Food Friday! Homemade Pizza

When I use my cookbooks for something, I almost always wind up distracted from what I was originally looking for, and I wind up finding something else that I get really excited to make. This happened when I was making cinnamon buns. All I was trying to do was find the recipe to make the cinnamon buns, but I came across a recipe for homemade pizza that got me incredibly excited. So I bookmarked the page to come back to, and I had the chance this past week to make it! The recipe as it is written in the book makes 3 pizzas, but I only wanted to make 2, so I cut it down by a third. However, I'll write it here as it's written in the book so you can portion it as you need.

Ingredients for Dough:

• 4 and 1/4 cups bread flour
• 1 envelope instant or rapid-rise yeast
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 and 3/4 cups warm water

Ingredients for Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (28 ounces) tomato sauce

Toppings:

• 3 cups mozzarella cheese
• whatever else you like on pizza!

Directions:

1. In medium bowl, combine dry dough ingredients, then mix in oil and water. Stir with wooden spoon until dough is shaggy. 
2. Gently knead dough into a large ball.
3. Lightly oil large bowl, transfer dough into large bowl, cover, and let stand until dough has risen to about twice it's original size.
4. Divide dough into thirds and transfer individually onto lightly floured counter. Knead each piece of dough into a ball, transfer back to bowl, cover, and let rise again, for about twenty minutes.
5. While dough is rising, in medium saucepan heat tomato sauce. Stir in garlic and olive oil, cover, and let simmer.
6. Take each dough ball individually from bowl, transfer to lightly floured parchment paper, and knead into circle, working from center outward.
7. Ladle sauce onto dough, moving ladle in circular motion, working from center outward. Leave about 1/2 inch around edge without sauce for crust.
8. Top with mozzarella cheese, and any other pizza toppings you like, then transfer dough from parchment paper to aluminum foil lined pan. Bake at 500 degrees for 8-12 minutes, then remove from oven, let cool, and serve.

With all the rising time, this recipe takes awhile to make, but it's not very hard, and the rising can be sped up by putting in a warm place (I put it on the stovetop with the oven on). I like how Domino's crust has a garlic taste to it, so before baking the pizzas, I mixed some garlic powder, salt, and oil together, then brushed it over the crust. The result? It turned out tasting, in my husband's words, "Even better than DiGiorno!"

Turkey Day!

This was my first year celebrating Thanksgiving as a married person and as a college graduate, so it was also my first Thanksgiving with my church (I've been at school for the past several years at this time so I couldn't go until this year) and my husband's family. So, rather than the usual 2 Thanksgiving dinners that I go to with my family, this year I went to 5! And even though there were so many, and the people at all of them were different, they were all pretty much the same.

There was a big mish-mosh of family, a TON of delicious food, and even more laughter. I really love the holidays because of all the family-time there is, and even though sometimes going from place to place can be a little tiring, it's well worth it. We got to see my mom's family, my dad's family, my mother-in-law's, and my father-in-law's. Some of those people we don't really get to see very often at all, so it's a real blessing to have times like this when we get to see everyone.

On the right is my mom's legendary pumpkin cheesecake- you don't understand  delicious if you haven't tried it.

And after all the dinners were over and we were happily exhausted from running around all week, Chris and I went home, laid in bed, and watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I remain firmly convinced that Charlie Brown should be a staple in everyone's holiday activities, so I wanted to start off our marriage the right way by having it present in our very first year of holidays!

Food Friday! Chocolate Chip Cookies

First and foremost, happy Thanksgiving yall!!! I've had such a wonderful Thanksgiving so far (it's still not over- we have another dinner tomorrow) and you'll hear all about it on Monday, but  I'd just like to take a second to say how thankful I am. A lot of people play the game where you go around the table and say what you're thankful for, but I've never done that, mainly because I just have too much! There is literally not one thing in my life that I would change, and I thank God everyday for EVERYTHING he has blessed me with. I could never list it all out, but I'll give  it a shot to list my top 3.


