The Mixing Bowl Restaurant

In Lexington Park, Maryland, there is a restaurant called "The Mixing Bowl," that is located just outside the gates of the navy base. It has a wonderful selection of quality food. It is called the Mixing Bowl because it is a mix of many types of cuisines from a number of different cultures. My daughter, Sarah, worked here for a year (she stopped when they shut down for renovations).

The best thing about the food here is that the food is hand picked for quality and prepared when ordered. Nothing canned or boxed here.

The restaurant is owned and operated by two folks, Mike and Ya-ling. Ya-ling makes the best salad dressings around. Our two favorite dishes are the salads.

Here is the Cold Noodle Salad. The first time Sarah brought this home I thought it sounded awful ~ cold noodles?! It was so good that it was a long time before I could bring myself to try anything else. Yes, it's that good!

When The Mixing Bowl shut down for almost a year for renovations, I tried repeatedly to make this salad. The thing that makes it is Ya-ling's Lemongrass salad dressing. I used Lemon Grass Salad Splash from Thai Kitchen, but it is a far cry from Ya-ling's freshly made dressing.

My second favorite dish from this restaurant is the Oriental Chicken Salad seen below. For this salad Ya-ling makes a killer hoisin sauce that is unlike any I've tasted before.
For those of you who can't eat dairy or other foods, Ya-ling is very knowledgeable about food sensitivies/allergies and especially understands cross contamination of foods.

Before we understood the many ways dairy can be hidden, we used to enjoy the Italian Hero and the Cobb Salad. Sarah thinks Ya-ling's Curry Chicken is the best.

One of the "signature" dishes of this restaurant is called Crispy Mac. It is a huge slice of homemade Macaroni and Cheese dipped in batter and deep fried. Sarah was addicted to it!

So how about pricing? (I know, Dan, I know!) I think The Mixing Bowl is very reasonable. Most of their sandwiches are $6.50 and most of their salads are $7-10. The Crispy Mac is $4 and Sarah says it will fill you up. Remember, Dan, this is real food...not canned vienna sausages (yeah, I heard about your stash!).

They have wonderful desserts and daily specials. Today I noticed a special of homemade potato gnocchi and spinach sauce. Umm! And where else are you gonna find tiramasu?!

So plan to take a friend and head on over to The Mixing Bowl. Yes, the parking is tricky but doable (don't go during lunch hour). Let Ya-ling know we sent you. (Yes, Ya-ling comes around to visit everyone!)

Many blessings ~ Kathie

The Oriental Salad with Hoisin Sauce is really tasty but also has a lot of crunch. We made this salad here at home and used the same kind of rice sticks that are in the salad. Try it. A little bag of rice sticks makes a huge bowl and adds a lot of fun to a salad (but no nutrition!).

Thursday Special ~ Shots!

Every Thursday since April, Ruthie has been getting allergy shots. The shots are mainly to fight dustmites, but since she had to get the shots, the allergist went ahead and added a few of the other small allergies she has (cats, grass and a few trees). I have been so proud of the way Ruthie doesn't put up a fuss but willingly gets her shots.

Once in a long while, Ruthie will get a little panicky when she sees the needle, but then she remembers that it doesn't hurt as much as an immunization shot.

This is Mrs. Bev and Mrs. Regina, the nurses who give the shots. We have come to love these ladies! Mrs. Bev has been giving immunizations to our family since Sarah (now 20) was a baby. I forget when Mrs. Regina started giving shots, but it's been years.

We feel really blessed to have these two nurses as our friends. We also are thankful to be able to afford this medical care. I make sure my children know that we are privileged to be enjoy this benefit.

Thanks so much, Mrs. Regina and Mrs. Bev!

Many blessings ~ Kathie

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day. We went to my parents' home a mile away for a picnic. My three brothers and their families, and two sets of aunts and uncles came. I gave my camera to my daughters and said, "Be sure to take lots of pictures!" Ha! So now I have dozens of pictures of Grandad's new pier and some happy children, but no pictures up at the house of the happy folks at the picnic. Chelsea played her cello and Uncle Ron played his violin. Then Mom and Uncle Ron played two pianos together. It was such beautiful weather outside, so Uncle Gene played his trombone in the front yard.

We could not have asked for more beautiful weather. Low 80s with low humidity. It's still very dry, but hey, hurricane season is just warming up! Besides, September is when our family goes to the ocean, and you can always count on either a hurricane or the imminent threat of one!

Here in Maryland, Dad is still, "King of the Pier," just like he is in Virginia.

