Balancing Motherhood

Do you ever get the Sunday-night blues? Years ago, when I was in a job that I disliked (OK, I kind of hated that job) I used to get depressed every Sunday night thinking about going back to the office Monday morning. The weekend was over, it was back to reality — and it was a bad reality.

I haven’t felt like this in a long time. Mondays come and Mondays go. You can’t get to Friday unless you go through a Monday. I’ve come a long way, but every now and then the Sunday-night blues hit me. I try to stay focused and enjoy my Sunday as much as possible. Try not to think or do work. This helps me to have fun, relax and be completely with my family. That’s the best medicine in the world.

How do you cope with the beginning of a busy week?

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Last year I made meringue cookies to teach my kids about the true meaning of Easter. A sorority sister of mine wrote about these cookies in a cookbook she made to honor her late son, whom she said always remembered these cookies fondly. Her story made me want to have this experience with my own children.

After trying it last year, I realized it’s something we’ll do each year. To be honest, I expected this to be a lesson, not a cookie that I loved to eat. Turns out it was both. These cookies are excellent. You can’t eat just one.

Ideally, this recipe is best done the night before Easter, but this year we did it the night before Palm Sunday because we’ll be out of town on Easter Sunday. Either way, it’s a great lesson and one the children love participating in. We let the kids eat the cookies in the morning to help keep the excitement alive.

Easter Resurrection Meringue Cookies

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Recipe type: Dessert

Prep time: 30 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Make these the night before Easter. A great way to teach your children the true meaning of Easter. Not only is this a great lesson, the cookies are delicious!

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole pecans
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• 3 egg whites
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup sugar
• Other items needed:
• Bible
• zip top bag
• wooden spoon
• tape

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. IMPORTANT! Do this before you do the next steps.
2. Place pecans in zip top bag and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break them into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, the Roman soldiers beat him. Read John 19:1-3
3. Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 teaspoon vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross he was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30
4. Add egg whites to vinegar. Explain that eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11
5. Sprinkle a little salt into each child’s hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus’ followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. Read Luke 23:27
6. So far the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 cup sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him. Read Psalm. 34:8 and John 3:16
7. Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God’s eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. Read Isaiah. 1:18 and John 3:1-3
8. Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. (Or, put ingredients in a gallon zip top bag and cut off a tiny piece of the corner to use as a piping bag. Pipe cookies onto cookie sheet.) Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus’ body was laid. Read Matthew 27:57-60
9. Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus’ tomb was sealed. Read Matthew 27:65-66
10. GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus’ followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20 and 22
11. On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter Jesus’ followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. Read John 11:25-26

2.2.1

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I’ve been waiting by the mailbox for days, weeks now to get a review copy of Ree Drummond’s latest cookbook and it finally came: “The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier.” I love her first installment. It’s also no secret that I also love her blog. I can’t tell you how many recipes of hers I’ve made: cinnamon rolls, rib eye steak with blue cheese sauce, prime rib, mashed potatoes, chocolate sheet cake, you get the idea. I’ve never been disappointed. Not once. Well, there is that pig cake. It was OK, but nothing I need again. Most of the Pioneer Woman recipes I’ve made have become part of my family cookbook that I’ll eventually will pass on to my children.

If you’re following the latest season of “The Pioneer Woman” on Food Network you’ll be pleased that many of the recipes are included in her new cookbook. As with the first cookbook, she includes step-by-step instructions with photographs. My only complaint is that, after following her blog for so long with the wonderful 630 pixel wide images, the photos in the cookbook seem too small. It’s worthy to also note that many of the recipes in the book are already available on her blog. Drummond doesn’t hide this fact as she states on her site when describing her new cookbook,

“The recipes in this cookbook are a mix of old classics that I’ve retested, revamped, and rephotographed, recent favorites that are not to be missed, and brand new recipes I’ve never shared before.”

There are, however, several new and wonderful dishes that I can’t wait to try. I have to admit that The Pioneer Woman is teaching me how to cook. Her step-by-step instructions on easy meals makes it perfect for people like me who never really learned the art of cooking.

How I Learned To Make and Can Strawberry Jam

A few weeks ago my family went strawberry picking and bought $56 worth of berries. That’s a lot of berries folks. What to do with them all? I decided that I wanted to try my hand at making and canning some jam, but didn’t know how to do it. I bought a canning kit from Amazon and then we went strawberry picking.

Wouldn’t you know it, the very next episode of The Pioneer Woman’s show was the one where she is showing her homeschooling group how to make strawberry jam. Perfect timing! This recipe also appears in a canning section of “The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier.”

We sliced the berries and smashed them to pieces with a potato masher. Great fun and somewhat of a workout. Next we cooked them in a regular pot on the stove and added sugar and pectin. Wait for this to boil and then it’s ready to put into the jars.

This is the canning pot that I used.

It came as a kit and had all the necessary pieces to do a canning project: the pot, tongs to grab hot jars, jar opener, magnetic stick to pick up the hot lids and a spout to put the jam into the jar. I bought the jars separately at, surprisingly, ACE Hardware. I tried Walmart, but they are a seasonal item there and not available when I went.

Here are the completed jam jars. I am so proud of these little guys. We made about 19 jars from this one recipe. It was a great lesson for the kids and became a fun family activity.
After we made the jam, I found this recipe (also from her show) for strawberry bars. This is one of my all time favorite Pioneer Woman recipes. Seriously, you need to run out to get the ingredients to make this today. It’s that good.

If you won’t be making your own strawberry jam for this recipe you can use store bought. I’ve made it with both. You can also use different flavors depending on what you feel like. Try it, you’ll love it.

This weekend I’m diving into the cookbook. First up, orange-marmelade rolls. If they are just as good as her cinnamon rolls, I’ll be a rock star with all my friends.

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