Maxwells at the *symphony!*

[sparkles]

Once you bake bacon you never go back

[Handmaiden of Dog]

When I looked at the picture of bacon crumbles it looked suspiciously liked pre-cooked bacon-- it is a very uniform color.  I always make my bacon in the oven and it rarely looks like that-- a little darker around the edges and ends.

 

There's a new post about Mary's graduation present form Joseph and Elissa: 

Quote

a trip to the Denver Operation Christmas Child Shoe Box Processing Plant and experience volunteering there for several days this December.

I would snerk at giving someone the present of volunteering them to work but I expect Mary will enjoy herself.  She gets out of Maxhell for a few days and gets a road trip to Denver.  I wonder what sort of accommodations are involved.  A hotel do you think or is that too worldly?  Whatever it is, the baby will be along for the ride so no doubt Mary will be doing some baby sitting as well as spending her day mailing packages overseas.

 

Also there is an advertisement!!

Quote

Why not bless a friend (or for you guy readers: your wife!) with the gift that could net her a peaceful home? I should also mention that if you purchase all three managers and the two workshops CD, you can receive them for $64.95, our best price ever.

Hope nobody gets that nasty little package under the tree.  Imagine expecting a new dress or coat or even jewelry and getting Managers of Their Homes instead.  And really, what "friend" would give this?  "Ho Ho Ho. Your house is so untidy I thought you could use this book to micromanage your time."

[halcionne]

I have trouble getting baked bacon cooked to the right doneness. Maybe it should be on a wire rack, so it crisps up better?

[anjulibai]

I don't like baked bacon. Fried all the way. 

Of course I also prefer my baken not crispy, so maybe I'm weird. 

Now I really want some bacon. 

[sparkles]

5 minutes ago, anjulibai said:

I don't like baked bacon. Fried all the way. 

Of course I also prefer my baken not crispy, so maybe I'm weird. 

Now I really want some bacon. 

Totally agree with you there. Neither Mr. Sparkles nor I likes crispy bacon. I find it much easier to bake it just right than I do if it's fried.

i think the latest posts on the Maxwell blog are definitely a kind of damage control. A night at the symphony? A trip to Denver to volunteer with people who AREN'T FAMILY? Yeah, there must have been a good bit of criticism and probably a few defections on the part of the faithful leghumpers, at least enough for Steve to try to say, "See? We're normal! Really!"

[ViolaSebastian]

2 hours ago, nastyhobbitses said:

I think Anna Marie is attractive in that "strong resilient prairie woman" kind of way. And don't take that to mean I'm saying she's what my grandmother calls a "handsome woman". She reminds me of those pictures of women putting out fires at Pearl Harbor, or Rosie the Riveter. She's pretty and has very nice features, but she isn't that sort of delicate, ultra-feminine pretty like Alyssa Webster or Jessa Seewald. I think some of that Strong Resilient Prairie Woman vibe I get from her is from her clothing choices, but she does kinda remind me of what I imagined Ma in Little House on the Prairie to look like. Basically, she has what you said: a more historical beauty.

As for the other Maxwell girls, I think they're pretty, but they have nothing behind their eyes.

I agree with you here--she has that Nordic, Northern European look that crops up in illustrations of pioneers and what not.  She's also pretty in a more wholesome way, versus the sexy and more angular faces that are preferred now.  

ETA: This reminds me of a discussion that my family got into one Christmas.  My mother has an lithograph in her living room, "The Evening Star," which at the time was considered a representation of a very attractive woman.  We were musing that she wouldn't be considered anyone's cup of tea nowadays, and my niece and nephew consider her hideous, to my great amusement.

[JillyO]

48 minutes ago, Handmaiden of Dog said:

Hope nobody gets that nasty little package under the tree.  Imagine expecting a new dress or coat or even jewelry and getting Managers of Their Homes instead.  And really, what "friend" would give this?  "Ho Ho Ho. Your house is so untidy I thought you could use this book to micromanage your time."

I'm dying here!!!

[Screamapillar]

Baby Calia has a bit of an "Angry Olivia" look on her face in the picture with Joseph, Elissa and Mary in the Graduation Present post.

[molecule]

I usually use kitchen scissors to cut the bacon into crumble-sized pieces and fry it on the stove while I chop the vegetables. It doesn't crisp enough in the oven for my preference, although I do it that way sometimes.

Actually, the biggest challenge for me in making a seven-layer salad is keeping my family away from the cooked bacon--but I suppose that would count as an unauthorized snack in the Maxwell mind meld and would, therefore, not be a problem.

[salex]

OK.  My mother in law used to make a similar salad (in the 80s/90s) , but she used a tall clear bowl and the dressing was "on the side" not frosted on thick.  The Mayo and sour cream base to the dressing they slather on adds 3200 calories to the dish.  Plus, I'm trying to figure out how thiick the dressing would be on each serving. That would be the splurge factor of haiving it only a holidays, I guess. 