This pier is on the pond on 235. This pond was made in the 1960s when the earth was moved to build the highway. It is fed by 4 springs. I enjoy looking down and seeing folks canoeing. Below is the view from the highway. In the winter you can see Mom and Dad's home through the trees.

This is Maggie's "attitude" bunny named Twitch. When Maggie goes out to feed her bunnies, she has to feed Twitch first or else he gets offended. Twitch was breathing erratically, so we brought him up to the porch for some TLC. By the time Sarah got home from work the next morning, he was completely recovered and king of the castle, set up as he was in a big cage by himself, with his own fan and box to hide in. He'd forgotten he was supposed to be "sick". Isn't he a cutie?

Every Thanksgiving Day, the adults in my family (10 of us) draw names to exhange Christmas gifts. Last year my sister-in-law, Natalie, drew my name and gave me a huge gift certificate to to a wonderful store called Apple Basket. All year I have enjoyed the feeling of owning this gift certificate, but last week my children and I went to have a look-see. I was hoping to find handmade Christmas plates for giving plates of cookies as gifts, but the place was filled with Halloween plates. But I did find this tiny little picture that I splurged on (under $3!) because I just love it! It says, "Always Kiss Me Goodnight." How perfect! It is only 1-1/2 x 5" so it is tiny. Have a good week. Ours has been too busy, but it's our first week back to homeschooling, so I guess it's to be expected.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

Visit to Virginia

On Friday morning we left to go down to my parents' weekend home in Virginia. We had a lot of fun, as you can see. The weather was perfect, breezy and in the high 70s with low humidity. Mom and Dad were there as well as my brother and his wife, Simba and Natalie. It takes 2 hrs and 15 minutes to get here from our home.

Maggie and Anna enjoyed the jet skis while Allen enjoyed fishing. It was hard to fish with the breeze but that didn't dampen Allen's enthusiasm. He loves to fish! Ruthie enjoyed everything, especially kyaking. See this kayak? Five of my children piled onto it at one time. My brother took a picture and says he'll email it to me when he gets home.

The joke for Friday was that breakfast starts at 5 am and fishing at 6. Well, I think breakfast was do-it-yourself around 8 or 9, and it was easily 10 am before they took off for boating. Mom and I did bike riding, not boating. Last year my fishermen brought home 4 large sharks that were delicious but this year they thought about going to the local supermarket to buy some fish to put on their hooks:-)
This is my Dad on his bench on the pier where he spent most of the day. Dad has back "issues", so he spends a lot of time sitting these days. This is very hard for me to see since my Dad has always been a very busy, task-oriented person. Even when he was on vacation, he was always busy fishing, camping, travelling, etc. He still gets a lot done! Maggie and Anna took their books out on the boat and read while their fishing lines were dangling. Well, it must work because Anna caught the one and only fish on the trip! This was my favorite place to be ~ the kitchen. My mom kept feeling badly about me being in the kitchen, but it wasn't work! Dad stocked this kitchen with the best of everything, Henckels knives, Calphalon pots and pans, etc., so it is wonderful to cook here. As usual, Dad fed us like royalty ~ steamed shrimp and crabs, and BBQ sandwiches. We brought home leftover crabs for lunch today.
Simba was a real champ and swam with my children. The children had fun swimming with him and his dog, cousin Sidney.

We came home Saturday evening because of commitments at church this morning. I was looking forward to a quiet, relaxed ride home, knowing how exhausted the children would be from their day. Not so! My children laughed and sang the whole time. Several times I thought I would pass out from laughing so hard.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, and Simba and Natalie (and Sydney) for such a memorable weekend. Many blessings ~ Kathie

One of the difficult things about family devotions is trying to find a story/subject that you can make interesting for the entire age span. In our family, our youngest is 7 and our oldest is 20. If you include Mike and me, our oldest is 54 (Mike!), and there is no reason why devotions shouldn't be interesting for us as well. I keep hoping to find a book called, "Fascinating Devotions for the Entire Family."

Well, I didn't find that book, but I did pick up this book at the thrift shop last week. It is called, "Object Lessons from Pebbles and Paper Clips" by Joanne De Jonge. This link to Amazon was the cheapest I could find other than eBay.

I bought this book because Mike regularly gets called on at a moment's notice to teach a class or share a devotional, and this book has plenty of lessons that you can use for 5 minutes or 50 minutes.

My favorite lesson is the "Light Your Candle" (p 91) lesson: Before your family comes in for devotions, place 5 plain unlit white candles around the room. Don't hide them, but just place them so they would "fit in" with the rest of your room. When your children come in see how long it takes for them to find all 5 candles. (It didn't take my children long only because I have no knick knacks and the candles were obvious!) Read the lesson in the book and make the point that in our sinful world we need to make sure our candles are lit in order to be seen as lights for Jesus.

