Vanilla Latte Cookies

My daughter made Vanilla Latte Cookies today.  Her own recipe!  They were like a sugar cookie with a yummy vanilla latte flavor.  Mmmm...

Eggnog Truffles

I tried my hand at making eggnog truffles today for our Christmas celebration.  I overheated the first batch of dipping chocolate and had to throw it away.  I was thankful I had enough white chocolate for another batch.  Yum!

Melt in Your Mouth Cookies

My daughter made these melt-in-your-mouth cookies yesterday.  They are called The Treats Truck's Caramel Crème Sandwich Cookies and are like a shortbread, only better!  Yum!

Soft Batch Cookies

My daughter made a batch of her own soft batch chocolate chip cookies... lightly crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. Yum!

Winter Fruit

I was soooo excited to see a ripened cherry tomato in the middle of winter, from a tomato plant hanging under the skylight of our balcony! God is good!

I Don't Wanna Be An Egg

My daughter made these cute little carrot cake cupcakes with maple frosting and white chocolate carrots for a ladies’ church fellowship a couple of weeks ago. They were a perfect part of the goodies, because our pastor’s wife gave a devotional using a carrot, an egg, and a tea bag as an object lesson on how to face adversity.



The original story by an unknown author uses a coffee bean in place of the tea bag, but the result is still the same. It goes like this:

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life, and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it, and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first pot, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what do you see?" "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied. She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they got soft. She then asked her to take the egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, she asked her to smell and sip the coffee. The daughter smiled, as she smelled and tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What's the point, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity- boiling water-but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water. "Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When trials and adversity knock on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Hmm... if I had to answer that question, I would ask, “Is it possible to be all three?” I mean, we all face some amount of adversity at one time or another. I know it may not seem like it at times, but I do, too, and I am now. And at times I find myself weak, limp, and feeling hopeless like the carrot. At other times I would like to think I’m like the tea bag or coffee bean and changing ‘the water’. And yet at other times I find myself feeling hardened and even somewhat bitter. Hebrews 12:14, 15 say, “ Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” I don’t wanna be an egg...

Chocolate

Here, have some chocolate. Feel better now? --Anonymous

“Nobody knows the truffles I’ve seen!” --Anonymous

“Chocolate is nature’s way of making up for Mondays.” --Anonymous

“Look, there’s no metaphysics on earth like chocolates.” --Fernando Pessoa, Portugueses poet (1888-1935)

I had actually bought these chocolates last Monday when I took my daughter and niece for a girls' day out. We hit a few thrift stores, walked down Church Street in Burlington, had lunch at Sweetwaters and then bought some chocolate from Lake Champlain Chocolates for dessert. Yum!

Happy Monday!  (^_~)

The Northeast Kingdom

My daughter and I took a road trip this past weekend to explore the upper Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.  While our primary objective was to visit the Abenaki Clan of the Hawk grounds, we were also hoping to catch sight of a moose or two, but the only wildlife we saw was a rafter of turkeys.



We took Sally along, which made the trip a bit more adventurous.



We stopped at this spring water access to refill a few water bottles. The water was cold and refreshing. Notice the date of 1892 on the side of the concrete reservoir.  Vermont has several public water accesses along its back roads.



We passed by this quaint little country store and just had to turn around to check it out. Everything, from food items to a wide array of collectibles and antiques, was displayed in a folksy and artistic manner.



The Amish peaches smelled too wonderful to resist, and they were the best tasting we've ever had.



They also offered homemade cakes, pies, and cookies, as well as jams, pickles, and even free range eggs.



There was no cell phone signal, and we didn't bring a GPS, so I took a couple of wrong turns. But we might have otherwise missed the majestic view of Lake Willoughby had we been less adventurous.



After getting back on track and stopping by a large general store that was akin to a country Wal-Mart, we finally found our way to the Clan of the Hawk grounds where the Abenaki hold an annual pow wow.



No one was around, but the property is open to the public. We briefly stepped into the Welcome Center cabin, peeked into the locked Chief Looking Glass Museum, browsed the non-denominational chapel and bookstore, and walked across an open field to the stone labyrinth. The labyrinth is considered a sacred place of healing. There was also a small altar where people can place a small offering to the Creator. There were pouches, glass stones, bracelets, tokens, and a small wooden flute.



We noticed some small red pouches hanging in a tree nearby as well. The pouches are prayer bundles that people hang to leave their prayers in the sacred place.

There seems to be something about having a tangible place or person to go to in order to have our spiritual and physical needs met, or going through a ritual to make things more 'real'. We tend to be drawn to the mystical. It's one of the reasons some people have difficulty with Christianity. It's not mystical, and although some people call a church building 'the house of God', it in and of itself has no power to heal or transform, nor does it magnify any spiritual energies. And as much as we'd like to think we can and must do something, there is nothing we can do to earn our way to Heaven or appease an angry god. Jesus Christ offered Himself up as a sacrifice in our place to pay the penalty for our transgressions. He has done the work. All we must do is have faith and believe the things He has revealed.  "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast"  (Ephesians 2:8, 9). I'm so glad He sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us.

