Father's Day Synonymous with Ribs and Brisket

Ribs and brisket are about my husband's favorite. So when Father's Day rolls around we all know that ribs and brisket will be on the menu.

I haven't mastered a smoker so I always buy our ribs. But I do have a couple of recipes I would like to share with you that are good sides for your bar-b-ques during the summer.

This is a beef brisket marinade that I got from my sister. It is wonderful!

Ingredients:
5-6 pound brisket
garlic powder to taste
onion salt to taste
3 ounces liquid smoke
celery salt (I have used celery seeds too)2 tablespoons
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce

Put the brisket in a baking dish and cover the brisket with dry ingredients(except for salt and pepper) then pour the liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce over the brisket. Cover the brisket and let it set in the refrigerator over night. When ready to bake add salt and pepper and cover with foil and bake at 275 degrees for 5 hours. Remove cover and pour off juice then cover with a 6 ounce bottle of bar-b-que sauce. Cover and bake one more hour. Remove from oven and let stand one hour before cutting.

Poppy Seed Coleslaw

This is about one of the best recipes I've eaten for coleslaw and everyone always loves it. I got this recipe from a very dear person in our lives and she is about one of the best cooks I know. You'll love this.

Ingredients:
1 pound coleslaw mix
small jar dry roasted peanuts
10 ounces frozen peas (rinse in warm water to drain to thaw)

Dressing:
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
5 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
11/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 cup oil

Add all ingredients (except oil) into a blender and gradually add oil (very slowly) so it won't separate and will be creamy.

Mix cabbage with peas and nuts and add dressing right before serving.


Lemon Basil Potato Salad

This is my recipe and it is so good, you will love it. I love basil so for me anything with basil in it I love. This recipe will serve 6.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds small new red potatoes or Yukon gold
1/4 cup lemon juice
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup chopped basil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 medium purple onion chopped
1 10 ounce package fresh spinach cut into thin strips
10 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled

Put potatoes in water and boil until tender. Do not let them get mushy. Let them cool and cut into bite size pieces.
Whisk together lemon juice and next 5 ingredients; whisk in oil at a slow steady stream. Gently toss potatoes and onion with 1/2 cup of vinaigrette.
Arrange spinach evenly in 6 plates and drizzle with remaining vinaigrette. Top with potato mixture and sprinkle with crumbled bacon.

Happy Father's Day "Your the Man"

We've been through it all the good, the bad, the very good, the very bad and the most wonderful inspiring moments that make it all worthwhile....and you've been there with me every step of the way. Thank you for always being there for me and for our children.

I'm so glad I've had you by my side on our life's journey. I want you to know that I admire your courage and resilience and I considered you a man of nobility. Your character is always unquestionable.

Now for your wit and humor. Our youngest daughter put it best when she said, "you are the white Bill Cosby." I don't think it could have been said any better than that. There is never a dull moment around our home and you always keep us laughing.

You are a wonderful man and you are living a wonderful life and I'm blessed to be at your side.

Happy Father's Day

Chunky, Chunky Salsa

This is a recipe I got from a lady in my Co-op eight or nine years ago. My family loves this and it is so good this time of the year with garden tomatoes.

My family was all home for Sunday dinner yesterday and I fixed this with grilled chicken. Some of the family took whole wheat tortillas and warmed them, put sliced grilled chicken on the tortilla and then topped it with chunky salsa. I also had cheese nachos to eat with the chunky salsa but it is great with plain tortilla chips. This is good as a side with fish also.

This salsa has the most wonderful flavors. I hope you will try it. I think it will become a favorite summer dish around your home.

Ingredients:
1-15 ounce Black beans, rinsed and drained
1-15 ounce Pinto beans, rinsed and drained
2 cans shop peg corn, drained
4-5 large tomatoes, diced
4 avocados, peeled and diced
1 large green pepper, diced
1 large red pepper, diced
2 bunches of green onions, diced
4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped or minced
2 large jalapeno pepper, chopped
salt to taste

Dressing:
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons of cumin

Put ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Pour dressing over cut vegetables and mix well. You can serve it immediately but it's better if it sets for an hour or two.

