Notice something different about this recipe. There are no quantities. These depend on the number of servings you need and your other preferences. For my wife and I, we use one large boneless skinless chicken breast. Split it in half to make the slices thinner for cooking.
Put a tablespoon of oil in a skillet and season to your taste, and fry the breast pieces for about four minutes on each side. No need to bread them. Brown them as you wish. Check to make sure they are cooked through.
Add two tablespoons of salsa to the top of each breast. Layer your cheese over the salsa and allow it to melt a little. We use a slice of provolone with a top layer of American or cheddar cheese. Use the ones that you like or that you have.
That is the great part of this dish. Customize the quantities, flavors, and side dishes to provide what you enjoy. We serve rice, noodles, or whatever we are in the mood for. I have shared our fried rice and will provide other choices that we use in future columns. Enjoy.
We have gone through the Christmas season and celebrated the birth of the Savior of the world. We call Him Jesus. Do you know who this historical figure is? I am a writer. A craftsman who uses words to create meaning for you. I am a wordsmith.
Just as a blacksmith creates tools, knives, or horseshoes from black iron or steel, I make phrases and sentences that convey ideas to you. Either you agree with these two thoughts, or you refuse to accept them. I don’t mind if you don’t consider me an author. That hurts neither you nor me.
When you do not accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, it separates you from God. Why should I care? That is between you and your creator, whether you know it or not. I care because God cares.
This is what I believe. I know this is the truth. Acknowledge it or deny it. That is your freewill. He gave it to you just as He gave you life. He is not the one who is lying to you. We have an adversary that does not want us to recognize these facts.
Jehovah created the universe. That includes our world and all the objects we see in the sky. Today, we know some are planets. stars, or wandering bodies. I do not know if there is life on any other planet. We are too far from them to discern that. We’ve tried with the ones closest to us, and nothing is there.
When They created all of this, we human beings were created. Men and women are made different from other creatures. We are in Their image or likeness. This is where my craftsmanship comes to bear. I need to explain what this means.
God the Father, God the Son, and Holy Spirit are called a trinity. That word originally meant three divine beings that make up a godhead. A supreme ruling force in our universe. That is incorrect. They are a triune being. Do you see the difference in the words? Trinity combines three separate things into one.
Triune takes one and expresses it as three separate forms. Do you understand this? Let me put it this way. Take an egg. Just an ordinary chicken egg. Open the shell, and you have a yellow thing called a yoke, the shell you just broke, and the white or albumen. Those are three individual things with their own names and purposes. Get it? The shell protects the developing chick. The yoke becomes the chick. The egg white feeds the creature as it grows.
Three things, one individual being. That is us as well. Three things that are one person. Does it make sense to you? It does to me. You have a body. You are not a body. You also have a soul and a spirit that reside inside of you. If you have accepted Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord, your spirit is alive. If not, it is dead.
I will continue this more in-depth in future columns. I think this is enough for you to take in now. Please ask me questions in the comments, and I will answer them specifically in the next articles. Thank you for reading what I believe.
I first met Gary about fifty-three years ago. I know that because I had not met my wife yet. I was introduced to her fifty-two years ago. Don and I traveled to Hamlin Memorial Baptist Church from Immanuel, where we went. We had been called to restart the Royal Ambassador program there.
Gary, the associational R.A. director, asked us to visit them on Wednesday evening. In the summer, I volunteered to be a counselor at Baptist Hill, which is important to him. He also called me, and I scheduled a practice game for the Immanuel women’s softball team I led and the Hamlin team he coached.
I began to see him often after Cindy, and I started dating. He and Geri were at our wedding, which was held at Cindy’s church, Hamlin. Gary was our class leader when we visited on weekends while we lived in Joplin. After we moved back to Springfield, he was our young married class leader until I began teaching.
Gary was a deacon, and he and his wife were involved in many events where the Deacon Body led the church. I joined his R.A. staff and worked closely with him, and later became the R.A. Director when he moved on to other ministries.
