Simple Ham Salad

The mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ has had people asking questions for almost two millennia, but there is one Easter question that continues to plague humanity that falls on Sunday evening or Monday morning. The question? What to do with the bottom half of the spiral sliced ham that has not been spiral sliced! There are various answers, but I would offer the following combination as the simplest solution. First, trim all of the usable ham off the bone and chop it in a food processor. Divide this into two parts, put two cups in the fridge to make a Tuesday after Easter Quiche Lorraine. The rest set aside for today's ham salad recipe. Finally take the bone carcass and either freeze it to use later, or immediately make a pot of soup beans or black-eyed peas. All yummy! All easy! And there is nothing left over.

Simple Ham Salad

5 cups finely chopped left-over ham
1 cup lite mayo
1/2 cup pickle relish
1/4 cup pickled jalapenos
1 bunch green onions
1 red bell pepper
1/2 sweet onion
1 Tbl Sweet Hot Mustard
2 leftover deviled eggs (4 halves)

Directions:

1. After chopping the ham transfer it to a mixing bowl
2. In food processor, combine green onions, sweet onion, red bell pepper, jalapenos, pickle relish and deviled eggs. Chop until the ingredients are more of a liquid puree'. Transfer to the mixing bowl with the ham.
3. Add mayo and mustard to the mixing bowl and mix all ingredients for 1 minute on low
4. You can serve immediately or let stand in refrigerator for a few hours to allow the flavors to mix to their fullest.

Easy Pork Marinade

This is a quick and easy marinade for pork chops done on the grill.

Ingredients:
1 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup soy
1 tsp liquid smoke
2 tsp Thyme
1 1/2 tsp All Spice
4 cloves minced garlic
1/4 cup pickled jalapeno peppers
1 bundle of green onions (using only the top)
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1/4 Olive Oil

Instructions:
Put all of the ingredients in a blender except the olive oil in the blender for 1 minute, then reduce blender speed to lowest setting and drizzle the olive oil into the blender. Once done, coat your pork and refrigerate for a few hours before you but the chops on the grill.

Bacon Apple Jalapeno Pop 'Ems

Bacon-Apple-Jalapeno Pop 'Ems

Last Saturday as I was putting finishing touches on my sermon my Gmail account dinged with a "new" email.  It was from the Food Network and was this recipe.  I was hungry and Christa was at the grocery, so I sent her the list of ingredients and I made these to go with our pork chops as an appetizer.  They were spectacular!  So I am posting them here so it is easy for me to find the recipe in the future!  It is a cut and paste from their website.  I actually replaced the scallions with half of a medium white onion minced.

Total Time:
1 hr 5 min
Prep:
30 min
Inactive:
5 min
Cook:
30 min
Yield:40 pop 'ems

Ingredients
One 8-ounce package light cream cheese, at room temperature
3 large scallions, roots sliced off, green and white partsminced finely
1 large Granny Smith apple, cored and minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
20 jalapenos
20 strips thin-sliced bacon, chopped in half
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment.

In a large bowl, stir and break down the cream cheese until smooth. Add the scallions and apples, plus as much salt and freshly ground black pepper as you like.

Don a pair of plastic gloves so you don't burn your fingers or your eyes like I did. Slice each jalapeno in half lengthwise, and then either slice out the membranes or use a measuring spoon to scoop them out. Discard the seeds.

Either using a teaspoon or a small icing spatula, fill each jalapeno half with the cream cheese mixture; fill until just over the rim of the jalapeno. Wrap each pepper with a bacon half and secure with a toothpick. Line up the pop 'ems on the prepared baking sheet and pop into the oven until bacon has browned on the bottom, about 30 minutes. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes (which will be as long as you can resist them). Enjoy with a cold beer! Aaah!

Recipe courtesy of Aarti Sequeira



Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/bacon-apple-jalapeno-pop-ems-recipe.html?oc=linkback

Israel:Day Eight

Greetings all from the stranded tourist,

Well the rumors were true when we got back to the hotel. We went to dinner while the Educational Opportunities (EO) staff worked diligently to get us booked on alternate flights. We gather in the lounge after dinner and await news. Here comes Tom, some have flights and some don't, hold tight more info to come. Enjoy some coffee and pretzels and relax and wait. Here he comes again. They have been successful in getting 36 out of 68 of us flights. Time for them to load onto the buses to get to Tel Aviv. You can sense the frustration and disappointment in the rest of us who didn't make the flight. We gather downstairs to here the plan
 EO has set us all up in rooms and is working on getting us flights home. We are all confirmed into JFK leaving at 11:30 p.m. On Friday. What? Not Thursday? No Friday. The disappointment rises. We get everybody keys and get them settled into their rooms. At this point, apart from the group leaving for Jordan tomorrow, I'm the only Elder here that has been to Israel, so I have become the default leader of our motley crew for the remainder of our time. There are a few who desperately need to get home, so EO works their magic and we get 7 more out that night. We are down to 25. We try to get folks to see the blessing of two more days but things are still a little raw.

