Please don't stop the music!

I was driving back to my parents house after a long day at work and some significant time killing, when I started thinking about heaven. At work, while I was baking my frillionth cookie and rethinking some of my life choices, I tuned into what the chef was saying to one of the sous chefs. I'm not sure what lead to the conversation, but I heard the chef suddenly say, "So what are you going to do when you die?". My ears perked up, and the sous chef said, "Nothing happens when you die. You're just dead and in the ground." For the next 7 minutes or so, the chef talked to this woman about Hell, The Bible, God and salvation. I just sat, mesmerized by how he did it so lovingly, firmly and all while chopping veggies (she chopped chicken). He didn't making it a "thing" he just told her Hell is real, so is God and you need Jesus. Apparently, he'd given her a Bible before and she didn't really do anything with it. This time was different I guess, because she asked questions. He gave her suggestions as to what to read first in the Bible, and explained how the copy he'd given her was different from her mother's Catholic Bible. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it! Sure, I've had several conversations about faith while at work and have had the chance to even pray with a few people, but usually it's with believers who are struggling with their faith or occasionally commenting on something someone says. The man saw an opportunity and jumped in without hesitation! That's how it's supposed to be! After the conversation came to a natural end, they went about their business, no awkwardness, no anger, just more chopping, stirring and serving up tasty food. Since it blessed me, I thought I'd bless you with that little tidbit.

Something else that rustled up the heavenly thoughts was listening to the radio. Given that I spend roughly 1.5 hours in the car a day (on a good day), I have ample opportunity to listen to the radio and my CDs. I love worship music that doesn't point you towards itself, but towards God. There are some groups and some songs that make so much ruckus and are so distracting that God completely gets washed out, and you're just left depleted after the emotional adrenaline rush.

Anywho, I was listening to one of my favorite groups when it hit me. Imagine the most intense worship experience you've ever had. I'm talking the point where you thought you just couldn't take anymore. Where God felt so near, you seriously feared you'd be crushed from the weight of Him, blinded by His beauty and struck dumb by His glory. Times all of that by a ka-jillion. That's heaven (to me, at least). Think about it...you may have felt Him all those other times, but in heaven, He'll actually physically BE THERE. Thank goodness we'll have new bodies, because I know my current shell would not be able to withstand heaven unleashed.

How exciting is that? Spending all eternity worshipping the infinitely beautiful, King of kings and Lord of Lords? I'm just gonna say it now, pretty sure the DCB will be reunited and playing continuously. Hallelujah!

I absolutely adore black beans. They are, without a doubt, my favorite bean. They're wonderful as taco filling, with sweet potatoes in burritos, in salsa, and all by themselves. For lunch today, I'm having them with rice. I decided to experiment with the spices, by adding onion soup mix and taco seasoning. Let me tell you...they are AMAZING!

Rice Bowl Black Beans #2

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed well
1 packet onion soup mix
2 tbs. taco seasoning (or more to taste)
1-1 1/2 cups water (eyeball it)

Throw it all in a pot, and let it simmer for about 25 mins. Notes: I added a few splashes of milk for creaminess.

I also have a new way I make rice. In trying to eat healthier and heartier, I've been mixing different grains whenever I prepare rice. The ratios can be adjusted to your specific tastes, often times I use more wheat and less white rice. The bulgar really adds a good bit of fiber and lends a slightly nutty taste.

Rice mix:

1/2 cup white rice
1 cup brown rice
1/2 cup bulgar wheat
1 tbs margarine or butter
4 1/4 cups water

Boil the water. Add margarine (or olive oil). Add rice/grain. Turn the heat to low and cook until all the water has been absorbed (about 20-25 minutes).

Happy eating!

Dip

So...in the theme of my previous post, here's another recently inspired recipe.

What you need:

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4-1/2 cup picante sauce (maybe more)
1/2 -3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (maybe more)
taco seasoning

What you do:

Mix all of the above together to your taste. I prefer leaving it thick enough to be a spread for crackers rather than a real dip. Best when served with crackers (saltine or otherwise...no real need to get fancy, though...desperate times call for desperate measures), or tortilla chips.

This is definitely a comfort food. Rich, creamy and cheesy...what more could a person want?

Gravy

Working overnight has it's perks. As it turns out, I actually enjoy being up early in the morning...though it tends to sour the rest of my day by making it seem unbearably long. One of my favorite things to do is shop, especially for groceries before 7 am. This morning, I decided I would have butternut squash soup and some sort of cabbage side. For breakfast I wanted biscuits with sausage gravy. I really haven't tried to make this, my favorite breakfast meal, so I figured it was time. I collected a few other random things at the store...this always happens when I shop.

