I hope you enjoyed the Resource List from yesterday. Be sure to go to the Come Have a Peace Facebook page to share YOUR suggestion for a great book to read, and you’ll be entered to win a giveaway for a sampling of the resources suggested by Scripture Dig at our retreat last weekend. I’ll do the “drawing” on Saturday.

So I wanted to wait and share a recipe idea today, because last night I had a newly married friend over to do a little cooking together.

Women used to gather in kitchens to cook together, offering the chance to pass on kitchen skills, talk about life, and encourage each other.  Not enough of that goes on in our kitchens today. In fact, many of us find it hard to invite each other into our own homes and serve each other through cooking. There really isn’t a substitute, though. Cooking and serving together in a home produces a lot more than good smells and messy pots. Here’s a glimpse of what Kayla and I prepared together:

Menu:  Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu, Butter Roasted Baked Potatoes, Creamy Cole Slaw, Maple Glazed Baby Carrots, and Yeast Rolls.  We made all of it in the “after work” timeframe, and then Kayla joined my fam to enjoy the fruit of our labors.  Here are the details for the main dish:

Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu ~
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
about 1 c. of shredded Monterrey Jack or Swiss Cheese
3 slices of ham from the deli (I like Virginia ham)
1 can of Cream of Chicken soup
1 c. of white cooking wine
1 “sleeve” of Ritz crackers
1 stick of butter

• Spray pan with cooking spray. I will show you pictures of the “single” one we made. 
• Put 1 chicken breast at a time between plastic wrap, on a cutting board, and pound to about 1/2 original width (aim for a semi-rectangular shape)
• Lay 1/2 slice of ham on the chicken and sprinkle with shredded cheese.
• Carefully roll up the breast, tucking ingredients inside and securing with two (non-colored) toothpicks.
• Place chicken in pan. Mix soup and cooking wine well and pour over and around the chicken rolls.
• Carefully crush the crackers into a bowl. Put the butter on top and melt in the microwave. Mix well.
• Sprinkle the cracker topping over the chicken rolls.
• Bake at 350 degrees for an hour. 

I love this dish served with baked potatoes, because the sauce is excellent around your potato. Yum!  And I wish I had a picture of the final product …. but we ate them all (the kids fought over the last one) and never stopped to think about taking a picture. 🙂

Even the kitchen is an opportunity for a woman to serve God.  Titus 2:3-5  encourages the older to mentor the younger:

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. 

A kitchen is definitely a place to create great food, but it has the potential to produce so much more. And isn’t it more fun to work with a friend?  I think so! I hope you’ll open up your home, your kitchen, and your life and welcome someone else in. While we’re encouraging each other “to be busy at home,” we’re accomplishing that and so much more.

Blessings!

I hope you enjoyed the Resource List from yesterday. Be sure to go to the Come Have a Peace Facebook page to share YOUR suggestion for a great book to read, and you’ll be entered to win a giveaway for a sampling of the resources suggested by Scripture Dig at our retreat last weekend. I’ll do the “drawing” on Saturday.

So I wanted to wait and share a recipe idea today, because last night I had a newly married friend over to do a little cooking together.

Women used to gather in kitchens to cook together, offering the chance to pass on kitchen skills, talk about life, and encourage each other.  Not enough of that goes on in our kitchens today. In fact, many of us find it hard to invite each other into our own homes and serve each other through cooking. There really isn’t a substitute, though. Cooking and serving together in a home produces a lot more than good smells and messy pots. Here’s a glimpse of what Kayla and I prepared together:

Menu:  Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu, Butter Roasted Baked Potatoes, Creamy Cole Slaw, Maple Glazed Baby Carrots, and Yeast Rolls.  We made all of it in the “after work” timeframe, and then Kayla joined my fam to enjoy the fruit of our labors.  Here are the details for the main dish:

Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu ~
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
about 1 c. of shredded Monterrey Jack or Swiss Cheese
3 slices of ham from the deli (I like Virginia ham)
1 can of Cream of Chicken soup
1 c. of white cooking wine
1 “sleeve” of Ritz crackers
1 stick of butter

• Spray pan with cooking spray. I will show you pictures of the “single” one we made. 
• Put 1 chicken breast at a time between plastic wrap, on a cutting board, and pound to about 1/2 original width (aim for a semi-rectangular shape)
• Lay 1/2 slice of ham on the chicken and sprinkle with shredded cheese.
• Carefully roll up the breast, tucking ingredients inside and securing with two (non-colored) toothpicks.
• Place chicken in pan. Mix soup and cooking wine well and pour over and around the chicken rolls.
• Carefully crush the crackers into a bowl. Put the butter on top and melt in the microwave. Mix well.
• Sprinkle the cracker topping over the chicken rolls.
• Bake at 350 degrees for an hour. 

I love this dish served with baked potatoes, because the sauce is excellent around your potato. Yum!  And I wish I had a picture of the final product …. but we ate them all (the kids fought over the last one) and never stopped to think about taking a picture. 🙂

Even the kitchen is an opportunity for a woman to serve God.  Titus 2:3-5  encourages the older to mentor the younger:

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. 

A kitchen is definitely a place to create great food, but it has the potential to produce so much more. And isn’t it more fun to work with a friend?  I think so! I hope you’ll open up your home, your kitchen, and your life and welcome someone else in. While we’re encouraging each other “to be busy at home,” we’re accomplishing that and so much more.

Blessings!