True Heroes

Three young men died in the Aurora theater shooting while protecting the women they loved (Jon Blunk is pictured.) Young women of the world, the true hero will NEVER be the one who says, "I want to hurt you." He will always be the one who says, "I want to protect you." Or as it says in John 15:13: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

Teresa's Quick 'N' Easy Hoppin' John

Ring in the New Year with this delicious (and simple to fix) traditional dish!

1 lb breakfast sausage (you can use mild or hot or low fat if you simply must)

1 medium onion

4-16 oz cans of black-eyed peas (we use two regular and two with bacon & jalapeno to give it a little kick)

1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes or to taste (we omit this if we use the jalapeno beans)

1 bag of boil-n-bag rice

1) Cook the sausage in the bottom of a large pot, break apart with fork

2) As it cooks, peel and chop onion and fix 1 bag boil-n-bag rice per directions on box (which takes 10 minutes)

3) Drain sausage if needed, retaining 2-3 TBS of fat, and return to pot

4) Add onion to sausage and cook until onions are soft-5 minutes or so

5) Add black-eyed peas and red pepper flakes and warm well

6) Add 1 bag of cooked boil-n-bag rice

7) Warm well so flavors will combine - 20 minutes or so

We serve this with Jiffy corn bread mix and it also makes an excellent leftover