Can You Hear Me Now?

"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!" (Matthew11:15).

The image: Our ears. We use our ears to hear, to listen and to perceive and understand our surroundings. The Savior frequently suggests we use our ears to hear not only the temporal but also the spiritual. Developing our spiritual hearing is critical because frequently the Lord speaks using parables or symbols in order to protect sacred things from the unworthy.

The food: “Elephant ears” are delicate, flaky cookies also called palmiers, or palm leaves, by the French. (Do not confuse these cookies with the carnival fare, also called elephant ears, which are fried pastry, a lot like a Utah scone, which should not be confused with English scones.) These cookies are incredibly addictive and very easy to make.

The recipe:

2 sheets puff pastry, thawed

1 ¾ cups sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, if desired

Thaw the puff pastry thoroughly, about thirty minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix sugar with salt. Spread ¾ cup sugar on a clean, flat surface. Unfold the pastry over the sugar. Mix remaining the sugar with cinnamon, if desired. Spread ½ cup sugar over dough. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 10 X 13-inch rectangle while pressing the sugar into the dough on both sides. (There will be a lot of sugar remaining on the flat surface.)

Starting at the long ends of the rectangle, tightly each side until they meet in the middle. (For larger cookies, roll from the short end.) Place the rolled dough in freezer until stiff, about 15 minutes. Repeat the process with the second sheet.

Remove the chilled dough and with sharp knife cut slices ¼-½-inch thick. Place the slices cut side down, about two inches apart on parchment-lined cookie sheets.

Bake about 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and puffy. The cookies burn easily, so watch carefully during the final minutes.

Store in an airtight container. Cookies can be crisped a day later by heating for a few minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Activities:

• Marco Polo: Choose a player to be “it.” With his or her eyes closed or covered with a blindfold, the “It” tries to “tag” someone by using his hearing. This player shouts “Marco” and the other players respond with “Polo.”  This continues until the “It” tags another player, who then becomes the new “It.”

• Parable Go Fish

Preparations: Make a deck of cards using either the names of the different parables or the elements of a specific parable you will be teaching. Label each card, and if you like, find a corresponding picture. Print the card on card stock and make four copies of each card.

For example, for the “Parable of the Sower,” I made up five different cards titled, The Parable of the Sower, Seeds on the Wayside Eaten by Birds, The Seeds in a Stony Place that Have No Root, Seeds Choked by Thorns, and Seeds in Good Soil that Bring Forth Good Fruit.

To play the game:

·      Deal each player 5 cards. (More if your deck is large or there are only a few players.) Place the remaining deck or “pool” in the center of the players.

·      Take turns asking for particular cards to match those in their hands. For example, “John, do you have any “The Parable of the Sower” cards?” John must turn over all of his Parable of the Sower cards, or if he has none, he tells the requester to “Go Fish.”

·      Play continues until one player has no more cards. The player with the most matches wins.