· Why is following Jesus a “new beginning”? What does it really mean?
· How can I understand the Bible? What should I say when I pray?
· What’s baptism all about? What else can I do to grow as a Christian?

Childcare will be provided, and so will your lunch. To sign up, contact the church office.

The Cardboard Testimonies

Dance Your Shoes Off

Highland Vineyard Cardboard Testimonies

They are:

Bill’s Black Bean Soup, Bill’s Hearty Caribbean Winter Soup, Sarah’s Seasonal Asparagus Soup, Dorothy’s Wheat Bread, Bill’s New Orleans Style Bread Pudding, A Black Forest Cake, and Cranberry Pudding.

Bill’s Black Bean Soup

4 Cans Bush’s Black Beans (with liquid)
1 Lb Ground Italian Sausage
1 Lb Bratwurst, Cubed
1 Lb Kielbasa, Cubed
1 Lb Smoked Ham (cooked), diced
1 Cup Tomato, chopped
1 Cup Yellow Onion – Coarse chopped
½ Cup Shallots, Coarse chopped
¾ Cup Poblano Pepper, chopped
¼ Cup Serrano Pepper, chopped
2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 Cups Beef Broth
½ Cup Madiera Wine
¼ Cup Dark Rum
2 T Fresh lime Juice
3 T Brown Sugar
4 T Corn Starch
¾ Cup Fresh Cilantro, chopped
2 T Oregano (fresh chopped if available)
2 Bay Leaves
1 T Cumin
1 t Ground black pepper
1 t Cayenne Pepper
¼ Cup EVOO for (sautéing)
Salt to taste

GARNISH
½ Cup fresh cilantro
2 Fresh avocados, thin sliced
1 Red onion, diced
1 Lime, thin sliced
1 Pint Sour Cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Broil Cubed Kielbasa and Bratwurst on a sheet in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

In a large dutch oven, combine Black beans, Bay Leaves, Cumin,Oregano,Beef Broth,Tomato,Corn Starch,Wine, Rum, Black Pepper,Cayenne Pepper,Brown Sugar,Ham,Cilantro, and Lime Juice. Cover, heat to a gentle boil. Stir, reduce heat, cover and simmer.

Coat a skillet with EVOO add Yellow Onion, Garlic, Poblano Pepper, Serrano Pepper, and Shallots. Sautee until onions are clear, and pour entire skillet (including EVOO) into soup. Add bratwurst and Kielbasa to soup. Stir and recover.

In same skillet, break up Italian sausage into small pieces and fry until fully cooked. Combine with Soup and stir. Recover and cook at low heat for about an hour, stirring every 10 minutes. Salt to taste.

Serve in shallow soup bowls with sliced avocado, red onion, lime slices, and cilantro around rim of bowl and small dollop or sour cream in the middle.

Enjoy!

Bill’s Hearty Caribbean Winter Soup

3 lbs very lean pork ribs
1 lb smoked sausage (cubed)
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger root, finely chopped
2 Bay leaves
10 Cups chicken stock (or broth)
1 Cup dry red wine
2 Sweet potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 ½ Cups jicama, peeled and cubed
1 Large summer squash, cubed
6 Tablespoons fresh lime juice (2 limes)
1 Tablespoon curry powder
1 Teaspoon ground coriander
½ Teaspoon ground cloves
¼ Teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons Sugar
3 Green Bananas, ¼ inch slices (not yet ripe)
¾ Cup fresh pineapple (small cubes)
¼ Cup Dark Rum

Note: Making this soup right requires about 30 minutes prep time and 2 hours cooking time!

Preparation:

Trim lean meat from pork ribs into approximately ½ inch cubes. Discard fat. Keep rib bones.
Place cubed pork, rib bones, garlic, ginger, bay leaves, chicken stock, and wine in a large stock pot. Bring to gentle boil for 10 minutes. Simmer covered for 1 hour.

Add diced sweet potatoes, jicama, and squash. Stir in lime juice, rum, curry powder, coriander, cloves, and cayenne pepper. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer covered until vegetables are tender (about 20 minutes).

Add cubed smoked sausage. Simmer covered about 10 minutes.

Add bananas and pineapple. Simmer covered about 10 minutes more.

Just before serving, remove bones and bay leaves.

Enjoy steaming hot on a cold winter day!

