Third Sunday Dinner Report~February 2015

     February is a great month on in Arizona.  The weather is perfect.  I love this time of year.  February and March are actually my two favorite months in Mesa.   March brings orange blossoms and gardening.  The weather has been so warm most of my garden is already in.  I am excited.  

     This month we decided to do Deep Fried French Toast again.  It is a Favorite and we do it at least once a year for Third Sunday Dinner.  Everyone loves it and it really is an easy one to do.  Often I will pick up day old bread at the local bakery, but this year I decided to bake the bread.  I used my mothers Good Ole White Bread recipe.  It is wonderful.  Nothing healthy about this favorite.  I like to serve this with butter milk syrup.   

     We are going into our 7th year of doing Third Sunday Dinner and totally are committed to the next  seven years.  We love the things we have learned.  All members of our family have learned so much and have grown from opening our home up for others.  We have created long lifetime relationships that we love and look forward to more friends we will meet.  When I think of the most important things I have learned is how much we need each other.  Often times we are to busy to really take the time to fellowship, and by fellowship I mean lift others by loving them.  For me Third Sunday Dinner provides a great place that allows for time to really lift others.   

    We never know who is coming to dinner, and our prayer is that those who need it will be there.  And guess what, that prayer is always answered.     

The bread dough.  I baked 36 mini loaves of bread for dinner.  I weigh the dough at 10 ounces   

A Simple trick I have learned it to cover the top of the oven and bread with an old sheet or table cloth.  It traps the hot air from the preheating oven and helps to proof it faster.

The Bread Baking in the Oven

The Finished Product.  It looks great.  I love fresh baked bread.

I have a bread slicer that comes in handy often

 So this month I thought I would clean out the pantry.  I had a bunch of cans of fruit.  Tropical fruits like lychee nuts, palm seeds, etc.  Strange and exotic.  I also had an extra large bag of carrots.  We diced the carrots and added chopped fruit to the cooled down steamed carrots.   It was interesting to say the least.

Canned Fruit

Chopped Carrots

I love these girls.  They are amazing.  I give them a vision and they make it happen.

The makings of the Carrot Tropical Salad

It was unusual to say the least.  The comments were really great.  Some absolutely loved it, others could not figure it out, some absolutely hated it, while others were just to polite to say.  It was a texture thing and the canned bananas really threw them off.  They looked like sausage.  It was a fun experience.  I love doing that.  Why stick to the normal.  And it has a lot to do with memories.  There has to be those memories that are funny.

In the beginning. 

Setting up the tables and chairs.

It's a party, Oh no not a party, it's Third Sunday Dinner. 

The French Toast was really great.  The fryer's fried over 300 slices of bread.  It is always a great meal.  I fry it outside.  I use my camp burners and dutch ovens.  It goes really fast and keeps the mess out of the house.

 This is our fry station.  Pans to dip the bread in.  They fried for at least 2 hours.   I mix the eggs up with milk and cinnamon and nutmeg in the Vita Mix early.  We used over three gallons of milk egg mixture.

 Another Third Sunday Dinner success.  It is always nice when it's all over and I can reflect on what happened.  I love the feeling of peace that comes into my heart.   I look forward for March and am already planning the menu.
Enjoy the Adventure~Chef Brad