The Neely Team

Family traditions… aren’t they wonderful?! They give the family unit yet another little bond, an extra piece of security, and over all, family traditions help to build the family’s identity and make them who they are!

I am grateful for parents who have encouraged us to enjoy our family idiosyncrasies, and out of those, have created traditions for us, as well as passed on traditions that their parents established. If you know us very well, you know that we are foody. Meal times are tremendously important… and, well, we just enjoy the variations and excitement life offers in the form of palatable delicacies. Thus, many of our traditions are in that form… food!! Here are two of our favorite recipes that have become holiday traditions over the years:

Dad’s Breakfast Casserole

1 lb. hamburger, cooked and drained

1/2 c. chopped green onions

1 can (4 oz.) mushroom stems and pieces, drained

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 c. (8 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

1 c. pancake mix

12 eggs

1 c. milk

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

In a greased 3-qt. baking dish, layer meat, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cheese. In a large bowl, whisk the pancake mix, eggs, milk, oregano, salt, and pepper; pour over cheese.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 F for 45-50 min. or until top is set and lightly browned. Let stand for 10 min. before serving.

Neely Team opinions: Best when served with piping-hot grits and shredded cheddar cheese. Also, some prefer to delete the mushrooms.

Chef’s notes: Can be made ahead and frozen. Take out of freezer the night before, and then bake in the morning, leaving covered for all but the last 15-20 min.

Fabulous Fruit Bowl

2 c. water

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. lemon or lime juice

1/2 tsp. salt

3 oranges, peeled, sectioned, and chopped bite-size

3 kiwi, peeled and sliced

2 grapefruit, peeled, sectioned, and chopped bite-size

2 large apples, cubed

1 pint strawberries, sliced

1 lb. green grapes

1 can (20 oz.) pineapple chunks, drained

In a medium saucepan, combine water, sugar, lime juice, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; cover and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight. Combine fruit in large bowl; add dressing and toss to coat. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

Neely Team opinions: We aren’t that fond of grapefruit, so we use one can of canned grapefruit in syrup (but drained) instead of 2 fresh ones.

Chef’s notes: The salad doesn’t have to have the extra 1 hour chill if the dressing has been refrigerated for a day or so and is cold. Can also substitute fresh pineapple for canned.

Problem: Taste buds craving oreo truffles, but no recipe was known.

Solution: Check online!!

A little while back, we were staying with a family who served us a delicious candy — oreo truffles!! Ahhh…. I can almost taste them now… they’re just so good, that is, if you like chocolate. If you’re looking for just the perfect snack, appetizer, dessert, hors d’oeuvres, or anything else, this will be sure to sooth an aching sweet tooth. They’re really easy to make, and best when shared with friends and family!! We passed them around at a family get-together around New Years, and one of our aunts suggested that we post the recipe (and insisted on a picture!). Great idea, Aunt Joanna!!

Enjoy!!

Oreo Truffles

1 lb Oreo cookies (3 sleeves)

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (or 1 tsp. mint, or almond)

1 lb. chocolate (dark or milk)

1/2 lb. white chocolate

1. Grind cookies to a fine powder in food processor. With a mixer, blend cookie powder, cream cheese, and vanilla extract until thoroughly mixed (there should be no white traces of cream cheese).

2. Roll into small balls and place on waxed paper lined cookie sheets. Refrigerate for 45 min. (or freeze for 15 min.).

3. Dip balls in melted chocolate; place on lined cookie sheets.

4. Drizzle melted white chocolate over chocolate balls. Let cool.

5. Store in refrigerator.

Other thoughts on this delicious treat:

~ We like to also dip in white chocolate and drizzle with dark.

~Can also roll truffles in various mixtures: chopped nuts, chocolate sprinkles, multi-colored candy sprinkles, chocolate shavings, colored sugars, etc.

For those who would like to know the nutrition facts, it was included with the recipe. (These might fluctuate based on the size ball.)

Serving Size: 1 ball

Calories: 128.2

Calories from fat: 70

Total Fat: 7.8g

Sugars: 10.8g

Saturated Fat: 4.4g

Sodium: 54.8mg

Total Carbs: 13.1

Fiber: .5g

Protein: 1.7g

To celebrate today, Kathryn and I made this yummy recipe (from a sweet lady at our church). We had lots of fun doing it together! It is easy and doesn’t take very long. Enjoy!

Creamy Almond Cheesecake

Crust:

1 3/4 c. graham cracker crumbs

2 Tbsp. sugar

6 Tbsp. melted butter

Filling:

2 (8 oz. each) pkg. cream cheese

2/3 c. sugar

1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

2 eggs

2 tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. almond extract

Press cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar into a pie pan (or a spring-form pan) and bake at 325 F for 10 min.

