How we Serve

So this morning, Kid #3 and The Hubby headed out early(ish) to work on a local Habitat House. I'm not so great with a hammer, but I would have tagged along to hand out water or food if I didn't have my own two tag-a-longs at home to watch over.

While helping build a house for Habitat for Humanity is a good and noble thing to do, there are other ways to serve, even if you are stuck in your house monitoring two children who are pretending to clean their rooms. This is the way I chose:

And here's how they turned out, nothing fancy like the book, but I don't think my friends will complain. These little buddies are going to church tomorrow night, to join the cookies and lemonade part of the vespers service.

These fellows weren't ready to be moved to their pretty white plate, but I was impatient and wanted to get their picture as soon as I was finished, hence the wax paper and cookie sheet. I think they are still pretty no matter where they are hanging out.

And these are the cute little mini-cupcake papers I intended to sit my Cake Pops in, but unfortunately I oversized my Pops, so instead of nesting in the cupcake papers, they smush'em. Guess I'll have to give this another try or make some super cute mini-cupcakes.

And here's my little disclaimer in case any of my friends from church are reading this: I cannot guarantee the integrity of these Cake Pops. All I know is that they taste good, but I do not know if after one bite, they will come tumbling off their cute little lollipop stick. Eat with care and be ready to catch the falling pieces.

If you want to try these yourself, I found my recipe in Cake Pops, by Bakerella. Mine were made with store bought cake mix and store bought icing - which is what is recommended in the book. She also has a website where you can learn the basic technique. As for me, I don't think there will be any fancy Cake Pops in my future, but they sure are fun to look at.

fyi: I checked out Cake Pops from my library, but I've also seen it for sale at Lowe's. Who knew? Maybe there is some weird connection between building a house and making a Cake Pop?

A Popsicle Kick

It's been a hot, hot summer. If you live just about anywhere in the United States, you probably knew that already. I love to bake, but drastic temperatures call for drastic changes. In my house, this summer will probably be known as the summer of the popsicle. I'm not a foodie photographer, so I won't inundate you with all of my creations, a few of which included: Sweet Corn Popsicles, Fudgsicles, Blackberry, Cantaloupe with Raspberry Swirl, Strawberry Shortcake, Peach Swirl with Cookie Surprise....... Don't you wish you lived in my neighborhood?

Not everyone has been thrilled with this new kick that I'm on. There are some in the house that would prefer to have a homemade cookie every day of the week. And others that think a homemade popsicle is good, but baked goods are better, especially if they are chocolate chip cookies. That particular kid was reading as I was whirring the blender one day, working on my next popsicle concoction.

Here's how our conversation went- Him : "How much longer will you be?" Me: "Why? Is this noise bothering you?" Him: "Well, I am trying to read...." Me: "But I'm making popsicles. Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm. Good ones, too. You'll like them." Him: "I know something that is quiet.....making chocolate chip cookies."

Some kids just don't know how lucky they are!

And here is what you do if you have leftover popsicle makings, but no more molds and you are plum out of Dixie Cups.

Here are a few tips I've garnered during my popsicle concocting weeks:

(The popsicles that aren't linked to another website are just my own creations, no real recipes, just a bunch of ingredients and a blender)

- on the sweet corn pops, I use skim milk and add about 1/3 cup butter, 1/3 cup Smart Balance spread and a little dry buttermilk mix for good measure. I like to cook with what I have, so if I didn't have the buttermilk mix on hand, I wouldn't worry about it.

- don't skimp on the simmering for the fudgsicles or they may taste a little "powdery", or so say my taste testers. Didn't bother me any and powdery or not, they still prefer these to store bought

- anything you use to make a smoothie could be put in a popsicle mold

- on the strawberry shortcake, they look pretty with layers, but are so much easier to just swirl the strawberries into the vanilla mixture

- any popsicles you want to swirl, like my cantaloupe with raspberry swirl, will swirl better in a small dixie cup, rather than a mold, but oh.... I do love my molds.

-try blending various yogurts, fruit and if you like a little crunchy surprise, drop in a few chunks of Golden Oreos.

-I find that my popsicles that have some dairy in them are much less icy than the straight fruit.

If you are a closet made scientist like me, I think you'll find experimenting with popsicles to be tasty fun!

A conversation and a recipe

I was planning on sharing about my newfound passion for homemade popsicles in today's blog post, but then I heard this conversation:

"Enchiladas"

"Do you like enchiladas?"

"I love enchildadas!"

"Me too! Let's sing a song about enchiladas."

"Enchiladas, enchiladas, how I love enchiladas....."

The funny thing is that there was only one person (a young child who shall remain unnamed) in this conversation. Should I worry or should I just make enchiladas?

I'm going with the enchiladas and here is my favorite enchilada recipe, from Mary at Owlhaven.

http://www.owlhaven.net/2008/04/24/chicken-enchiladas-double-batch/

Just a few notes:

-this is a double batch, which you can cut in half if you don't want an extra casserole to pop in the freezer

- I often cheat and use canned chicken or leftover chicken from other dinners.