We had wondered a while back if they were going to put out a recipe book.  Given the things they seem to feature, it would be a cross between "recipes popular at potlucks in the 90s" and "Church cookbook recipes we've liked." And I understand liking old family holiday favorites. 

I guess culinary adventures such as these are why  SAHDs need the extra years of homemaking training-- to  learn to make these gourmet dishes. 

 

[twin2]

3 hours ago, Fun-Dee said:

I would think that frying the bacon would be the most time consuming.  My best tip is to lay all that bacon out on a cookie sheet and cook it in the oven.  It changed my life!   I've passed over recipes because I didn't feel like frying a whole pound of bacon.  If it's in the oven, you can chop all of those vegetables while it cooks!

Do you mean multi-task?  I don't think that concept is one the Maxwells are familiar with. I mean, blocks can not overlap other blocks on the schedule?

Right now I'm picturing the back of the recipe card having a 'mini schedule' on it with each step perfecally blocked off for it's allotted time for when it needs to be completed.

[Handmaiden of Dog]

That's also what I was thinking-- that they do each step to completion before going on to the next.  So they put the eggs on to boil, wait for them to cook, shell them and chop them up before they start cooking the bacon.  That would make it more time consuming to be sure.

My idea of what happened as far as cooking goes in this family is Teri learned to cook from her mom in the 60's and 70's-- so box mixes, and canned food, and old fashioned things like 7 layer salad.  Then she got married and was too overwhelmed to learn much in the way of new recipes or  new styles of cooking.  Her daughters have been raised to be cautious and incurious so they have not branched out either.  I was raised in the 60's and 70's but I kept bringing home cookbooks from the library and embracing new styles and new methods.  The food they eat just seems so dull to me, it is hard to imagine that there are 4 grown women in that kitchen who have little else to do with their time.  Where is the sense of adventure or attempts to improve their techniques? 

[picklepizzas]

6 hours ago, nausicaa25 said:

I wonder how Sarah and Teri take NR-Anna, who seems to be a very efficient and skilled homemaker with a lot of energy. Unlike Teri, whose depression probably made everything seem a Herculean task. I can totally see NR-Anna whipping up this salad with a baby on her hip and a preschooler "helping." Hell, I can see NR-Anna whipping up a quilt while simultaneously breast feeding and weeding her garden.

I wonder if it makes Sarah reconsider how much her mother has made mountains out of molehills her whole life? I actually don't mean this as snark against Teri; I know how depression makes everything so difficult. But I'm curious if the Maxwell kids ever put together that perhaps there were some issues with their mother growing up and not everything is "normal" with their parents? Especially now that they've been exposed to three sisters-in-law and their ways of doing things. 

I see people discussing Teri's depression quite often and have been wondering - is this something that she and Steve have acknowledged on their blog? Or is this a conclusion that FJ came to by reading between the lines?

 

edited for typos 

[sparkles]

5 minutes ago, picklepizzas said:

I see people discussing Teri's depression quite often and have been wondering - is this something that she and Steve have acknowledged on their blog? Or is this a conclusion that FJ came to by reading between the lines?

 

edited for typos 

Teri's depression is something they talk about readily. It's been the basis of conference presentations, Corners, blog posts and a book as well, Teri's "Sweet Journey." The tale of how Teri overcame depression thanks to Jesus is a big part of their sales pitch.

[twin2]

1 minute ago, sparkles said:

Teri's depression is something they talk about readily. It's been the basis of conference presentations, Corners, blog posts and a book as well, Teri's "Sweet Journey." The tale of how Teri overcame depression thanks to Jesus is a big part of their sales pitch.

That plus Steve's vasectomy reversal.

[sparkles]

2 minutes ago, twin2 said:

That plus Steve's vasectomy reversal.

Because nothing says "Let me help you deal with your feelings of being overwhelmed by your three children," like blessing you with five more. 

[PennySycamore]

3 hours ago, Eternalbluepearl said:

Yes, we do this too. Mmm. Bacon. 

My mom did that years ago. I've got her sheet that she used to cook the bacon on.

[Jezebel]

18 minutes ago, Handmaiden of Dog said:

My idea of what happened as far as cooking goes in this family is Teri learned to cook from her mom in the 60's and 70's-- so box mixes, and canned food, and old fashioned things like 7 layer salad.  Then she got married and was too overwhelmed to learn much in the way of new recipes or  new styles of cooking.  Her daughters have been raised to be cautious and incurious so they have not branched out either...The food they eat just seems so dull to me, it is hard to imagine that there are 4 grown women in that kitchen who have little else to do with their time.  Where is the sense of adventure or attempts to improve their techniques? 

Well, let's face it--Teri's married to a man who can't discern any difference between their standard Slow-cooked Bean Sludge Burritos made with meat, or without, so they make them without.

Combine the cult leader's blunted palate with Teri's depression (you've got to be pretty shut down not to notice you're eating the paper that separates cheese slices), and the fact that a lot of dinners in the early Reversal days had to be easy stuff young Sarah could make unassisted while Teri hid out in her room--I'd be surprised if food in the Maxwell house was anything but bland and boring.

