by Neta Jackson
See instructions for making a Friendship Quilt in the Party Edition of The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Real (Book 3).
Embroider the middle quilt square with the names of the wedding couple or the name of the newborn and the meanings of the name(s) as well.
Child’s Pillow
A Name Pillow makes a great baby gift for a newborn, or even a birthday gift for an older child. Such a pillow often becomes a favorite friend to a child, good for trips or nights away from home.
Sew a simple pillowcase to cover a child-size pillow (or make a small pillow with a finished size approximately 12 × 9 inches that can be stuffed with foam or other stuffing material and sewn closed on all sides). But before sewing or stuffing, embroider the child’s name, birth date, and meaning of the child’s name on the pillowcase. Possibilities are endless for colorful material, lacey edgings, and size of the pillow.
Resources for Names
Helpful Web Sites
There are baby name books galore to help parents pick out a name for their new baby. But there are helpful web sites too—especially when you already know the name and want to find out its meaning. The Internet is especially helpful when searching for names from various cultures that might not be included in a specific book.
Baby Name Network (www.babynamenetwork.com) not only tells you the most popular names in the U.S. by decade, but also has links to names from countries all over the world.
Behind the Name (www.behindthename.com) provides “an etymology and history of first names,” and is another excellent site to explore names from all over the world.
Andy the Name Bender (www.andythenamebender.com) not only can help you find a name and its meaning, but he makes personalized “name” jewelry too!
Resources for Life (www.resourcesforlife.com/library/names) provides a Directory of Hebrew and Bible Name Meanings.
And a few more:
www.yeahbaby.com and www.daystogo.com/baby-names
Exploring the Names of God
In the Old Testament, and often in the New, the meaning of a name had everything to do with why a child was given a certain name. The name sometimes reflected the life circumstances of the parent (e.g., the name Jabez means “pain”—see 1 Chronicles 4:9), a physical feature or character trait (e.g., Esau means “red”; Jacob means “grabber”—see Genesis 25:19–26), or a promise from God (e.g., the name Ishmael means “God hears”—see Genesis 16:11).
But as you read the Scriptures, you will realize that our God has many names, each one revealing a new aspect of God’s character. If you have never before explored the names of God and their meanings, run—don’t walk—to your favorite bookstore or get online and order the following:
Praying the Names of God by Ann Spangler (Zondervan Publishers, Grand Rapids, MI) © 2004. This book is a daily guide to exploring and praying according to the meaning of God’s names. A wonderful book for personal or group study.
Names of God by Mary Foxwell Loeks (Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN) © 2007. This book includes many more names than the book above. Both books are wonderful to have in your library—and to use for your personal study.
Recipes
The months featured in this episode of the Yada Yada Prayer Group—May and June—don’t have a lot of holiday celebrations with traditional foods. (Well, there’s Pentecost Sunday and Memorial Day, also Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Maybe you have favorite recipes for these celebrations!)
But between holidays, we still have to eat, right? So here are some of Jodi Baxter’s Five-Star Recipes—and to rate Five Stars at the Baxter household, the food has to be easy to make and really tasty.
Seven-Layer Make-Ahead Salad
Or Six-Layer or Eight-Layer—it kind of depends what you have on hand! Have at it, be sure to let it chill to marinate, and serve it at your next gathering of hungry folks. You probably won’t have any leftovers, which will disappoint the dog unless you let it lick the dish clean. (What? Your dog doesn’t like salad? Willie Wonka does. Of course, Willie Wonka will eat anything in a people dish.)
1 head iceberg lettuce, chopped or torn into bite-size pieces
1 cup celery, diced
6 hardboiled eggs, sliced
1 (10-oz.) package frozen peas (do not thaw)
½ red onion, diced
8 slices bacon, crispy-fried and crumbled into bits
2 cups mayonnaise with 2 Tbsp. sugar mixed in
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
* metric conversion chart on page 373
Layer vegetables, eggs, and bacon in the order listed into a large, flat dish, such as a 9 × 13 cake pan, salt and peppering to taste. You can also sprinkle each layer with a little sugar.
Spread the dressing over the salad and sprinkle with cheese. If desired, garnish with sliced green onions and paprika. Cover and refrigerate 8–12 hours. Then go put your feet up and whisk it out of the refrigerator when it comes time to head out the door to the next church potluck or Yada Yada meeting.
Jodi’s Secret Spaghetti Sauce
Denny swears this is the best spaghetti sauce he’s ever eaten. Okay, he could be a bit prejudiced. Or loyal. (Or just plain savvy!) But the recipe was tested and re-tested, and we think he may be right!