Sarah’s Seasonal Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

1 lb. fresh asparagus
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3/4 tsp. fresh thyme, divided
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 cups low-fat milk
1 tsp. butter
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
3/4 tsp. lemon zest, divided
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Fresh thyme sprigs, for garnish

Snap off and discard the tough ends of asparagus. Cut stalks into 2-inch pieces. Combine asparagus with broth, onion, garlic, and 1/2 tsp. thyme in a large saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Puree asparagus mixture in batches using an immersion blender or food processor until smooth. Return to pan.

Whisk flour and milk together in a bowl until smooth. Add slowly to asparagus mixture, whisking until blended. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer, continuing to stir for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in butter, salt, 1/4 tsp. lemon zest, and remaining 1/4 tsp. thyme.

Combine sour cream, lemon juice and remaining 1/4 tsp. lemon zest in a small bowl. Top each serving of soup with about 2 tsp. of the sour cream mixture. Garnish with thyme sprig.

Dorothy’s Wheat Bread

Yeast bread lends itself to all sorts of variations, but this is the basic recipe I use. It is taken from “Whole Foods for the Whole Family.”

Ingredients:
1 Tbls. active dry yeast 2 eggs (optional)
2 1/2 cups warm water 1/4 cup oil
1 Tbls. Honey 6-8 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. salt
(you can add an almost unlimited amount of ingredients to add to the flavor or nutrition)

Mix water, a little of the honey, and yeast in a mixing bowl. Let mixture sit for five or ten minutes, until it is bubbly. This is meant to make sure the yeast works, but with today’s reliable yeast it probably isn’t necessary.

Add the rest of the honey, eggs if you use them, and oil to the mixture. Salt kills yeast, so try to add it along with the flour rather than dump it directly into the yeast mixture. Add the flour a cup or less at a time until you have a thickish batter. Beat this mixture 200 strokes with a spoon or 2 minutes with an electric mixer. This develops the gluten.

Continue to add the flour slowly until dough is so thick you can’t stir it. When you can no longer stir the dough, turn it out on a sturdy, floured work surface, and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. You will have to add more flour as you knead, sprinkling it across the surface and your hands to keep the dough from sticking. Be careful not to add too much flour. Only experience will tell you how much is too much, but the dough should not be too hard. If you don’t want to add more flour, but you want to go on kneading, you can also use oil to keep the dough from sticking. The more you knead the better the dough will rise.

Once you have finished kneading, place the dough in a greased bowl that is significantly larger than the dough. Leave the dough in a warm place until it is at least doubled in size. This could take a couple of hours, especially if your house is on the cold side. If you want to, you can punch down the down when it has risen and let it rise a second time.

After rising, punch down the dough and knead very, very briefly. Shape the dough into two loaves and place in grease loaf pans. Grease the pans with solid fat, like butter, oil will not work. Let the loaves rise until doubled in size. A useful measure of whether the dough has risen enough is to poke the dough gently with your little finger, if it bounces right back, it needs to rise more, if it stays dented, it’s risen enough. If it’s puffy and blistered, it’s risen too far and should be punched down, reshaped and risen again.

When the loaves have risen, bake for 35 minutes in a 350 to 375 degree oven, or until a butter knife stuck into the center comes out just steamy, without dough stuck to it. With a little experience, you can just let the dough rise a little less than halfway and put the loaves in a cold oven to bake for 45 minutes at about 350. This way saves energy.

Don’t be dismayed it the bread doesn’t come out the way you want it the first time. Yeast bread is effected by weather conditions, temperature, the texture and quality of your flour and yeast, and probably other factors as well. Tweak your process and try again.

Bill’s New Orleans Style Bread Pudding

• 1 cup large raisins
• 1 cup lightly glazed pecan quarters (cut width ways!)
• 1 cup fresh, ripe diced pineapple
• 1 cup flaked (not shredded) coconut (1/2 cup in, 1/2/ cup on!)
• 1/4 cup dark rum (recommended: 1.Matusalem or 2.Myers’s)
• 1 1/2 Panera French Baguettes, cut into cubes
• 3 cups room temperature milk (at room temperature)
• 3 large eggs (at room temperature) , slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup butter (at room temperature), melted
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup heavy cream (at room temperature) or 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons orange zest
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
Rum Sauce: (Best prepared just prior to serving and served warm)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 5 ounces evaporated milk
• 4 tablespoons margarine
• 2 egg yolks, beaten
• 1/2 (minimum) cup dark rum (recommended: 1.Matusalem or 2.Myers’s)

Directions
Place raisins in a small bowl with rum and soak overnight. Drain and reserve rum.
Place bread pieces in a 9 by 12-inch glass baking dish. Add raisins, pineapple, pecan halves, and half of flaked coconut to dish. In a large bowl, combine the milk, eggs, butter, cinnamon, vanilla, heavy cream, sugar, brown sugar, molasses, lemon zest, orange zest, and salt, and mix well to ensure the sugar has been dissolved. Add all of the reserved rum (if this is more than half a cup, even better!) to the milk mixture and pour over bread. Let sit for one 1 hour to allow bread to soak up all of the liquid.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Sprinkle half of flaked coconut on top of pudding.