I took some advice from him and took a week of vacation from work each summer to lead Vacation Bible School. He was working with younger people to teach them to become the leaders that they are today. When his kids were in the children’s and youth groups, I was one of their teachers.
One Sunday, when Ryan, his son, was in my seventh and eighth grade class, we had an impromptu discussion of sex. Our lessons had an annual discussion on this subject. That morning, I answered questions that the boys had. I ended the class with a warning to them to tell their parents that we discussed chocolate, if they were asked.
That evening at church, Gary confronted me and wanted to know what his son meant when he told him our lesson was on chocolate. I explained a story I had used to teach the young men on the correct approach to sex. Some of those men remember that discussion; others do not. I often would use this code word to alert Gary when I was broaching this subject with a group.
Gary and I continued to work together as Deacons and leaders at Hamlin until they moved to another church, and he continued to be the same man who had taught me how to be a better minister and father. Gary’s life was not as easy as mine had been. He had served in Vietnam and experienced situations I never had.
Gary and Geri’s son and daughter know more about the trials that he experienced. I witnessed his anger on a few occasions and tried to understand because I also have issues with anger. Most of us do at times. Like all of us, we are not perfect.
Gary knew that he was not without sin. He taught his children and I that, despite our sinful state, Jesus could be our savior and Lord. Because he knew this, when his earthly body died, his soul and spirit went home. He was welcomed there as we who have accepted Jesus will be.
He began his second term as president, violating his oath of office. This was done within forty-eight hours of the inauguration. He has continually made executive orders that have required our judicial system to waste time and money overturning what he wants done.
He has now kidnapped a man and his wife, whose government is friendly with three of our greatest enemies. His motivation for this is supposedly for national security, when he is the one who has had us murdering their citizens on the seas and claiming they are transporting drugs without any legal proof.
From the news reports I have seen, the main motivation is to get access to crude oil. Where is the United Nations? Why are none of our allies denouncing the use of our military to depose a leader in another country, even if he is a dictator? I do not believe that anyone wants to oppose him.
I do not like to be political. My problem is that some have told me they cannot believe Christians like me support this madman. Their words, not mine. I am constantly reminded of others who claim to be followers of Jesus, who apparently see no problems with his actions.
Let me set the record straight. I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I am non-partisan. I have never voted for Donald Trump and would be more likely to vote for a dead dog. I have known the man to be unreliable, uncaring, and only out for his own profit for as long as I have heard of him, for the last three or four decades.
I am sure there are Republicans who agree with me. They need to voice this dissatisfaction and denounce the man and any others who continue to support him. Here is what I propose. Vote against every Republican who refuses to publicly oppose these actions.
Vote against anyone else who does not speak against his actions to control states, cities, and other countries. The actions of his administration appear to be those of a
dictatorial government. He says that he knows he is not a king. The problem is that his decisions appear to some of us to be confirming what others say about President Trump.
Apparently, we also need Congress to defund the INS, including ICE. Shut them down and fire every employee. When you have impeached Trump, inform Vice President Vance that his administration has three months to prove that they can rebuild what Trump has tried to destroy, including our immigration department.
With the problems that his all-out war on so-called illegal immigrants is causing, he needs to go. He is killing Americans, and those who are here legally are being deported without due process. Stop this now, or it will be stopped in 2027 after an all-new Congress has been elected and one-third of the senators have been replaced.
We will not forget what you have done to our people and country. We elected you to lead us. Do it now or find another job. We are mad as hell and will not take it anymore. If you do not believe me, we will see who is laughing in November. As President Trump is infamous for saying, “You are fired!”
This is another story I have copied from Facebook. Be careful if you publish it there. Guys like me can borrow it, and they can put their own names on it. I don’t do that. I would like to add a bit of my own commentary.
I have expressed my feelings about the time Noah spent constructing this craft. My belief is that they were not the primitives that we think they were. Billy speaks of the materials that were used, but when you read the original Hebrew, the translation of the words for these materials is not definitive.