1 lb. lean ground beef
2 medium (or 1 large) onions, chopped
½ lb. mushrooms, sliced
1 (28-oz.) can tomatoes
1 (6-oz.) can tomato paste plus 1 can water
2–3 tsp. basil
2–3 tsp. oregano
1–2 tsp. salt (to taste)
1 Tbsp. sugar or honey
4 garlic cloves, crushed or minced
Brown the ground beef in the bottom of the pot you will be using to make the sauce. Turn down the heat and add the onions and mushrooms. While they are cooking, blend the tomatoes, tomato paste, and water. When onions and mushrooms are soft, pour off any extra grease from the meat, and add the blended tomatoes and remaining spices. Simmer 15–20 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook 1 lb. spaghetti or pasta according to package directions, drain, load each plate with pasta, and pass the sauce and grated Parmesan cheese. (Tossed green salad and hot garlic bread are de rigor, of course.)
*Jodi’s cooking tip for chopping onions: Peel the onion (’natch). Then slice the bulb in half lengthwise (top to bottom) and lay one half flat-side down on your cutting board and make four or five more lengthwise slices angled to the center from one side to the next. Holding the slices together with the flat side still down on your cutting board, rotate the onion 90 degrees. Then slice the onion sideways across the lengthwise cuts. Jodi says this method helps her to “chop” onions twice as fast, into evenly sized pieces, and with half the eye irritation.
Hamburger Vegetable Soup
Really. Try it. This is a truly satisfying soup, robust enough for a main dish, and if you make a LOT, you’ve got a few extra lunches and midnight snacks covered. And oh, yes, it’s healthy, too, with all those veggies.
1 (6-oz.) can tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium (or 1 large) onions, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 unpeeled carrots, thinly sliced
4 medium potatoes, diced
4 Tbsp. beef bouillon (dry)
1 bay leaf, crushed
1 pinch of marjoram, thyme, or savory (or all three)
½ tsp. freshly ground peppercorns
2½ qts. vegetable cooking water (plain water can be substituted)
1 lb. lean ground beef
Combine all the above ingredients (except the ground beef) in a large kettle and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered, until the vegetables are almost tender (about 10–15 minutes). Add the ground beef by crumbling it into small pieces and stir just until it loses its pinkness. Bring the soup to a simmer again and serve.
Dressy Bow-Tie Pasta Salad
Whoa! Based on requests for this recipe, Jodi Baxter may have to up her scale to Ten Stars. Be sure to double this recipe f
or a crowd, adjust the ingredients to “more or less,” and just be sure to leave enough time for all that chopping and slicing. Can be made ahead of time and chilled—just add the dressing at the last minute so the spinach doesn’t wilt.
Serves 6.
8 oz. bow-tie pasta
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. lemon zest (grated lemon peel)
4 cloves garlic, minced
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 large boneless chicken breasts, cooked and cubed (or 3 cups cooked chicken)
2–3 cups chopped spinach
1½ cups cucumber (peel, halve lengthwise, and then slice)
1½ cups red seedless grapes, halved
2 celery sticks, thinly sliced
½ cup green onions, sliced
½ cup pecans, chopped
While cooking the pasta according to the instructions on the package, thoroughly blend (in a blender or with a wire whisk) the lemon juice, zest, and garlic. When the pasta is done, drain and rinse with cold water to cool. Then in a large pasta bowl combine the pasta, chicken, spinach, cucumber, grapes, celery, and onions. Pour the dressing over the salad, and toss gently. Sprinkle with pecans.
Consider serving with toasted garlic bread, corn on the cob, and iced tea on a hot summer day.
US TO METRIC CONVERSION TABLE
CAPACITY
⅕ teaspoon = 1 milliliter
1 teaspoon = 5 milliliters
1 tablespoon = 15 milliliters
1 fluid ounce = 30 milliliters
⅕ cup = 50 milliliters
1 cup = 240 milliliters
2 cups (1 pint) = 470 milliliters
4 cups (1 quart) = .95 liter
4 quarts (1 gallon) = 3.8 liters
WEIGHT
1 ounce = 28 grams
1 pound = 454 grams
Get a sneak peek at the next book in the Yada Yada Prayer Group series
Excerpt from
The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Caught
I’d been married to the guy for twenty years, and he still didn’t get it. Crowds. I hated big crowds. He knew that. So why was he asking me again?
“You go,” I said, climbing up the short, wobbly stepladder and pouring birdseed into the feeder dangling from one corner of the garage roof. “Stuff yourself. Have a blast. Just”—I backed down the three steps on the miniladder—“take the cell phone and let me know when you’re on the way home.” I stuck the stepladder into the garage and headed for the back porch of our two-flat.
“Aw, c’mon, Jodi.” Denny sounded like a teenager who’d just been told he couldn’t have the car keys. “The Taste is no fun going alone. And there’s only two more days. I’d take Amanda and Josh if they were here, but they’re blasting their eardrums out at Cornerstone,” he grumbled. “They were gone last summer too. I haven’t been to the Taste in two years!”
