Good Press

The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. -- Psalm 126:3 This year, we are doing Thanksgiving a whole new way. At least it's new to us. We've been talking about doing something like this for a couple of years. Our first Thanksgivings we prepared our share of the big meal and schlepped it 20 miles across the county to my mother's house, where my home-bound uncle also resided. When he died in 2009, we decided she could come to us. Besides, no one really wanted to spend Thanksgiving there without him. On Thursday, we will hold another first: We'll join with two other families and host a free community dinner at our church. We have wanted for a couple of years to serve food at a soup kitchen. This will not be a soup kitchen, nor will it feel like a handout. Organizers have worked hard to make the church multipurpose sanctuary/fellowship hall feel like a home. The tables have centerpieces. Crayons are on the tables for children to color the place ma...

I'm trying to encourage the women and men of my church to sign up to bring sweet treats on Sunday morning for the coffee bar instead of the same kind soul (not me) buying doughnuts or whatever every week. It hasn't quite caught on yet. But today was my Sunday to bring the treats and boy was I swamped with work, work-related traveling and helping my mom. Still, feeling like I needed to be a good example, I whipped up something I already had on hand. It is easy -- 20 minutes start to finish. In fact, it baked while I was in the shower. And I thought it was pretty yummy -- a couple of other people said so, too. Here is my fuss-free formula: 1 package of Jiffy corn muffin mix 1 egg 1/3 cup milk red raspberry jam Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin tin that yields 24 mini muffins. Prepare the muffin mix according to package directions but scoop the batter into 24 minimuffin tins, Filling them half full. Drop a scant 1/4 teaspoon raspberry jam into the middle of the batt...