In the meantime

The past few Christmases I've posted some recipes that are traditional here at the Stanley/Lehrman household:  Cheese Ball,   Summer Sausage & Peppernuts,  and  Almond Toast . I think it was last year that Isaac and I enjoyed delivering Summer Sausage and Almond Toast to friends.  This year, however,  I didn't get around to making the almond toast.  Instead, I decided to make Mom's Caramel Corn recipe to go along with the Summer Sausage and Zippy Mustard.   I think it turned out quite well! Christmas Caramel Corn:  Pop roughly 7 quarts of popcorn.   If you're doing it on the stove, you'll need about 1 3/4 cup dry popcorn (1/2 cup dry popcorn makes roughly 2 quarts popped popcorn.) (Don't know how many bags of microwave popcorn that would be...)  Mix together and boil for 5 minutes (while stirring):  2 cups brown sugar 1 cup butter 1/2 cup white or dark corn syrup  1/2 tsp salt  Remo...

For some reason, this Describe Him post has not come together very easily.  I've started it...and then a paragraph later, gotten stuck staring at the screen.  So I let it sit for a few weeks, and when I try it again, I only get stuck again.  arrrg. But now we're hardly a week away from celebrating Christmas, and what better describes God as Near than the very thing we celebrate at Christmas?  In one of the most miraculous events in history, Almighty God became flesh--a baby born of a virgin.  God became a human and dwelt among us.  Christ was a man, died on the cross, and rose again: all of it was God's initiative so that we might be reconciled with Him.  Being reconciled with Him means we now stand clothed in Christ's righteousness so that we can now draw near to Him.  Because He came near to us.  This song, The Unbelievable , says it better than I can. Christmas is the time to celebrate the birth of Emmanuel, God with ...

I’ll be honest: I don’t ever remember Grandma making this…but that’s because I only remember celebrating Christmas with her one time—back in 1996—and I was only 7 years old  (because chese balls and who made them are not very important to 7-year-olds....)   Ahh, that Christmas in ‘96 stands out in my mind…hanging with my cousins {playing Mario and Donkey Kong} , aunts and uncles and grandmas being around, going ice skating, snow, a real Christmas tree {I think that was the first and maybe even the only time we had a real tree} … Yes, that is one of my favorite Christmases. Anyway,  we’ve made this cheese ball recipe practically every year… I’ve tried other cheese balls, but this one always is still the winner!  I think it is the pineapple in it that makes it unique.  I think you’ll agree once you also try it.   Grandma Lehrman’s Christmas Cheese Ball 2 – 8oz. packages cream cheese 1 c. cooked pineapple, drained and squeezed dry (I usuall...

Thanksgiving is over and the season for celebrating Christmas is here!  Although I know Christmas isn’t so much about what we do as it is about Who we celebrate , you can’t deny that all of the sights, smells, and traditions have become a part of how we celebrate Christ’s birth.     Over the next few weeks, I’d like to share several more special recipes that, around here, are only for Christmas .  Last year I shared my family’s all-time favorite recipes for Peppernuts  and Home-made Summer Sausage  ( If you’ve never tried homemade summer sausage, you don’t know what you’re missing out on! I grew up on this stuff, and it has kind of {really} spoiled me.) This year I’ll try to post the recipes for Almond Toast,   Grandma Lehrman’s Christmas Cheese Ball ( it’s the best cheese ball I’ve ever had!)and Homemade Zippy Mustard to go with the Summer Sausage (which makes the summer sausage burst w...

 I mentioned in my previous post a few favorite Christmas foods, so here are a couple of the recipes! ************************************************ Up until a couple weeks ago, I thought it was normal to make your own summer sausage.  Only after Isaac expressed much surprise at the fact that I had actually just made summer sausage did I realize that it must just be something that you do when you live in Brazil and you don’t have summer sausage readily available at the store!  This recipe is what I grew up with and has always been my favorite kind of summer sausage!  I had never made it myself until this year but it is so incredibly easy that anyone can do it! Summer Sausage 2 lbs. ground hamburger 2 T. Morton’s tender quick (can be found in the grocery store next to regular table salt) 2 t. black pepper 1/8 t. garlic powder or garlic cloves 1 ½ t. liquid smoke ½ t. mustard seeds ¼ c. water (If the hamburger is exceptionally lean, add 1-2...

(I wrote this post a while before Christmas, but never got around to posting it until now.)  This is now our second Christmas together since we got married.  Neither of us are die-hard “traditional-ists,” so we are still figuring out what exactly “Celebrating Christmas” looks like for us. Isaac did not bring any particular Christmas tradition to our marriage. I, on the other hand, do have a few things that I look back on as a part of how we celebrated Christmas growing up: - Making a big batch of peppernuts soon after Thanksgiving is a must in order for it to “feel” like Christmas! - Almond toast, Grandma Lehrman’s cheese ball, Christmas punch, and home-made summer sausage also come to mind.  - My family did do a gift-exchange.  While at times it did feel like it was easy for it to become all about the gifts, I do remember always reading the Christmas story Christmas Eve before ever opening any presents.  Reading the Christmas Story is a must! - In Bra...