Italian Coconut Cream Cake

This was my mom's recipe and we have made it for years. It's great!

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 cup buttermilk
1-7oz. pkg flake coconut (1 2/3 cup for cake and 1 cup for filling)
5 eggs

In a large mixing bowl blend shortening and butter together at medium speed. Add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy. Add 5 egg yolks one at a time. Sift flour and soda together and alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Add 1 2/3 cups coconut to cake batter. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold into batter gently. Pour into 3 greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans. Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool and frost.

Coconut Cream Filling

1/2 cup butter
1-8oz. cream cheese and 1-4oz cream cheese
1 pound powered sugar sifted
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1/2 chopped pecans
1 cup coconut

Mix butter and cream cheese together on medium speed. Gradually add powered sugar and continue beating until smooth and fluffy. Add salt and vanilla and mix well. Spread between layers and top and sides of cake. Mix pecans and coconut together in a small bowl. After you have spread filling over cake take mixture of coconut and pecans and put on the cake.

Beautiful Song

I was listening to a CD by Beth Nielsen Chapman called Back to Love and there is a song on the CD that is beautiful called How We Love. Listen to it....it is beautiful and I think you will like it as much as I do.

One of My Stories of Faith

Before the month of May ends, I want to tell you a great story of Faith and answered prayer. The fulfillment of this story happened on May 3, 1988. It was the birth of our second son and last child.

Let me go back to l981. In 1979 we had our second daughter and like most people in America at that time our mindset was that we have now had our two children and that's it. We had two beautiful healthy daughters. My husband and I had never really discussed how many children we wanted and it was just an accepted fact that we had two children so it was time to stop. So in late 1981, when I took our youngest daughter out of the baby bed and she started sleeping in a regular bed. I thought it was time to get rid of all the baby clothes and baby bed etc. I had a big garage sale and sold everything. I remember thinking it was sad getting rid of all the baby things and I hated thinking that part of my life was over. As a young girl growing up, I had always wanted 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. My only sibling is a sister and she is 11 years older than me. It was like being raised as an only child because she was married and gone from our home when I was in the third grade. I always envied my friends who had other brothers and sisters at home.

After getting rid of all the baby things I couldn't get rid of the feeling that I really wanted more children. I was 31 at the time and I was feeling that I was getting almost too old to still be having children. I felt like I might have a couple of more years and that would be it. I really got that mindset from my gynecologist.
I still have very vivid memories of this day. The girls were down for a nap and I was praying and I started talking to God about having more children. My prayer went something like this. I don't know if it would be alright with You but I would like to have two sons. You know I'm getting older and I thought if I could have twins I could get it over with in one pregnancy. I don't want them to look alike. I want them to be from two separate eggs. I have always wanted to have a baby in the fall but God you know my dad just died last year and I would really love having sons born on my dad's birthday. I know You know what is best for me so would you let me know if it's ok to have two sons.

As you can tell, I was pretty much of a baby spiritually because at the time I didn't know that God viewed children as a blessing and of course He would want me to have more children.

I'm not going to get into this part of the story. But briefly, God had been dealing with me about love. Loving people that were not easy to love. Finally, one day He said if you don't obey me I can't bless you. In my mind I thought I have to obey you. So I changed my attitude and did what He was asking me to do. The next Sunday, I went to get our youngest daughter out of her class after church and she was waving a picture she had made and wanted me to look at it. It was very cold that day and I told I would look at it when we got to the car. When we got into the car I looked at her picture and it was a cut out of a church glued onto a piece of construction paper and the doors of the church opened up. When you pulled the little doors back and looked inside there were two twin boys sitting in a stroller. I knew God was telling me that we were going to have twin boys. I was pretty excited to say the least.

