Helpful Hints and Salsa Chicken

Welcome back to Kathy’s Kitchen, where you find delicious recipes and learn helpful hints from the kitchen adventures of others who love to cook. Please send me your favorite recipes and helpful hints to share from Kathy’s Kitchen.

This helpful hint is from my friend Laura.

“When allowing your children to cook, be sure to give them very detailed instructions. For example: When cooking corn on the cob, always add water to the pan. When making fudge, be sure child understands which amount is for sugar and which is for salt.”

This recipe is from my cousin Cheryl. It sounds so yummy, I plan to make it next week.

Salsa Chicken (Freezer Meal)

3-4 chicken breasts

Jar of salsa

Packet of taco seasoning

Can of black beans (drained)

Frozen corn

Place chicken breasts in CrockPot. Stir other ingredients together and pour over chicken breasts. Cook on Low for 6-8 hours.  If you want this to be a freezer meal instead, just put all the ingredients in a large Ziploc bag and freeze. Then, when you want to use, soak the bag in water for a few minutes until the ingredients loosen from the sides of the bag. Dump contents into the CrockPot and cook on Low for 6-8 hours.

Carman Sings For Ohio

The Christian singer Carman has always been an important part of our lives.

I’ve listened to Carman since the early or mid-80s, but in January of 1988, Murray and I saw him live on the University of Missouri campus. Murray accepted Jesus as his Savior that night.

We listened to Carman in the car a lot when the kids were young, and they knew and asked for his songs—“Jesus is the Way,” “Addicted to Jesus.” When Rebecca was in her teens and we’d hear “the Champion,” she said, “That’s my favorite song ever.”

Murray, with different members of the family at different times, has seen Carman in concert six or eight times over the years, from large arenas to small churches.

Last Saturday night, Murray, Ping-Hwei, and I drove two hours down to Marion, Ohio, to see him again.

We had a lovely time. Carman sang some old favorites, such as “Lazarus, come Forth.” There were one or two new songs I’d never heard. We sang some old-time hymns—“I surrender All,” “My Jesus, I Love You,”—and we had church.

Carman talked about the cancer he found out about back in 2013 and went through nine months of chemo therapy for. He said when they first told him he had cancer, he said, “Wait. You don’t know who I am. I’m the ‘I love Jesus, yes I do’ boy.”

He praised God that he is now cancer free, though in 2013, they thought he had only a short time to live. He said, “No matter how much other people might say you’ve done for Jesus, Jesus said, ‘Unto whom much has been given, much shall be required.’” (Luke 12:48)

There was no charge for the concert, and he didn’t take up an offering. He gave attendees the opportunity to participate in a ministry to support children in poor parts of the world.

We signed up, so we got to meet Carman and his wife and have our pictures taken with them. Murray had the opportunity to tell him, “Kathy and I saw you in January of 1988, and I gave my life to Jesus that night.”

Ping-Hwei and I each bought a shirt, and we got several new CDs, or “records” as Carman called them.

Murray said, “Well, that was fun, getting to say hey to Carman.”

Sweet Memories, I love these guys

March 17, 1996: We were talking to Morgan (Murray’s brother in Missouri) on the speaker phone yesterday, about how warm it was here and there, and Rebecca asked him, "Is it Saturday there?" She knows sometimes it's not the same day in Taiwan as here.

March 19, 1996: At church Sunday, Murray said that our friend Kathy was behind a railing where the piano and organ are. Sarah asked her how she got out of there. Kathy told her she didn't know how to get out. So Sarah asked her, "Does somebody bring you food?"

March 22, 1996: Last night I made soup for supper. Sarah was whining and didn't want to eat it. First, she didn't like the meat, then she didn't like the green beans. Murray finally convinced her to take a bite of part of the ingredients, and asked if she liked it. She must have nodded, because he told her to thank me for making it. She said, "Mommy, thank you for some of the soup."

The other night when Sarah was eating supper, she explained to us that after she put a spoon of food in her mouth, she looked at the spoon when she took it out, and there was no food on it. (An interesting discovery.:))

March 25, 1996: The other day Sarah said to me, "Mommy, I wish Renato would come to our house again." Yesterday, she said, "I hope Renato loves Jesus." (Renato was an exchange student from Brazil who lived with us the year before this.)

A couple times recently, Rebecca has been doing something with adults. Then, after hearing the other kids playing loudly downstairs, she said, "I think I want to go down there with them, because they sound like they're having fun."

March 26, 1996: After the kids wash hands for a meal, we always tell them not to pet the kitty. Yesterday at lunch time, Caleb said his foot messed with Rhoda. Then he said, "My foot needs to wash its hands."

Rebecca used to call the tune or melody of a song the "violin" of the song. (Not too many years later, she became a violinist.)

March 27, 1996: We were talking last night about maybe getting rid of Rhoda, because Sarah is so scared of her, and because Rhoda has been so crazy lately. We told the kids that maybe we could get some other pet, and Sarah insisted that she wanted an elephant.

March 28, 1996: Last night we had dinner with some friends of ours. The man, Ken's, son Josh is visiting this week from Colorado. He's fourteen, and we were talking in the car later about what a nice kid he is. I said we should tell Ken that Josh is really a nice guy. Rebecca said, "But he already knows that."

April 3, 1996: The other day, Murray took the kids to the mall, and they went into the eye glasses place to get Sarah's glasses adjusted. The man tried to put them on Rebecca later instead of Sarah. Sarah told me, "Then he said in a man's voice (and she made her voice deep)'I'm sorry.'"

April 18, 1996: The other night Caleb said to Murray, "I'm going to give you something; you'll like it. It's a hug!" And he hugged him.

April 26, 1996: Rebecca knows we have wax in our ears. She says the sleepers in our eyes is eye wax, and the junk in our noses is nose wax.

April 29, 1996: Yesterday, Rebecca was running around in the dining room, and Sarah said, "Rebecca, don't gallop like that!"

When I told Rebecca good-night, she said, "Good-night. I hope you dream of me."

May 2, 1996: Yesterday I was really tired, so Murray took the kids by himself to dinner and then to church. After church, he called and asked if I wanted him to bring me some food. He went to McDonalds, and Caleb asked what he'd got for me. Murray said a hamburger and fries, and Caleb said, "Oh, when I'm a daddy, and I can't go to church, that's what I want for supper!"

Intentional Gratitude

I recently read about intentional gratitude in the book, IF I’M FOUND, by Terri Blackstock, an author of Christian suspense I’ve loved for years. This book is one of a series she published recently.

Ms. Blackstock talked about Intentional gratitude in her author’s note; it was something a friend shared with her.

When we’re feeling down about situations in our lives, when we want to complain, we can remind ourselves to have intentional gratitude toward god. When things seem bad, look for things to thank god for.

This is something we have to be active about, even if we don’t want to; not depending on feelings. Look at the things around us at this moment, the simplest things that have happened to us today.

I tried it, right at the time I first read about it. I thanked God for the surprise popsicle I’d just found in the basement freezer. Almost immediately, I had reason to thank him for bringing the right Scripture to my mind when I wanted to get mad at someone. And for how relieved I felt when I didn’t spout off.

Ms. Blackstock reminded me of Philippians 4:8, keeping our minds on good things, and of the verse in 1 Thessalonians about praying constantly. She said she realized she’d ignored reasons to thank God for things. She didn’t see God working because she hadn’t been looking for him.

The author said as her characters in the series start seeing god working in their lives more frequently, she hopes her readers will too.

I thank Ms. Blackstock, her friend, and God for this reminder. I pray that the words intentional gratitude will remain in my mind and become part of my daily routine.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances,

for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.