I glanced at him sharply. Yeah, the kids had been gone this time last summer—on that mission trip to Mexico. But that wasn’t the reason Denny had missed the Taste of Chicago last year. I’d just gotten out of the hospital after getting banged up in a car accident and the Fourth of July slid right past us unnoticed, like the Energizer Bunny on Mute. But if Denny didn’t remember, I sure wasn’t going to bring it up.
“You don’t have to go by yourself.” I was doggedly cheerful. The prospect of a long, quiet summer evening at home alone was sounding more and more appealing by the second. No kids, no husband even, who, God love him, was still male and took up a large portion of the house and my psyche. A girl needed a break now and then. “Call one of your friends. Take Ben Garfield. He’s probably driving Ruth crazy anyway. She’ll kiss your feet for getting him out of the house.”
I flopped down on the porch swing and reclaimed my plastic tumbler of iced tea, sweating in a puddle where I’d set it near Willie Wonka’s inert body. The rhythmic rise and fall of the chocolate-haired rib cage assured me the old dog was still with us.
I raised the iced tea to my lips, vaguely thinking it’d been fuller than this when I set it down—and over the rim saw Denny still standing in front of me, hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans, shoulders hunched like one of Peter Pan’s lost boys. “What?”
“I don’t want to go with Ben. I want to go with you.”
I rolled my eyes. Cheater! Villain! My visions of solitude, peace and quiet, that Ernest Gaines novel I was dying to read with only our dear deaf dog and a good fan for company evaporated as quickly as spit on a hot iron.
Denny Baxter knew exactly how to shoot his arrow into my Achilles heel.
“You really want me to go?”
“Yes.”
I sighed. “All right. But, mister, you owe me one.”
The dimples on either side of Denny’s mouth creased into irresistible parentheses. “Hey, it’s going to be fun! We need some time together while the kids are gone—not talking about serious stuff or anything, you know, just having a good time. Pick your poison! Jerk chicken . . . ribs slathered in barbecue sauce . . . Italian ice . . . that Totally Turtle Cheesecake at Eli’s . . .” My husband’s eyes closed in anticipatory bliss of sampling the city’s finest eateries, whose yearly ten-day culinary extravaganza on Chicago’s lakefront always culminated on July Fourth weekend. “And we can watch the fireworks tonight from Buckingham Fountain,” he added.
That was tempting. Chicago always did a big show on In-dependence Eve. I’d heard that the fireworks were coordinated with a fantastic light show at the city’s signature fountain along with a live concert by the Grant Park Symphony. And Denny had a point about “just having fun.” The past two months had taken a huge toll on us—emotionally for sure, but physically and spiritually too. Some good things had happened, like Josh’s graduation from high school and that awesome celebration we’d had last Sunday morning when our church and New Morning Christian met together in their new space in the Howard Street shopping center. But the recent hate group incidents on Northwestern University’s campus, the so-called free speech rally that had just been a cover-up for spewing hate and fear, and the cowardly attack that had left our friend Mark Smith in a coma for two weeks—that had been tough. Tough on Nony and Mark’s family, tough on the Baxter family, tough on the whole Yada Yada Prayer Group.
Though, I had to admit, we did learn a thing or two about “getting tough” spiritually. All of us had felt helpless and angry at the twisted attitudes and sheer evil behind that attack on Mark. But we discovered prayer was a spiritual weapon we could wield with abandon. Praise too. That was a new reality for me, but it made sense. As Avis pointed out at one of our Yada Yada prayer meetings, the devil can’t do his rotten work too well in an atmosphere filled with praise and worship for his main Adversary.
I chugged the rest of my iced tea. “OK, so when do you want to leave? Parking’s going to be a nightmare.” I’d heard the Taste drew thousands of hungry palates. I shuddered. Didn’t want to think about it. Threading through waves of sweaty flesh. Trying to ignore all the bouncy boobs in skimpy tank tops. Dreading the inevitable visit to the rows of Porta-Potties . . .
Denny pulled open the back screen door, a droll grin still lurking on his face. “Soon as we can get ready. Don’t have to worry about parking if we take CTA.” The screen door slammed behind him.
“What are you smirking about?” I yelled after him.
The screen door cracked open, and he poked his head out. “Didn’t want to tell you, but since you asked.” His dimples deepened wickedly. “Willie Wonka slurped up the top third of your iced tea while you were feeding the birds. In case you wondered.”
The screen door slammed again as I let the plastic tumbler fly.
About the Author
Neta Jackson’s award-winning Yada books have sold more than 500,000 copies and are spawning prayer groups across the country. She and her husband, Dave, are also an award-winning writing team, best known for the Trailblazer Books—a 40-volume series of historical fiction about great Christian heroes with 1.5 mil
lion in sales—and Hero Tales: A Family Treasury of True Stories from the Lives of Christian Heroes (vols 1–4). They live in the Chicago area, where the Yada stories are set.
Visit them at daveneta.com