(1) More than anything, I am thankful for my relationship with God. Every relationship with Him starts with His call for you, and I am so thankful that He called to me. I love the peace that His love brings, and how great it feels being in His presence. It's really just overwhelming. But in a good way. And I am thankful for how much my church does to strengthen my relationship with Him. I cannot imagine a better pastor or a better church family to belong to.


(2) I am thankful to live in the United States of America. Regardless of what I think about what's going on in politics, or who is sitting in the White House, this country allows me freedoms that I wouldn't be allowed in any other country, and I am thankful for it. I have been living the American Dream for pretty much my whole life, and I am thankful for all the advantages that this country has given me. And when I say that I'm thankful for this country, that obviously extends to all our warriors. I am so thankful for everything they do to keep this country free.


(3) The members of my family are the most important people in my life. My husband, my parents, my brother, and all of my extended family and in-laws are all just incredible people, and I love them all SO much. There are so many of them, and each one of them is a separate blessing in a different way in my life, and they have no idea how much I love them all, or how thankful I am to have them all.


With ALL of that being said, I'll go ahead and give you my cookie recipe, which I brought to my church's Thanksgiving dinner this past week. I also made corn pudding for another Thanksgiving this past week, and if you want it, you can find that recipe here.

Ingredients:

• 2 & 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter (softened)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. 
2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
3. Beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. 
4. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. 
5. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

These cookies are incredibly easy to make and everyone always loves them- I left church with an empty plate!

Where A Kid Can Be A Kid

As I've said before, I firmly believe that the holiday season begins in September with my birthday. However, the rest of the world seems to disagree, and is just starting to catch up to me. Now, there can be a general consensus that the holiday season has officially begun!!! Let's all take a second to give a great big cheer!!!! But wait!! There's no time for that- it's the holiday season, so now we have a million things to do!

Luckily for me, this week's million things were mostly focused on kids, which is always fun (and anyone who disagrees can go be a Scrooge elsewhere)! It began with my usual Wednesday night in Mission Friends. My husband's aunt and I are the leaders for the group, and she always has THE most creative, fun ideas for things for the kids to do. This week, due to the up-coming Thanksgiving holiday, she brought in an activity where the kids made little turkeys. Each feather on the turkeys lists a different thing each child is thankful for, and they turned out so cute!!

After this fun day, I got to spend time with kids again over the weekend, when my cousin Libby turned 2! We all went to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate, and it was just a great time. Libby in particular seemed to have a ball. She played the games,

played with her cousins,

rode the rides,

and opened about a hundred presents.

She and the other kids had a great time! And then, so did the big kids. Here's one of my sisters at the bottom of the slide- you know, the one you slide down to get out of the play structure. She, along with another of our sisters, and several cousins (all over the age of 14 by the way) all went in to play. (Side note, the picture is blurry because she was in the process of being run over by an unrelated child coming down the slide.)

It really was a lot of fun to watch them all having so much fun, especially Libby celebrating her birthday!

Then last night, we went to church for the annual Thanksgiving dinner, after which we spent time working with the shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Now, I know I've mentioned this before, but in case you don't know what that is, I talk about it here, or you can get more information about it here. Basically, it's a really great way of helping out children in need at Christmastime with basic necessities as well as toys. Even though I don't think anymore churches are collecting boxes, you can still send in money to help, as it costs $7 per box to ship them. Anyway, after dinner, we all pitched in to load the boxes into the cars of the volunteers who are taking them to Charlotte, N.C. in a couple weeks. As we loaded them into the vehicles (and yes, that's plural- we had so many that they wouldn't all fit in one!) we had them counted, and we wound up with almost 400 boxes! That's about 400 children who will get much-needed items and a happy holiday, which is just so exciting!! Here's one of the SUVs filled to bursting with the boxes!

It was an incredibly joy-filled week, with so much time spent with children, or working to help children, and I had a really great time. And then, my weekend was ended even more joyously- one of my friends is expecting!!!! Now, I won't give names because she and her husband are waiting to tell most people, but I'm too excited!!! I had such a wonderful, blessed week spending time with kids, and now there is another kid who will soon be in the world!!

