November 2007
We have a limited number of back issues available in print.
To request back issues, e-mail jjob@dioceseoflansing.org
or call 517-342-2595. You will be charged the regular cover price
of $2.50 per issue.
Where was God
when John’s daughter drowned?
A crusading columnist’s personal faith journey
By Todd Schulz | Photography by Jim
Luning
 Each
morning, thousands of Lansing State Journal readers flip past the
front-page headlines to see what local columnist John Schneider
has to say.
John has his own morning routine. Nearly every
day at 6:30 a.m., he puts on a pot of coffee and starts the quarter-mile
stroll down his driveway to snatch the newspaper. Along the way,
he offers his daily prayers to God and talks with his daughter Jessica,
who died almost five years ago at the age of 25.
“I don’t hurry,” John says. “I talk to Jessica
and just sort of express my wishes for my family and my work. One
of my prayers is to keep my work fair and accurate.”
John Schneider has served as the conscience of the Lansing
community for almost 20 years, sticking up for the little guy, exposing
injustice and corruption, and leveraging the power of his column
to help needy readers.
The Lansing State Journal – and the newspaper industry –
have changed dramatically in two decades. But John’s blue-collar,
crusading style and passion for social justice have not. The veteran
journalist’s ink-stained principles are woven tightly into
the fabric of the Catholic faith that’s buoyed him in difficult
times.
“Journalism to me is at its best when it’s a force for
good,” says John. “It mainly comes down to
justice and giving a voice to people who would otherwise not have
one. I was raised to not turn away from my responsibility as a human
being to other human beings, to identify what I think is a social
injustice and to speak up about it. Luckily, I have a forum as a
columnist, which is a real privilege, to influence some things.”
John was raised in a working-class neighborhood on the west side
of Detroit, where his father, John Sr., worked as a mail carrier.
The family faithfully attended Mass every Sunday at St. Thomas Aquinas
Parish, sometimes walking the mile to church. He remembers sacrificing
candy for Lent and getting called inside from afternoon ballgames
to quietly recognize Good Friday.
My mother was the enforcer when it came to church,” John says
with a chuckle. “She made sure people got up and went and
that we did our sacraments. She would sort of march us through the
whole thing.
“Like any kid, you sort of bristle about having to be in church.
But there was something about the ceremony that really stuck with
me.”
 After
graduating from high school and a stint in the Navy, he used the
G.I. Bill to attend Wayne State University and study journalism.
The early 1970s were heady times for reporters, who chronicled
the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War. John couldn’t wait
to start his own digging.
Like many young adults, he didn’t have God high on his radar.
But that changed soon after he met his wife, Sharon Emery, also
a journalist. The couple started a family. Jessica was followed
by Justin, 26; Benjamin, 22; and Caitlin, 20.
“It was your textbook turn away and turn back [to God],”
says John, who worships at St. John Student Parish in East Lansing.
“There’s that natural rejection of your parents’
values. You get a little bit self-centered where you start saying,
‘I don’t need God, that’s for old people’
and you also start questioning some of the values and teaching of
your religion.
“But then you get married and suddenly the church
is looking pretty good as a place to marry you. And then
children come along and you start asking yourself, ‘Well,
what are we going to do with the kids? Are we just not going to
have religion in their lives?’ In most cases, people turn
back to what they know.”
John’s faith was shaped indelibly by Jessica, the oldest of
his four children, who was born with developmental disabilities
and battled seizures as a teenager. Though they grieved the loss
of a “perfect” child, John and Sharon determined quickly
that God specifically matched them with Jessica, who was always
an equal partner in family games, activities, decisions and vacations.
Jessica shared her dad’s passion for baseball and fishing.
The two spent countless hours trolling Lake Huron and talking during
expeditions from the family’s cottage near Cheboygan. No matter
how early John set out in the morning, Jessica was always ready
and waiting for an adventure.
“She was automatic, she never missed,” he says of their
trips. “Something about the vibration of the boat motor soothed
her.”
Tragically, Jessica died while swimming in Lake Huron in August
2002. She suffered a seizure and drowned in the moments before help
could arrive.
 “Talk
about something that tests your faith,” John says. “In
the beginning, you say [to God], ‘How could you do that?’
I felt betrayed. Then, you find there’s healing through
him, too. I’m confident I’ll see Jessica again someday.
The promise that he offers of everlasting life is what helps keep
you going when you’re trying to get through something like
this.