Sweet Sushi

My daughter's creative juices were flowing the other day when she thought of making a dessert that looks like sushi.  She wondered if anyone else had ever done it, so she googled and found they had. Then she proceeded to make some herself.  Aren't they cool?  And very tasty, too!

Grape Jam

The Lord has blessed us with a bountiful crop of grapes.  This morning, my daughter and I harvested a small batch to try our hand at making grape jam for the first time.







Even though my daughter is allergic to grapes... even handling them is very irritating to her skin... she wore rubber gloves and picked some with me after she captured a few images with her camera.



This shot of the grapes in a basket is my fave!   Isn't she a wonderful photographer?



I found a recipe for Concord Grape Jam on Epicurious.com.  I didn't follow the recipe exactly, because I wanted to use my Vitamix to pulverize the whole grapes, seeds and all, to get the most out of them.

Boiling the grapes made the house smell soooo good!

It seems to have turned out well, and it sure tastes good on buttered toast.  Yum!  :)

A Lesson in Chinese

James arrived Monday for a week long visit to spend time with his sweetie.  We picked him up at the airport in Manchester, NH then looked for a place to eat.



James wanted Chinese, but the restaurant Tiffany had googled looked a bit 'sketchy', so James pulled out his iPhone to look for another and we ended up at the Beijing Tokyo Restaurant in Concord.



Tiffany ordered a Pad Thai dish, and James ordered Sweet and Sour Chicken. The food was not only beautifully presented, but it tasted scrumptious, too!



I ordered the Seaweed Salad for myself as well as a Pu Pu Platter to share. Our waitress was a very polite, attentive young woman who seemed somewhat unsure of her English. At one point when she brought something, I said, "Xie Xie," pronounced (sheh sheh) which means "Thank you" in Mandarin Chinese. Her face lit up! I'm glad she didn't try to speak to me in Chinese, because I know only a few words and phrases. Wanna know how to say the food is good? It's really easy to remember. My brother-in-law taught me. Just think of a hen house and say, "Hen hao" (hen how). See? Wasn't that easy? (^_~)

Blueberry Buttermilk Tart

My daughter made this Blueberry Buttermilk Tart from the organic blueberries we'd picked a few days ago.  She found the recipe at Epicurious.com.  If you could taste it, you'd never know it was her first tart.  It was scrumptious!!

Blueberries and T

My daughter and I went to a pick-your-own organic blueberry farm today.  She plans to make blueberry cobbler with them.  Yum!

Afterward, we stopped by a natural food store and picked up some lunch from their little café.  Then, we drove down the road a ways, stopped at a river access, and ate while we watched some people jump off a large boulder and into the water.  What a blessing!  God has provided us with such natural beauty and wonderful resources.

Cake Pops

My daughter, Tiffany, made cake pops for her sister-in-law's baby shower.  She got the recipe and idea from Bakerella.com.  The question everyone asks is, "How do you make the cake into balls?  It's actually a lot easier than you would think.  (^_^)

Working Together

Mmmm... can you smell the apple sweetness and spices?  My daughter and I worked together to make shepherd’s pie for dinner a couple of nights ago.  She wanted to have a bottom crust, but since the pie crust recipe was for a double crust, we had leftover dough.  She asked if we had any apples, because she had seen a recipe for mini pies made in a muffin tin, and she wanted to try it out.  So I peeled and chopped the apples, while she worked on the sweet, buttery, cinnamon sauce and rolled out the remaining crust.  Aren’t they cute?  And oh, so tasty!

 

I wanted to be sure to get a photo of them, and I was delighted when she wanted to once again work together.  I’m so glad she did, because she is more creative than I am.  We have turned my married son’s bedroom into a sort of mini studio.  It has a nice exposed brick chimney in it, so we used it as a backdrop.  I used my son’s 60mm macro lens to create the blurry background.  One of the things I’ve learned when composing a photo is to have an odd number of objects, rather than an even number.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it has something to do with the Golden Ratio?

My daughter thought you might be interested in seeing our unorthodox setup:  one of the shelves from a bookshelf, a couple of wooden bowls, a paperback book, a box of tissues, and a box of old flatware.  Hey!  Whatever works, right?

Sweet Gift

“And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.”   --Ecclesiastes 3:13

My first attempt at making fudge.  Mmmm!  The recipe was AllRecipes.com's 'Easiest Peanut Butter Fudge'.  It was pretty easy and didn't take as long as I'd thought it would.  Next, I'm going to try maple!

Adding a Special Touch

“Give, and it shall be given unto you...”  --Luke 6:38

Josh, a young man from our church, celebrated his seventeenth birthday yesterday.  My oldest son held a gaming day in our home in his honor, and my daughter made a scrumptiously rich chocolate ganache cake for him.

Do you ever find yourself wanting to go the extra mile or add that special touch for someone?  Why?  My daughter, Tiffany, is very creative and likes to add special touches to things, so maybe you’re just one of those people.  But isn’t it easier to do it for someone who is either kind and lovable or who seems to need it?  Josh is both kind and lovable, even though he can be a bit weird at times... but what teenaged boy isn’t?  So although Tiffany probably would have added that special touch for almost anyone, Josh has made it easy to find delight in doing so.  Happy birthday, Josh!

