Recipes Number 18 and 19: Yellowstone Taco Salad and Cowboy Cookies

Every once in a while  I receive an email containing something excellent and worthy of note. Yestreday one came from my sister with a recipe for 'cowboy cookies', which I admitted I had never heard of. The recipe was quite simple enough, and I only needed to pick up a couple of items on the way home to make it work. I had planned on doing my taco salad on the grill that night as well, so it turned out to be one big kitchen and deck extravaganza.

I actually made the cookies first, while I was prepping for the salad; that way the house smelt pretty good before I got the neighborhood smelling like barbecue :-)

For the cookies:

1 c softened butter

1 c granulated sugar

1 c dark brown sugar packed

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking SODA

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp baking POWDER

2 c AP flour

2 c oats

package of chocolate chips

I creamed the sugar and butter in my stand mixer, then added the eggs, then soda, salt, powder, flour and oats. When all was quite incorporated, I added the chips. Some recipes call for walnuts and coconut. I will rarely put nuts in anything I bake; I will NEVER put coconut in anything I bake. Period.

This recipe did six trays of 11 cookies each: 350 for 10-12 minutes. 

Yummy. I had already eaten several by the time I lit the fire for the grill.

I moved on to the meat for our salad; in my decades-old ten inch cast iron skillet the ingredients: about a pound of ground turkey, onions, bell peppers, and seasoning. (I have no camera, sorry - photos would be nice here.)

Lean ground turkey

Mexican oregano

chili powder

cumin

paprika

garlic powder

onion powder

ground black pepper

a bit of jarred salsa

corn chips

shred colby jack cheese

served with sour cream and guacamole

I cooked the meat, vegetables, seasoning over lump charcoal until the meat was done - about a half hour at about 250, and then added the salsa at the end of cooking. I brought in the pan of meat, and in the kitchen built the salad.

On an old cookie sheet, I placed my 11-inch springform pan. In this I layered busted up corn chips, meat mix, and cheese - twice. I topped it with some chopped green onions and put it on the grill over indirect heat, with the lid closed. I left it in there until the cheese started melting and the whole concoction began to settle a bit - maybe another half hour, while I did the dishes from the cookie bake. 

I spooned up a wedge and topped it with just a dollop of sour cream, and a bit of homemade guacamole. After all the cookies, I could only eat one bowl of this fantastic dinner, but I did find room for several more cookies while we watched Yellowstone later. 

Thank you, Jesus, for a fun night, for the time we could be together, and for always providing for our needs. We love You, too.

Roe v. Wade has been overturned. God be praised!

As the lunacy in this great Nation continues, Lord, please give us the grace to fight this fight well. 

I praise You for Your goodness.

I praise You for Your Word.

I praise You for Your Son.

I praise You for Your Spirit.

I praise You for Your Church.

I praise You for the glory of Your Creation.

 Praising God for His goodness this morning.

Thanking God for His provision, patience, love, mercy, lovingkindness.

Asking God for the grace to live and love how He wants me to live and love.

... 

...

Thank You, Father

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

 Praising God for His goodness and provision, on a beautiful Monday morning!

Oh give thanks unto the Lord - His mercy endures forever!

Blessed be the Lord God Almighty; who Was and Is and Is to come!

Yestreday's mass was beautiful, again; but this one filled me so, that I wanted to share a bit. The feast day was the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. As Lutherans, we had a whole season celebrating the Trinity, which roughly corresponds to the Catholic Ordinary Time after Pentecost.

Our celebration yestreday began with an amazing piece done by the choir in at least four parts, full of praise to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. We then invoked the help of St Michael, and we sang the processional hymn, where the priest, deacon, servers, the Cross, and the Word were brought to the altar. This hymn, which we also sung at our wedding 27 years ago, was Holy, Holy, Holy:

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty

Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee!

Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty

God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.

Oh the majesty in that hymn! My sobbing, which had begun during the rosary before mass, and through the choral prelude, continued.

The first reading was from Proverbs, regarding Wisdom:

“The LORD begot me, the beginning of his works,

the forerunner of his deeds of long ago;

From of old I was formed,

at the first, before the earth.

When there were no deeps I was brought forth,

when there were no fountains or springs of water;

Before the mountains were settled into place,

before the hills, I was brought forth;

When the earth and the fields were not yet made,

nor the first clods of the world.

When he established the heavens, there was I,

when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;

When he made firm the skies above,

when he fixed fast the springs of the deep;

When he set for the sea its limit,

so that the waters should not transgress his command;

When he fixed the foundations of earth,

then was I beside him as artisan;

I was his delight day by day,

playing before him all the while,

Playing over the whole of his earth,

having my delight with human beings.”

Then from the eighth Psalm:

When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and stars that you set in place—
What is man that you are mindful of him,
and a son of man that you care for him?
 
Yet you have made him little less than a god,
crowned him with glory and honor.
 
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
put all things at his feet:
 
All sheep and oxen,
even the beasts of the field,
 
The birds of the air, the fish of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
 
O LORD, our Lord,

how awesome is your name through all the earth! 

 Then from the fifth of Romans:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access [by faith] to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.

And then from the 16th of St John's Gospel:

I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when He comes, the Spirit of Truth, He will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that He will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

 From Loyola Press (https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/liturgical-year/sunday-connection/most-holy-trinity-cycle-c-sunday-connection/), regarding the Gospel reading:

"Reading this passage on Trinity Sunday reinforces our understanding of the unity shared by the members of the Trinity. Although the idea of one God in three persons remains a mystery, we have the assurance that, as Jesus and the Father share all, Jesus and the Spirit share all.

Truly a mystery, and truly wonderful. Blessed be God forever!

 

 

Archie Bunker Gun Control

From Pope Francis, on Living With Christ

 Reprinted in my daily devotional from Loyola Press (https://www.loyolapress.com/retreats/celebrating-eucharist/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Your+3-Minute+Retreat+for++TODAY&utm_campaign=3-Minute+Retreat+Master+Template)

It is not creativity, however pastoral it may be, or meetings or planning that ensures our fruitfulness, even if these are greatly helpful. But what ensures our fruitfulness is our being faithful to Jesus, who says insistently: “Abide in me and I in you” (John 15:4). And we know well what that means: to contemplate him, to worship him, to embrace him, in our daily encounter with him in the Eucharist, in our life of prayer, in our moments of adoration; it means to recognize him present and to embrace him in those most in need. “Being with” Christ does not mean isolating ourselves from others. Rather, it is a “being with” in order to go forth and encounter others.