Pizza Please with a Cherry on Top!

What’s your favorite pizza topping?

More Tomato Harvest Ideas

Here is my un-recipe for home grown tomato sauce to be used for spaghetti, pizza sauce, casserole’s… anything your little heart desires!

Look to the Rock

Isaiah 51:1 says “…look to the Rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were hewn.”

I was thinking about that verse and our discussions on names and I had an epiphany….  what do God’s names mean and what are  they all?

So I went on a little hunt.  Do you know that our English translation of the Bible is quite limited in understanding of His names.  What I mean is that God’s names are so deep and rich yet in our language there is no comparrison to the original Hebrew. 

Where we use “Lord” there are many many different versions of the name Jehovah (YHWH or simply the 4 letters) which is God’s covenant name or the name He promised.  It means that he is the God who continually reveals himself to us.  Add it to another name and it literally means he will reveal himself to be as such…. Example; there is Jehovah Raah, which means shepherd, Jehovah Nissi meaning banner or refuge and carries with it a hope that can’t be understood in just one word of the English language.  Since Jehovah preceeds each of the names they literally mean, God who reveals himself to be our shepherd, or the God who will show us He is our hope!

I’m not doing all the work for you!   Find out for yourself who God want’s to reveal that He is for you today!

Here are a couple few websites I found to help you study.

Blue Letter Bible

Hebrew Christians

Bible Gateway

Bokey or Bokoo, it’s Bokeh

Well I was sitting here, sipping an overly sweet cup of coffee and eating a handful of chocolate chips, feeling sorry for myself having woke up early this morning to dogs barking and my two middle boys screaming at eachother and throwing cars.  Ugh!  I “wandered” over to check out some photo tips at Pioneer Woman and Mizz Booshay had published a challenge.  Hey, maybe I’ll give it a shot said I!  So, crawling out of my funk here is my attempt at capturing fall with bokeh using my little point and shoot camera. 

So what is bokeh you ask?  Beats me!  Okay so I don’t know the technical explination but I like what Jennifer said, “bokeh is that fuzzy dreaminess” in the background.

In my opinion, fall is the best season of all and it is more than just changing leaves, although I love that too, it is about texture…

and harvesting strange ears of crossbred corn (Oops!)…

and the wonder in a childs eyes (does this one count-only a little bokeh)…

and of course the colors…

All pics are straight out of my little point and shoot camera except the one of Bubba, I cropped it to eliminate a nice shot of his runny nose, guess that’s fall too maybe I should have left it! That was fun, thanks for the challenge, I’m temporarily out of my funk!

Tips for making gluten free bread

It took me almost a year and at least twenty terrible loaves (probably closer to 100), nearly as many that were edible but looked horrible and finally a successful gluten free bread recipe.  Another few months to make it into something reproducible.  Just because the stars all line up for that one wonderful loaf of bread doesn’t mean it can be done again and again!

I’ve been told that mine is the best gluten free bread ever!  One of my customers reports that her husband has given up wheat bread in favor of my gluten free version.

Here are my tips:

Mill your own rice (and other grains) to save considerable expense.

Using a favorite recipe, mix the dry ingredients in advance to make a ”big batch” version.  I make a 4 loaf mix put that in a gallon zip loc bag in the refrigerator then every couple of days I make the loaves one at a time in my bread machine.  Or you can save in gallon canning jars.

It is also possible to bake gluten free bread the conventional way but the best results require a 400 degree oven, an hour to rise and an hour to bake so I rarely have that kind of time or want to heat the kitchen like a … well an oven! 

To make a gluten free loaf in a bread machine…

1. Place wet ingredients in the bread machine first.
2. Cover the liquids with dry ingredients.
3. Make a depression in the dry ingredients and put the yeast in that (don’t let it touch the liquid)
4. With gluten free bread choose the bread machine setting with the longest rise time.
5. You will need to mix the ingredients at least once with a spatula during the mix cycle. Resist the urge to add flour.
6. When possible remove the paddle (mixer in the bottom) after the mix cycle but BEFORE the first rise.
7. At this point you should be able to leave it alone and wait for yummy, hot bread!

