“Precious Children–A Gift from God,” Ensign, Nov. 1991, 68
On Friday we celebrated my sweet April’s birthday.
April, a beautiful wife to Jacob…
an incredible mother to Lily and Beckham…
a loving sister to Lyndi, Jillian, Dane and Rhen, and an inspiring daughter…to me.
April, who–among a million other wonderful things–creates all the background that is beautiful on this blog.
We love you, Honey.
Thanks for being ours…
Happy Birthday.
You could probably make big money selling this recipe on the black market. If you do–remember…I get half.   :]
Secret Magical Stuffing
(For a Bus Load of People)
Ingredients:
8 small cans of Campbell’s Chicken Broth (Please don’t substitute something else–it won’t be the same)
6-1/2 cubes of butter
3-1/2 Tbsp salt
2 medium onions diced up or run through blender
1-1/2 Tbsp pepper
4 Tbsp sage
1 Tbsp chicken bouillon powder
8-10 loaves of dried, broken up bread (Depends on how big the loaf is)
You are gonna need a big bowl. And no, sorry, you can’t borrow ours…we’re using it.
Dry bread for at least 3 days–5 is better. It needs to be dried hard. Don’t toast it in the oven–it will crumble instead of break. Break it up in a huge bowl. Reserve about 6 cups of the broken bread off to the side. Boil all the other ingredients together for about 15-20 minutes. Pour a cup full at a time over bread and toss until the bread is well coated. You will have some saturated pieces and some that are still dry, so I stir through the bowl and take many of the soaked pieces and smush them onto the dried pieces as you’re tossing it. That’s really the best way to distribute the broth evenly. If you have plenty of broth, add the rest of the reserved bread a little at a time. Put bread in a foil lined pan and cover with foil–shiny side towards bread– at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Use a spatula and turn the stuffing in the pan so the top pieces can have a turn getting brown and golden. Bake for another 30 minutes. For the last 5-10 minutes, remove foil so the top can be toasty as well. This is the best stuffing in the world.
You must trust me on this.
~What could you see from your childhood bedroom window?
~What did you do, as a child, that got you in big trouble?
~Do you remember a favorite nursery rhyme?
~Have you ever gone fishing?
These are just a few of the personal history prompts that we’ve folded up mysteriously and sealed into a class jar. Someone you love–grandma, grampa, mom, dad–then, chooses one question each day to trigger a slew of childhood memories. It doesn’t matter so much if they write them down in a formal journal or a simple spiral notebook, as long as they start putting it on paper…for the rest of us to enjoy.
Probably the number one reason people hesitate to begin a journal or personal history in the first place, is because they have no idea where to start. So what better gift to give them than a box or bag or–in our case–a cleaned candle jar–of daily prompts with intriguing questions that will actually be fun to write about. If they answer only one question per day–in six months they will have quite an impressive history. And who knows? That history may just be their Christmas present to you–next year!
Click on the link below to make your own copy of the prompts. Print them on white or colored paper–or both. Cut them into strips. Fold them and store them in a bottle or box. Tie a ribbon around it–and there you have it. A family heirloom in the making. Oh, and adding a pretty pen and notebook or journal is a nice touch too.
Click the following link: