Splendid Blood Orange Olive Oil Quinoa Salad

The hint of orange mingles perfectly with jicama, bell peppers, and snow peas. The key to this salad is to let it set over night. The flavors will grow, along with its sweet aroma. Easy to make, and can be prepared in steps. You can cook the Quinoa one day and cut the veggies another. Nothing strenuous about this recipe.

I purchased the Blood Orange Olive Oil from the Temecula Olive Oil Company. It's a sweet and delicate oil. The aroma is very pleasant. Here is the link to the oil.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked Quinoa
• 2 1/2 tablespoon Blood Orange Olive Oil
• 1 cup diced jicama
• 1 cup diced bell peppers
• 1 cup sliced snow Peas

Step 1: Cook Quinoa as directed on package. Let cool.
Step 2: Stir veggies together in a large bowl.

Jicama

Bell Peppers

Snow Peas

 

Step 3: Add Quinoa to veggies and stir. Add orange olive oil, stir. Let the salad sit over night, serve next day.

You will be thrilled by the delicate flavor, and the bright colors of the veggies add some visual pizzazz to the food.

Nancy Jane 

Thinning...The Laborers are Few

 

Easy place for pest to hide

Fruit thinning time...no volunteers for this job. My family's little heart drops when they see the thinned fruit under the tree. But it is an essential orchard practice, your fruit (most fruit...not citrus) should be thinned about a fist distance apart...as a rough guideline.  Your fruit will be larger, plumper, and more flavorful.  Also the branches won't break with an over abundance set fruit.

Same thinning is needed in our lives, if we thin our activities that interfere with our service to Christ....our ministry will bare  more fruit for the kingdom. 

"The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few."


Broken branch in the making...fruit overload!



Same cluster, ready to grow some delicious plums.

Thinned plums, soon to be jam...if Nancy Jane doesn't get her fruit cravings first.

Mother Judith

Crazy Rainbow Cake

 

 

 

Crazy Rainbow Cake is a crowd pleaser! Though it looks hard, it couldn't be easier!

 

What you need:

• 1 box of white vanilla cake, and ingredients needed to make the cake
• 5 small bowls and spoons
• 5 food dyes of your choice (you can also do more or less colors)
• Cake Pan

 

Preheat oven. Mix cake batter as instructed on box. Place batter in 5 separate bowls.

 



 

 Choose 5 colors to use. Choose a designated bowl for each colors. For example, drop a few drops of blue dye in one bowl and stir. Add drops until desired color is achieved. Then do the same for yellow in a separate bowl, them pink, etc. (Only do a few drops of the dye, a little goes a long way)

 

 

Choose pan (I used a bundt cake this time), spray with Pam. Designate a spoon for each color so that the colors will not mix. Scoop a layer of color at a time into pan, DO NOT STIR COLORS TOGETHER. Just let the colors sit on top of each other until the batter is all gone.

 

 

 

Place in oven, bake for time listed on box. When done, let cool. Flip and decorate! What's so fun about this cake is every piece is unique and colorful. It's just enjoyable to look at! K.E.G claims the rainbow adds more flavor and pizzazz.

 

 

This one actually made a rainbow!

 

Nancy Jane



Dance Around the May Day Pole

Come dance with us around the May Pole, where streams of rainbows flow.

 

 May Day Memories &

      Mom's Lesson of Giving

Over fifty years ago my family lived in a little neighborhood in Inglewood Calif.  Such memories of neighborhood friends, ice cream truck, a little lady named Helen who lived alone we would go visit. This little neighborhood was where mom in her kind and gentle ways taught me to be caring for people, kind to animals, (even snails) and May Day we gave secret flower gifts.

Mom saved strawberry baskets, which were cuter back then, not plastic but a thin wood.  We would weave ribbon in the little slits, and use a pipe cleaner for a handle,  scour our little yard for flowers and sometimes a cute rock to fill our craft work.

On May Day, I would go around the neighborhood (not forgetting the little lady Helen) and leave them on the doorstep, a secret gift never to be known who was the deliverer.

This was mom’s introduction to non-recognition giving. Giving to bless, not for applause.

The tradition carried on for many years with my own beloved daughters, and maybe we should revisit it now. Mom’s wisdom was not my artful flower decoration, but an introduction to give and bless others.

Thank you Mom…Happy May Day…May Day is even more beautiful in heaven

Mother Judith
 

~How to make May Day Poles~
Perfect gifts to add along to bouquets of flowers. I (Nancy Jane) have precious memories of creating these colorful gifts with Mother Judith and K.E.G. each year before May Day.

What you need:

•  Bamboo Sticks
• Three Choices of Ribbon
• A Fake Flower
• Hot Glue Gun

Step 1: Choose two ribbons to be wrapped around the bamboo stick. With your ribbon choices, measure the length of bamboo stick and add a few inches. Glue ribbon A and B to top of stick on opposite sides, weave ribbon tightly to bottom of stick. Wrap and glue at bottom.