 

Whether you have a GF setting or not your best loaf will result if you do at least these two things… (mentioned above and expanded on here).

1. Give your dough a little attention in the mixing stage.  During the first 10 min most bread machines are warming and the next 20min or so is the mixing stage.  During the mixing stage it will serve you well to take a spatula and scrape the sides once or twice.  Gluten free dough is very sticky and wet it will never “clean the sides” like regular dough so you have to help it along.  The dough should be the consistency of thick pancake batter.  If it seems lumpy or if it does not stick to your spatula it most likely needs a tablespoon or two more water.  If it is quite runny and falls right off the spatula when mixed you may need to sprinkle in more rice flour. But in general you should resist the urge to add flour.
2. Remove the paddle:  Bread machines have several cycles. One of the first cycles is mix, next is rise, then they go into a “knock down” cycle before the final bake stage.  Since gluten free bread will only rise once you will want to remove the paddle before the knock down stage or the result will be a dense loaf.  Once it is finished mixing you can remove the paddle by wetting a spatula and your hand, scrape most the dough away from the mixing paddle and then slip it off.  Wet the spatula again (or your hand) and smooth the dough back into a recognizable shape then allow your bread machine to complete your gluten free wonder undisturbed!

This is the dough as it mixes…

Here is what the dough should look like when it has finished mixing…

If you choose to bake your loaf you can spoon it into prepared loaf pans like this…

Spread the dough with a spatula until smooth like this…

Next allow to rise…

Then bake.  Cover the bread with tin foil. Bake until the internal temp is around 180 or a toothpick comes out clean.  To get a darker crisper crust brush with olive oil and remove the cover for the last 5 min.

Remove from the pan within 15min-20min of baking to avoid a soggy crust (even if you use a bread machine).  Allow to cool, slice and serve.

Gluten free bread will usually only keep a couple days left out on a bread board covered with a towel.  If you keep it in an airtight container it will last up to 1wk.  

On the Subject of Our Value in Christ

 I have very little to say about this book but freakin’ awesome and INSANE pretty much sums it up.  You must know that I hate modern romance books but Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers (an allegory of the book of Hosea) ROCKED MY WORLD! It was loaned to me and I opened it reluctantly but finished it in 3 sittings …and I bought my own copy AFTER reading it!

Among my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis and Frank Peretti, Francine Rivers finds good company!

What’s in a Name?

If you look at Biblical examples many times children were named for the mother’s first impression; Esau (hairy), Jacob (deceiver- he came as a surprise, hanging onto the heel of his elder brother) and so on….

I’ve decided if I were to name my kids based on my current impression they would not have the most flattering of names.  Would I for that matter??

Introducing Lawyer (master of debate and arguing his case):

 

Here is Ticking Time Bomb (everything is fine until an unknown switch is triggered and KABOOM!):

 

This is Clown (jokester, magpie, remember-er of everything especially naughty words and apparently “funny” jokes):

 

Finally the Girl (at least she IS a girl but man can she scream and manipulate and get everyone wrapped around that pinky finger):

 

Sigh! Then there is me, I can’t even imagine the things I deserve to be called.  Thank you Lord for giving us a “new name” for making us children of the Living God, for allowing us to be know by association of YOU. 

Christian

“Christ follower”

“Little Christ”

“Child of the Most High!”

Revelation 2:17  He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.

Revelation 3:11-13  11.I am coming soon, hold onto what you have so that no one will take your crown.  12.Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it.  I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which is coming down out of heavenfrom my God; and I will also write on him my new name. 13. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

New Page:

I’ve just launched a new page to catalogue the stories that so many of you enjoy. Check out “Long and Short of it”.  I hope you find it easier.

