My husband and I have vacillated long enough with which church to make home. This mainly has been my fault, even though he is sweet enough to take responsibility for our family upon himself as the leader, as a real man ought. But I know that our hesitancy has been due to my past heartaches, and has kept us (especially him) from enjoying the consistency of worshipping in a church family.
Especially since Baby came along. They say that having a baby changes your life, but this one ripped mine apart. I love her, I reallllly do! I don't blame her, I blame pregnancy and all the issues that have followed postpartum.
But here's my point: We've made a decision. It's a HUGE decision for me. We've settled on a church. It's actually not even... a church... yet... It's a "church plant", meaning a new church, only team meetings thus far. Our launch service isn't for another couple of weeks. But we made a decision, and that's big for me. That's big for our family.
Far away from family this Easter (and not having any other children in our family our daughter's age anyway), we thoroughly enjoyed the company of our new church family. They are a very interesting mix of people. We loved getting to know a few of them last night. But more than anything, we loved watching our daughter playing with the other children. And when she wasn't really even interacting with other kids, she would run around and copy the things they did. We've always said that she's the type of kid who should've had older siblings! Maybe her little church friends will help her grow into a not-so-akward only child =)
Anyway, we had a potluck. It was a nice spread of food! Since I knew we were having ham as the main dish, and I had a storehouse of cauliflower in the freezer, I made a great cauliflower and asparagus cheese sauce for macaroni. Thus, "Cauliflower Surprise" was born, and eaten right away!
WHAT YOU NEED:
1 lb. cauliflower (fresh or frozen)
1 lb. asparagus (bottoms chopped off)
3 carrots
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
Spices to your taste
1 cup half&half
5 oz. asiago cheese
8 oz. sharp cheddar cheese
1 egg
1 box whole wheat rotini or macaroni
HOW TO:
Rule #1: Don't over-crowd your pan, the blender, or the casserole dish! (This is true in pretty much every area of cooking, by the way.... Except with meatloaf!)
Cook pasta to desired firmness, rinse with cool water, and set aside.
In large stockpot heat 3 TBSP. olive oil on medium high.
Let asparagus cook at least 5 minutes before adding all other veggies; cook at least 10 minutes more with lid half-covering.
Add spices; let cook a little longer, tossing often - just until the pot is very fragrant.
Blend half of the cooked vegetables (with all the juice from said veggies), all asiago, and half of the cheddar. Blend until smooth. (If doing this in a regular blender, do in two installations, depending of course on the size of your blender.)
Add half&half, blend again.
Add egg. Blend briefly. Do this DIRECTLY before building casserole (and get into oven immediately!) You don't want the egg to start cooking and curdling, 'cause yuuuuck!
In casserole layer: veggies, a little sauce, pasta, more sauce. And then, shred remaining 4 oz. cheddar on top. ...Or you could get the shredding out of the way earlier =)
Bake at 400 for just about 10 minutes! And done!
COST: $12 for 12 servings
How was YOUR Easter? Did you celebrate Christ's sacrifice and the new Life He has given us? Did you hide eggs for your little munchkins to hunt? Did you spend the first half of the morning in a coffee shop finally finding a few minutes of solitude, away from the munchkin (like I did!)? Leave me a comment!!
My Easter was great! We should have hidden some eggs but I forgot about that! Doesn't really matter that much, as we are trying to focus on the important things in our family. I was just glad to be with my family.
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