It is possible that Noah used technology that, for the last four thousand or more years, has not been known. At least until around one hundred years ago. Tell me about your opinion on this theory and this article in the comments. Thanks for reading.
I will not call this Chinese or any other kind of dish. It is a combination of many styles we have enjoyed. Springfield Style Cashew Chicken is best served with fried rice. That is our opinion. If you want more than just the white rice that some cashew chicken joints here serve, this may be what you need.
Ingredients:
2 cups cooked rice (I use one cup of Minute Rice prepared per package.)
1 Tsp butter or olive oil. (I prefer butter.)
1 small onion (Chopped as fine as you want it.)
1 egg
¼ cup water
Soy Sauce (I use one Tablespoon. This is to give the rice a tan color.)
You can double or triple these ingredients and use as large a skillet as you need to accommodate the size of your family or guests. If you like brown or another kind of rice, try it in this recipe. You can also add carrots, peas, chopped water chestnuts, or diced bamboo shoots for more of an oriental feel. Many of the restaurants in Springfield change this dish to fit their cuisine.
Instructions:
Melt the butter in a skillet or wok and add the onion. Sauté the onion for three minutes or so until it is translucent (almost clear). When the onion is cooked through, scramble the egg and immediately add the precooked rice.
Allow this mixture to begin to brown slightly, and before it dries, add the water mixed with the soy sauce. Stir together and allow the soy sauce to brown the rice. The rice needs to be moist and well mixed with the onion and egg.
If I make cashew chicken, I put the finished rice in an ovenproof dish and place it in my warmed oven with my chicken as I cook it. Refer to my column a week ago (January 11, 2026) on how to make the Springfield Style Cashew Chicken.
I serve this with chopped green onions if I am not using it under the cashew chicken and sauce, which is also topped with green onions and cashews. That is why it is called cashew chicken. If you do not like onions or cashews, leave them off.
When we prepared this rice and cashew chicken for our family, we served it family style. The chicken was on a plate, the rice in its dish, green onions, and cashews in their dishes. Our oldest daughter did not use the nuts, our youngest left the onions in the bowl, and our middle child ate the leftover rice any time she could.
We all ask this question at some time. The five questions that we seek to answer in journalism are who, what, when, and where. Why is seldom added in a straight news story. I often ask that question. I am sure that you will also do this. The question today is where?
Where are you going? Where have you been? For my younger readers, you are more interested in the future. We older folks often focus on the past. We should all look both ways before we take a step. Like your parents taught you when crossing a street.
In my teens, I decided to become a writer. Journalism was my first thought. That is what I trained for in high school. In my first two years, I decided to attend a college that had no journalism program, so I listed my major as creative writing. That was the closest they had. That is what I did today.
For me, the answer to where I have been would require many more words than I wish to share here. I desire to encourage you to contemplate not only the places that you have been, but where they have led you and will lead you again. Our path should be plotted by our Lord.
This is what I have attempted to do. My location at this time in a physical sense is not as important as where I am in my spiritual journey. God has taken me through my educational and business careers to my new avocation as an author. This column is a small portion of that.
My ministry continues in the books I am writing. Scripts for plays and shows that I have conceived over the decades are in process. I wish to continue teaching others what Christ has shown me for more than fifty years. This is where I am traveling to.
Your path is different from mine in many ways. I hope that your eternal home is the same as mine. That is in the presence of Jehovah God. This location is usually referred to as Heaven. Some believe this is our default when our bodies die. Part of my ministry is to tell you that this is a lie told by our adversary.
A decision must be made on where you will spend eternity. I’m sorry that I must tell you that the belief I have in the Bible and what it says about Jesus, who is God, compels me to be honest that I do not think you will escape hell unless He is your Lord and Savior.
I advise you not to gamble with your destiny. The choice to accept the gift that you have been given by the life, death, and resurrection of my Lord, Jesus, is life through Him. I hope that is where you will eventually achieve with all His other followers.
