Shepherd's Night

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"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night"

Plan to spend an evening with your family as though you were humble shepherds on that wondrous night when an angel of the Lord appeared with glad tidings.

Begin the evening with a hearty dinner of "Shepherd's Pie", or eat on the floor on a blanket a more humble fare as the shepherd's may have had with them such as pita bread and cheese. Spend this evening by candlelight.

Read from the scripture the part they played in the birth of Christ. Sing "As Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night". Have everyone dress as shepherds. Act out their story.

Read the prophecy from Alma 13:26 and discuss how these were not just ordinary shepherds, they were "just and holy" and prepared. How can we make ourselves just and holy? How can we prepare our hearts?

The shepherds went with haste to the Christ child. Do we seek out, are we urgent about finding things that bring us closer to Christ? What brings us closer to Him? I love that phrase "with haste".

When they had seen the babe (Luke 2:17) they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. How do we share our testimony of the Savior? Do we share our love of the Savior with our family? Do we love Him enough to try to be like Him? Do we live our testimony? How can we make "known abroad" our tender feelings about Him this Christmas season?

Make Shepherd Cane cookies. You could already have the dough ready and let each person make their own cane.

Shepherd Cane Cookies

1 C butter
1 C powdered sugar
1 egg
1 t peppermint extract
1 t vanilla extract
2 1/2 C flour
1 t salt
1/2 t red food coloring

Mix together butter, sugar, egg and extracts thoroughly. Stir in flour and salt. Divide dough in half. Blend red coloring into one half of the dough. Cover the two pieces of dough and refrigerate.

To bake:
preheat oven to 350. for each cookie, roll 1 t of dough from each half back and forth on a lightly floured surface into 4 inch rope. Place 1 red and 1 white rope side by side. Press together lightly at top and twist. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and turn down top to form the crook of the cane.

Bake 9 minutes. Watch closely as they have a tendency to brown quickly. Cool on racks.

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Other ideas for Shepherd Night:

For young children (or not so young "children" (I like to sing this song) sing "The Itsy Bitsy Shepherd" with actions, found by clicking on Music on the side bar to the right on this site.


Families with young children could make construction paper sheep with cotton balls glued on.

"Find the Lost Sheep" game could be played where a "sheep" hides somewhere in the house and the shepherds try to find him. The little lost sheep could cry "baa" until found.

A small lamb from a nativity set could be hidden in the room, and the children find him and then take turns hiding him again.

The children could sleep that night as shepherd's slept, on the ground. It is fun to have a night of sleeping near the Christmas tree.

There are so many lessons to be learned from those wonderful shepherds of long ago.

"And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds".

Bethlehem Dinner: Sfeeha (meat pies)

I was looking through old posts and realized I forgot to include the recipe for Sfeeha, which are middle eastern meat pies, for the Bethlehem Dinner Menu.

1 lb ground beef (or lamb)
1 onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup lemon juice
salt and pepper and allspice to taste

Bread dough

Brown the pine nuts in a skillet. Set aside.

Saute the onion in butter. Add the meat and spices. Saute until tender. Add browned pine nuts and lemon juice. Mix well.

Roll dough into small balls (raquet ball size), flatten into 3 inch circles on a greased cookie sheet. Spread meat stuffing evenly on top of circles to within 3/8" from the edge.

Bake at 400 until meat and dough are lightly brown (about 7-8 minutes)

Optional: Serve with Laban, a yogurt spread.

Laban:

Plain yogurt
Cheesecloth

Put your yogurt in the cheesecloth. The yogurt will start to drain off liquid. Allow it to drain over night in the refridgerator. (you will have to figure out a way to hang the cheesecloth over a bowl without touching the liquid) The result is a creamy spread that is yummy on meat pies and pita bread.

Symbols of Christmas FHE

Chocolate On My Cranium has posted another Christmas FHE on her blog about the Symbols of Christmas. The lesson includes scriptures and pictures to go along with each symbol.

I love the idea of doing sugar cookies and using cookie cutters that go along with the symbols you talk about in the lesson.

My ever faithful Sugar Cookie recipe can be found at Everyday Recipes.

Pita Bread and Bread of Life Symbolism

Pita Bread Recipe for the Bethlehem Dinner Menu

Read John 6: 35 and discuss it's meaning while this bread bakes in your oven. Children like to watch this bread puff up while it is baking, and flatten when taken out of the oven

1 pkg yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 cups flour
1 1/4 t. of salt
1 t. granulated sugar

Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. Add sugar and let it sit for 5-10 min. Meanwhile, mix flour and salt, pour in yeast mixture. Slowly add 1 cup of warm water and mix.

Flour your work surface, placing the dough on it and kneading for about 5-10 min. until dough is elastic. Coat a large bowl with olive oil and place dough in it, turning the dough to coat with olive oil. Let rise until doubled.