“You never get over it. You survive it and then you sort of
incorporate it into who you are and your outlook on life.”
John shared his grief surrounding Jessica’s death with his
readers, to whom he’s opened his life regularly since taking
over the daily columnist’s job in 1988.
He has won a large and loyal following (he’s greeted by about
20 voice mails and 50 e-mails each morning) by delivering a unique
blend of consumer advocate, political watchdog and personal columns
seven days a week. He routinely writes about people in dire circumstances
– and his readers respond with staggering force.
“Sometimes the depth of it surprises me,” John
says. “Never have I written about something where
people didn’t come forward to help. It’s a beautiful
thing to see people so willing to help a stranger.
“That’s the perfect use for journalism.
To identify a problem, expose it, give people an avenue to help
and just sort of let them take over and do the work. It’s
really amazing.”
Depending upon the day and the subject, he writes with humor, heart
or hard-edged opinion – sometimes all of these. In a typical
week, he can write about chirping frogs trumpeting spring’s
arrival, battles with poison ivy, a consumer’s dispute with
a chain office-supply store and a local doctor serving in the Air
Force in Iraq. The secret to a successful daily column, he says,
is variety.
“If I don’t keep people entertained, they’ll get
bored and I’ll lose them. Sometimes people will ask me, ‘What
do you consider a good column idea?’ I always say, ‘I
couldn’t define it. I just know it when I see it.’”
 John
plans to crank out his column “for another few years.”
Even he’s unsure what path he’ll take after typing his
final sentence for the Lansing State Journal. Surprisingly, he often
contemplates a future without writing.
“Maybe I’ll grow Christmas trees or something,”
he says with a laugh. “I’m torn sometimes. But I think
I’d miss writing. I might have a novel in me some day.”
For now, John continues to chronicle life in Lansing. That means
rising early to fetch the newspaper and start his daily discussion
with God and Jessica.
“At Jessica’s funeral, our priest said, ‘Now don’t
forget you have a close contact up there and don’t be shy
about using it.’ I took his advice on that. On days when I
don’t do it, I miss it. I go through the day sort of feeling
that something was not quite in place.”
That’s the same way many of John Schneider’s readers
feel on days they miss his column.
---
Services for
those with disabilities
Through its ministry with Persons with disAbilities office, the
Diocese of Lansing provides many needed services. They include:
Blind/Sight Impaired Ministry
• Annual retreat
• Monthly Scripture group
• Resource for Braille materials
• Audio tapes of FAITH Magazine
• Catholic Inquiry for the Blind
• Audio tapes distributed world-wide, explaining the Catholic
faith
Christians Concerned about Mental Illness (CCMI)
• Christians Concerned
about Mental Illness support group
• Network with support groups
• Resource for counseling referrals Physical disAbilities
• Consultation on structural accessibility
• Promotion of Americans with Disabilities Act
Developmental Disabilities
• Consultation and in service to religious education
• Coordination of special religious education program
• Retreats for persons with disabilities
• Caregiver retreats
• Consultation to parochial school programs
• Annual Mass and potluck with bishop
Facilitating Rainbow Homes
• Project to provide Christian semi-independent living for
adults who have developmental disabilities
Parish Awareness
• Assessment of accessibility
• Collaboration with tomorrow’s parish
• Pamphlets on responding to persons with disabilities
• Training for ushers
• Advocates in parishes
• Consultations to staff
• Presentations to parish groups
• “Welcome to My World” for youth
For more information, contact JoAnn Davis at 517.342.2497.
This ministry is supported by your generous donations to
the DSA.
ministering to those
with same-sex attraction
The Courage program in the Diocese of Lansing
By Bob Horning | Photography by Tom Gennara
 Father
Steve Mattson is one of six priests in the Diocese of Lansing who
work with Courage, a support organization for those struggling with
same-sex attraction. He shares some experiences with the group here:
At present, there are six men in our group. My
role is to encourage them, point out the love of God for them and
help them encounter Christ. We discuss how to talk honestly with
God, to be candid, and to draw Jesus into their hearts. God strengthens
them through the sacraments, and through each other, to fight sin
and to live a chaste life.
I became involved two years ago after attending a Courage conference.
I was invited by Bob and Susan, who have been family friends since
I was a child. There I saw a great spirit of Christian discipleship
and fellowship in the men and women who are making a heroic effort
to live according to what the church teaches about homosexuality.
