How's About Cookin' Somethin' Up With Me?

Most people are convinced that they can't do cooking in bulk, because they don't own a separate, full-size freezer. Au contraire, mon frere! I've managed to store 30 meals at once in my side-by-side fridge/freezer for a few years now. You may have to sacrifice your ice cream and frozen waffles for a couple of weeks, but who needs that stuff, anyway? Okay, okay; those of you that believe ice cream is a food group can put down the bricks and stop yelling at me now! Recently, we acquired a shiny, new stainless steel fridge with the freezer drawers on the bottom (LOVE it!). Since the old fridge still (mostly) works, we decided to keep it and move it into the closet with our washer and dryer. I now use the freezer in the old unit to hold all of my frozen meals. Anywho, fitting all of your meals into your freezer depends upon how you package them. For the first year or so, I used gallon-sized freezer bags. Soups, stews, and sauces can be laid flat to freeze and then stacked on top of one another or stood on end like books on a shelf. The thing that takes up the most room is casseroles, as those have to be frozen in a dish and then taken out and wrapped in foil. A couple of years ago, I purchased a vacuum sealer. Sure, the bags are more expensive, BUT they can be washed and reused! It's been a great investment. If you still aren't convinced that you can store a month's worth of meals in your freezer, try starting with 2 weeks' worth. You'll figure out what works for you with a little practice. The recipe I have for you today is what us southerners call my "funeral dish". This is the one that you throw together at the last minute to take to a sick friend, new mom, or those that have lost a loved one. It's probably my favorite casserole, because it's one that my picky children will eat!

Nana's Chicken Casserole

1 lb. chicken 1 can cream of chicken soup

1 qt. chicken stock 1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 stick butter 1 16 oz. bag of Pepperidge Farms

cornbread dressing

Boil your chicken in the chicken stock, adding water to cover chicken if necessary. Save enough broth to fill your two soup cans; shred chicken and set aside. In a dutch oven, melt butter, then add cream of chicken soup. Fill the soup can with broth and add. Add the bag of dressing and mix until moistened. In a separate bowl, combine cream of mushroom soup with one soup can of chicken broth. Mix with a whisk to remove lumps. Spray a 9x13 dish with cooking spray. Make a layer with half of the dressing mixture. Top this with all of the shredded chicken. Pour half of the mushroom soup mixture over the top. Top with the remaining dressing and then soup. Bake at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes. NOTE: This will give you about 10 servings, so when I fix this for my family, I'm able to get 2 meals out of it. Instead of using a 9x13 dish, I use 2 8x8 dishes. I line these with foil and coat with cooking spray. I assemble the casseroles then put them in the freezer. Once they are frozen, I can lift them out of the dishes with the foil. You can either wrap them in a couple of layers of foil or place them in gallon-sized freezer bags. I prefer to vacuum seal them with my Foodsaver. On the day you wish to serve this, thaw the casserole in the 8x8 dish and then cook for 30 minutes. It can be cooked frozen; I cover it with foil and cook for about 1 hour, removing the foil for the last 15 minutes. I usually serve it with a vegetable side.

I'm Still Standin'

Somehow, last week got away from me before I was able to make a new entry to the blog. For those of you waiting with breathless anticipation for the next installment of the church saga, I would ask for your patience. You see, the next stage of grief I need to talk about is Depression. I'm having a difficult time putting my thoughts into words. Also, I'm part of a Sweet Adelines chorus, and we're going to Chattanooga this weekend for our regional competition (my first time on the contest stage, BTW!). I'm afraid that revisiting all of the emotions from the past will crush the positive, winning attitude I'm trying to maintain right now. So, friends, stay tuned. I WILL keep writing the story, and it WILL have a happy ending! My next blog post will be a continuation of my series on cooking and freezing. For the month of April, in honor of Autism Awareness Month, I will be doing a series about our experiences raising an autistic son.

I have been touched by all of the encouragement I've received from so many of you. I'm honored that you would take a minute or two out of your day to read the out-pouring of my heart and soul. Thank you again for your support.

Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings

I've described for you the body of believers that I was once a part of. I've also given you an idea how difficult it is for me to tolerate change. I think now I can try to put into words just what I've been feeling since the summer of 2008. I don't know if I can accomplish this in one post, because I've experienced such a variety of emotions. I'm learning that my honesty is going to offend someone out there, and the only way I can prevent that from happening is to remain silent. Since I intend to continue blogging, I'll just have to apologize up front for any hurt feelings my blog may bring you. Please understand that I'm trying my hardest not to be critical of certain people or churches and that my thoughts are not complete. God is not finished with me and my journey towards acceptance.

I'm familiar with the stages of grief, as I have been through all of them since the day we learned that our beautiful, first-born child was autistic. I will most likely go through some of them again as Pierce makes his journey to adulthood. It is debatable just how many stages there actually are. I thought there were only five, but it has recently been discovered that there may be as many as seven. Since the summer of 2008, I feel like I've visited most of these stages of grief again as I've tried to process the changes in our church community. That summer, an announcement was made that change was coming to Antioch Church Of Christ. Some people were accepting of this change, but some were not. The stage of grief that I went through first was Denial. I thought that everyone's emotions would settle down eventually, and we could go on worshiping together as we always had. We loved each other and we loved the Lord, so surely nothing could come between us. I even thought that if we discussed our differences, we could find resolution and no one would feel compelled to leave. Alas, every Sunday our class got smaller and smaller as dear friends decided it was time to find another place to worship. I began to feel as if the life was being sucked out of our church, but I clung to the hope that we would see those "glory days" return. After all, we still had many friends that remained, and Antioch was the only church our children had ever known. Once so many of our friends were gone, it became blatantly clear to us that there were things that our family needed that could not be provided at Antioch anymore. We had chosen not to dwell on those things before, because we loved our church family so much and couldn't stand the thought of leaving them. Finally, we decided that the time to move on had arrived for us as well. Our last Sunday at Antioch Church Of Christ was Easter 2009.

I thought for a little while that I would move pretty easily to the Acceptance stage. The new church we were visiting was vastly different from our former home, and I appreciated some of the newness. The children's ministry was outstanding, the worship was joyful, and while the church was huge, the bible class we were attending was small and somewhat intimate. It helped that there were many familiar faces from Antioch to make us feel more at home. However, I soon discovered that the thing that stayed so constant here was how much they loved changing things up. Tim and the kids fell in love with this new church immediately, but I entered into the next stage of grief: Anger. I had left everything that was familiar and comforting to me. Now, bible classes were constantly changing so that I felt I'd never get to know anyone. We were always learning some new praise music instead of singing the old hymns that I so loved and had grown up with. Everyone I knew seemed to be happily moving on, while I felt betrayed. Betrayed by my friends and my church. Why did a few decisions have to destroy the church I loved so much? How could my closest, dearest friends just abandon me and start over some place new? I resented this new church we were attending with a passion. I refused to sing these new praise songs. One Sunday, I felt the tears coming, and I had to hurry out to the ladies room where I sobbed in one of the stalls. I didn't want to start over again. I didn't want to make new friends. I just wanted everyone to return to Antioch; I wanted to go back in time a couple of years.

Whew! I think I need to stop here for now. This is a pretty emotionally exhausting process. Maybe I should take a friend's advice and just write about sunshine, rainbows and unicorns.