Roll out dough into the shape of a rope. Cut the dough into 10-12 small pieces. Roll out each ball of dough with a floured rolling pin into circles about 5-6 inches and 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat the oven to 5oo degrees and place your rack at the bottom of the oven. Bake each circle about 4 min.. When the bread puffs up, turn over and bake for a couple of min. When you take it out of the oven the bread will flatten out. Serve bread dipped in hummus.

There is also a Bread of Life video about Christ on the Jesus Christ website done by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Bethlehem Dinner: Spinach Pies

Spinach Pie recipe for the Bethlehem Dinner Menu.

2-10 oz blocks of frozen spinach
1 onion, finely chopped
4-5 Tbs of lemon juice
2 Tbs oil
salt and pepper to taste

Bread dough

Defrost spinach under running water in strainer. Squeeze out excess water with hands. Sprinkle with salt and alow to sit in strainer for 15 minutes. Mix with all the ingredients. Pinch off 2 1/2" balls of dough and roll out into 4" squares. Put a heaping tablespon of filling on each circle (kind of in a triangle shape, pointing to one of the corners of the square). Fold up from the bottom of the triangle and bring in the sides to the center. you will have formed a triangle. Press down seams firmly and pinch ends together.

Place on greased cookie sheet. Brush with olive oil. Bake at 400 until golden brown.

Bethlehem Dinner: Baklava

Baklava Recipe for Bethlehem Dinner Menu for those of you interested in making it yourself. I usually go the easy route and buy it at the store.

2 lbs. phyllo dough
6 cups walnuts, chopped
2 cups rendered butter (see recipe below)
1 tsp cinnamon1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup confectioner's suggar
2 cups Attar (recipe below)

Mix nuts, sugar, spices, and 1 Tbs. butter.Grease 12x17 baking sheet with butter. Place two layers of baklava phyllo on the baking sheet, brushing lightly with butter. Continue this process until 1/2 lb. of dough has been layered. Spread the nut mixture evenly over the dough. Lay the rest of the dough, following the same procedure. Do not grease the last layer. With a sharp knife cut into diamond shapes. Heat the rest of the butter (about 1 cup) and pour on the tray.

Preheat oven to 400. Place the tray in oven, then reduce to 275. Bake from 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Cool for 10 min. Pour cold syrup (attar) evenly over the surface. Rendered Butter(another warning: this makes way more than you will need for one batch of baklava, I know Jon shrinks the recipe down accordingly)

5 lbs. Sweet butter
1/2 cup flour

Melt butter in a saucepan. Add the flour. Cook on low heat until foam disappears from the top. When clear, remove from heat and cool. Pour the pure butter into jars. Be careful not to pour the salty residue. Note: Rendered butter is used in Arabic pastries. Stored in jars it will keep for many months without being refrigerated.

Attar
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 Tbs. Lemon juice

Mix sugar and water and bring to boil. Add lemon juice and boil for 7 more minutes. Cool. Makes 2 cups Attar.

Bethlehem Dinner: Stuffed Grape Leaves

Recipe for part of the Bethlehem Dinner Menu.

1 jar grape leaves (found by the pickles in some grocery stores. Safeway carries them)

1 1/2 cups ground meat, raw--traditionally lamb but I use beef

1 c rice (uncooked)

3 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp cinnimon

2 tbs butter (use if you are using a lean meat)

Mix the above ingredients together well. This is your filling for the grape leaves.

Remove all the grape leaves from jar carefully, unfold, separate, and rinse leaves. Remove stems with a knife, place 1 tsp of filling near base of leaf (around where the stem was) fold in sides and roll up the leaf like a cigar. Should be very tight or it will come unrolled while cooking. Place in a large sauce pan, add 1 (8oz) can of tomato sauce and water to cover the rolled leaves. Sprinkle with salt and bring to a boil.

Cook covered on low for 50 minutes, checking to make sure there is still water and the leaves are not burning on the bottom. Test to make sure the rice is cooked in the leaves. Add a couple tablespoons of lemon juice and heat through. Serve warm or they are good cold too.

Tip: I use a small plate on top of the grape leaves in the sauce pan with the lid on to old the leaves still while the water is bubbling. This helps to prevent th leaves from coming unrolled.

Bethlehem Dinner

We look forward every year to setting aside a special evening which we call our "Bethlehem" dinner. We prepare foods that the Savior may have been familiar with. Our menu includes dishes that have been in my husband's family for generations that originate from the Jerusalem area. We play soft Christmas religious music and eat by candlelight and clay lamp light. We have a short devotional or share some historical facts about the time and places Jesus lived in.
(Click the link for a post with the recipe)

Menu:
Stuffed Grape Leaves
Sfeeha
Baklava
Spinach Pies (you can also buy these at stores like Costco in their frozen section labeled as Spanakopita)
Pita Bread
Hummus
Grapes
Mediterranean Olives
Grape Juice
Cucumber Salad
etc.