It’s hard, because the world tells them that they should just
accept themselves as they are. And many well-meaning Catholics say
the same thing. But they know in their hearts that homosexual acts
are sinful, and they want help to live chaste lives.
Our meetings, which are confidential and last about an hour, begin
with reviewing the five goals of Courage (see sidebar). Then there
is prayer, sharing of the difficulties and successes of the past
two weeks, and a look at one of the 12 steps from a booklet by Father
Emmerich Vogt, adapted for Catholics from Alcoholics Anonymous.
Bob and Susan, the family friends I mentioned, started a group for
families of those with same-sex attraction. It is called Encourage.
Their son had become rebellious. At age 18, he ran away
from a drug treatment center and came home, broken. He kept putting
up smokescreens about his underlying problems. “Finally, he
told us that he had been sexually abused at age five and that he
struggled with same-sex attraction,” they told me.
That was 18 years ago. Christopher is now deep in the gay lifestyle,
having lived with several friends over the years. Bob and Susan
were devastated and hurt. They still grieve. “The pain goes
on and on,” they say.
“When Christopher first told us, I thought that with some
reasoning and explanation, I would be able to change his mind,”
Bob recalls. “Surely he would see the consequences
of what he was doing. But it didn’t work. We found out that
same-sex attraction is complex and not always logical. Moreover,
I eventually discovered that I couldn’t fix him, and that
he had no desire to be fixed. He believes that gay is how he was
made, and who he is.”
Though Christopher knows his parents can’t affirm his lifestyle,
their relationship is much better now, and he still communicates
with them regularly. Susan says, “Whenever he calls,
he always ends by saying, ‘I love you, Mom. God bless you.’
We have met several of his friends, and they are fine men, though
in error.” Bob adds, “When we go to his apartment for
dinner, we have had wonderful times and conversations with him and
his friends, because now we focus on loving him, not fixing him.”
When Bob and Susan tried to deal with the facts of their son’s
same-sex attraction, and their grief, they didn’t know where
to turn. “Our story is similar to that of others,” Susan
said. “You are heartbroken, and, as Catholics, you know your
son is being affected physically and spiritually. You also gradually
realize that you have no control over the situation. You try to
figure out how to love your child and speak truth to him at the
same time, especially if it’s a case (unlike ours) where the
child demands that you accept his lifestyle. You need someone to
talk to.”
Bob and Susan went to priests. Some were sympathetic,
but didn’t know what to do. Some said to have nothing to do
with him. Some even said that Bob and Susan’s lack of tolerance
was the real problem, and that they needed to accept Christopher’s
choices.
Help finally came when they heard of Courage, the program
begun by Father John Harvey in the Archdiocese of New York in 1980,
to minister to people struggling with homosexuality. ”For
us, Courage was a breath of fresh air,” they say. “It
gave us peace as we began to better understand the area of same-sex
attraction.”
After Bishop Carl Mengeling came to Lansing, the couple were instrumental
in drawing up guidelines for the diocesan approach to the issue
of homosexuality. Soon, by default, they became the resource people
for the diocese, then for the whole country, for families and friends
of those involved with same-sex attraction. Thus began Encourage,
as an offshoot of Courage.
Bob remembers the first time he was asked to talk to a group of
priests and deacons about his experience. “I got 10 words
out, started crying, and couldn’t continue,” he said.
“The tears still come at times when I share about it. I love
my son.”
Encourage is a support group, not a fix-it group,” Susan says.
“I have been healed as we reach out to other hurting parents.
We try to let God be in control; our job is to pray. We go to daily
Mass when possible, and say the rosary for Christopher and others.
Our relationship with God has deepened due to the need to rely on
him.”
What have they learned over the years through Encourage? Bob says
that he has learned to share the truth in love. “At the beginning,
I shared truth with my son, but not with love. That alienates. It
was because I was feeling my own hurt instead of feeling his. On
the other hand, if you don’t also speak truth, you are enabling.
Christopher knows where we stand on the issue, and that we are involved
in Encourage. So now I don’t need to talk to him about that;
I need to touch and hug him more when we are with him as a way of
expressing my love to him. I look forward to the day when he embraces
the teaching of the church on homosexuality and comes home to it
and to us.”