God is good!!!!!!!

Food Friday! Cinnamon Buns

Everyone always loves going to their grandma's house, and my brother and I (and our cousins) are no exception. We LOVE our grandma for a million reasons, but mostly just because she's awesome. And you better believe that the awesome she is everyday carries over into her cooking. Just like my mom, everything my grandma makes is delicious. The women in our family are pretty terrific at everything kitchen-related. It's got to be a genetic family thing or something, because it's all of them. And besides their better-than-delicious everyday cooking, they all have something they make exceptionally well. For my mom, it's her pumpkin cheesecake. Great-grandma's was sugar cookies. And my grandma's is cinnamon buns.

Even though she has them waiting for us almost every time we go to her house, everyone always gets excited about them because they're seriously that good. We all sit in the kitchen and take up space and talk over each other while eating them. I've gotten to associate good feelings with kitchens because so much of the time I've spent in them has been so great, especially at my grandma's with all the cousins, uncles, aunts, my parents and brother, and those delicious cinnamon buns.

The last time we were there, I asked her for the recipe so I could try making them, because Chris and I like to eat cinnamon buns for breakfast before church on Sundays. She told me it was in a cook book, which she'd given me for our wedding, so this past weekend I looked up the recipe and tried it out!

Ingredients for Dough:

• 2 & 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 & 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 & 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 6 tablespoons melted butter

Ingredients for Filling:

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon melted butter

Ingredients for Icing:

• 2 tablespoons cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease round 8x8 pan and set aside
2. Combine the filling's sugars, spices, and salt in small bowl, then stir in melted butter and set aside.
3. Whisk the dough's flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. 
4. Whisk buttermilk and 2 tablespoons melted butter in small bowl. Add liquid to dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon until liquid is absorbed. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead until just smooth.
5. Pat dough into 9x12 inch rectangle, then brush with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle evenly with filling, leaving 1/2 inch border. Press filling into dough.
6. Starting at long side, roll dough to form a tight log. Pinch seam to seal.
7. Roll log seam-side down and cut into 8 even pieces.
8. Place rolls in pan, brush with 2 tablespoons butter, and bake 23-25 minutes, or until golden brown.
9. Remove buns from pan and place on metal rack to cool.
10. While buns are cooling, whisk together cream cheese and buttermilk in large bowl. Mix in confectioner's sugar, and whisk until smooth. When buns are cool, cover with icing.

After making these, I realized how much time and energy goes into them. These are not easy or quick to make, and the fact that my grandma makes them almost every time we go see her really makes me realize how much she cares about us (not that I didn't already know that my grandma loves us- she only tells us all the time!). The amount of effort she puts into everything she does for us goes way above and beyond grandmotherly duty, and I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful person in my life. I love you Grandma!

Happy Birthday Chris!

Today is November 14th, and for all of you who aren't aware, this is an incredibly important day, and has been since 1988. Why, you ask? Today is my husband's birthday! As the Lord dictates, "...the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything" (NIV Ephesians 5:23-24). As he was set forth in the Bible to be, my husband is the most important person in my life, so, on his birthday, I'd like to dedicate a post specifically to him!


Chris, you are such an incredibly wonderful man, as a husband, as a follower of Christ, and as a friend. You are caring to all those around you, dedicated to our relationship, and most importantly, dedicated to your relationship with the Lord. I love seeing your passion for all those you love and how that is reflected in everything you do. I appreciate how hard you work for everything, and am particularly thankful for how hard you worked in bringing me to a relationship with God. I thank Him everyday for blessing me with you and I'm thankful that you were created for me! I love you so much Christopher!! Happy birthday!!!!!!

One day old

All dressed up for Christmas!

Wrestling Champ!

Big kill!

With Dad after duck hunting

10th grade right before we started dating

Our senior prom

College

Captain's Ball at college

Engagement photo

Our wedding day!

Honeymoon!

