Eating My Way Through Crisis

Dealing with Crisis

This has been such a crazy season. None of us has ever been through anything like this before and I am seeing people pull together in amazing ways. I love watching people rise up to meet needs in the midst of such a hard season. 

The church we attend has partnered with another nearby church to take up a love offering that will help meet the needs of people in our area. Our food pantry has continued to safely meet the needs by feeding thousands locally. 

My favorite local screen printers have amazing banners that our kiddos can color and remind our neighbors that we are “Better Together.” Giving our kids a fun task while encouraging everyone that drives by! https://www.trippdesigns.com/shop/together

I’m overwhelmed by the way people have creatively met needs!

How I Deal with Crisis

In this season, when I am overwhelmed, I bake.

I really enjoy serving my family and friends dinner and desserts. I always say that my love language is food (and feeding people). It fills up my love tank when someone says that they loved what I prepared for them. With a full tank, I’d love to share some recipes that were all fully approved and loved by my children.

I have had time to look through my recipe box and reminisce. Two specific recipes stood out to me from my grandmas. They were extraordinary women and I often wonder what they would think of the current state of the world. I wish I could ask them, but making their recipes has helped me feel close to them again. An unexpected and welcomed side effect to all of this baking.

Favorite Family Recipes

I think my Grandma Aubry would have said something dry-witted and funny. I find myself wanting to call her more often these days. She probably would have told me all about the news reports she had been listening to, and would have told me to stay home and stay safe. As long as we called her to check in, she would have been content. She was most at peace to know her loved ones were safe and where they should be.

A recipe of hers that I made recently was chicken salad. I still remember sitting and eating it with her thinking that I should have been making her food, but here she was making it for me. I think she would probably make a joke about me wanting to share this recipe with my friends, so with a heartfelt laugh, here is Grandma A’s chicken salad recipe:

Grandma Aubry’s Chicken Salad

Mix and refrigerate. Serve cold on croissant rolls.

Another Favorite Recipe

During this season of quarantining and eating, we also celebrated Easter. The thought of Easter Sunday leads me to sunrise service, Easter baskets, time with my cousins, and my grandma Kaufmann’s food.

She loved to cook and bake and was the happiest when her whole family was together. She probably would have thought this quarantine was silly and would have tried to convince as many family members as she could to continue to join her for Sunday family dinner.

She never wanted anyone to make a fuss about her, but we all thought her cookies and pies were the best. As long as all of the boys were fed first, she was happy to share whatever baked goods she had with us.

Easter wasn’t Easter without Grandma’s coconut cake. My sister and I used to love to sneak the caramelized gooey coconut right off of the top of the cake(actually I still do). This one is easy and probably found on a bisquick box, but I prefer the recipe that she told me from memory:

Grandma Kaufmann’s Coconut Coffee Cake

For the Coffee Cake:
Mix ingredients with electric mixer for 4 minutes.
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes then let cool for a few mintues.

For Coconut Topping:
Stir ingredients.
Add topping to cake and put back on the highest rack of the oven on Broil for 3 minutes.

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More Recipes to Love

As I mentioned earlier, we have been eating our way through this pandemic, and since I love a good Pinterest session, I wanted to share some of my favorite pins here.

In past seasons of my life I have pinned things that I knew I was never going to make. However, I have (obviously) found myself home more, and decided to take the time to make so many of the recipes that I have pinned. Here are some of our family’s favorites.

Homemade salted caramel sauce is one of my all time favorite indulgences, and when I saw a recipe for salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars, I knew I had to try them.

The recipe calls for store bought caramels, but if you like to make your own, do it! It is so worth it!

With our sweet, we need a little salty. So, one of our favorite dinners has been the white chicken enchiladas.

They were gooey, delicious, filling, and I doubled the recipe so we could have leftovers. I also might not have told anyone that, and kept the leftovers to myself. They were really that good!

So, then to go with the salty, I also needed some more sweet. (Don’t judge! We’ve been in lock-down for a long time!)

This next recipe was the hands down favorite and has been requested by all of the boys for their next birthdays. It’s easy to make, delicious, and so indulgent! (If you use a gluten-free cake mix, it can also be a GF recipe)

The Cinnamon Roll Poke Cake was so good. Typing this out will probably have me eating it in my dreams tonight. Won’t taste nearly as good in my dreams, but it will be better for the old waistline.

We are behind on homeschooling, and life tends to have a crazy feel with all 8 of us at home. All. Of. The. Time. But we sure are enjoying our meals together and I hope you are too! 

Will you share with us some of your favorite recipes too? No disrespect to the seriousness of the situation, but for the sake of a little laughter, let’s gain that Covid-19 together?

Looking for more awesome family recipes? Try this Delicious Ginger Creams Bar Recipe or this Gourmet English Toffee.