 

Bamboo stick after being wrapped by ribbon.



 

Step 2: Take your three choices of ribbon, measure the length of bamboo and cut ribbon. Glue ribbon A, B, and C on top of bamboo. With your fake flower, glue to the top of the stick. Now, with the extra ribbon, make a bow out of each color and glue around the top of the stick.

 

 

Now you are finished! It's that easy!



Use them as gifts, decorations, or a fun way to teach children about May Day!

 

Do you have any May Day memories? Please share them with us!

 

Nancy Jane



Rockstar Barbequed Fries

During the long hot days of Summer, the last thing the cook wants to do is warm up the house with the oven! However, this family enjoys our burgers with a nice side of potato goodness. To solve this battle of either warming up the house to have fries, or keep the house cool and have no fries, we use the barbeque. It becomes an essential cooking tool in the Gray household.

These healthy fries are simple to make, however they do take a while to cook. It takes around an hour for them to finish, but it's well worth the wait. They can be barbequed by themselves or simultaneously with a steak or burger. You do not need to babysit the fries while they are cooking. Just turn on the timer and work on other project!

This recipe is for a party of four. Feel free to add or reduce the amount of potatoes and spice.

*side note* It calls for red potatoes, but we found purple and white potatoes at Costco, so we included them in this batch.

What you need:

• 5 Red Potatoes (or any other potato about the size of a fist)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (another option is garlic olive oil-it adds extra flavor to the dish)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• Foil (non stick works best)
• Barbeque

"Preheat" the barbeque, turning burners on to medium. Cut potatoes into desired size, put in bowl. Add olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper, stir until potatoes are well covered.

Take 10-12 inches of foil and place on countertop. If you do not have non-stick foil, be sure to spray it with Pam.

Pour potatoes on foil.

 

 

Keep potatoes in the middle of foil. Add another piece of foil on top, fold sides TIGHTLY! This step is so so important. You will be flipping over the foil and you want to make sure the potatoes don't spill out.

Open barbeque, carefully put potatoes on top shelf and close lid. Let cook for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes are up, cautiously lift lid. If it has been closed for full 20 min, there will be a wave of heat. Using a spatula, place the foil covered potatoes on bottom shelf and flip over. I use tongs to help out. Place back on top shelf with spatula. Cook for another 20 minutes. After that time is up, flip again using the same process. Open the top layer of foil with tongs and let cook opened for another 15-20 minutes.

 

Grab some ketchup, and enjoy!

 

 

 

A great part of the recipe is the potatoes will absorb the taste of the well seasoned barbeque. I prefer this recipe over oven roasted fries because of this. I am looking forward to making these all through the barbeque season! 

 

Nancy Jane



Calming Lavender Oil

Some nights I put a few drops of Lavender oil on a pretty doily and keep in my pocket or under my pillow, someplace accessible and close enough to slightly smell the fragrance.

In the middle of the night when wandering thoughts creep in my mind, I pull it out, smell the fragrance, say a prayer and thank God for providing simple pleasures such as Lavender oil.

This also is so calming throughout the day. God has provided us with so many healing elements, we just have to take a step back and get in harmony with them.

Lavender Oil is a fantastic Mother's Day gift. You can purchase it here, she will love it! Don't forget the doily.

Mother Judith

Spiritual Scraps

Scraps from meals belong in the compost pile, spiritual scraps should never be stretched out to your husband.

 

 

Don't give your spiritual scraps to your husband.

 

We wives are pulled in so many directions; children, aging parents, medical community, schools, friends, jobs, volunteering. (Gosh,  I am getting a little tense just listing them all—I can imagine how the reader's nerves are fairing.) 

This list sadly excludes our husbands. On top of that, where on the list is prayer, worship, communing with our heavenly Father?  Even sadder.

While God may be short changed in the busy life of a wife and mom; husbands also feels the lack of spiritual fruits, even if it is the culls. I can humbly admit that there have been days when he did not get the scraps of the fruit of the spirit, but a mega-portion of the flesh.

No spiritual Scraps here, only beauty.

  

That is when it is time to ask for forgiveness, (even more humbling). So humbling that I have learned it is easier to use my last ounce of self control being kind and gentle than apologizing for an outburst later. Then regroup my lifestyle, and remember God did not put me on the Earth to be a workhorse (an angel would work much better than me). However, we are to serve Christ. We are to live a spiritual life being blessed with a partner and nurturing our children towards Lord. That cannot be accomplished being frazzled and exhausted.

Lord, help me be your servant, and give my husband the first fruits each day—not giving him my unfulfilling scraps.

 

Mother Judith