First, I have to say, thank you all so much for the wonderful things you said about my Sunday post last week. Special thanks to those who admitted that my writing helped them see the LDS faith in a better, positive light. Your words mean so much to me.

Now that I have that rather difficult post behind me, I needed to find somewhere to start. I have so many questions to answer, but in many ways the LDS faith has it’s own vocabulary and if I jumped right into the middle of things I might leave you all even more confused than when you started reading.

Then I went to sunday school for children (called Primary) and I realized that the first thing children in the church are taught at the beginning of each year is the Plan of Happiness (also known as the Plan of Salvation). I LOVE the Plan and I can’t think of any better place to start.

I got so excited that I made a little graphic to illustrate the plan as I write the 3 part series I will present in January. Hopefully it will help all of you better understand how the entire experience fits together.

The Plan of Salvation: Week 1

We are going to start at the beginning. This is back before your senior prom, back before your first kiss, you haven’t learned how to ride a bike, you don’t know anything about tying your shoes… in fact we are going to go so far back in time that you haven’t even been born. This is before Columbus sailed the ocean blue, before the earth flooded over in the time of Noah, even before the time of Adam.

Before we were all born, we lived together as brothers and sisters with our Father in Heaven. It was during this period of time that we developed our identities and personalities. I like to think that Mozart played the piano a lot, Celine Dion walked around belting out songs all day long, and I probably did a lot of blogging.

One day, God called us all together and presented a Plan (see Abraham 3:22–26). It was a Plan that would bring happiness to all who chose to keep God’s commandments. All who chose to follow the Plan would be sent to the Earth to receive a body and be tested. This test would provide each spirit with the opportunity to choose for themselves between good and evil.

Because all the spirits sent to earth would have agency (the absolute freedom to choose and act for ourselves), we would be making mistakes all of the time. We would need someone to help us be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ, the Firstborn Son of the Father in the spirit, covenanted to become our Redeemer and save us from our sins through the Atonement and Resurrection. (see Moses 4:2; Abraham 3:27)

Lucifer, our brother, and another spirit son of God, stepped forward and presented his own plan. He wanted to save all the spirit sons and daughters of God by taking away their agency, and have all the glory and power of God for himself. He rebelled against God, and all of those who chose to follow Satan (so many of our brothers and sisters were with him!) were cast out of heaven and denied the opportunity to come down to earth and receive a physical body in order to experience mortal life.

Once everyone had made the choice concerning who they would follow (Satan or God), it was time to get ready to come down to earth. I like to think that we all had a big party together because we were about to experience something new and exciting. You, me, all of us alive and reading this blog today had to wait thousands of years for our turn. And then, in April of 1985, my chance came! It was finally time for me to come to earth and have a body of my own!

Next week I’ll be covering mortal life, death, the spirit world. If you would like to learn more about the premortal life on your own, visit this page on LDS.org.

It was Sunday night. We were both craving a treat, but alas, we don’t shop on Sundays. What could I make with items already in my cupboard?

I went to allrecipes.com and used their nifty little ingredient search tool to find a recipe using the ingredients I had on hand. I put in coconut, walnuts, and cocoa and was pointed to the recipe for Dream Bars II. That Husband really likes them, but they taste a little bit too much like flour to me. Maybe next time I shouldn’t use the cocoa? Also I should made the crust thinner and cooked it until it was really golden brown, not just sort of golden brown.

INGREDIENTS

* 1/2 cup butter
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
*
* 3 eggs, beaten
* 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
* 1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the 1 1/2 cups of flour. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan. Bake the crust for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together the eggs and 1 1/2 cups brown sugar. Stir in the vanilla. Combine the 1/4 cup flour, cocoa (if desired), baking powder and salt; stir into the egg mixture. Fold in the coconut and walnuts. Pour into the pre-baked crust.
4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm. Cool and cut into squares.

I’m not supposed to eat any more while he is out of town, but I really want to try drizzling some caramel on top and topping that off with some Cool Whip. Maybe just a taste tomorrow.

Last week I made two delicious things. Well maybe the brownies were a little overdone, but they were my first ever brownies from scratch and I am still learning.