Food Friday! World's Best Brownies

As I mentioned on Monday's post, I, along with many other women from my church, helped put together boxes for Operation Christmas Child this past Sunday! I just realized though, that I didn't really explain what that is! So, if you haven't heard of it, Operation Christmas Child is a program where different churches (or anyone who's interested for that matter) put together shoe-boxes that they stuff with all sorts of goodies. Hard candy, toys, school supplies, clothes, basic toiletries, etc. are all packed into the boxes. The boxes are shipped off to different, impoverished countries where they are distributed to needy children. I heard a story when we were packing about one little boy who was so excited to get a toothbrush in his box, because until then he'd been sharing a toothbrush with his father. Who was HIV+.


This story, and the many more I heard about these kids, was just really heart-breaking, and it made me so thankful to be in a position where I'm able to do something to help, and I'm even more thankful to be a part of a community that is so giving. As I mentioned in my other post, we put about 180 boxes together to be shipped, and it's really great knowing that we're able to help so many kids! If you're interested in being a part of this, please check out this link to help!


While we were packing, one of the women bought pizza for everyone (since it was lunchtime when we were doing it), another woman made pumpkin squares, and I made brownies! This is literally the BEST brownie recipe ever, and is SO worth the time it takes for the clean-up afterwards.

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 8x8 pan.
2. In a small saucepan on the stove top, melt the butter. Slowly stir in chocolate until smooth.
3. Remove from heat and mix in eggs and sugar.
4. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix in chocolate mixture until smooth.
5. Pour mixture into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

I didn't for the ones I brought this week because I ran out of time, but I usually top my brownies with a homemade frosting for extra yumminess!

It's A Family Tradition!

There are few things in my life that are more important than my family, so I was incredibly excited to be able to spend all day Saturday with them to celebrate my youngest cousin's 3rd birthday. My parents, grandma, uncles, aunts, and cousins all live in different states from each other, so it's difficult to be able to get together very often. Even still we couldn't all be there on Saturday- my brother had to stay at school, my husband couldn't get off work, and one of my aunts was sick, but everyone else was able to be there! And let me tell you, we get a little crazy when we're all together. In perfect birthday tradition (for my family anyway), the adults acted like children:

We all sang incredibly loudly, off-key, and horribly when it came time to blow out the candles (there are no pictures of us doing this because I was singing just as loudly and horribly as everyone else during this time, so instead I'll give you an adorable picture of my little cousin blowing out his candles instead):

And there was a piñata (which we all still get on our birthdays even after we're long past the normal age for them):

I couldn't love my family more if I tried. We may have some strange birthday traditions, but we have a blast every time we get together, and I wouldn't trade any of it for anything. Here is me with my cousins, an honorary cousin (a cousin's boyfriend), and my brother (who I cropped into the photo because I didn't want to leave him out):

THEN, on top of the wonderful time I had with my family on Saturday, yesterday I got to spend time with some of my husband's family! We go to the same church as his granny, so I got to spend time with her while we packed boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Our women's group packed about 180 shoe boxes to be mailed away, which is just awesome, and I pray that the boxes we packed will go to the children who can best use them!

After such an exciting and enjoyable weekend, Chris and I went to have dinner over at his uncle's house, where we got to enjoy breakfast-for-dinner and more family time. WHAT a family-filled weekend it was!! God has blessed me richly and reminded me of all my blessings this weekend with so much time with the family I love so much!

Food Friday! Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

Chris and I have been trying to eat healthier since we've been married because we ate so much bad-for-us food while in college. The cafeterias had Taco Tuesdays and Wing Wednesdays, in addition to an abundance of horribly delicious Oreo pies, cheeseburgers, pizza, etc. It was all very good, but VERY unhealthy. There was healthy food available on campus too, but that was only if you felt like eating fruit that was bruised beyond recognition, meat that tasted the same regardless of whether it was chicken or beef, or vegetables that were so slathered in butter that you couldn't really even count them as being a healthy option. 