---
 The
other priests involved in Courage in the Diocese of Lansing are
Monsignor Bob Lunsford in Dewitt, Father John Byers in Lansing,
Father John Rocus in Flint, Father Jeff Njus in Ann Arbor and Father
Roy Horning in Flushing.
To get involved with Courage or Encourage, call 517.351.3315. A
priest in your area will return your call.
For more information, go to www.couragerc.net.
---
The five goals of Courage
 Courage,
an apostolate of the Roman Catholic Church, ministers to those with
same-sex attractions and their loved ones. Courage has
been endorsed by the Pontifical Council for the Family; and Pope
John Paul II said of this ministry, “Courage is doing the
work of God!”
The following five goals were created by members when Courage was
founded. They are read at the start of each meeting and each member
is called to practice them in daily life.
1. Live chaste lives in accordance with the Catholic Church’s
teaching on homosexuality.
2. Dedicate one’s life to Christ through service to others,
spiritual reading, prayer, meditation, individual spiritual direction,
frequent attendance at Mass and the frequent reception of the sacraments
of reconciliation and holy Eucharist.
3. Foster a spirit of fellowship to ensure that no one will have
to face the problems of homosexuality alone.
4. Be mindful that chaste friendships are not only possible but
necessary to live a chaste Christian life. Friends provide encouragement
to one another in forming and sustaining each other.
5. Live lives that serve as good examples.
---
What does the church say?
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued Always our
children: A pastoral message to parents of homosexual children in
1997. It may be found in its entirety at www.usccb.org/laity/always.shtml.
The following are excerpts from that pastoral letter:
You
can help a homosexual person in two general ways. First, encourage
him or her to cooperate with God’s grace to live a chaste
life. Second, concentrate on the person, not on the homosexual orientation
itself. This implies respecting a person’s freedom to choose
or refuse therapy directed toward changing a homosexual orientation.
Given the present state of medical and psychological knowledge,
there is no guarantee that such therapy will succeed. Thus, there
may be no obligation to undertake it, though some may find it helpful
…
All in all, it is essential to recall one basic truth. God loves
every person as a unique individual. Sexual identity helps to define
the unique persons we are, and one component of our sexual identity
is sexual orientation. Thus, our total personhood is more encompassing
than sexual orientation. Human beings see the appearance, but the
Lord looks into the heart. (cf. 1 Sm 16:7)
the terror of waiting
how Shirley and Doug Brown
endured their son’s tour of duty in Iraq
By Bob Horning | Photography by Tom Gennara
 It
wasn’t unusual for Shirley Brown’s phone to ring at
2 a.m. She knew who it was. In Anbar Province, Iraq, it
was 10 a.m., the best time to call for her 24-year-old son, Daniel,
who was stationed there with Charlie Company of the 24th Marine
Regiment.
Daniel didn’t give a lot of information about what
he was doing (Shirley’s husband, Doug, a Vietnam veteran,
had advised him not to), but she could tell when he was sad or happy.
And one thing Daniel did mention often was that he was freezing,
since the temperature goes down into the 30s at night in the desert
in the winter. He could really use some long underwear that wasn’t
polyester.
“You don’t know how hard it is to find long underwear
made of all cotton around here,” Shirley says. “But
his request for that and other items got me to thinking about sending
a whole care package to him, and to others.”
“We had heard that the Methodist church here in Chelsea
was doing something like that for its members, so why not us?”
Doug recalls. “We decided to do it for all St. Mary
parishioners stationed in Iraq. We quickly expanded to include our
relatives, townsfolk and anyone else we knew. We wanted to help
those guys out. The Vietnam troops didn’t get that. Soon we
had 40 to 50 people to mail to.”
Shirley couldn’t go back to sleep after the phone calls from
Daniel. Though she didn’t get many details from Daniel about
the fighting, she did pick up some things from the news and from
friends. One thing was that troops were being killed. While Daniel
was in Iraq, from September 2006 until the end of April 2007, 24
of the 230-member company were killed, and 49 received Purple Hearts.
“Those nights became a time of prayer instead of sleep,”
Shirley says. “In fact, during those eight months,
I prayed every chance I had. It was a long way to work and back,
so I would pray the rosary while driving. I even prayed in the shower.
All that prayer sure draws you closer to God.
“But that’s how I coped. Also, by crying a
lot, by myself and with friends, especially those who had relatives
over there. And exchanging e-mail messages with them. The people
at work were wonderful about letting me share, too. A lot of them
were Christians and good prayer partners.