And then there's the whole issue of making an "idol" out of food, much less encouraging the pursuit of novelty, adventure, and experimentation--the childults might start getting ideas, and thinking about things Steve doesn't approve of, and developing curiosity, and to keep the cult going they just can't have that. So they go through the same rotation of bland, unexciting meals every single week, like clockwork, according to the almighty Schedule.  

(The Bean Sludge recipe was printed in one of Sarah's Moody books, IIRC, and a stalwart FJer took one for the team and cooked a batch. They were far more labor-intensive than they needed to be, and bland, bland, bland--to absolutely noboby's surprise.)

[Jezebel]

As for making a quicker job of that seven-layer salad, I'd cook the bacon (already chopped-up) and put the eggs on to hard-boil while I was making breakfast that morning, or even dinner the night before. If you're already in the kitchen, with pots and pans already out, and will have to do cleanup for a meal anyway, why not? Drain the bacon, put the eggs in the fridge to chill, and they're all ready for you. Maybe even whip up the dressing, given that most dressings improve after sitting a while. 

Later, it's just a matter of chopping the vegetables, which goes quickly when you don't have to mind a pan of bacon and a pot of eggs at the same time. 

Then again, I do virtually all of my own cooking from scratch, but I'm also the laziest-ass cook ever, so I'm always looking for ways to combine tasks and cleanup so I can get it all done faster and more efficiently. The Maxwells, however, have four adult women who must fill their Schedule with some semblance of productive labor, even if it is just busywork--so of course they can make a days'-long production out of cooking Bean Sludge, and a Herculean task of a Seven-Layer Salad. 

[johnhugh]

I hate mayonnaise and the post has made me feel quite sick. I've never seen so much topping on a salad in my life! It's quite often the case that in fast food places, the burger and chips are less fattening than the so called healthy salads. No wonder John has an expanding waist line. 

[WonderingInWA]

I'll bet the Messiah was Elissa's idea.  She's bringing a sense of style and adventure to the compound, I think.

[Granwych]

9 hours ago, Handmaiden of Dog said:

When I looked at the picture of bacon crumbles it looked suspiciously liked pre-cooked bacon-- it is a very uniform color.  I always make my bacon in the oven and it rarely looks like that-- a little darker around the edges and ends.

 

There's a new post about Mary's graduation present form Joseph and Elissa: 

I would snerk at giving someone the present of volunteering them to work but I expect Mary will enjoy herself.  She gets out of Maxhell for a few days and gets a road trip to Denver.  I wonder what sort of accommodations are involved.  A hotel do you think or is that too worldly?  Whatever it is, the baby will be along for the ride so no doubt Mary will be doing some baby sitting as well as spending her day mailing packages overseas.

 

Also there is an advertisement!!

Hope nobody gets that nasty little package under the tree.  Imagine expecting a new dress or coat or even jewelry and getting Managers of Their Homes instead.  And really, what "friend" would give this?  "Ho Ho Ho. Your house is so untidy I thought you could use this book to micromanage your time."

Having heard so much about these "wonderful books that changed my life,"  I looked at a few samples on their website.  The only change they'd bring to my life would be a loss of $$ and a sheepish felling of being snagged being stupid.

[Anonymousguest]

I wonder how much they do make completely from scratch.  They used to post a coffee cake recipe,  I couldn't find it ob the blog.  They ate it Sunday mornings.  I made it once when I saw everyone raving about it, it made me feel guilty,  lol. I think it was bisquick, pudding mix, sugar,  butter and milk.  Probably a topping. 

[nastyhobbitses]

8 hours ago, johnhugh said:

I hate mayonnaise and the post has made me feel quite sick. I've never seen so much topping on a salad in my life! It's quite often the case that in fast food places, the burger and chips are less fattening than the so called healthy salads. No wonder John has an expanding waist line. 

The only dressing I can stand on salads is vinaigrette (and none of that cloying raspberry vinaigrette -- balsamic or lemon, that's it), so the Maxwell's salad just looks disgusting to me. It would be like eating glue with a bit of bruised, wilted leaves dispersed throughout. I know everyone has their own tastes, but I never understand why people put such thick, creamy, cloying dressings on salads. You might as well just eat the dressing straight and leave out the pretense of healthy eating entirely.

[sparkles]

3 hours ago, Anonymousguest said:

I wonder how much they do make completely from scratch.  They used to post a coffee cake recipe,  I couldn't find it ob the blog.  They ate it Sunday mornings.  I made it once when I saw everyone raving about it, it made me feel guilty,  lol. I think it was bisquick, pudding mix, sugar,  butter and milk.  Probably a topping. 

I've seen a lot of pricey kitchen equipment in some of their photos—a Vitamix, an Assistent mixer, a grain mill among others—so I hope it's not all just for show. I think they used to bake their own bread but who knows…