Now have your children close their eyes and you turn out the lights. Now open your eyes and notice how dark and sinful the world is. Do you see the candles? No, of course not. Close their eyes again while you light the candles. Open all eyes and talk about how the candles stand out against the dark when they are lit. Yes, there are so many different points you can make about this lesson which is why I think it is my favorite.

Be sure to do this devotional on an evening when you have plenty of time to talk with your children. What does it mean to be a "lit" candle? What can we do to let our lights shine for Jesus?

My children's favorite devotional is when my hubby made chocolate brownies and told them they could eat them but that he had to warn them that he mixed a little bit of dirt in the brownies. Just a little bit, he warned. No one would eat it. The lesson is that we should not be watching movies that are just a little bad, or reading books that are just a little offensive. (Actually, he really didn't put dirt in the brownies, but we had a hard time convincing my children!)

Last night for dinner we had another favorite (to eat, not to chop!) dinner. I made Garden Bars because I have a fridge full of fresh veggies that I need to use. I used the crescent rolls to make the crust, but I have to tell you there is no nutritional value in the crust. I have made a great tasting whole wheat flour crust, but I have to find the recipe again. It was in an issue of Keepers At Home. Anyhow, for the "white" part I used one container of Tofutti cream cheese with 2 Tblp Tofutti sour cream. For seasonings I used half of a spinach dry mix and 2 tsp Good Seasonings salad mix. This is enough to make 3 cookie sheets of bars. I topped the Garden Bars with black olives, red and yellow peppers, broccoli, celery, green onions, and carrots. I usually put twice as many veggies as you see above, but yesterday was very busy and I just wore out of chopping! Usually the girls help me chop, but even they were done for. Anyhow, it was delicious!

This morning Ruthie and I discussed the Psalm 119:11, "I will hide Thy Word in my heart that I might not sin against Thee." We were discussing the purpose of AWANA at our church. I wanted to let her know that the purpose of AWANA is not to see how many dollars or candy we can collect but learning to hide God's Word in our hearts. Such a simple verse, but it has given me a lot to think about this morning.

Only a few more days until school starts. I've decided that the problem with my children is that they never get bored! It would be nice if we got bored so that we could look forward to schoolwork. Even though I am probably the most relaxed Mom about schoolwork, there is still a certain amount to do. So I am concentrating this week on being thankful for the minds of my children. They are all different but intelligent and exciting!

Many blessings ~ Kathie

Today for lunch, I made one of our family's all-time favorites, Green Bean Casserole. And to think that I remembered to take a picture before it was gone! Here is the recipe:

Green Bean Casserole

One large can green beans
2 white mushrooms
white sauce using chicken broth instead of milk
salt and pepper to taste
french fried onions

Diced the mushrooms very small (these are for flavor) and saute in some butter until done. Add the butter for your white sauce; finish making your white sauce. If you need this recipe to be dairyfree, make sure you use fake butter and Swanson's chicken broth (the only df broth on the market). Add your green beans and stir to mix. Place in a greased baking dish and cook for 15 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle onion on top and cook 5 more minutes. Again, if you are making this dairy-free, make sure you use Durkins onion rings since French's contains milk.

For our family, we use a restaurant size can of green beans from BJs and put everything in a 12x15 baking dish. We never have leftovers with this dish, *so sad*.

If you need to make this dish wheat free, use cornstarch or arrowroot. If your children don't like the taste of mushrooms, then leave them out.

Today our temperature is 98 degrees with a heat index of 108! I am so thankful for air conditioning. Have a nice weekend, stay cool. Many blessings ~ Kathie

Missions Camp at BJU

This summer, Maggie and Anna went to Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, for a week of Missions Camp. The Director of the camp sent a bunch of pictures that he had taken during the week. I thought I'd post a few of them to give you a glimpse into their week. This is the whole camp:

One day they all got soaked dodging between buildings. Typical Greenville weather! They spent a lot of time doing research in the computer lab:


Maggie enjoyed learning about the airplane at the local airport:

Anna enjoyed working with the puppets:

And this is the infamous singing trio making their veggie salad:

Maggie enjoyed the kitchen the most and said she could seriously consider majoring in Culinary Arts. So now they are home and have caught up on their sleep. Lack of sleep was one of their few complaints about the camp.

Anna has asked us to pray with her about getting a nursing degree to use on the mission field.

The girls learned a lot and made some new friends. The only bad part was Momma's homesickness for her girls:-)

Many blessings ~ Kathie