So, for the last several months, in an effort to be healthier, we've been eating a lot of chicken and fish for dinner. Since we've been eating a lot of the same foods, I've been trying to find different recipes so we have some variety in our dinners, and it's not a chore to eat good foods. I don't want to be thinking Ugghh, not this again! when it gets to be dinner-time. This recipe for tilapia is a favorite in our house, and is a great way to spice up fish! Full credit for this one goes to my mom, who finds (or invents) the best recipes ever. Watching her cook every night as I was growing up is the reason I cook every night, and I feel lucky if my food comes out half as well as hers!

Ingredients:

• Several fillets of tilapia (I use 5 or 6)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons creole seasoning

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, beat eggs.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cheese, and creole seasoning. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Brush fish with egg wash, then toss in flour mixture.
4. Coat bottom of pan with oil, wait for it to heat, then fry fish, about 3 minutes on each side.

When she makes this, my mom adds coconut, which offsets the spiciness nicely, and makes a great sweet/spicy combination. The only reason I don't include it is because Chris doesn't like the texture of coconut. However, if you do, just mix in 1/4 cup shredded coconut to the flour mixture!

Trunk-or-Treat!

As I'm sure everyone is aware at this point, today is Halloween! I've been pretty bummed lately because, after leaving Homecoming last week, I realized how much I've been missing college. And Halloween has only served to reinforce this, because Halloween in college is a blast. We get dressed up, get loud, and have awesome parties, and I'm not doing any of those things this year. Growing up doesn't seem like a lot of fun. So, I was starting to get pretty disappointed.

But then, something awesome happened. My church happened. Halloween kicked off for me this past Wednesday, when my church had our weekly dinner. After dinner, I always take the 2-5 year olds for Mission Friends class while their parents enjoy their own class, and since Halloween was approaching, I tried to gear the class towards that. I brought in a carved pumpkin, sat it next to an uncarved pumpkin, lit the carved pumpkin, and then turned off the lights. I compared the lit pumpkin to the Bible verse, "Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house" (NIV Matthew 5:15). We talked about how it's better to let your love for Jesus shine so everyone can see it, and then we colored in a pumpkin from a coloring book that I'd made copies of. This wasn't exactly a wild party, but it gave me such a nice feeling that it beat out every college Halloween I've experienced.

The kids in my class with their pumpkins.

Then, the next night, our church hosted a Trunk-or-Treat! To give you an understanding of what this is, I'll have to explain a little bit. I live in the boonies. Literally, the middle of nowhere (I say that lovingly. Don't walk away thinking I'm not COMPLETELY in love with where I live! I wouldn't trade my town for anything). Our very rural area has few neighborhoods, so most kids don't live in a neighborhood where they can go trick-or-treating. My neighbors are actually cows and chickens. Oh, and a couple horses. So, knowing this, a lot of churches in the area (and some other organizations) put together fall festivals, including trunk-or-treating. Everyone opens their trunks, decorates them, and then passes out candy as kids come around trick-or-treating out of the trunks!

My candy bowl before it was raided.

Because my church is pretty awesome, we host a trunk-or-treat every year, and this year, I got to include my trunk! I was told that we didn't want to do anything scary, so, since I wasn't really sure what people did, I got some pretty simple fall decorations; some colorful leaves, a fall-patterned ribbon, some scarecrows, and then I included our pumpkins! Chris and I set everything up, and, when he was whisked away to man the fire (where kids were cooking s'mores), I settled in to pass out candy.

Chris on fire duty.



This was nothing like a college Halloween party. It wasn't crazy, and it was geared towards the kids. But it was a blast! I had so much fun getting our trunk all decorated, watching the costumed kids come through as I passed out candy, and fellowshiping with my friends who were participating. This was such a drastic change from how I spent my Halloween last year, but it was a nice change of pace, and I really can't remember when I enjoyed Halloween more. If this is what growing up is like, maybe it won't be so bad!! Happy Halloween y'all!!!

Our trunk all decorated!

Food Friday! Corn Pudding

The weather this week has been absolutely gorgeous! Because of this, Chris and I have been spending a lot of time outside, enjoying the last bits of nice weather before it inevitably gets too cold to be enjoyable. So, Chris has been manning the grill for a lot of the week as we enjoyed the beautiful weather!