Two months later I became pregnant and the babies were due in November. I knew God had heard my prayer and these little boys were going to be born in the fall. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was having twins and that they were boys. I never doubted it. I started telling family and friends that I was having twin boys and told them what I had asked God. Mid way through the pregnancy I asked my doctor to check for twins and he told me he didn't think I was having twins. I told him I was having twins. To get to the point, our oldest son was born the day before my birthday in November and he was alone, there was not another son. I still felt that God had heard my prayer but He thought I only needed one son instead of two. He did give me a son and he was born in the fall. So I was very happy and I trusted that God knew what was best.

Four years later, in 1987 quite to my surprise I became pregnant. And guess what, this baby was due on my dad's birthday. I knew from the moment I found out I was pregnant that this baby was a boy. Well on May 3, l988 (my dad's birthday) our last son was born. When I was pregnant with him I was looking in a book of baby names. We already liked the names Will or Sam but I was just looking to see if there were any other names that hit me. I saw the name Jonathan and I knew in my heart God was telling me to name him that. I didn't particularly like that name but I knew God wanted me to name this child Jonathan. The meaning to the name Jonathan, is God's gracious gift. During the pregnancy, I had been dealing with a lot of fear but God kept reassuring me to trust Him. He had given me a scripture that He would deliver me at sunrise and I wasn't sure what that meant. I went in the day before my due date for an appointment and my blood pressure was too high. They kept me and was going to induce my labor the next morning. Well my water broke during the night and my labor started and the baby's heart beat kept dropping and three different times during the night they thought they would have to do an emergency c-section. The last time the heart beat dropped was around 5:00 in the morning. They rushed me to the operating room and once again the heart beat returned to normal. I laid on that table for almost an hour and they thought it would be ok to take me back to my room to continue laboring. When they pushed me through the doors there was a large window in the hall way and the sun was just coming up. I knew I would be ok. About 1:00 in the afternoon that day our last son was born and when he was delivered the doctor said, "oh this is the problem." Our son had a knot in his umbilical cord. The doctor also said, "you are very lucky most babies don't make it when this happens." Jonathan truly was God's gracious gift. That afternoon I was a truly blessed woman. I got my second son and he was born on my dad's birthday and God had saved his life and I was almost 38 years old.

Several months ago, my daughter and I were talking about children's names and she asked me what girls names I had picked out when I was pregnant with our sons in case the baby had been a girl. I told her I never had a girls name picked out because I knew they were boys.

I hope this story encourages you to pray and believe. I truly believe we have not because we do not ask. You can never give up on a promise from God. Always remember, we are on God's time table not our own.

Delectable Veggie Sandwich

I love this sandwich. It's really healthy except for the mayo and barbecued sauce. It is very filling and these sandwiches can be made up and wrapped in plastic wrap and kept in the frig and they are wonderful the next day. You can put them in whole wheat pita bread or use whole wheat tortillas. I got this recipe probably 20 years ago from Fit for Life Cookbook. When I first saw the recipe, I thought there is no way that can be good with that conglomeration of vegetables but let me tell you it is wonderful and all my children love it as well. You'll love every bite as it runs over your hands and down your arm. :)

1 cup broccoli
1/2 cup cauliflower (optional)
2-3 tablespoons carrots, finely grated
2-3 tablespoons red cabbage, finely grated
2 tablespoons yellow squash, finely grated
1/4 c. barbecued onions (recipe below)
1 whole wheat pita or tortilla
1 tablespoon mayo
3 thin slivers of dill pickle
1/2 cup lettuce, finely chopped
1/2 cup of alfalfa sprouts
2-3 slices of avocado

Cut broccoli into thin lengths, using only florets and upper stalk. Break cauliflower into florets. Place in a steamer until crisp tender. Combine carrots, cabbage and squash and mix well.
Warm pita in oven (or tortilla on a hot skillet) a few minutes until soft. Spread inside of pita or tortilla with mayonnaise. Place a line of broccoli inside pita or in middle of tortilla. Beside that, place a line of cauliflower, then pickle, then grated veggies, the barbecued onion. Top with lettuce, sprouts and avocado. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

In the pictures, you will see that I didn't have cauliflower or sprouts or lettuce the day I made these but they were still yummy.