Once we have done all we can do for the night, I head to the lounge and tell Dia the bartender I need an American sized cup of coffee. He holds up a beer mug and says it is the biggest he has. PERFECT!!!! I drnk coffee until the wee hours of the morning and finally head to bed.

I get up early to see the Jordan crew off. We have flights all confirmed all the way home and EO has authorized is a guide and a bus for the day and EO is picking up the tab. How incredible is that? Oh the choices we have. We settle on three: the temple mount sifting project, the main part of the Israel Museum, and the night spectacular at the citadel of King David.

At 10:30 we hit the road. The first stop is the sifting project. A number of years ago the Muslims were excavating on temple mount and simply throwing debree into the valley below. The Israel Antiquities Authority got permission to gather the debris and transport it to another location. Now they allow tourists to work with the archaeological staff to sift through it looking for antiquities. We had a ball, dump a bucket of material on the shifting screens, wash out the bucket, spread the material and wash it down, then sort through it in a systematic way looking for pottery, mosaic pieces, arrow heads, coins, glass, etc. Our group found one ancient coin and lots of pottery shards. We had a ball, I know I don't have a calling to be an archaeologist, but something compels you to do one more bucket thinking the next one will have a treasure. They summarize our time by categorizing and dating our good finds and we are off to lunch. A local place, not one of the tourist destinations. It was delicious.

Next stop, the Israel Museum. There is a gigantic model of Jerusalem at the time of Christ which really helps put things in perspective. Some head to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, others head to the main building. It is a giant museum. There is an archaeology section that takes you from pre Canaanite thru today, a history of Judaism that includes four reconstructed synagogues from around the world, two giant art galleries, and an area of exhibits from other nations and cultures. Two hours isn't enough to take it all in. Back on the bus headed to the hotel for dinner.

After dinner we are on the bus headed to Jaffa Gate to go to the Citadel of King David for a light and sound show. No one is really sure what that means but we have been told it is spectacular. And they were right. For the show we are seated in the middle af the ancient crusader fortress watching the history of the land of Israel projected across every surface
if the Citadel. It is an incredibly moving presentation and is an incredible finale to a spectacular trip. Tomorrow is a free day.

Your brother in Christ
Faron

Israel: Day Seven

Greetings from our last day in Israel,

Tonight is the night we return to the land of bacon, breakfast sausage and pulled pork BBQ! GOD BE PRAISED!!!! This is our sort of lazy day. We get to sleep in, but me and a few others decide to get up and catch the light rail, think above ground subway train, to the Jewish Market. This is local, real life Israel not a tourist area. They will only take shekels. The market is filled with the sights sounds and smells of Israel. Fresh produce stands, meat markets, seafood markets, candy, fresh baked breads, pastries, spices and the list goes on. I want to get bags full of all of the above and go home and cook something extravagant. Instead I just gorge myself on pastries, fruit, candy and finally hot foccia bread straight from the oven only 4 shekels, which is basically a dollar. YUMMY! We catch the train back and it is time to put our bags outside our room doors and load up on the bus. First stop lunch. Another Kibbutz, this one commemorating Rachel. Full belly's and it is time to head to the upper room.

We approach the Old City at the Zion Gate but we don't actually enter as we turn west in front of the gate. The upper room sits above the Tomb of King David. This is another vanerated spots but may not he the actual location, but it does fit some of the scriptural evidences. There has been a chapel commemorating for centuries and during the Islamic control it was converted to  mosque, so now the site is a unique blend of Jewish, Christian and Islamic symbols and architecture. After an explanation and pictures, and a quick trip.to the Tomb of David. We are off to Caiaphas' house. I shared about this beautiful site yesterday, so I won't linger here with more words. Our time here as a group finishes with all.of us in the pit together singing amazing grace. It is pretty overwhelming.

A visit to the gift shop, mom gets me a stohl that the sisters of Carmel made and had delivered that morning. It is beautiful, but you don't get to see it unless yall let me preach in a robe every now and then. ;) On the bus headed to the Garden Tomb.

This is a site discovered in 1842 and offered as an alternate location for Calvaryand Jesus' empty tomb. It is a place that looks more like what one pictures when they think of the tomb and Calvary. There is a cliff, that sort of looks like a skull. Granted it is above a bus depot, but it is a real cliff rather than a protected spot under am altar. There is also an actual first century tomb in a garden. This places appearance tugs at your heart strings but the guide's explanation, a volunteer at the site not ours, feels a little like a time share sales pitch. After the tour we gather, both buses, for a communion service led by the bishop. It is a fitting close to an incredible trip. The only catch is a rumor running around that our flights been cancelled. They site is closing and we are urged back to the bus, headed to the hotel for dinner then departure for the airport.

