And that's what I did."Craig, Blake, Craig, Clay. HURRY!! Baxter's dead!! He's been run over!!!"
Craig comes running.

Amanda and I have taken up our "backs to the room" pose at the door hoping that he would think our shoulders were shaking because we were sobbing....Craig is followed by my mother who is followed by Clay who is followed by Frank.

They all realize that it's a joke after Baxter raises his head and looks at all of us crowded around the window.
"BAXTER! PLAY DEAD!!"

We're all laughing.
Oh, okay, my mother wasn't laughing but I know she thought it was funny because she had a wee bitty grin on her face.

We're all looking out the window at Baxter who is sitting there with his mouth open, his underbite glistening in the sun and his tongue showing about 1/2" too much and we're dying.

In the middle of our laughing Frank says, "Let's shoot him. Make sure he's dead."

We were on the floor.

The End - tell me you laughed................again:)



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XOXO,