“Probably the hardest part was when Daniel didn’t call
for a while. Normally, he would call every week, but when someone
was killed in their company, the others weren’t allowed to
use the phone or computer, so that the Marines could be the first
to notify the family. So I worried more when we didn’t hear
from him for a longer time. Watching the news was tough, too –
hearing about casualties in Anbar Province, and wondering if Daniel
was among them. That’s why my husband limited my time of watching
the news to 15 minutes.
 “We
were on pins and needles all the time. Doug is part of a big family,
and a praying family. One of his cousins had his whole
family pray a rosary every day for our son. Daniel was on so many
prayer chains. When he got home and I told him how much we prayed,
he said, ‘I know. Your prayers got me out of a lot of close
calls.’ Now in my prayers, I thank God for protecting him
and ask that he won’t have to go back. It’s a big relief,
obviously, to have him home. He has two more years in active reserves,
then two in inactive reserves.”
Daniel said that during his time in Iraq he also felt closer to
God. “When you’re in danger, particularly like when
I was on patrol for 10 to 12 hours at a time by myself, I naturally
prayed. I think everyone there did. ‘Lord, help me get out
of this alive,’ was a common prayer.”
Once Doug and Shirley got the care package idea, they put a notice
in the church bulletin, asking for donations or cash. The response
filled a whole room at St. Mary with items like toothpaste, toothbrushes,
hand sanitizers, baby wipes, hand warmers, beef jerky, candy, peanuts,
Pop Tarts, canned tuna and chicken, feminine products, magazines,
playing cards, soap, tissue, shoe insoles for blisters and more.
Included in each care pack was a card made by first- through fifth-grade
catechism classes, with a psalm and prayer in it. There
was also a letter from St. Mary pastor, Father Bill Turner, expressing
appreciation from himself and the parish for the work of the troops
in Iraq, recognizing their separation from family, and praying for
a speedy resolution to the conflict, along with their safe return.
After all the packages were mailed in late March, in time to arrive
for Easter, the surplus goods were sent to an organization that
assists battered women.
“The American Legion and VFW in Saline heard what we were
doing, and I was able to help them do the same thing,” Shirley
says. “We plan to send packages again at Christmas, which
can be a lonely time for the troops.”
The care packages were a big hit in Iraq. Captain Louis
Gianoulakis, the commanding officer of a detainee prison in Baghdad,
and Shirley’s nephew, sent a thank-you letter to the church
for what they received. It was signed by many of the troops who
received the gifts.
For Daniel, who also received packages from the Knights of Columbus
at St. Joseph Church in Dexter, it was a morale lifter. “It
makes you feel that people care about you,” he said. “My
wife would send home-videos of the kids, which was my favorite thing.
We also received some movies, which we would watch during our down
time in order to take our minds off of our situation.”
The week before the end of Daniel’s tour was the most
exciting, but also the scariest, for Shirley. “The
closer it got, the more nervous I became. I had a boyfriend in Vietnam
who was killed three weeks before coming home,” she said.
“We told everyone that we were going to have a party for Daniel
when he returned. We thought it would be right away, but at the
debriefing, the military advised us to let those coming back settle
down a bit. We had the party on June 2, and about 100 people came.
“The party was great,” Daniel said.
“At times when I was bored over there, or scared out of my
mind, I would think about what people back home were doing. It was
good to visit with family and friends that I hadn’t seen in
a long time.
“Being in that poor, miserable country makes you thankful
to live in America. The whole experience, when you realize that
tomorrow you may not be here, caused me to try to be a better person.”
---
 For
more information about care
packages, visit www.carepackageproject.com
 In Michigan,
you can designate a portion of your income tax to the Military Relief
Fund, which provides grants to qualifying families of members of
the Michigan National Guard or reserves who have been called into
active duty since Sept. 11, 2001. For more information, visit www.michigan.gov/dmva.
---
What kinds of things do our troops need?