Thank you for your encouragement and let me know if you have suggestions on ways to make my blog easier to navigate. What you like and can’t find, what you don’t like and are bugged by

The Doctors Doctor

It wasn’t even Sunday and I got that feeling in my stomach that happens when you know you are supposed to go up during the altar call.  The very same butterflies that urge you to speak out on something important.  The unrest that does not settle until you take action.  I’m sure you’ve felt the same feeling in one situation or another.  But this was the middle of the week.  No pastor preaching, nobody challenging my ideals just me driving my car down the road in peace and quiet!  Maybe that was the trouble, I’m usually unable to think, let alone pray with my Thinglets poking each other and Pee Wee squealing along with them, my radio blaring to try to drowned out the noise.

I knew what it meant. We have a new neighbor in the valley whose house I pass each time I go to town.  The  family had moved into the single level home six months after the man of the house had suffered a major frontal lobe stroke that put him in a nursing home and made it unable for him to return to their multi level house only a few miles away.

Matt and I had stopped by one day and offered our assistance when we saw them moving in.  Jane told us the whole story about her husbands stroke and how he was unable to return home to her and the kids until they moved into a house that was better suited to a wheelchair.

When we left I couldn’t stop thinking about how I could serve them better.  What could I do to help out? 

Drop off a meal?  Ugh!  No offense to any kind soul who serves meals in love but I always cringe at the Christian cliche, “Just serve them a meal!”  Although this common practice is how I was introduced to one of my favorite meals to date (so I had better not frown too obviously) it’s just not my cup of soup.

I could babysit the kids but anyone who knows me IRL knows that I am not the gal for that job! While I love my kids and have an absolute blast with each and every one of them I’m not the little kid type. Please send me all your teenagers but not your babies!  Only one of Jane’s children would fit my category so I didn’t think that would be my job either.

“How then Lord, how can I help?”

Have you ever asked a question and promptly found you regret the resulting answer?

I did get a clear answer.  Not in the form of actual words but a vivid and real epiphany complete with the thought process behind it, none of which I came up with on my own.

For months the Lord has been preparing me to stop and present His harebrained plan of which I am supposed to happily facilitate.  I’ve prayed many times since then, ” let me know when it is time Lord,”   and yet even when he made it distinctly evident, I didn’t want to go through with it.

***************

Imagine an intelligent and mature man who had spent a lifetime pursuing a successful career as a doctor, a family practitioner.  He has a beautiful wife many years younger than himself, loving and devoted to him, his three darling children and his time consuming  job and passion.  They live in a grand custom home on a private lake and lead a life of ease.  The family entertains many friends and attends church every holiday.  They are the ideal American family.

Now imagine you are that man and one night after you lay your head to rest you awake to the bright lights of the ER.   The smells and sounds as familiar as your  jobplace. 

Wait… you can not turn your head, you can’t sit up and reach over to turn off the monitor beeping in your ear.  Your heart begins to race, your eyes dart from the lights on the ceiling to the IV in your hand.  The blue coats rushing around are not your nurses, but you’ve seen them before while attending surgery at the local hospital.  Why can’t you speak?  You want to ask “Why am I laying here?”

***************

I thought about these things and I imagined myself in Dr. Smith’s position.  I feared the inability to move myself, to express myself, to learn.  When I climbed into his shoes I was terrified and lonely.

It’s been a year since his stroke but mobility has not returned, speech continues to allude him.  People come to the new house to wish him speedy recovery but most of them don’t know what to say, they talk to him like a child.  He can’t lift his hand to shake theirs, he can not assure them he is still as sharp as ever in thought.  He can only sit alone with his  thoughts hoping to either get well or die.

If I were in his shoes I can only imagine the struggle I would have pondering the apparent either/or.

Armed with compassion I would not have mustered on my own and the harebrained plan that made me blush each time I explained it to those who were praying, I drove up the driveway to the new house and parked reluctantly at the barn.

