Do You Believe in Magic?
Our young missionaries came for their district conference today at 10:30. Elder Hathaway, the district leader is precise and on time. He starts right at 10:30, and he ends at exactly noon. The hour and a half meeting is always packed with good missionary stuff.
We start out with a hymn and sing all the verses. Sometimes Sister Marinello plays the keyboard and sometimes Elder Hathaway pulls out his phone and queues up the accompaniment. Someone says a prayer and then we recite the mission theme. One of the missionaries will teach another missionary a discussion as though that missionary is not a member and is looking in to the church. We are all invited to say what we liked about the way it was presented and offer positive ideas about how it could be improved.
The young missionaries are always upbeat, and seem grateful for the opportunity to improve. After that, one of them will give a lesson out of the handbook or "Preach My Gospel." Finally, Elder Hathaway will ask for reports from the week of teaching and they will together plan next week's goals.
I am more impressed than ever with the sincerity and goodness of these young people. They are at a time in life, when most young people are focused entirely on selves, and these missionaries are planning ways to be of service (and they work hard), how to share the good news of the gospel and how they can help people understand the joy that the gospel brings.
Sister Gaillard taught a lesson out of the Book of Mormon. Her little copy has been much read and underlined. She has thought deeply about its messages. She is earnest and determined.
It took most of the morning to prepare lunch. Why do I always think things are going to be easier than they are????? SK hoofed it over to the grocery store bringing back a few items for the day, like a gallon of milk and a couple of cans of things. The bag must have weighed 20 pounds! He made it home alright.
I had 2 cups of wonderful chicken broth left over from Monday night's meal, chopped celery and carrots. So I made a chicken pot pie! I added chopped potatoes, onions, carrots and a can of corn and a bag of frozen peas. I roasted 3 chicken breasts and chopped them up. Then I poured it all into a 9 X 13, a la Melissa Taylor style and topped it with puff pastry (purchased). I put it in the oven with about 45 minutes left before the meeting ended.
I made a "Magic Custard Cake" - assembled out of ingredients everyone has on hand. It took several steps though that made it a little more time intensive. Whip the egg whites separately, melt the butter, whip the yolks with sugar, whip some more with flour, whip some more with slowly added milk. Gently fold in the egg whites.
It baked for 45 minutes, and came out beautifully. I used a deep dish pie plate because I didn't have an 8 inch square pan. It was too well done....meaning the texture was pretty solid, but the missionaries loved it topped with whipped cream and raspberries.
I got lunch cleaned up and the flat looking back to normal, and started on refreshments for Institute. I decided to do another magic cake so that SK wouldn't have to go back to the store. I did the whole process over again, this time adding more vanilla and a little more sugar. But I decided to be clever about it, and put it in a spring-form pan because it is a little larger, and would give me more slices. I lined it with parchment paper, and wrapped the outside in foil to avoid any leaks.
Fifteen minutes later I smelled something burning. I opened the oven and there oozing out of the bottom of the pan and over the edges of the foil, and on to the bottom of the oven was my magic cake. There it was, the last of our butter, the last of the flour. I closed the oven and let it cook another 20 minutes and pulled it out.
It was smaller than it should be because so much had oozed out. But the part that had oozed out was the custard layer, and it tasted wonderful. So I tenderly freed what was left from the pan, the parchment and the foil, put it on a cake plate, topped it with four large bananas and a lot of sweetened whip cream. Everyone loved it!!!!! Another epic failure of baking turned into a success. I wish I had taken pictures. You would have enjoyed seeing it sitting in the oven oozing all over the place, and you would have enjoyed seeing it sitting on the blue fluted cake dish looking like a rich dessert should look.
I'm not sure how it happens. I heard of another YSA couple who were lauded as fantastic cooks. They said they were not good cooks. They prayed mightily:
"Let this taste good to the YSAs."
"Let this turn out the way it is supposed to."
"Let there be enough!"
And their prayers were answered.
That is what our prayers are, and that is also how they are answered.
I just haven't been able to figure out yet if their sense of taste has actually been altered, or if some unseen angel is helping me cook better than I know how to cook.
I guess it doesn't matter. The end result is the same.
I visited with one of our YSAs for over an hour. She served in the South Korean Mission and told me about the senior couple she worked with there. "Their assignment was different than the younger missionaries. They were there to strengthen and help the young missionaries, besides what they did in the ward. I don't know what we would have done without them."