Anywho, I got home, and immediately started on making the biscuits. I love having shortening in the house, because I feel like it opens countless culinary doors. Same thing with butter and bacon. Do you see a fatty trend here? :) My original plan was to just "eyeball" the ingredients for the biscuits. They really aren't complicated, so it wouldn't be hard to do. I'm not a big measurer, I cook using my senses...mainly sight and taste. As I was getting ready to dump some flour in a bowl, I noticed the biscuit recipe on the back of the can of baking powder, and decided to use it. I don't have as much experience as I'd like with making biscuits, so it's was smart to at least have a recipe to reference. It was quick and easy, and the biscuits were in the oven, baking up to buttery goodness within 5 minutes!

Now for the gravy. I heart gravy. I've had all kinds of gravy, from onion gravy (a staple of my childhood), to red eye gravy. Gravy makes me happy. My favorite is pork sausage gravy. I squeezed some pork sausage into a pot and browned it. The next step was where I experienced uncertainty. I still get a bit unsure about whether to use flour or cornstarch to thicken the gravy. Normally, I go for the starch, but I've noticed it doesn't always lend the best tasting product. I'm not saying it makes foods disgusting, but it does lend a little something...extra that people could do without if there was an alternative. So what did I use?

This was the morning of flour power! I added a few tablespoons of the stuff to the browned sausage, coating it well. I've realized adding fat to your thickener, rather than mixing the thickener to cold water yields a smoother, richer sauce. After I felt enough flour had been added, I poured in the heavy cream and milk. By the time it cooked up, the biscuits were done. The gravy took only a couple of minutes to thicken. Everything was FABULOUS! In case you were questioning it...yes, I did just spend a whole post talking about biscuits and gravy.

So in an effort to hone some of my domestic skills, I'll be focusing more on cooking (as if I don't do that enough, already!), and sewing. Admittedly, I dropped the needle a year or so ago, and I have yet to make any clothing for myself, so this will be a fun project. For the cooking, I'm really looking into baking breads and other grain oriented staples. My first sewing project will be to make a skirt. This particular project was born from my irritation with the lack of affordable skirts in stores. Not just skirts, but long, plain skirts. I've decided it will be much easier just to make my own skirt...exactly the way I want it. We'll see how that goes.

Financially, I'm really working on streamlining my budget and STICKING TO the budget. That's been a real struggle for me in the past, but God is really dealing with me in this (and so many other) areas.

Anywho, I've been in a book frenzy lately. Over the past couple of weeks, I've really added quite a few good works to my bookshelf. Interestingly enough, many of the books are bent towards marriage and being a godly woman. God is really making me long to grow in femininity and take on the characteristics of a woman after His own heart. Praise Him.

My current prayer is that I would learn to be more content with the life God has given me. That I would stop worrying myself silly about "what's next", and take care of the here and now. Also that I would learn how encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ with Truth and love.

"O, how He loves you and me! O, how He loves you and me! He gave His life, what more could He give? O, how He loves you! O, how He loves me! O, how He loves you and me!"

The doughboy's gonna get it.

Oh my goodness, I love this article so much, I could barely contain my glee while reading it. I'm sure many of you aren't too surprised this article makes me happy. I think more than just the divorce rate would decrease...this is also a health issue. How much healthier would our families be if momma took the time to COOK our food, not warm something up out of a can? I'm not saying every woman has to grind her own flour (though I'm wanting to head that way), I'm just saying making meals from scratch is a way to demonstrate love. Think about college students, military folks, and the like. What do they always say they miss/never get? Home cooked meals. I'm just sayin'.

Another link to the article, just in case you missed the other 4.

Tips from my kitchen 2

I've been entertaining for the past few nights, and I thought I'd share two of my menus for those who are wondering what to make for supper this week. The first is from a girl's night I hosted Friday, and it turned out really well (see the above pic).

Rosemary-Garlic Baked chicken (I used thighs, because they were on sale, and they are more flavorful)
Rice cooked with Bulgar wheat (seasoned w/a bit of salt and margarine)
Sauteed veggies (carrots, summer squash and fresh green beans)
A wonderful spinach salad made by one of my lovely friends + a lemon pepper vinaigrette I made up
Lemon bundt cake w/lemon icing.

We drank some yummy Riesling with the meal, and it really complimented the citrusy sort of theme we had going. The meal was light enough not to dull your senses afterwards, but of course very filling. It looked great on the plate, a nice balance of colors. The sauteed veggies were particularly pretty.

