the neffs take the stage

it's not like it's an irregular occurance. since we were little, we have been watching the neff family shine like stars on the stage. operas, symphonies, choirs, chorales, plays, and piano performances - each one of these four lovely neffs has independently graced the stage and wowed audiences for years.

well, last night we witnessed a grand and soul-feeding performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah. and, it just so happens that stan (head of the household) neff was Elijah himself. and, elizabeth (daugther and second born of the family) had many a breath-taking solo as well. and, anna (elizabeth's lovely songbird cousin) took the stage with her own set of arias and recitatives. we were only missing marian and matt, and it would have been a royal flush. it was like old home week in the audience...i think there must have been 15 or 20 of us church folks cheering them on. and it was worth all 3 1/2 hours of wooden-pew-sitting!

stan the man

anna and elizabeth

i wish i could have gotten a better shot of this tiny little girl (not neff related), who got all dressed up for 8 seconds of a solo. her face was priceless.

father and daugther duet-ing together

elizabeth, singing alto in a quartet aria (the other two of the foursome are on the other side of the stage...i CAN count.)

the starlet cousins

sibling...

rivalry...(matt made sure to mention he wanted copies of this one.) :)

it kinda makes one sick how talented these people are...but then again, there's gotta be someone in the audience, right? it's a treat and an honor, indeed. we love you, neffs! thank you for sharing your musical heritage with us.

green thumb

i couldn't take it anymore. i HAD to plant some herbs. so, i got my organic potting soil, a pot from Longs, and planted some basil, thyme, and sage. poor guys endured the transplant on the hottest day we've had in a long time - 101 degrees in mount hermon! but they survived, and are actually growing! :) i may have a green thumb yet. and, they'll be right there when i need to finish off a dish with something fresh.

you can see that Basil, poor guy, is wilting in the heat. i thought that would be the end of him...but he's a hearty one and has perked up quite nicely.

spencer's comin' !

our pastor's wife wendy is pregnant with her third boy, and the church threw her a baby shower on saturday, in the 101 degree weather! their naming him spencer.

wendy, and her best friend wendy. :)

sweet kathryn - she's 93!

i gave spencer this crazy little monkey

and then someone else gave him this little monkey blankie, and it totally matched the monkey.

we love you, wen! we're so delighted for this lil' blessing. 3 more weeks!

shucks and wazoo

joe righteously pointed out that his lamb dinner did not get any bloggish accolade.

thus, to be OH so to the point: it was scrumptious.

second, to be unabashedly one-sided: my man cooked some mean lamb.

and finally, to rub it in even further: the potatoes were roasted to perfection and the veg was nutty and crisp.

there, it has been done. the lamb dinner has been triumphantly exploited in every way.

in raw form

Rack of Lamb with Sage Dressing, Grilled Asparagus and Roasted Potatoes for Four (by joe carlson)

Dressing:

Bunch of Sage1½ Cup Olive Oil (Extra Virgin)

5 cloves of Garlic, peeled

Salt & Pepper to taste

Blend thoroughly in processor. Keep aside to dress finished meat.

Lamb:

8 bone rack of lamb, trimmed and cut

2T Balsamic Vinegar

20 Garlic Peppercorns whole

2 sticks of Rosemary

1T salt (to taste)

In mortar and pestle, bash up pepper, salt, and rosemary. Mix in bowl with vinegar. Dip meat in mixture, thoroughly covering meat with sauce. Let sit until ready to cook. Heat grill pan on high, lightly dress with olive oil, and grill meat to desired doneness. Remove from pan and let rest for a minute or so.

Asparagus:

Bunch of Asparagus

Olive oil

Salt

Dress asparagus with the oil and salt, and toss till covered. Grill in same pan as the lamb on medium/high heat while the meat is resting.

Roasted Potatoes:

6 small red potatoes

2 sticks of Rosemary

Salt

4 cloves Garlic, peeled and diced

Olive oil

Dice potatoes and boil for 20 minutes in salted water. In mortar and pestle, bash up salt, diced garlic, and rosemary. When adding salt to garlic and rosemary, keep in mind that the boiling water is salted. It is easy to add too much salt. Balance the right amount for your tastes between water and dry mix. Remove par-boiled potatoes and drain. Dress with oil and rosemary-garlic salt, and gingerly mix so as not to break the soft potatoes. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 425 degrees.