Let me tell you though- that grill is beyond me. I'm lucky if I can turn the gas on without the whole thing exploding. So, I haven't been doing a lot of cooking this week, and what I have been cooking has been indoor, and fairly easy, so I was wondering what I was going to put up today! We're having people over tonight, but one of our guests wanted to cook, so she is bringing a casserole, and another guest wanted to bring the dessert, so I still wasn't sure what I was going to put up! I decided to fix a side though to go with the casserole because I really hate having people over and not having something to feed them (you can ask anyone who comes to visit me- I'll feed you till you pop!).

So, with all that being said- here is the corn pudding recipe that I'll be serving tonight!

Ingredients:

• 1 package fresh or frozen corn
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:

1. In a small bowl or pan, heat the butter until it is melted.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, and then add the rest of the ingredients. Mix together, and then salt and pepper to taste.
3. Pour mixture into a greased pan and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

Like last week's, this week's recipe is pretty quick and easy, which is wonderful when I don't get home until 5:00 and dinner is at 6:00! I've had this several times before, and am excited to serve it again tonight because it's just delicious! A note of caution- I know a lot of people who always add a little bit of extra sugar when they're cooking something that calls for sugar, and I often do that myself. However, because the corn already adds a sweetness, adding more sugar can make the dish too sweet, and a little overwhelming.

There's No Place Like Home

This past weekend was Homecoming at my alma mater, Christopher Newport University, and I could not have been more excited to see all the friends that I've been missing. I am incredibly happy with my life after college- it's exactly what I wanted! I was prepared for married life, my full-time job, and taking care of a house. However, I was entirely unprepared for how much I would miss college once I graduated. It's not the classes I miss, but the people. And by people, I mean of course the fraternity, Tau Delta Phi. The brothers of this fraternity are some of the greatest people I've ever met, and I miss them all so much! So you can imagine how excited I was to get to go down and see, not only my friends who are still in their undergrad there, but also other alum, some of whom I haven't seen in over a year!! So, Saturday morning, Chris and I loaded Evan up in the car and prepared to spend an awesome day in Newport News tailgating with his brothers.

We played cornhole:

We ate ridiculous amounts of food:

We got to see my little brother Cory (who just started at CNU):

Evan made new friends:



And we just generally had a wonderful time seeing all the people who we haven't gotten to see near enough. I love you CNU, Tau Delta Phi, and Cory!!!





Food Friday! Potato Soup

I am a happy member of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, and, since moving back to the area, have had the wonderful fortune of being able to start being a larger part of the church. I have started attending the meetings for the Ruth Evening Circle, and at our first meeting of this new year, we decided to hold a fundraiser for those of us going on the Operation Christmas Child trip.

Every Wednesday night, our church has dinner before breaking up into our different groups, and this week, the REC had the opportunity to have our fundraiser dinner on this night. We all brought in different soups, made grilled cheese sandwiches, and had ice cream sandwiches for dessert! Since it wasn't a very expensive meal to make, our fundraiser did very well! We raised over $400 for our trip and got to eat some absolutely delicious soups!! I think we had just about every type of soup imaginable too. We had chili, vegetable, chicken noodle, and I made potato soup from Chris' grandmother's recipe, which I was very pleased with. I altered the recipe very slightly to make it a little creamier, but just about all the credit for this one goes entirely to her! I don't think anyone makes it quite as well as she does, but mine turned out well, and when I left, I only had a small container leftover that someone had thoughtfully set aside so that Chris would have something for dinner.

Ingredients

• Several potatoes (peeled, washed, & diced)
• 1 can corned beef
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup half & half
• salt & pepper (to your own taste)

Directions

1. Boil diced potatoes with butter, salt, and pepper until soft, then reduce heat to medium.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, milk, and half & half.
3. Add flour mixture to the pot. Let cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally
4. Crumble corned beef, and then add to pot. Let cook about 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and let sit until ready to serve.

This recipe is pretty quick and easy, and is very good! Just be careful not to use too much water or you won't get as much flavor out of the soup. Just to give some reference, I use about 4 and 1/2 quarts of water when I cook it.