Baking this bread pudding requires a “water bath” method. Place glass baking dish in another large pan and add water about halfway up the sides of the baking dish. Bake for 1 hour or until bread pudding has set (usually about 75 minutes). Bake at least 5 inches away from the heating element to avoid the scorching of raisins and coconut. Remove bread pudding from oven and let cool to just warm.

While bread pudding is cooling, make Rum Sauce:
Combine sugar, evaporated milk, butter, and egg yolks in the top of a double boiler and cook, stirring well, until thick. Do not let sauce boil. Keep warm until serving time. Whisk in rum just before serving. Serve bread pudding with sauce, drizzling sauce liberally over each serving.

Black Forest Cake

2 (6-inch) round 3 layer cakes, 8 servings
Triple this recipe for one 12 inch 3 layer cake!

Ingredients
For the cake:  Cheat! Use Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Mix
For the syrup:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 4 teaspoons cherry brandy
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

For the cherry filling:

• 1 quart fresh cherries, pitted and halved
• 1 cup cherry brandy

For the Pastry Cream:

• 1 1/3 cups milk, divided
• 1/3 cup sugar, divided
• 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Frosting:

• 1 pound confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons sugar

For the whipped cream topping for frosting:

• 1 pint heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• Chocolate shavings for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Prepare cake per mix instructions:

For the syrup:

Combine the sugar, water, cherry brandy, and cream of tartar in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat stirring only until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup is hot. Cover and simmer gently for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, uncover and let cool.

For the cherry filling:

Place cherries in a small sauce pot and add brandy, stirring to coat cherries. Heat over medium low heat until most of liquid evaporates, then remove from heat and let cool.

For the pastry cream:

Reserve 2 tablespoons of the milk then combine the rest of the milk with half the sugar and bring to a gentle boil. In a small bowl whisk the 2 tablespoons of reserved milk into the cornstarch to create a slurry. Add the other half of the sugar and then the eggs to the slurry and whisk to completely combine. Temper the egg mixture with the boiling milk. (This is done by spooning some of the milk into the egg mixture to equalize temperatures without cooking the eggs.) Return all liquids to the pot and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Cook for 1 minute. Remove the milk mixture from the heat and whisk in butter and vanilla extract. Pour into a large pan, put plastic wrap directly on the surface, and allow to cool.
For the cream topping:
Whip the heavy cream and sugar with an electric mixer to a medium peak.

Assemble the cake:

Using a long thin knife or taut wire, carefully cut top off of two of three cake layers to make these layers perfectly flat. Place the layers onto baking sheets (which have a rim) and pour cherry syrup over the layers, allowing them to soak. Let the liquid soak into the layers for about 20 minutes. Place the bottom layer on a large cake plate. Spread a layer of the pastry cream on the bottom layer. Spread one half of the brandied cherries on top of layer. Place second layer of cake on cherries. Spread a layer of the pastry cream on the middle layer. Spread remaining brandied cherries on top of middle layer. Place third layer on top of cherries.  Ice the sides and top of the cake evenly with the chocolate frosting. Spoon the whipped cream over the top of the cake and sprinkle with the chocolate shavings. Slice and serve the cake.

Cranberry Pudding

This is a steamed cake with a wonderful sauce that Mrs. Turner made at holidays. It is well worth the effort!

Ingredients:

1 T sugar

1 egg

½ tsp. Salt

½ C black molasses

Mix with mixer until smooth.

Add:

2 tsp. soda

1 ½ C flour

1/3 C hot water

1 ½ C fresh cranberries cut in half (it’s very important to cut them, otherwise they explode!)

Stir ingredients together and pour into a loaf pan. Steam on top of the stove on a rack in a covered pot with 2-3 inches of boiling water under it for 45 minutes. Test with a toothpick for doneness.

Sauce:

Combine in a saucepan:

1 C whole milk

½ C butter

1 C sugar

Dash of salt

Dash of vanilla

We spike with Rum to taste!

Stir over low heat until dissolved.

Serve warm slices of cake with sauce spooned over the top. Everyone will love it!

 The meeting will be here at The Highland Vineyard and will include worship led by ours and other worship bands.