I was really hoping this was another practice run since I’d parked there once before (another time when the butterflies made me do it) only to find that Jane was not home.    This time she slipped out the back door almost immediately and strode confidently toward my Suburban.  A lump formed in my throat.  I conjured up a front for my visit and began to converse about our kids, 4-H, the Mariners (not really) until finally the swirling, fluttering, shaky feeling could no longer be ignored.

“Jane, uh er, I uh…,” I took a deep breath then spit it all out, “the real reason for my visit is to see if your husband would like if I was to read to him on a regular basis.” 

I didn’t look for her reaction before I continued, “I have a book in mind that I have not read yet, it’s a supernatural thriller that honestly sounds a little scary.”

Then I took another breath and tried to blur the next sentence into an unrecognizable muddle, “It has a faith based component, so I believe it ends well.”

To my surprise my lovely neighbor whom I barely know anything about latched onto the whole idea like I was sent by God to help ease her burden.  Imagine that!

Before blurting out the whole plan I had thoroughly convinced myself of the stupidity of reading to an intelligent man, like I was Mr Rogers.  The Lord told me clearly to read  to a scholarly doctor who despite his medical condition I was convinced  could certainly read on his own.

After I had settled my fluttering friends, I confided in Jane as to how stupid I felt for even suggesting the idea.  The only read aloud forums I would let myself imagine were juvenile gatherings; the library story hour, Saturday nights as a kid listing to my dad read “Little House on the Prairie“ and visions of my own children nestled around reading “The Indian in the Cupboard.”  What in the world would a full grown man think of me READING to him.  “I’m sure he can read on his own, maybe he would prefer to borrow my book!”  I explained.

“Oh, no,” Jane grew solemn “He would not be able to hold the book.”

The stroke had been severe enough that even a year later the doctor is still unable to sit fully on his own or steady his hands for anything other than a squeeze or a meager wave.  His speech is nearly non existent and if he stands at all it is only with the help of a strong adult.  Most of the time she said he doesn’t even lift his head to watch the TV.  ”He just listens,” she assumed aloud.

At the mention of faith (a word I had used hoping to avoid the subject of Jesus all together) a whole new conversation emerged and I spent the next hour sharing a spiritual connection with Jane.  I learned that she is a believer herself and concerned about her husbands salvation.  Before the stroke, he had been successful and preoccupied, not the one to persue Christian gatherings but never in the way of her endeavor to educate the children on “religious” matters.  She told me about how more and more people have been pursuing him and telling him that Christ wants to be a part of his life.

She told me, with an embarrased but mischievous glint in her eye that she had been reading her Bible to him and dragging him out to church every Sunday. 

As she described it, they had recently had a discussion where she told him that he needed to give his burdens to the Lord and allow Christ into his life.  Things that day had been really bad, he was weak and unhelpful when she tried to get him up, she had struggled to lift while he resisted and in the end he had fallen.  She knew that her prayers could only go so far since the Lord will not make a person believe so she urged him to pray and ask God for assistance.  The next day his strength was back and his face a little less ashen.  

The Lord hears and the doctor is beginning to ask!

There was an urgency in Jane’s mind in regard to her husband knowing the Lord’s healing.  We talked about the possibility of the Great Physician bringing total healing and she insisted it won’t happen until Dr. Smith allows it.

I invited them to a bible study at our house and she said they would be sure to come.

Through obedience to the Lord, I have made a new friend, been given a new prayer, and am a participant in the healing process of the doctor in heart and health!  I am confident this won’t be the end of the story.

Click here to read what happened next.

For Kathryn

I’m going on a little field trip with the boys.  We plan to drive out tomorrow morning to Philipsburg MT and then we will explore a nearby ghost town.

I spent the day as the day before a trip should be spent, doing laundry and reading a book my friend told me I had to read!   I resisted slightly when I saw it is a christian romance (I’m not big on those) but this book is insane! I can’t put it down.

So, I’ve got to get back to the book but for Kathryn, who I know loves kitty’s, here is Tiger Too in Davie’s seat….

The boys took their sisters seat outside and left it in the rain, hence the dirt and the kitty!

See you all next week!