Tonight I had friends over, and I'm so proud of the deal I found, it's not even funny. After church, I had a million things going on...I'd actually forgotten about the dinner until a friend reminded me. Anyway, I went to Wal Mart near my church, seeking inspiration for the supper. That's when I found chicken quarters on sale for .74 cents a pound!!! I was able to get a family pack for $3.03!! I opted to do another baked chicken meal. Growing up, baked chicken was always so boring, so now I'm trying to make it exciting and do variations on it. Depending on how you make it, it's so much healthier than frying it.

Anyway, tonight's menu was:

Baked orange chicken (oranges were on sale)
Steamed fresh broccoli
Crescent rolls (on sale as well)
homemade brownies

Everything turned out well. I think the orange chicken is my new favorite baked chicken recipe. Here is is:

3/4 cups fresh squeezed orange juice (about the juice of 5 small oranges)
1/4 cup molasses (I used full flavored, but mild works just as well...or use 1/4 cup dark brown sugar for a sweeter flavor)
2 heaping tsp. cornstarch
a pinch or two of salt to taste
1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper
1 Tbs of sugar (if you just used molasses)
The zest of one orange

Whisk ingredients together in small bowl, then pour into a small sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until it begins to thicken. If you're making Chinese style orange chicken, this sauce should be poured over the fried chicken pieces. If you're making baked orange chicken, you should baked the chicken until it's done, then pour/brush the sauce over it and bake another 5-7 minutes at 375.

I love bargain shopping, and feeding my friends without breaking the bank. It pays to pay attention to sales ads and make notes of things when you're in the store. Also, try looking online for printable coupons for sales items that are being advertised in the weekly ad, you can save a ton! A lot of times, you can get away with using coupons (sometimes multiple coupons) on things that are already on sale.

Helpful tips from my kitchen

For those who were wondering, 1/4 cup of applesauce or half a banana can substitute for 1 egg in a baking recipe. 2 tbs of cornstarch will also do the trick. The awesome thing about this is that these substitutions are cheaper than a dozen eggs and are lower in cholesterol! Applesauce is also a good substitute for oil in most baked goods.

1 quart of almond milk is slightly cheaper than cow's milk, and can be stored unopened and unrefrigerated MUCH longer than cow's milk lasts in the fridge. By much longer, I mean...A YEAR (compare expiration dates)! It may also be used in any recipe that calls for cow's milk. Once opened though, it lasts about as long as cow's milk.

Home sweet home

As of late, I have been positively consumed with Biblical womanhood. There is an absolute plethora of information out there on this subject! I've stumbled across TONS of really good websites that have given me much in encouragement in this area. If possible there are even more BLOGS kept by some pretty amazing women. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading about their daily struggles, triumphs, heartaches and moments of outright JOY! Though, I have a fair amount of knowledge on homemaking just from my education and upbringing, I've learned much from these blogs and websites. Everything from "frugal living" to "how to make your home smell yummy." Homemaking and femininity are looked down upon in our society. The ideas of staying home to raise your children, and instilling the importance of family and God, are lost upon my generation. One blog, written by an older homemaker (I think her children are grown, and out of the nest), had helpful tips and advice for women who didn't have a "homemaking mentor".

This got me to thinking about my own upbringing. The more I get to know different people, the more grateful for my mother I become. She, taught me SO much about cooking, sewing, and making a house a home. There wasn't a formal "training", but rather, she just lived her life, and I learned untold numbers of valuable lessons from it. I remember when I was about 4 years old, I saw her sewing at the kitchen one day, and I walked up and said, "whatcha doin?". She said simply said, "sewing." Next thing ya know, I'd climbed up into one of the chairs next to her and started imitating her movements. She didn't really say anything, but rather, corrected me when I'd mess up (which was fairly often). I've been sewing ever since then. The same sort of thing happened with cooking.

I always loved to help her in the kitchen, or just to watch what she was doing. Every once in a while, she'd let me experiment by myself. Sometimes, if we'd seen some new and interesting food on TV, like an exotic fruit or new way of preparing something, she'd take me to the library, and we'd look up books about it. Then, the next time we went to the grocery store, we'd get it. The real fun when we'd come home and try it. It wasn't that my mom was a Suzy Homemaker type, but more that she just did the things she'd been taught by her mother. As for the food experiments, we did those because SHE was genuinely interested in trying new things, and wanted to satisfy her own curiosity.

When I have friends over for supper, it's so interesting to see what they do when they arrive, it says a lot about their upbringing. Usually guys will just go hang out in the living room, but the women do one of two things: 1.) They offer to help or 2.) They sit at the table, and watch me cook. Naturally, the women who grew up helping their mother in the kitchen, automatically offer to help, and the women who didn't, just sit and watch. I'm saddened that so many young women today know nothing about homemaking, because it has virtually nothing to do with being a domestic slave; it's about knowing how to manage your affairs. I guess this post is really just one, big "THANK YOU" to my mom, because as I read the blogs of these joyful homemakers and their many "adventures", I'm grateful to my mother for giving me a foundation from which to spring forth. Hopefully, someday I will be able to use my knowledge and abilities in an extended disco version way...when/if the Lord ever blesses me with a husband and a duck line of babies, but for now...I'm gonna go sit in my recliner and enjoy this tiny haven I've come to call home.