Cooking Order:

Boil potatoes first. While boiling, bash up salt mixtures (one for potatoes, one for lamb with vinegar). Dress meat, dress asparagus. When potatoes are finished, dress potatoes and throw in the oven. Time meat to be done around the same time as the potatoes, though the potatoes can sit in a turned off oven until needed. When meat is down cooking, let rest, and grill asparagus in same pan. Serve all together, with Sage dressing poured on meat. Eat and enjoy.

the sauce comes out for father's day

so, we made that one batch of jamie oliver barbeque sauce, and what a hard-working, mouth-watering sauce it turned out to be! over these two weeks, one jar kindly became the honored guest at one lunch and three dinners, the last dinner being yesterday's Father's Day feast with, well, our fathers. and it was a hit.

i received a dose of antibiotics to scare off the sore throat that had no mercy, and finally felt like myself again yesterday to celebrate with our dads. it was simply a lazy sunday afternoon, perfect 70 degree weather for a backyard summer meal.

happy father's day to our sweet dads! we love you.

dad donovan got a mini Dusty from trudy. sweet little collie became another guest at our dinner table.

roses from grandma mae's garden

dad chuck's handsome hat

tri-tip, loving that grill

perfect man-feast

a little frilly salad to balance out the manly meal - kale, strawberries, candied pecans, fresh goat cheese. and trudy made fresh bread!

and mom made the cover recipe for this month's Fine Cooking - peach blueberry cobbler! it was heavenly.

lil' Dusty

honey and me

for the faithful, there is dessert

with my absence from the kitchen, joe has become not only a mean dishwashwer, but has gone all inspired-chef on me. it's been dreamy! in fact, he's currently whipping up some sort of lamb dish from our pub food cookbook (i guess i'll be posting more pics later). :)

we're both so into cooking. i do the bulk of the creations in our marriage, and love it. but joe also has a great flair for the fancy, and he is constantly inventing gastronomic pleasures. we compliment each other well - i like to see how i can make the practical, week-night dishes divine, and he likes to step out of the box and create the five-course, five-star restaurant extravaganza. and i've learned something these past five years - he needs a little bit of my restraint, and i need a little of his daring. ;) we continually discover why God decided we should marry eachother, and the kitchen (and all its ideals) is a big reason. we always say we would drive anyone else crazy, and who else would love jamie oliver, jeeves and wooster, or bach like we do?! we sharpen, encourage, and inspire one another not only in food, but the theology behind it all, which then in turn creates a family's trajectory, worship, and traditions. to be of one mind and heart in these things is precious, not to mention fun.

this week, his drive has inspired me, even in the state that i am, to get into that kitchen! after eating such a yummy dinner last night, i felt a bit of strength enter my bones and i really wanted to make a little dessert. earlier that day, i had been lying down with a cookbook on chocolate (thanks, jenny!), totally drooling over this one recipe (you know you're alive again when your appetite for chocolate returns!). little did i know that joe had gone and bought the one most important ingredient for this recipe - coffee ice cream! we never buy coffee ice cream (a direct result of the kind of job my husband's in), so when i discovered it sitting there all cute in our freezer, i yelled out "oh, i'm making chocolate waffle ice cream sandwiches!", and joe said, "um, ok!"

by the time i was done, i was done. my energy was spent, and i was barely even hungry for these gems. but, one bite and it was all worth it. these are divine, not to mention easy. you must try them. they're not supposed to be cut into heart shapes, but my edges looked funky so i decided to dignify them with a little cookie cutter.

this recipe came from chocolate holidays by alice medrich -

hot waffle ice cream sandwhiches

in a medium bowl, mix together:

3/4 c. flour
2 Tbl. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

in a small saucepan, melt 1 stick butter (8 Tbl.), then add 1/4 c. unsweetend cocoa powder and stir till smooth and hot. Gradually stir in 1/2 c. milk. Take off heat and whisk in:

1/4 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Make waffles with batter, and cool them a few seconds on a rack to get slightly crisp. Press a scoop of coffee (or butter pecan) ice cream between two waffle sections.