• Undershirts (white, short sleeve)
• Socks (bootcut: black, green or white)
• Single-use cameras
• Pre-sweetened flavored beverage mixes
• Letters of support
• AT&T global pre-paid military calling cards (to work
in Iraq and Afghanistan, it must be these specific cards)
• Coffee, coffee mixes, tea
• Hot cocoa mix
• Lemonade mix, Kool-Aid mix, Tang, iced tea mix
• Gatorade mix (powdered only)
• Crystal Light (or other brand) “On The Go” flavor
packets (these sleeves of flavoring can be added to a 16-20 oz.
water bottle)
• Sugar and creamer packets for coffee
• Gum, Lifesavers, mints
• Fruit: individual-serving size cans of fruit, dried fruit
• Nuts, sunflower seeds, peanuts, trail mix
• Power bars, protein bars
• Beef jerky, beef summer sausage
• Single-serving bags of snacks, crackers, chips, snack mixes
• Pop Tarts, cereal bars, “milk & cereal”
bars, granola bars
• Ramen noodles, Cup-O-Noodles serving cups
• Ravioli and other canned, ready-to-eat meals
• Tuna lunch kits (includes foil pouch of tuna, crackers,
and condiments in each single-serving kit)
soup that’s a work
of art
one of God’s simple blessings
Michelle Sessions DiFranco | Photography by Phillip
Shippert
  One
crisp, autumn evening, I decided to make some of my homemade butternut
squash soup to go along with dinner. Not only did it sound
good at the time, but I was feeling a little creative and finally
embracing the arrival of fall and all of its colorful offerings.
I was also in the mood for Thanksgiving and the cozy feelings that
come with the season. My mind went to a recent still life I had
once seen of the fall harvest and how I always wanted to either
buy a copy or paint a similar one for our dining room.
While chopping away at the onions, I gazed at our very colorless
blank walls.
I was sharply reminded of the lack of progress my husband
and I had made in interior decorating. My eyes then shifted
toward our dining table, which was devoid of an attractive centerpiece.
Instead, it was covered by the accumulated paperwork that seemed
to stare menacingly back at me. I was suddenly feeling overwhelmed
and annoyed – and started chopping harder and faster.
I continued to internalize my feelings of self-pity.
If it were up to me, I would just get a sitter for an entire day
and go on a shopping spree at Pottery Barn to buy what I want –
starting with a still life for the dining room. Forget the discussion.
Forget the money. Forget cooking dinner for a night. I wanted my
house to look like the cover of an interior design magazine, and
I wanted it now. How can I be expected to enjoy cooking when the
very process only serves to remind me of how “behind”
I am in my house projects? At that instant, the cooking that started
as a moment of inspiration felt a lot more like an unrewarding job
on my long list of to-dos. I let out a frustrated sigh as I opened
the toddler-handprint-covered stainless fridge door.
As I garnished each bowl of soup with some freshly chopped chives,
my husband walked in. He didn’t even notice the scowl
I must have been wearing. His reaction, and his words, hit like
a lightning bolt. His eyes widened in surprise as the smell greeted
him. He looked at the soup with the remnant ingredients clustered
around it and exclaimed that it looked as pretty as a still life.
Well, when the Lord wants to tell you something, he sometimes
whispers. In this case, he shouted. No interior design
could have been as rewarding as my husband’s reaction. And
he was right. At that moment, no still life could have looked as
pretty, nor tasted as good, as that soup. Steaming and colorful,
it sat in warm contrast to the cold November day. Most important,
it helped me remember that when we are patient for the things we
are seeking, we often receive other gifts we aren’t looking
for.
Although I would like to have some art on my walls before I die,
I think I can be more patient and thankful for what God has blessed
me with in the meantime.
---
 Butternut
squash soup
• 2 tablespoons of butter or extra virgin olive oil
• 1⁄4 cup dry white wine
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large butternut squash peeled, seeded and cubed (about
4 cups)
• 1 large baking potato cubed
• 1 1⁄2 quarts of chicken stock (canned or homemade)
• 3⁄4 teaspoon paprika
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1⁄2 cup whipping cream (optional)
• fresh chives for garnish
---
 Directions:
 Sauté
the chopped onion in butter or olive oil for 4-5 minutes in a
medium-size stockpot. Add the minced garlic and wine. Sauté
for one more minute, constantly stirring. Add the squash, potatoes,
chicken stock and paprika. Bring to a boil. Cover pot and simmer
for about 35-45 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Pour
soup into a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.
(A wand-style mixer will also work in the pot.) Return the soup
to the pot and add salt and pepper to taste. For extra richness,
stir in the whipping cream and reheat slowly. Top each bowl off
with a drizzle of whipping cream and a few chives.
Enjoy!
Find more tasty recipes and fun crafts at FAITHmag.com
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