Thanks to Julie for the delicious Mexican Lasagna recipe! Go ahead and visit her blog to get the recipe, she has step-by-step photos on how to make it! Of course we used the tortillas to make it. Any recipe that requires tortillas is our new official favorite.

That Husband was gone from 5 AM Monday morning to 7 PM Thursday night, so I made brownies to celebrate his return. Not just any brownies, Peppermint Patty Brownies, as invented by Coconut & Lime. I love Coconut & Lime. Beautiful photography combined with delicious food.

Find the recipe here.

The secret is lining the middle of the brownie batter with broken up pieces of Peppermint Patties. She used mini’s but I couldn’t find them, so I just bought whole ones.

I love eating the sections with the almost-burnt oozing filling. They are perfect with a glass of milk and a little bit of whipped cream on top. Please note that I made these brownies with eggs, flour, sugar, and the like. Not from a box thankyouverymuch.

Super rich and so delicious!

Wow, that is a really long title. But, in my defense, I’m going to show you two really delicious recipes, and if you, by chance, are getting ready to go grocery shopping one day and think “I really would like to make that Chicken with Apple and Brie and Asparagus with Sliced Almonds and Parmesan Cheese That Wife talked about a few weeks ago,” you will now be able to locate it very easily. This blog is all about convenience people.

There is something I should have told you the last time I posted some recipes… I don’t follow recipes very well. Sylvia Weinstock taught me that baking is about chemistry and science, but I think that cooking is all about ingenuity and creativity. So if I bake something, I will do my best to follow the recipe exactly, but when I cook I make it up as I go along.

The Chicken recipe was found here, at The Cook Mobile. She made a dish that looked like this:

As is always the case when I copy a recipe, mine did not look so pretty. If you want the original recipe, click on the above link. What I am pasting below is what I actually did (well, it’s what I can remember from what I actually did). I don’t have a meat tenderizer, and after debating on the merits of using a hammer to flatten out the chicken, I just decided to improvise.

2 packages of trimmed and sliced chicken breasts (I believe mine were Tyson)
1 large Granny Smith apples, sliced thin
3/4small block of light Havarti cheese, sliced thin
3/4 box of corn flakes, crushed (mine were kind of big because we were watching Bones and TH got made that I was being loud and ruining the show for him )
6 large eggs, throw out half the yolks

Dip one package of chicken breasts in egg mixture and roll in crushed corn flakes. Line the bottom of the dish with corn flake encrusted chicken breasts. Cover the chicken with apple slices, then cover the apple slices with Havarti cheese.

Dip and coat the rest of the chicken breasts, and lay those on top of the cheese. Sprinkle extra corn flakes on top for extra crunch.

Bake in a 375 F oven until cooked throuh, around 20 to 30 minutes.

While that was cooking I whipped up the asparagus. Again, the recipe below is what I did and includes my wannabe witty commentary. Visit the link to see the original.

INGREDIENTS

* 2 tablespoons margarine
* 1 bundle asparagus, bottoms trimmed
* Some water
* Some thinly sliced almonds
* Some Parmesan cheese (not the dehydrated Kraft stuff, use the real thing people!)

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt margarine in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the asparagus, and cook and stir. Add in some water like I did because it doesn’t like like it is getting tender fast enough. (Take small bites to keep checking tenderness. Try to bite the same piece each time or you will wind up with a bunch of half-chewed asparagus pieces and husbands don’t like that.) Cook until all of the water is gone.

2. Stir in as many almonds as you want and grate parmesan until you are satisfied. Cook for a few more minutes, until all of the cheese is melted.

Pull the chicken out of the oven and serve with some kind of bread/starch because your husband demands it.

That Husband and I really liked liked both the Chicken and the Asparagus dishes, and the Asparagus dish will definitely become a staple in our house from now on. The Chicken was good, but the true test of any dish is how it holds up as leftovers, and this one might not make the cut because of it. Actually I’m starting to feel hungry right now, signaling the end of this post, and the beginning of my lunch of dinner leftovers!