Meanwhile, process cream cheese, sugar, and flour in food processor for 30 sec. or until smooth. Add eggs and process 30 sec. Add lemon juice and extracts and process 15 sec. or until blended. Pour into hot crust. Return to oven – bake 30-35 min. Refrigerate uncovered 5 hrs. or overnight.

Optional  berry topping:

2 c. strawberries, washed, stemmed, and halved

1 1/2 c. blueberries

1/4 c. raspberry or blackberry jelly, melted

After cheesecake is cold, arrange strawberries in 2 rows around outside of edge. Place blueberries in center. Gently brush berries with melted jelly. Store in refrigerator.

Notes from Chef Hannah: To make graham cracker crumbs, put the crackers in a plastic bag and beat them with a hammer (but put the bag on a cutting board first so you don’t mess up your counter top!). Be sure to lick the food processor bowl and spatulas. The filling is very yummy! If you use a spring-form pan instead of a pie pan, it takes a little longer to bake.

So much has been happening… and we have a whole list of blog posts that need to go up……

But we had to stop here for a moment and give you these simply scrumptious sauce recipes we tried tonight! In a flurry of trying to get dinner for a hungry bunch of people and running into a few difficulties (i.e. missing ingredients ), Jessi, Amanda, and I had an absolute blast researching, dreaming, concocting, mixing, and revising them. The final results were a hit! The first one is out of From the Kitchen of Two Sisters cookbook with some of tweaking. We call it Shanghai Surprise Sauce because we didn’t know how it would turn out – - but thankfully it ending up being a pleasant surprise, though not quite like we expected! The second one is a delectable replica of a normal Chinese sweet-n-sour sauce that we found on the internet – - contorted to Neely specs as well.  Serve both sauces hot (but separately, of course ) over Basmati rice and chicken with steamed or sautéed vegetables on the side. Enjoy!!

Chef’s Notes: You can substitute white rice for Basmati. To prepare the chicken, we sauteed it in olive oil and a little salt. If you have any left-over rice after this meal, serve it for dessert with Cool-Whip and your typical ice cream toppings. Voted by the Neely Team as quite yummy!

Shanghai Surprise Sauce

Start by making soy sauce…

6 beef bouillon cubes

4 tsp. balsamic vinegar

2 tsp. molasses

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Pinch of black pepper

Pinch of garlic powder

1 1/2 c. water

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together all ingredients. Boil together until liquid is reduced to about 1 cup, about 15 min.

Then add…

1/2 c. olive oil

1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. minced garlic

2 Tbsp. honey

1 Tbsp. cornstarch – mixed with 1/4 c. water

Bring soy sauce and other ingredients to a boil again on high for 1 minute, stirring constantly with a wire whisk.

Chef’s disclaimer: We have not used the soy sauce substitute in anything but the Shanghai Surprise Sauce, and we even forgot to try it before we added the extra ingredients. Ooops! So, if you try it with something else and like it, drop us a comment.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

2 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch

2/3 c. distilled white vinegar

4 tsp. olive oil

1 3/4 c. unsweetened pineapple juice

1/4 c. ketchup

1/2 c. brown sugar

In medium saucepan over med-low heat, whisk cornstarch and vinegar. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring often. Cook until thick.

This is a recipe for an apple crisp that uses zucchini. We wanted to find a new way to use zucchini because we have a lot of it. This recipe made it taste just like apples! (Daddy didn’t even notice the difference!!  )

Bottom:

8 c. zucchini, peeled and cut to look like apple slices
1/2 c. lemon juice
1/2 c. white sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves

Stir together in large saucepan. Cook mixture until soft/like stewed apples (about 10-15 minutes). Pour into 13”x9” glass baking dish.

Topping:

1 1/3cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup dry oatmeal 
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cloves
2/3 c. soft butter

Stir with a fork until completely mixed and crumbly. Spread on top of zucchini mixture. Microwave on high for 5-6 minutes. Rotate halfway through cooking, and cut through topping in several places to let juices come through. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream. Serves 12-16.

Cook’s notes:
* We chopped our zucchini into bite-size pieces instead of slices. And if the zucchini is really big, scoop the seeds out. One of our zucchini was a big, tough one, over a foot long and really big around (the size we would normally throw in the mulch bucket), but we cut the seeds out, and no one ever knew the difference.
* You can also bake this instead of microwaving it. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.
*Light and dark granulated cane juice (Sucanat) can be substituted for the white and brown sugar.

Enjoy!!!

On Monday, Kathryn and I had fun putting up 8 gallons of strawberries together! This is how we did it:

Step 1: Put strawberries in a large dishpan, and fill with cold water. Let them sit for a few minutes.

Step 2: Drain the berries in a colander.

Step 3: Stem them. We used sharp knives. Take as little of the berry as possible.

