I hope that all of you had a superb break for the Holidays! I myself have had a great time with family and friends, and now I’m rested and ready to get 2010 going! I believe that 2010 is gonna rock!
I’m excited to get back in the kitchen, and the Specials this week reflect some of your absolute favorites... hearty Poppyseed Chicken Kasserole, Pan Seared Salmon with a near famous strawberry-honey glaze, Buffalo Chicken Soup, Chocolate “Krackle”, and a mouth-watering Creamed Spinach recipe that I got last week from my Aunt Glynis in Douglasville Georgia. And of course all your favorites on the menu will be available as well, full of delicious goodness! I know you will enjoy them!
I have to say that 2009 has been one of the best years of my life. If you would have asked me several years ago what made a great year great, then the measuring stick I would have used probably would have been how much money I made.
In 2009 I did not make a record amount of money, but I did learn a record amount of things that I’ve needed to learn, and really, you can’t pay money to learn what God wants you to learn... you can pay a lot of money to go to school, but even then it’s not a guarantee that you will learn anything. I am so grateful for the gifts that I have received and even more grateful that I am learning how to use them to honor others and bring glory to God. And I am so excited about what 2010 will hold for all of us!
This Christmas I had the opportunity to spend time with one of my cousin’s in Phenix City. She would say that 2009 has been the worst year of her life because she was in the New Car business and it got hit pretty hard by the bad economy. She lost her job, her home, and was forced into bankruptcy court. And all that is made even worse when you live in a small town and everyone knows your personal business. So, in her mind, she was a complete failure.
I, on the other hand, know for certain that our future is not determined by our past because of my own experience. I know that God has a plan for each of us, and if we turn to Him and cooperate, then His wonderful plans will be fulfilled (Jeremiah 29:11)
John Maxwell wrote a book called “Failing Forward”. If you haven’t read it then I highly recommend it! I bought my cousin this book for Christmas and made her promise to read it, and by watching her response to just the first chapter, it made me see that this is a lesson that we all need to learn and re-learn.
So, that is my challenge to each of us as we prepare to start this New Year. Lets be determined to leave the past behind so that we can reap the good things that God has for us in the future! Let’s learn a new definition of failure. Just because I fail at something doesn’t mean I’m a failure, and I can tell you honestly that some of my greatest mistakes have turned into something great.
Every time that you eat one of J.J.’s Chicken Tenderloins, you are taking pleasure in a recipe that I came up with because of a disaster. In my first year of catering, my Aunt asked me to come over to Douglasville and cater her wedding reception. When I arrived I didn’t have the equipment that I had been promised, and I was forced to cook chicken tenderloins in an old oven with one raggedy pan. They came out looking absolutely awful, black and charred. I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t want to be humiliated in front of my family, so I poured honeymustard that I was using as a dipping sauce all over them to brighten them up.
I was very upset when I sent them out to the folks with a little prayer, and I was hoping people wouldn’t eat them. To my astonishment, the Chicken Tenderloins were the most popular item that night and my failure turned into a huge success. After that I perfected BBQ Sauce, Sweet & Sour Sauce, Sesame Sauce, Hot & Spicy Sauce, J.J.’s Fire Sauce, and Piccatta Sauce to cover my chicken fingers with, and now you all enjoy them! But, the original J.J.’s with honeymustard all came from that mess up! I am so glad now for that mistake!
And sometimes, even when we fail, I believe that God has purpose in it, because sometimes we have to fail in order to get on the path that God has for us to reach our destiny! Thanks guys for listening to me ramble!
God Bless You and I pray blessings over you and your families for 2010!!!
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11
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