The Sunday Brunch 9/26

In this week's edition of the Sunday Brunch we have a delicious Cat Head Biscuit and Gravy recipe plus a devotion from Pastor Mic and a new Brunch Playlist plus more books for the Reading Brunch.  Here we go.

Why It’s Important to Help Others

Think back to the last time you helped someone, whether it was holding the door open for a classmate or raking your elderly neighbor’s leaves. While you were doing it and afterward, how did you feel? We’re going to make a safe bet you felt happy and more positive about life. That’s because the fastest way to feel joy is serving others.

An old Chinese Proverb tells it perfectly, “If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.”

But serving doesn’t just make your heart feel good. Studies have shown that there are mental and physical health benefits to serving, like reducing depression, lowering blood pressure and lengthening your lifespan.

Putting other people’s needs before yours also strengthens your relationships. It connects you with the one you’re serving, and if that someone is someone you know, it creates a stronger bond with them.

It also enriches other people’s lives. Taking time out of your busy day to even bring a friend a bowl of soup when they’re sick makes them feel better and can uplift them during their rough time.

And perhaps the best benefit of service is the chance of that person paying it forward. If you help someone, they’re more likely to do something nice for someone else that day. Your one act of kindness could have a major domino effect.

How You Can Start Today

So how do you start? And who do you start with?

First, you have to make helping others a priority. Most people think, “I don’t have time to serve someone today.” And it’s true; we’re all busy. Between school, work, family obligations, ETC.  you likely hardly have enough “me” time. But, you do have the time. You just have to prioritize what’s really important.

The second thing you need to do is simply love. And Galatians 5:13 tells us “by love serve one another.” You can serve someone by simply expressing your love to them. A hug, a compliment or lending a listening ear are all small ways you can show love to someone; ways that mean more to that person than you may ever know.

Other ways you can start serving today include:

• Smiling at a stranger.
• Volunteering at a local charity, soup kitchen, etc.
• Donating old clothes, books and other items you no longer need at a local charity.
• Giving a few dollars, food or a bottle of water that’s in your car to the homeless person standing on the street corner.
• Doing something nice for your siblings or parents, i.e. doing one of their chores for them, watching the movie they want to watch, etc.
• Leaving a short note on a coworker’s desk telling them how much you appreciate their hard work.

Lending a helping hand is one of the easiest things you can do to make a difference in this world. You can improve the world, one day, one person and one act of kindness at a time.

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Cathead Biscuits and sausage gravy

 4 cups self-rising flour (we use White Lily)
3 tbs vegetable shortening
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 -1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup melted butter for brushing

Preheat oven to 475. Grease an 8 inch pie dish. 

Add flour to a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Dump in shortening and a splash of milk. Use the edge of a spatula to cut and blend into the flour, adding a little more milk at a time until it comes together as a sticky, slightly wet dough. *You may not use all the milk.*

Portion into 8 equal-ish pieces into a large dish; 7 in a circle, last one in the center. Pat down and smooth tops. Bake for 15-20 minutes, watching to make sure the tops don’t burn. Brush with melted butter, return to oven for a minute or two, then serve! 

Gravy 

1 pound breakfast sausage (or bacon!) 
4 tbs grease (from sausage, bacon or butter)
4 tbs flour
2 cups whole milk, preferably room temp, plus more to thin as needed
Salt and pepper, to taste

Brown sausage over medium high heat, crumbly as it cooks. Remove sausage to a plate, turn heat down to medium low. 

You need about 4 TBS of grease in the skillet. Add butter or bacon grease if there isn’t enough from the sausage. Using a whisk to stir constantly, sprinkle in all the flour. Cook while whisking for about 2 minutes to cook out the flour taste. 

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Turn off the heat and slowly stream in the milk while whisking vigorously to help prevent any lumps. (You can leave the heat on if you want, but I feel like you get a smoother gravy this way because the milk doesn’t seize up from the intense heat). 

Season with salt and pepper, and turn the heat back on to medium low. Keep whisking over the next 5-10 minutes as the gravy starts to thicken up. Taste for seasoning and adjust, adding more milk if needed to reach your desired consistency. Remember to adjust seasoning each time you add more milk! Then add the sausage back in and you are ready to serve.

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The Reading Brunch

Here is this week's recommended reading list. If you have a book you would like to recommend, post it in our facebook group.

Non-Fiction 

A Walk In The Woods
- Bill Bryson
Between The World And Me
- Ta-Nehisi Coates
Caste
- Isabel Wilkerson
A Brief History of Time
- Stephen Hawking

Fiction (Mystery Edition)

A Morbid Taste For Bones
- Ellis Peters
Anything by Agatha Christie
Father Brown The Essential Tales
- GK Chesterton
The Nine Tailors
- Dorothy L Sayers
The Chinese Shawl
- Patricia Wentworth

Books to read with the kiddos

The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
Bad Kitty School Daze - Nick Bruel
Corduroy  - Don Freeman
​Charlotte's Web - EB White

Sunday Brunch Playlist