- you're going to wish you had made a double batch after you taste this!

- you can also use your own homemade taco seasoning - the recipe is in Mary's cookbook, but possibly on her blog as well

Sorry, no pictures since I haven't made this yet today. Popsicle post, with pictures, will be coming along soon!

And yes, I know the fonts in the post are all different. Apparently, it's going to take me a while to get my blog groove back. Sorry.

The Evolution of Prayer -part 4, finally.

We returned from a whirlwind week of visitations, memorial and funeral serves, spread out over 3 states and everyday life began again. That's when the anger stage set in - real life began and my Mom wasn't there at the end of the phone line. The kids were doing cute things and hitting milestones and who would I call that really cared like their Granny did? God was not my friend at that point in my life. We weren't all that close to begin with and now he had really messed up things for me and I wasn't speaking with him.

It took years to gain back my voice. Years and a series of events and people that God put in my path to teach me not only how to pray again, but how to really, truly pray. How to talk with God without any concerns about what exactly is the right thing to say. How to know God well enough to have him as my closest friend, one that I can confide anything in.

These days, I pray in so many ways and I know that they are all good and pleasing to God. I pray in a constant stream of chatter that goes on in my head. I pray memorized prayers. I pray with my children and husband. I pray in color when I use my markers on paper to keep me focused on a certain scripture or prayer request. I pray through the labyrinth, though I usually get lost, at least I am lost in prayer. I still pray my "Dear God...." letter-type prayers. I pray in nature, I pray in the car, I pray in the shower. I pray when I am happy and I pray when I am mad. I pray for myself, I pray for others and I pray for our world.

Prayer is just my conversation with God and now that I have finally figured that out, I no longer try to fit it into a little box of correct and incorrect ways to pray. I lift up my voice to the Lord in all sorts of ways. And when I'm doing really well, I remember to stop and listen to what God has to say to me. That's not my strongest point right now. I'm still working on it, but I know I can ask for help with that too and God will provide.

And that is the evolution of my prayer life, so far......

I will return!

There is an ending to this story. In fact, all of my entries were composed months ago, before the kids got out of school for the summer. And then I started this blog and guess what? The kids got out of school for the summer! Yep, bad time to begin blogging.

In case I didn't mention it before, the writings that I am posting were written in a "course" that I took called Soul Design, based on the book by Rev. Martha Frizlanger. The weekly assignments follow the order of service and the suggested writing activities are based on that. It seemed an overwhelming task at first, but each week, when I would sit and ponder and pray, God would just send the memories and words flowing back to me as I needed them. It was really an amazing process to get out of the way and let God send the stories and the words. So much easier than when I try to be completely in charge.

Turns out that I am as wordy on paper as I am in real life and since I prefer to read blogs that are written in bite size morsels (yes, I am a food blog junkie), I have broken my writings into several parts, so you'll need to start with part one of each topic if you want it to make more sense.

I had planned to give you an overview of the topics for each week, but I cannot find my Soul Design book. Might have something to do with the kids being home from school for the summer, or maybe I just misplace things. I'm going with number A, but I've been wrong before.

My hope in sharing these assignments on the webosphere is that maybe my faith journey sounds familiar to someone else, or interesting and causes someone to want to dig a little deeper and open their Bible or find a church. That's my hope.

So anyway, school starts in 3 weeks, and unless I decide to do something crazy like begin homeschooling again, I should be able to post more regularly by then. By the way, this "course" was done in a small group, just like a Bible study. If you are interested in having a group of your own do a Soul Design study, I can let you know how to find the book. Once I find my own :)

prayer - part 3

Shortly after returning from the festivities in Baltimore, we would get a phone call from Steve's sister. Something wasn't quite right. She was taking Steve's mom to the doctor and would let us know what they figured out.

Beema had been doing so well that we were not prepared to learn the news that the cancer had returned and this time with a vengeance. There must have been a renegade cell left behind after surgery and it had spread throughout her body. There was no fighting it this time. Hospice was called in. Steve flew to upstate New York to be with his mom and a short time later she fell into a coma.

This was not at all what we were expecting. By now, you'd have thought I would have learned not to answer the phone. But I hadn't learned that lesson, so I picked up the receiver the next day to hear Pere (my step-Dad) on the other end. He and my mom were at the ocean house, about 3 hours from Baltimore, but were heading back home early because Mom was having trouble breathing. He'd call me after they saw the doctor.

God blessed me with some wonderful friends in Tennessee. Here I was, husband at his mother's side while she was slowly fading away, two small children at home, and my mom, possibly having complications from the disease that I had hoped she had kicked in the butt. I needed to be in Baltimore to know what was going on and my friends knew that. They swooped in and took care of everything on the homefront, including our kids, who were 4&2 years old, and they put me on a plane and told me not to worry about a thing. If you looked up Godsend in the dictionary, you would see a picture of these friends.

