SMALL BITES … ADVENTURES IN DOWNSIZING
Jan Kinzel
Provided by CN Building Adult Ministries Resource Center
For I know the thoughts I have towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope…this from Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet”!
Ralph Waldo Emerson said words to the effect that it’s not what lies in the past or what lies ahead but what lies within that count. The spotlight of downsizing certainly reveals the character within – good and bad. This light shines on faith, hope, trust, optimism and the like; dispels the shadows where some of the weaknesses can hide and fool you; and exposes issues thought to have been long ago developed and taken for granted – trusted tools relied upon for living the Christian life. The ambush is surprising! A reassessment of faith and values must be made – returning to the basics of faith in God and the simplicity of the Gospel truths and the refreshing of your own personal relationship with God.
Who gave me some hope to cling to when I first learned of the need to change most of my life? Not whom you might think. It took me a while to understand the Jeremiah 29 verse and accept that my future had not been wiped-out and even longer to examine my values and what a mess I was. In the meantime, the sales staff at the condominium complexes helped me to look forward. Because of the many months of experience they had in helping people, like me, to leave behind a well-worn lifestyle and exchange it all for a new way to live, they had excellent words of hope and advice. While I was looking back and dwelling on all I was about to lose, they told me that once I “put my key into my place and began living there I would love it.” I really clung onto that. And they were right.
While we still have that experience to come, there is a lot to be accomplished beforehand. It’s exciting to plan our “new life”. I know it will be different from the life in which I had become so comfortable. There will be some limitations because of space but there will also be freedoms for the same reason. I have named our new place “A Shining Little Jewel” and am setting out to make it just that.
MENU
It’s What Lies Within Cabbage Rolls
Jewel Tone Applesauce
Sparkling Cider
Snickerdoodles
RECIPES
Cabbage Rolls
2 heads of green cabbage
2 cans Italian flavored or plain diced tomatoes
1 egg
1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning
1 ½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ lb. ground chuck beef
1 ½ lb. ground turkey
½ lb. Jimmy Dean sage sausage
1 cup Minute rice
1 medium finely diced yellow onion
10 bay leaves
10 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 cup milk, heated
1 can tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste mixed with 1 quart warm water
Core 2 heads of cabbage, place in a large pot of salted boiling water and blanche for 4 minutes.
Remove from water and drain, cored side down on paper towels to soften the leaves. Cool.
Prepare a Dutch oven, roasting pan or casserole dish by spraying it with Pam and covering the bottom with Italian flavored or plain diced canned tomatoes.
Lightly beat the egg with a fork in a large bowl. Add Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. To this, add meats, rice, onion and warmed milk. Combine all of this with your hands. (I like to wear disposable gloves or baggies.) Don’t overmix as the meat will lose texture and become ‘mushy’.
Carefully separate the cabbage leaves. Fill each one with the meat mixture and form rolls. They will vary in size. Place each roll in the diced tomato base, adding more of the diced tomatoes, 2 garlic cloves and a couple of bay leaves in between layers. Top with remaining tomatoes; pour tomato sauce and the tomato paste /water mixture over all of the cabbage rolls.
Cover with lid or aluminum foil and bake in a 3750 oven until meat is cooked and rice is tender. (These can also be cooked on the range or in a crockpot.) Serve in pasta bowls with bread for dipping. Freeze the leftovers in plastic containers.
Jewel Tone Applesauce
10 Granny Smith apples
10 Rome Beauty apples
Red apple peels
2 cinnamon sticks
1 cup granulated sugar
Juice of small lemon
1 cup water
Peel, core and rough chop the apples. Combine all ingredients in a heavy bottomed pot – such
as a Dutch oven. Cook over medium-high heat until apples are cooked down to the consistency
you prefer. The red peels will give a lovely pink cast to the sauce. Remove the peels and
cinnamon sticks before serving. Serve hot, warm or chilled.
Sparkling cider over ice and some Snickerdoodle cookies are great accompaniments to this dinner.
Tip: Encourage others as you would have them encourage you
A word fitly spoken …….apples of gold………Proverbs 25:11