Cow Brain & Pregnancy

My teenage daughter had been experiencing unusual fatigue, along with some dizziness and nausea, so like any good mother would, I took her to the doctor.  Although my daughter assured her she wasn’t pregnant, the doctor had her pee in a cup and tested her for pregnancy without her knowledge.  I found out about it later when I saw the itemized bill.  I called the doctor’s office expressing my displeasure and politely refused to pay that portion of the bill.  A blood test was also done and revealed nothing out of the ordinary.

After doing some research online, trying a few things at home and not really being able to pinpoint the problem, we visited the doctor again a couple of months later.  The nurse asked a series of questions suggested by her laptop, and the findings were still inconclusive.  The doctor came in and asked more questions, and because my daughter mentioned some ‘burning’ in her stomach, the doctor prescribed an antacid and recommended a few therapists.  Have you ever been told, “It’s all in your head”?

Not satisfied with the diagnosis of teenage girl angst, I called a naturopathic doctor upon the recommendation of my sister-in-law.  He asked several questions and seemed a bit puzzled but undaunted.  He gave her a vitamin B shot and a few general suggestions, and we made an appointment to see him again in a week.

When we went back to see him, it was obvious he had done some research.  He wanted to test a theory, so he had her lie on the exam table, checked her blood pressure and pulse, had her stand up, and did the same.  Hmmm... it appeared she was experiencing some form of orthostatic hypotension... or in layman’s terms, ‘standing low blood pressure’.  You know when you stand up really quickly from a reclined position and you feel momentarily dizzy?  Well, it’s like that, except her blood pressure and pulse did not recover as quickly as it should have.  He suggested she increase her salt intake.  Now, how many doctors do you know would suggest you eat more salt?  He also suggested we have her blood tested for food allergies and then follow a month long prescribed diet according to the findings of the test.

She followed the diet, and while she did feel a little better, she still didn’t feel quite right, so we went back to the doctor again.  This time he suggested we do an adrenal test that is more accurate than the blood test.  She had to fill four small vials with saliva at different times throughout the day.  The results revealed lower than normal cortisol levels, so he prescribed an adrenal support supplement.  On the way home, my daughter looked at the ingredients, because she checks ingredients more now after having done the food allergy diet.  Anyway, she slowly read, “Adrenal whole bovine”.

“Bovine?” I queried.  “That’s cow!”

“What?  Cow?  Are you sure?”  she skeptically asked.  She sounded out the next ingredient, “Adrenal cortex bovine."

“Cortex?” I laughed.  “That’s brain!  Cow brain!”

“You’re joking with me, right?” she asked.

“No, I’m serious,” I replied as I continued to laugh.

There were other ingredients as well, but she didn’t hesitate to do a Google search when we returned home and found, indeed, that I was right... well, sort of.

A couple of mornings later, I read an article in the magazine Above Rubies, and I proceeded to tell my daughter about it.  The article contained scientific evidences that support the physical side of the Bible verse in 1 Timothy 2:15 which says, “Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.”  The part that caught my eye was for the section subtitled “Adrenal Fatigue”.

“Yeah,” I continued, “The article went on to say that a woman, who had experienced panic attacks due to adrenal burn out, was afraid to get pregnant until she read that pregnancy actually helps heal adrenals.”

When my 18-year-old daughter reacted with a look of puzzled disbelief, I laughed and continued, “Not that I’m suggesting you get pregnant.  I just found it interesting.”

Anyway, she's been feeling even better since taking the adrenal support supplement.  So, if you’ve been feeling unusually tired, weak, dizzy, nauseous, or having random feelings of anxiety for no apparent reason, don’t believe the doctor who suggests it’s all in your head.

Happy National Creme-Filled Doughnut Day!

 

"Of the first of your dough ye shall give unto the LORD an heave offering in your generations."  --Numbers 15:21

Sometimes when I want to be inspired to take a picture or to make an ordinary day not so ordinary, I look to see if the day has been designated as a national holiday.  What does it take for a day to become designated as a national holiday?  Doesn't a resolution or something have to be passed by Congress?  And why would anyone designate a day to become National Creme-Filled Doughnut Day?  Or National Goof Off Day?  Or National Sea Monkey Day?  I don't know, but I thoroughly enjoyed my creme-filled donut this morning.  Maybe I'll even hug a crabby stranger today or eat a hoagie.  By the way, what is doodle soup?

Black Mission Figs

 

For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster... and [Hezekiah] shall recover. --Isaiah 38:21

My daughter wanted to try a fresh fig, so I bought some at the co-op a few days ago.  The very first bite is a bit unusual, but they are actually very tasty... and they're really good for you too.  They have lots of potassium, calcium, fiber, Vitamin A, protein, and fiber.  Even the Bible mentions using them for healing.  So try some.  They're sure to do some good, and I think you just might enjoy them too.