At Considerable Cost

Here's a recipe for one of our family's favorite meals.   Don't let the name throw you off; this Louisiana dish really is delicious! Typically, this is for Sunday brunch, but it manages to find its way to our weekday table, usually as leftovers, and occasionally this is the meal I bring to a new mom.   In New Orleans, it is a popular brunch dish. Sunday brunch is my favorite meal for entertaining.     It's already a relaxed day and the assortment of foods you can set out for brunch usually ensures something for everyone.   This dish, grillades (pronounced GREE-yods or GREE-yod), is usually the main dish at brunch.   It is accompanied by an assortment of fresh fruit, buttermilk biscuits, muffins or another breakfast bread, juices, coffee, and a yogurt bar with fruits and toppings, like granola, for the children (and adults).   Grillades are simply bits of round steak (or cube steak for more tenderness) simmered in a bro...

This year, I was able to attend the annual Our Lady's Mother's Day brunch at our church.   The past few years, I've either had a nursing baby or we've been out of town.   It's such a nice event.    Ladies host tables; each table is beautifully decorated around the theme of one of the titles of Mary. The guest speaker was Jennifer Fulwiler , a former atheist who converted to Catholicism.   She blogs at Conversion Diary and for the National Catholic Register .   It was a beautiful, moving talk; there's no way I can begin to summarize it.   This is the link for Jennifer's post where she wrote about the story she shared with us.   Few dry eyes in the room as she finished.   It was humbling and she had to have been led by the Holy Spirit as she spoke to us.   It was refreshing--spiritually, mentally, emotionally-- to spend such a beautiful morning with wonderful women.   I'm so glad I was ...