I've discovered this wonderful website on Biblical womanhood.

www.biblicalwomanhoodonline.com

I stumbled across it when I was searching for a good recipe for homemade pizza crust (I tried the one from the website and it was fabulous). Check out the courtship story, it's incredibly sweet. I think it's well past time for courtship to make a comeback.

Dark side of the jen

Yesterday I worked 11 hours in the sun...the hot, hot sun. I'm 20 shades darker, than I was at 6am yesterday. When I got home, I was glowing. Not sunburned, though...my skin actually looks pretty decent; just darker. The catering company I'm working for was chosen to be the cater for a travel channel commercial shoot! I was the "lucky" soul that got to be on site...ALL DAY....ALONE with the crew. They were filming a commercial for Anthony Bourdain's show, "No Reservations". Yes, I got to meet him. Not bad, not bad at all. I was with the crew all day as they walked up and down Elm street filming and shooting. Did I mention it was a bit toasty? Yeah...

My boss left me there by myself to wait on the crew of 20-30 people, hand and foot. "Pamper them", she said as she sped off. It wasn't too bad. I would walk around the set every 10 minutes or so with snack baskets/goodies to offer the crew. I had a "station" set up with all of my supplies. I'd walk a block and a half to offer them stuff/make sure they had enough drinks in their cooler, then walk a block and a half back to my station to refill. Needless to say, I was worn out then, and I'm still worn out (even though I just finished working 9.5 hours today). It was fun to watch them shoot, and they were extremely nice. At one point Anthony was wielding a flame thrower...you haven't lived until you've seen one used in real life. :-)

For lunch, my boss came back to drop off the food and help set up the buffet. We fed them breaded chicken Parmesan, pesto pasta, veggies al dente, salad, and Dr. Pepper cake. Then my boss again left me alone to be their servant-girl. I cleared all 20-30 plates (plus the 6 cops we had on site since we were in the highest crime area in Waco), and cleaned up as they went back out to continue shooting. After I cleaned, and sat down (for the first time all day) for 10 minutes, I was back out the door, walking the block with my baskets. I felt a little like I was in Juarez because I was walking the streets with baskets of food, the buildings were brightly colored, and there were...unsavory characters milling about. I got hit on multiple times by the characters, and once I thought this thug looking guy was going to get out of his car and either kill, rape or kidnap me. He'd spotted me, pulled up to the curb and started trying to "holla" at me, then got annoyed when I wasn't interested. The cops were not there looking out for me.

Anywho, yesterday was an interesting experience, and I got to meet a celebrity (not to mention I also got 2 hours overtime pay...woohoo!).

I wanna fly away

Written 4/3/08

Some days I can't wait to get "old". I can't wait to be able to look back on a (hopefully) long lifetime of God's continual, relentless faithfulness. Even at 24 years old, I've got plenty examples of that. I've had a fairly rough year since graduating. Many of you know about my struggles, and frustrations. If not....scroll down. This past week, I had yet another wall erected in my path, but thanks to past lessons learned, I've already regrouped and am prepping to hopefully charge full steam ahead down the next path. Praise God for teaching me adaptability!

In other news...I had my taxes done today. It was an interesting experience. I went the cheap (free) route, and had my taxes done at a local school's free tax preparation clinic thing. As I was sitting in the school library taking my surroundings, I was stuck at how much it reminded me of something like a free clinic. There were babies crying, (potential) baby mama's talking loudly into cell phones while wearing outfits 20x too small, young men... (potential) baby daddies wearing shirts and pants/shorts 20x too big on their stick thin frames. Gossip was flying about, and the whole time, some old...slightly sleazy guy...probably 45 or so, was trying desperately to have a conversation with me. Forgive me, but...I was not trying to hear anything he had to say. I know, I know...not very Christlike, but you didn't see the way he was eyeing me.

Last night I was up late watching old PBS episodes of Julia Child's Master Chef's show. Learned how to make pasta. Quickly tried that recipe today for lunch. SO much fun! All the shaping of the pasta and rolling out the dough. I made broad noodles, fettutini, and bowtie pasta...all pink, thanks to the beet juice. I cooked some of it in chicken broth, then reduced the amount of broth and added a bit of butter to make more of a creamy sauce on the noodles w/o them swimming in sauce. Very tasty!

Anywho, love to you and yours!