First Baptist family and friends,
As the 200th anniversary team planned our year of celebration, we wanted our festivities to include giving back to the community. We discussed making a grand gesture, but then, an idea sparked that we all loved. So, over the next year, we are challenging First Baptist family and friends to perform acts of kindness in honor of our 200th Anniversary.
#kindnessfirst launched on November 13. Each month, our community will receive a new kindness focus as we work towards co-creating a kinder world. Our kindness focus for December is retail workers. You can record all your intentional acts of kindness on the bulletin board in the elevator lobby of the Education Building. We have stickers that say, “#kindnessfirst” For every act of intentional kindness you do, you are invited to put a sticker up!
I am already enjoying hearing some of your “kindness” stories. For example, here is a story from Tim Wahl about enacting kindness:
We went to Lexington last weekend, and the day before Thanksgiving, I went to McDonald’s drive-thru for breakfast. They were swamped, and the food window was stalled, so I began to chat with an employee. I asked her if she was ready for Thanksgiving and indicated that I was looking forward to homemade chicken and dumplings. She told me she hadn’t had any good chicken and dumplings since her gramma died, and no one had her recipe. I had printed off some extra copies of my family recipe for Sydney (my daughter) and her friends, so I returned to Sydney’s apartment, got a copy and took it back to McDonald’s. When I walked up to the window, she saw the recipe, grabbed my hand with both hands, and just held them there. We both almost teared up. It felt so good to be kind!
Wahl Family Chicken & Dumplings
-5 chicken thighs
-1 Tsp Salt
-Water
-32 Oz chicken Broth (with salt) if you use low sodium broth add 1 tsp more salt to the broth.
Dumplings
-2 Cup Flour -1 Tsp Salt
-1 Tsp Baking Powder -2 Eggs
-3/4 cup milk (2% or whole)
Place chicken in your roasting pot and fill until water just covers the chicken, add salt, bring to boil, then lower heat to low boil and cook until chicken is done, usually 20-25 minutes. Remove chicken from water, remove skin and bones, and then shred using two forks. Strain the water you used to boil the chicken in to remove any floating stuff, then pour it back into the roasting pot and add 32 oz of chicken broth. Keep on low until you are ready to add dumplings.
Dumplings - Add baking powder and salt to flour, add eggs (beaten and without shells) and milk, hand mix until the batter is stiff. Roll out the dough on floured dough board (as you do with pie crust) until thin. This is important! Let the dough sit and set for 15 minutes (it needs to dry out some), then cut into strips. (I usually shred my chicken while the dumplings are drying).
Bring broth to a slow boil and drop dumplings in slowly (shake off as much flour as you can before dropping them into the broth), stirring as needed. Add shredded chicken. Once the dumplings are in and a few minutes have gone by, turn the heat down to Med-Low and cook for 20-25 minutes, then serve.