straus, a marshall, california family farm, is our favorite brand for all things dairy. their milk comes in a glass bottle. :)

barbeque sauce

oh heavens, jamie oliver's barbeque sauce is divine! even being sick, i could taste the dimensional flavors. i made myself have an appetite for it. joe made these ribs the other night, rubbing the sauce all over the meat, par-baking them for an hour first, and then bbq-ing them till perfectly done. (well, actually they were a bit crispier than they maybe should have been, but the flavor certainly wasn't compromised). we were disappointed in only one thing - the ribs themselves were too fatty. but we served with them simple red mashed potatoes and fresh peas in the pod.

we stuck the extra un-used sauce in a mason jar, and barbequed chicken with it tonight, the same way (par-bake then grill). let me tell you, folks, this sauce is worth learning!! it's slightly unorthodox, rustic, and earthy - we've never tasted anything quite like it.

we scribbled the recipe off jamie's current tv series, "jamie at home". his cooking is down-to-earth, so don't get frustrated with the less-than-exact measurements you'll find in the recipe. just go with the flow. it'll be the kind of recipe you just memorize...a handful of this, a pinch of that, etc. also, jamie's love of the mortar and pestle (which he uses for this recipe, and hundreds of others) may seem a bit outdated, but trust me, i think that's why his stuff is so good. the smooshing and rubbing and smashing that happens in the bowl makes the spices come alive, and turns the whole recipe into something larger than itself. :)

make it, love it, pass it down to your children and your children's children. it's God-glorifying, incarnational eating.

jamie oliver's barbeque sauce

in a large mortar and pestle, grind:

4-5 whole cloves
1 heaped tsp cumin
2 Tbl fennel seeds
1 Tbl black pepper corns
2-3 Tbl salt (sea or rough)

on a large cutting board, chop finely with a large knife:

handful of fresh rosemary
10 bay leaves
small bunch of fresh tyme
1 whole garlic head (traditionally unpeeled, but whatever floats your boat)
zest of 1 orange

in a large bowl, combine the mortar and pestle ingredients with the cutting board ingredients. make sure to take in all divine aromas. next, to the bowl add:

4 Tbl paprika
half a bottle of balsamic vinegar
the juice of that zested orange
1 whole bottle of ketchup
6-8 Tbl olive oil

mix everything together well and begin to drool. take your choice of meat, rub sauce all over, generously covering every square inch, par-bake in oven for an appropriate time, and then grill or barbeque till crispy and juicy.

this is what you chop finely with a knife, stems and skins all.

these are the spices from the mortar and pestle.

we made a quick kale salad with apple, toasted almond, fresh goat cheese, and my poppyseed dressing. and, having wrongly assumed we had potatoes, the plan B came out surprisingly delicious - simple whole wheat couscous with butter and fresh grated parmesan.

on a fleshy metaphor

it is day seven of the influenza. i am not quite functioning in a vertical fashion yet, but i am on the life side of the death-and-resurrection motif...yes, that one glorious plot-line that God happens to really like. i don't get sick often, but when i do, man! this one was a doozy, and for the life of me, i cannot figure out how i got it. i scrub with soap, take my vitamins, and never get too friendly with public toilets. i also didn't know a single soul who was sick. but, all men are but dust, and it was my time.

the last thing i did do before i went under the shadow of death was go to the mall. figures. evil thing. i'm almost convinced to never step foot in one again. they are great incubaters of nastyness, and not just in the germ department. and don't even get me started on the food court...

so here i lay, with all the evidences of death upon me - stuffy nose, chesty cough, beat up throat, jello legs, bad hair. and, to top it off nicely, i woke up with pink eye. never have had that before.

but, i also feel within my body the breath of life, and things just start knocking about. the first thing to have returned is the sense of humor. that's always useful around here. next, the voice. next, the urge to cook every jamie oliver recipe he's ever invented. these, indeed, are signs of life, and praise God. the waters have not overwhelmed me; nay, my youth is renewing like the eagle's. but it's slow, like the arrival of spring this year.

my joe has cleaned the kitchen for me, bless him! that was a nasty business, let me tell you. and, to slow my chomping at the bit, he is currently taking a jaunt to the grocer for the fixings for barbequed ribs, jamie oliver style. :) so while i'm taking a snail's pace to the land of the living, lying here with my eye drops and my kleenex box, i'll be enjoying the goodness of God in the smell and taste of homemade barbeque sauce.

praise God for He is kind, His mercies last for aye!