My kid came home from school talking about the weird lunch lady.
“Mom, she’s so strange. She memorizes everyone’s name by the third day. Like, all 600 kids.”
I figured she was exaggerating. Teenagers do that. Then parent-teacher night happened. I was running late, hadn’t eaten, saw the cafeteria was open. Grabbed a sandwich. The lunch lady, older woman with gray hair in a hairnet, was cleaning tables.
“You’re Zoe’s mom,” she said without looking up.
I stopped. “How’d you know?”
“Same eyes. She sits table seven, always picks the apples nobody wants because they’re bruised. Drinks chocolate milk even though she’s lactose intolerant. Hurts herself rather than waste food.”
I stood there, stunned. “You know this about my daughter?”
“I know it about all of them.”
She kept wiping tables. Started talking, not to me exactly, just… talking.
“Marcus, table three, his dad left last year. Always takes double servings on Fridays because there’s less food at home on weekends. Jennifer counts calories out loud to punish herself. Brett throws away lunches his mom packs because kids make fun of the ethnic food, but he’s starving by sixth period. Ashley’s parents are divorcing, she stress-eats in the bathroom.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
She finally looked at me. “Because you’re all at parent-teacher conferences talking about grades. Nobody’s talking about this. About who’s eating, who’s not, who’s hurting.”
“What do you do about it?”
“What can I do? I’m the lunch lady. I make sure Marcus gets those extra servings without asking. I tell Jennifer the calorie counts are wrong, lower than they are. I pack Brett containers of his mom’s food labeled as ‘cafeteria leftovers’ so he can eat it without shame. I bought Zoe lactose-free chocolate milk with my own money, tell her we’re trying a new brand.”
I felt like I’d been punched.
“Does anyone know you do this?”
“The kids who need to know, know. That’s enough.”
I went home and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Started asking Zoe questions. She confirmed everything.
“Yeah, Mrs. Chen just… sees people. She stopped my friend from… she helped when nobody else noticed.”
Turns out, Mrs. Chen had worked at that school for 22 years. Made $14 an hour. Knew the story of every struggling kid who came through her lunch line. Never reported it, never made it official, just adjusted portions, swapped items, paid for things quietly. Teachers didn’t know the extent. Administrators had no idea. She just showed up, served food, and saved kids in ways nobody measured.
Last year, Mrs. Chen had a stroke. She had to retire. The school hired someone new. Efficient. Fast. Didn’t learn names. Within three months, the guidance counselor’s office was flooded. Kids breaking down. Nobody could figure out why. Until one kid finally said it:
“Mrs. Chen knew when we were drowning. She threw life preservers disguised as extra tater tots. Now nobody’s watching.”
The school brought Mrs. Chen back. Part-time. Not to serve food. Just to be there. They called her position “Student Wellness Observer.”
She’s 68 now, walks with a cane, can’t lift heavy trays anymore. But she still memorizes all 600 names by the third day. Still knows who needs what. Still saves kids during lunch periods when everyone else is just serving food.
My daughter graduated last month. In her speech, she thanked Mrs. Chen.
“Some people teach math. Some teach history. Mrs. Chen taught us that being seen is sometimes the only thing standing between surviving and giving up.”
The whole cafeteria stood up. Turns out, weird lunch ladies who memorize names?
They’re the most important people in the building.
Let this story reach more hearts….
I took this story from a Facebook post a friend shared. I’ve tried to identify this author. Below I have given a copyright to Grace Jenkins who was listed as the original contributor. If this is yours, advise me and show me where and when you first published it and I will change my copyright to credit you. If you have a story you wish for ne to share with others, contact me. Thanks, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.
The best method of promoting your business is not advertising. It does not matter if you use digital media, broadcast media, or billboards; they are not the best option. Word of mouth has been proven to be the primary way customers find out about vendors.