Bad news, or perhaps good, THE RUMOR IS TRUE!!!!!!

Your brother in Christ
Faron

Israel: Day Six

Greetings all,

Well today is the big day for the walking tour of the Old City. We begin at the sheep gate and immediately turn right into St. Anne's Church which commermorates the birthplace of Mary the mother of Jesus and is at the site of the pools of Bethesda where Jesus healed the paralytic who had no one to place him in the pool. The depth and expanse of the ruins of the pools is pretty overwhelming, but the church is spectacular. The acoustics provide and 8 second reverberation that makes our motley crew sound spectacular as we sing the Alleluia chorus. Back on the street heading west to the Antonio Fortress and the beginning of the Via De Larosa, the way of suffering. The traditional route has all of the spots of the stations of the cross marked, many with chapels.

The Antonio Fortress is a school today so we cannot enter, but this is where Pontius Pilate sat in judgment of a Jesus and washed his hands of any guilt. From there we go to the Chapel of the Flagellation followed by the chapel of the Condemnation. These places mark stations one and two. We travel the route and come to three, Jesus' first fall and four where he encountered his mother. Moving onto the Cardo we travel south a bit to station five, where Simon of Cyrene is told to carry the cross. There is a chapel but we don't go in. From here we turn north and begin a very steep climb up hill. Station aix is where Hesus encounters Veronique, the woman who gives him the rag to wipe his face. Tradition holds that after wiping his face the image of it was left behind on the rag. Continuing west we pass seven, his second fall and eight where he encounters the women of Jerusalem. Nine is right outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and is his third and final fall. Ten through fourteen are in the church.

As you enter the church you immediately ascend an ancient stairwell to your right. This takes you to ten, where they strip Jesus of his clothes and eleven where He was nailed to the cross. There is art on the wall, misaics on the floor and incredible chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. As you move left around the corner you come to the altar above Calvary. You can kneel and crawl under the altar to touch the rock where the raised the cross. This is stations 12 and 13, Jesus' death and removal from the cross. We descend the stairs by a slab of marble which is venerated as the stone upon which they laid Jesus' body to prepare it for burial. While our plan is to walk around to the shrine of the tomb, the 14th station placing His body in the tomb, our guide directs us down to the chapel of St Gregory. He has arranged with the Armenian bishop for us to get a private tour of a chapel beneath  St Gregory's which is part of the ancient quarry beneath Calvary where there is first or second century graffiti evidence that this area was the place venerated as the spot where Jesus did in fact die. It is a holy moment and a new spit to see even for Bishop Davis and he had traveled to the Holyland fifteen times. Back upstairs to get in line to enter the shrine surrounding the tomb.

One thing anyone who travels to Israel must understand is that most of the holy places you will visit don't look like what we envision because most every site has had a church built over it. The tomb is no different. Going back to before the Byzantine era, the stone was chiseled away around the tomb so they could enclose it in a shrine to protect it. Over the ages more layers were added to the outside to strengthen its structure. While it doesn't feel right or pluck the heart strings, it is most likely the place. Once everyone has had a chance to enter, we take a moment in a small gery old chapel right behind the shrine which also has a tomb still in tact that they was the tomb where Joseph of Arimethea was final laid. Back out to the courtyard, it is time for lunch. Fladfel or Chicken Swarmma?

After lunch we walk through the reestablished Jewish marketplace along the Roman Cardo, which is in essence an ancient shopping mall. We keep moving, our destination is the Western Wall. Once through security we are there. Once more a time of prayer for our church and then off to the Archaeological park where I spent yesterday. It is almost time for me to preach. The group goes through the Davidson Center museum part and I head for the teaching steps. I climb them praying to calm my heart, I practice two more times and can't get it under nine minutes. Then it occurs to me, perhaps it was God speaking, that the group was tired from walking all over the city and would probably be happy to sit there for a twenty or thirty minutes sermon even if just for the chance to rest. I text Christa and ask her to pray for me and here they come. I meet them at the bottom of the steps. It is time to preach. We read Psalm 120, 130 and 134. Deep breath and go..." I must confess I have a love hate relationship with steps...." I go on to share about steps being a transitional place and these steps in particular being a transition between the secular and the sacred. Are we ready to allow God to transition us, transform us, so that we come back more atuned to the holy and ready to live for him? Based on feedback I did okay, God be praised! We sing a hymn and then it is time to head for the hotel. It has been a good day, and jazz and coffee in the hotel lounge after dinner makes it that much better.

Your brother in Christ
Faron

Yeah......Two More Days Without Pork

Greetings from Jerusalem Y'all,
Yes, I know I'm behind on blogposts. They are coming, but it is Wednesday night and we are supposed to be on a flight to the states right now, but it has been cancelled. Right now it looks like we will be getting back on Saturday instead of Thursday, so yes that makes twelve days straight without pork!

I WANT A SAUSAGE BISQUIT!!!!!