plan & organize — Reluctant Entertainer

Day Old Bread: Prepare and Freeze

August 5, 2010 By Sandy 18 Comments

When I see day old bread in the grocery store, and it’s the yummy kind that makes a delicious Breakfast Casserole, I buy a couple of loaves.

Then I take off the top crust, pull apart. Put into Ziploc bags.

And freeze. Ready to pull out any time when I know I need to make a large breakfast the next day.

Like I did when I made this Breakfast Casserole. (BTW, I have this recipe and another, Pear Vanilla French Toast, in my new book. It’s perfect for house guests, if you want to prepare the night before.)

It’s good to think ahead and be prepared.

Do you ever prepare ingredients in advance and freeze? What’s your favorite breakfast casserole recipe?

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Clean it Off: Put your Friends Away!

May 17, 2010 By Sandy 39 Comments

I was looking around my kitchen to see what I could do to make it sparkle a bit more, knowing we had another dinner party coming up. I had already put a lot of miscellaneous stuff away, canning jars that needed to go out into the garage, white platters that belonged in their own spaces, and then my eyes met the messy fridge.

I knew I had to clean it off!

So all the Christmas pictures came down.

I used Windex to make the front shine!

And then I realized having a clean fridge front actually made my kitchen feel larger.

I always put pictures on my fridge after Christmas. And we enjoy our friends for a few months. But then they start to feel cluttered (sorry, friends!) and it’s time to put them away.

When’s the last time you’ve cleaned off the front of your fridge? Do you like the fresher feel?

And tell me what you do with all the wonderful Christmas pictures that you get in the mail every year?

Filed Under: plan & organize

Deeper Meaning: Keeping Index Cards!

February 24, 2010 By Sandy 28 Comments

Fifteen years of history, I see as I’ve flipped through the index cards that I have rubber-banded together. I see names of couples and families, along with faces etched in my mind. The dates of when we had these families over, or even what I served, is not what’s gnawing at me. No, the “names” and memories are what’s staring at me …

What has happened to this couple? Why did they divorce? We used to have so much in common! Oh, the pain that their family has endured … as I think of one couple in particular who did divorce, and then a few years later they lost a child.

My mind then takes off and starts to contemplate relationships. We’re made for them, we’re to pursue them, we need them – but oh so often they can turn into a painful situations as things don’t turn out the way we expect. It’s true that differences, different paths, or even pride can get in the way of what was once a close-knit relationship. Sometimes they change because they’re no longer healthy. We all grow and mature and sometimes life takes us in different directions.

But there is still a memory. A strong feeling. A good feeling. A deep feeling of love. That is what hospitality is all about.

The great writer Henri Nouwen describes hospitality as “a central attitude of the minister who wants to make his own wounded condition available to others as a source of healing.”

Being real and opening up our homes and lives with others can actually help heal our guest’s hurts. That is just a beautiful thought!

Back to my index cards that I started on Day #1 of my marriage: A set of index cards on which I recorded the name, date and what I served for my guests. I did this in fear that I would serve the same thing twice to my guests – God forbid! But little did I know that almost 20 years later, as I flip through these cards, that they would have deeper meaning …

“We do not know where we will be two, ten or twenty years from now. What we can know, however, is that man suffers and that a sharing of suffering can make us move forward.” (Henri Nouwen)

Do you ever reminisce about couples or individuals you’ve dined with?