I love that as her summation of their service. I hope someone will say that about us someday. Maybe they will even remember my magic cake.
We start out with a hymn and sing all the verses. Sometimes Sister Marinello plays the keyboard and sometimes Elder Hathaway pulls out his phone and queues up the accompaniment. Someone says a prayer and then we recite the mission theme. One of the missionaries will teach another missionary a discussion as though that missionary is not a member and is looking in to the church. We are all invited to say what we liked about the way it was presented and offer positive ideas about how it could be improved.
The young missionaries are always upbeat, and seem grateful for the opportunity to improve. After that, one of them will give a lesson out of the handbook or "Preach My Gospel." Finally, Elder Hathaway will ask for reports from the week of teaching and they will together plan next week's goals.
I am more impressed than ever with the sincerity and goodness of these young people. They are at a time in life, when most young people are focused entirely on selves, and these missionaries are planning ways to be of service (and they work hard), how to share the good news of the gospel and how they can help people understand the joy that the gospel brings.
Sister Gaillard taught a lesson out of the Book of Mormon. Her little copy has been much read and underlined. She has thought deeply about its messages. She is earnest and determined.
It took most of the morning to prepare lunch. Why do I always think things are going to be easier than they are????? SK hoofed it over to the grocery store bringing back a few items for the day, like a gallon of milk and a couple of cans of things. The bag must have weighed 20 pounds! He made it home alright.
I had 2 cups of wonderful chicken broth left over from Monday night's meal, chopped celery and carrots. So I made a chicken pot pie! I added chopped potatoes, onions, carrots and a can of corn and a bag of frozen peas. I roasted 3 chicken breasts and chopped them up. Then I poured it all into a 9 X 13, a la Melissa Taylor style and topped it with puff pastry (purchased). I put it in the oven with about 45 minutes left before the meeting ended.
I made a "Magic Custard Cake" - assembled out of ingredients everyone has on hand. It took several steps though that made it a little more time intensive. Whip the egg whites separately, melt the butter, whip the yolks with sugar, whip some more with flour, whip some more with slowly added milk. Gently fold in the egg whites.
It baked for 45 minutes, and came out beautifully. I used a deep dish pie plate because I didn't have an 8 inch square pan. It was too well done....meaning the texture was pretty solid, but the missionaries loved it topped with whipped cream and raspberries.
I got lunch cleaned up and the flat looking back to normal, and started on refreshments for Institute. I decided to do another magic cake so that SK wouldn't have to go back to the store. I did the whole process over again, this time adding more vanilla and a little more sugar. But I decided to be clever about it, and put it in a spring-form pan because it is a little larger, and would give me more slices. I lined it with parchment paper, and wrapped the outside in foil to avoid any leaks.
Fifteen minutes later I smelled something burning. I opened the oven and there oozing out of the bottom of the pan and over the edges of the foil, and on to the bottom of the oven was my magic cake. There it was, the last of our butter, the last of the flour. I closed the oven and let it cook another 20 minutes and pulled it out.
It was smaller than it should be because so much had oozed out. But the part that had oozed out was the custard layer, and it tasted wonderful. So I tenderly freed what was left from the pan, the parchment and the foil, put it on a cake plate, topped it with four large bananas and a lot of sweetened whip cream. Everyone loved it!!!!! Another epic failure of baking turned into a success. I wish I had taken pictures. You would have enjoyed seeing it sitting in the oven oozing all over the place, and you would have enjoyed seeing it sitting on the blue fluted cake dish looking like a rich dessert should look.
I'm not sure how it happens. I heard of another YSA couple who were lauded as fantastic cooks. They said they were not good cooks. They prayed mightily:
"Let this taste good to the YSAs."
"Let this turn out the way it is supposed to."
"Let there be enough!"
And their prayers were answered.
That is what our prayers are, and that is also how they are answered.
I just haven't been able to figure out yet if their sense of taste has actually been altered, or if some unseen angel is helping me cook better than I know how to cook.
I guess it doesn't matter. The end result is the same.
I visited with one of our YSAs for over an hour. She served in the South Korean Mission and told me about the senior couple she worked with there. "Their assignment was different than the younger missionaries. They were there to strengthen and help the young missionaries, besides what they did in the ward. I don't know what we would have done without them."
I love that as her summation of their service. I hope someone will say that about us someday. Maybe they will even remember my magic cake.
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