While I was in the air, somewhere between Tennessee and Maryland, my mom was being admitted to the hospital. I arrived at her bedside in time to have a few hours with her before she lost consciousness. She died the next morning, June 9th, at 9 AM, with her husband and children around her bedside.

I called Steve from in NY. His mom was still clinging to life, though she had not been conscious for sometime. Steve left his brother and sister to keep vigil over their mom, not knowing how much longer she'd hang on, and flew to Baltimore to be with me and my family as we prepared for my mom's funeral. Steve's mom passed a short time later, in the wee morning hours of June 1oth. Not even 24 hours after my mom had died.

That was it. Either I lost my voice or I was so mad at God that I just couldn't speak to him. Who loses two grandmas in one day?????

to be continued (and concluded - really)

A Recipe, A Remembrance, A Regret

Now seems like a good time for a recipe. One with chocolate. One that brings back memories of my mother. I could have made this for my morning Soul Design class because it is traditionally called a coffee cake, but in my book it was called the yearly, most favored and requested, birthday cake. Most of my kids request this same cake for their birthday. Goes great with vanilla ice cream and candles!

Here's where I could type the recipe, but after 40 years of eating and baking this cake and thinking we were the only ones who were nuts over this recipe, I stumbled across a slightly improved version of it on one of my favorite foodie sites.

Before I share, I should mention that this cake comes with another layer of guilt, for me anyway. And it is not in the chocolate chips or the sour cream or the butter. Nope, it is much deeper than that. My mother had a habit of always giving credit to the source of a recipe when she wrote it in her cookbook. This recipe came from her friend, who we will call Ellie Smith. Ellie Smith had a daughter, about my age who we will call Susie Smith.

I really only have one memory of these old friends, besides the cake recipe, and it is from a day spent at The Enchanted Forest. Even though it was a small scale, cheesy amusement type of park, my brother and I loved that place. I suppose we didn't get out much.

One day, we made a trip to our beloved forest with the Ellie and Susie Smith family. The very same ones who introduced our family to Chocolate Chip Cake. For some reason, Susie had a slipper on one foot and an ace bandage to complete the ensemble. I'm sure she had some type of injury, and looking back, I hope it was just a sprain and not a skin wound.

I can almost picture her feet, one wearing a Jack Purcell(the forerunner of Chuck Taylor's) and the other in a pink, fuzzy slipper. What isn't so clear in my mind, is the incident that caused Susie to slip while getting into the paddle boat that would carry us off to see Willie the Whale or some other such enchanted character.

Without a doubt, I know that I didn't purposely cause Susie to fall into the 3 feet of murky water, causing her pretty pink slipper to lose its fluff or her expertly wrapped ace bandage to sag. I can't even remember if I was already in the boat or was I supposed to be steadying it as Susie climbed in first. Who has a 9 year old kid steady a boat anyway? I guess the Enchanted Forest was a low budget operation.

Either way, I am pretty sure I was blamed and I'm also pretty certain that what happened was just an accident. It wasn't like I had any hidden envy of Susie's fuzzy, pink slipper - especially being that it was paired with a Jack Purcell. And while I was a little irritated that her unusual footwear caused her to slow us all down on our quest to conquer The Enchanted Forest, I would not have intentionally thrown her over broad.

My lingering feelings of contrition have to do with the fact that I laughed. And my brother laughed. Which might have been okay if Susie was laughing too. But I distinctly remember her not seeing any of the humor in her drowned, pink slipper and I'm pretty sure that was the end of our outing at the Enchanted Forest. I still feel a little bad about that. I'm sure my mother made us apologize, but I know we were still trying to contain ourselves as we all piled into the Smith's circa 1970 station wagon to head home.

So if you are out there, the 50ish-something year old woman, who remembers wearing a pink slipper to the magical land of story book characters, only to have your day ruined by a tricky attempt to board a paddle boat, I am truly sorry that I laughed, further adding to your humiliation over the situation. I should have tried to put myself in your shoes. Or rather your shoe and your pink, fuzzy slipper. Maybe then I would have realized that you can't laugh with someone if they aren't laughing.

I've remembered that little lesson you taught me many time over the years, while enjoying a slice of the best ever birthday/coffee cake. Tell your Mom thanks for the recipe!

Finally... the recipe. Sure to be your favorite cake too - let me know what you think. This is the new and improved version from Smitten Kitchen.

* a few baking tips: I never separated my eggs; however, after finding this improved version on Smitten Kitchen, I felt obliged to give it a try. My unsophisticated palate could not detect a difference, so it's really your choice how to handle the eggs.

and b) Use a little less layer on the bottom layer so you'll have an easier time spreading the top layer over the chocolate, cinnamon yummy goodness in the middle. This is the voice of experience speaking.

Enjoy!