If you are using a marketing company that has not already informed you of this, I feel sorry for you. One of my first jobs out of college was as a marketing director for a small company. We were in a niche market, and I recommended that our owner, who was our salesman, protect his personal reputation. It was our biggest asset.
I had no formal training, so I did not have all the book knowledge. I read every book I could lay my hands on about the subject. We conducted a direct marketing campaign through catalogs mailed to potential customers. We even had a toll-free number to accept orders. No, there was no internet or digital marketing at that time.
Our mailing pieces included order forms and a postage-free envelope to send them back to us. My boss purchased stamps and sent them on the pre-addressed envelopes. When I gave him the cost savings figures for purchasing a postage meter and a number to print on the return pieces to pay postage that way.
When I mentioned that over sixty percent of the stamps he sent out were not used for our orders, he did not believe me until I showed him the accountant’s ledger. I reworked the upcoming catalogs and flyers with freshly written copy. I photographed all the items in-house and saved almost as much money as I received in pay.
When I became a pet store manager, I trained our sales staff to remember the old saying, “The customer is always right.” We needed to acknowledge it as correct and realize that we should make them think it is true, but help them see when they were not exactly perfectly buying the best for them.
There was the lady who purchased tiny fish and put them in with the small ones that ate them the first night. I increased the sales by getting my customers to recommend my store. Later, at another company, I was instrumental in treating our customers in a fashion that they recommended us to others.
Our advertising budget was allocated to regional trade magazines and free giveaways to customers. Many of our vendors offered free sample products to us, which were not purchased as much as they could have been. I even put inexpensive products on the counters to promote good maintenance practices.
I left sales and marketing and became a purchasing agent, supervisor, and manager. I continued promoting my word-of-mouth advertising program from the other side of the desk. I can’t tell you the number of times I told others the best companies to purchase from and why I felt that way.
Improve your business by treating your customers the best that you can. Paying employees better who take care of customers is more effective than the best commercial you ever used. Getting them in the door to have them treated poorly never works. I know, your ad department just laughed at me.
I wrote a column entitled “Springfield Style Cashew Kitty”, and published it on September 17, 2024. I promised to share my recipe for Cashew Chicken at a future date. I finally am going to do that. Unlike most other websites, I will provide the recipe first, then offer my comments on it.
Ingredients:
1 large chicken breast (boneless, skinless)
1-2 cups flour
Salt to taste (About 2 teaspoons)
Pepper to taste (About 1/2 teaspoon)
Oil for frying
1 cup Milk
1 egg
2 cups chicken broth or bullion
4 Tsp. Corn Starch
4 Tsp. Soy Sauce
Cashews and Chopped Green Onions for toppings
Instructions:
Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Place the flour into a zipper bag and add salt and pepper to taste. Seal and shake to mix. Drop the chicken into the bag, zip it shut, and shake until it’s coated. Allow to sit in the flour for twenty to thirty minutes.
Heat one inch of oil in a skillet or wok. You can use a deep fryer if you have one. The oil should be 350 degrees F. I preheat my oven to 170 degrees F. That is the lowest my oven will go. This is to keep the fried chicken warm as you get it cooked.
While the oil is heating, mix the milk and egg together in a dish large enough to submerge the chicken. You may need more milk and eggs, depending on the quantity of chicken. Allow it to soak for ten minutes and then return it to the flour mixture. Do not overload the skillet or fryer. Cook until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.
To make your sauce: Mix the corn starch and soy sauce with ½ cup of cold water. It must be cold water. Bring the broth or bullion to a boil. Stir the water, corn starch, and soy sauce mixture into the boiling broth. Remove from the heat as soon as it thickens as much as you want. If it thickens more than you want, dilute with a little water.
Serve the chicken over or beside rice. I like fried rice and will give you my version next week. My wife and I prefer the chicken and sauce over the rice sprinkled with green onions and cashews. We also serve with stir fried vegetables on the side. These can be found in the freezer section of most markets. Choose a mix you like and prepare according to directions on the package. Enjoy.
Charles (Chuck) Kensinger 