Step 4: Put strawberries through the food processor with a slicing blade. Or, you can quarter them.

Step 5: Put 4 c. of sliced berries in a glass measuring cup and stir 1/4 c. of sugar. Be sure to stir gently or they will get mushed.

Step 6: Pour strawberries into a labeled quart-sized FREEZER plastic bag and gently squeeze air out. Make sure you don’t get any juice on the zipper of the bag, or it will not seal and the berries will leak in your freezer!

Step 7: Place bags on a flat tray in a single layer and put in the freezer. When they are frozen, you can take the tray out.

The berries are now ready to be used in your favorite dessert or salad. We like to use them, along with a quart of frozen peaches, 1 cup of frozen blueberries, and 3-4 fresh bananas, to make a yummy breakfast.

“Who can find a virtuous woman? … She worketh willingly with her hands. She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar. (Proverbs 31: 10, 13, 14)

I love missions work – hearing about it, reading about it, experiencing it, and talking to those who are serving on the field where God has called them. I am very blessed to be in a family that loves people and hospitality, and to have parents who do everything they can to develop relationships with Godly people and meet those who are following the Lord whole-heartedly. Thus, I have the opportunity to know several missionary families who are serving every where from Florida, to Lithuania, to Mexico, Togo, Honduras, South Africa, Ireland, Uganda, Germany and Austria.

Several months ago, I wrote to our friends who are serving in Austria/Germany, Todd & Kim Lapato. I asked Mrs. Kim for a sample menu from over there – a common meal for the average people. My idea was to re-create that meal here for my family as well as I could, and have a special evening highlighting the Lapatos’ ministry while eating food from that country. (Since we enjoy food so much, I thought that might be a good way to make it more meaningful and memorable!) Her response was quick, mouth-watering, and far more detailed and thorough that I had even hoped for! So then came the next step: finding the perfect evening for our “missionary night.” For me,that was a little more difficult than the initial planning stage, and several months passed before we actually did it. (There were MANY nights that would’ve been great, except that we didn’t know that we’d be home or we didn’t have all the supplies or we just didn’t think about it until it was too late in the day to prepare everything!) However, the idea was “cooking” in the back of my mind all the while (pun intended ), and we finally did it – exactly five months after she sent me all the menu ideas and recipes!

It was great!! I enlisted Mom and Kathryn’s help, and we made schnitzel (a very thinly pounded filet of chicken that is dredged first in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs), fried potatoes, and gravy, as well as a big salad, German style. (Mixed greens on top of individual piles of corn, kidney beans, green beans, grated carrot, and thinly sliced cucumbers in the bottom of the bowl; it was served room temperature, and the dressing was plain oil and vinegar.) Our beverage was equal parts mixed of carbonated water/apple juice – very yummy! (Again, the beverage was room temp, since Europeans don’t usually use ice in their drinks.) Dessert was apple pie (as a substitute for apple strudel) and coffee. Dad even let all the kids have coffee since it was a special occasion, which was quite a treat!

It was a delicious way to “experience” the Lapatos’ mission field, and everything was a smashing success! I’ve heard several requests since then for “Austrian chicken” (schnitzel), so I know everyone really liked that. The potatoes turned out softer than I had expected, so I want to do those again and see if we can make them a little crispier. We put Montreal Steak Seasoning on them (which is a grilling seasoning with black and red pepper in it), and they were really good, although probably a little spicier than they would normally be in Austria. Some of the salad “toppings” (they STARTED in the bottom of the bowl ) were a nice break from our norm, and I heard several votes to make salad like that again. We really enjoyed the whole menu, and I have a feeling that this won’t be the only time we have it!

After supper, we read an update letter from the Lapatos’, and we enjoyed hearing more about what life is like for them. We also got on their blog and read their list of prayer requests, and then prayed for each one specifically during our family prayer time. All in all, it was a fun (and delicious!) way to experience a little piece of missionary life, and we almost felt like we were “with” the Lapatos while we read their updates and prayed for them. Even though we couldn’t physically travel to Europe to see our friends, Missionary Night was a great way to take a mental journey there and visit them in spirit, while we also enjoyed some of the wonderful food like what we might have eaten if we did visit in person! The prayer time was very special, and we enjoyed having a whole evening devoted to just one family, so that we could pray more directly for their specific needs.

So what about you? Do you know anyone who is serving the Lord on a foreign field? Could you set up an evening devoted specifically to updating your family about their lives and ministry, learning about the culture they are living in, and praying for the needs that they have? Read their prayer letters and learn about their ministry. Find out what their needs are, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, so that you know better how to pray for them. Contact them and ask any questions that you may have about their field or lives. Tell them that you are thinking about and praying for them, and if you are going to have a Missionary Night, tell them that, too. I promise, your interest in what they are doing will encourage them greatly, and will also be a blessing to you and your family!!