I'm doing some housekeeping on my blog, combining and moving a few things that I've listed previously:
The first week has gone fairly well with the "Eat From Your Pantry Challenge" using the items we have on hand in our "pantry". What's really helped get us off to a good start is the left over New Years food which carried us through last weekend into Monday or so: Orange Cranberry Macadamia Brunch Strata and then plain scrambled eggs or pancakes or bagels/toast and orange juice. Also, from the New Year weekend food we had several Taco meals with guacamole, beans, chips, soft tortillas, and desserts of Pumpkin Roll (recipe below) and Orangeblossom's Raspberry Ribbons. Daisy has again stayed with her food of my Sweet Potato Turkey Meatloaf (one of my own recipes below), bagels, mashed potatoes and/or peas or green beans.
I did go to the store Wednesday for milk, orange juice, eggs and some other food items because of the Winter Weather Advisory in our area. I don't go out or drive in it if I don't need to. I was outside this morning for 10 minutes when it was 15 (feels like 4) degrees and that was enough for me. I love snow, a real winter, it's beautiful and I love to get out in the SNOW, not frigid arctic cold. The older I get I don't like it that cold so I enjoy it right from my front window or breakfast nook window overlooking the backyard in my warm, warm kitchen! AND the kitchen has been very warm again this week with Orangeblossom's cooking. Wednesday she searched online for recipes and found just what she was looking for – a bread recipe that didn't require a lot of kneed/rise time: Easy Cheesy Bread and a potato soup recipe: Panera's Creamy Potato Soup both from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures who is also participating in the "Eat From Your Pantry Challenge". Wednesday and Thursday dinner meals were taken of – we some times eat the same thing a couple of days in a row. The soup and bread are sooo goooood, recipes we'll definitely keep, make again, and highly recommend! Just the thing for the arctic blast we're having and for sharing with the rest of my family: my mom, sister, my mom's brother/my uncle and my m-i-l, all either elderly, have health problems, unemployed, on fixed incomes. I'm eager to see how much further we can stretch our dollars and food made from our pantry. It appears it might be more economical to make larger quantity dishes from scratch with bulk items and ingredients but I'm not sure. Now, I'm looking forward to the weekend food planning and next week!
While looking around at other blogs and sites participating in the pantry challenge I found Heather's Substitution List (at her My Red Apron) to keep in our pantry.
Pumpkin RollThere is something about saying, 'We always do this,' which helps keep the years together. Time is such an elusive thing that if we keeping meaning to do something, but never do it, year would follow year with no special thoughtfulness being expressed in making gifts, surprises, charming table settings, and familiar food. Tradition is a good gift intended to guard the best gifts.
~Edith Schaeffer~
Our tap water doesn't always taste very good so we spend a lot of $ on bottled water to have some on hand. I don't drink enough water especially in winter so I working on drinking more water and I have a hard time doing that when the water tastes and smells weird. At the same time I've been concerned about the amount of plastic we put in the recycle tub. I would love to have better tasting, healthier water and I've wanted a PUR Water Pitcher for some time but it hasn't been at the top of my list.
Since I've been working to use our food money more wisely to budget better and save when we can, I found some thing to get me moving on this because it probably would save money by not buying bottled water and give us better tasting water. Melissa from Saving Cents With Sense is having a PUR Water Pitcher Giveaway and I entered. A PUR Water Pitcher also has more than personal benefit (info from Melissa's Saving Cents With Sense) PUR Walter Filtration and the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program are committed to providing clean drinking water to those in need. For every PUR system that is purchased, 1 week of clean drinking water is provided to a child in a developing country.
Be sure to check out her PUR Water Pitcher Giveaway.
And don't forget about my own Grand Re-Opening New Year Book Giveaway at my Seven Pillars Book Nook: Seven Pillars Book Nook Grand Re-Opening New Year Book Giveaway!
Orange Cranberry Macadamia Brunch Strata
Ingredients:
12 oz. cream cheese (or reduced fat)
1 1/2 tsp grated orange zest
1/2 Cup orange juice (1/4 for egg mixture-optional and reserve 1/4 for sauce)
9-10 large eggs
3 Cup half & half (or reduced fat)
2 TBSP sugar
2 tsp vanilla
12-14 slices of Spelt bread
1 Cup dried cranberries
1/2 Cup chopped macadamia nuts tossed in 2 TBSP brown sugar
1 Cup Orange Marmalade
Directions:
Spray 9X13 pan with spray oil
Grate 1 1/2 tsp orange zest
Line pan with 6 slices of bread & cut an extra slice to cover entire bottom to fit snug
Beat cream cheese and orange zest first
Then add one egg at a time until all 9-10 are added.
Beat in half & half, then sugar, vanilla, and 1/4 cup orange juice-optional-OJ can be omitted
Pour 1 Cup egg mixture over bread
Sprinkle with 1/2 Cup cranberries and 1/4 Cup sugared macadamia nuts
Make another layer of bread with remaining 6-7 slices like the first
Slowly pour rest of egg mixture over this layer.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate several hours or overnight
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
When ready to bake, sprinkle top with rest of cranberries and sugared macadamia nuts, pressing them into the bread.
Bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes, till firm and puffy.
Let Strata stand a few minutes while making orange sauce: warm 1/8 Cup orange juice and 1 Cup Orange Marmalade in a saucepan.
Cut into pieces and serve warm with Orange Marmalade sauce drizzled on top.
Happy New Year!
The New Year brings "new" things. Some we like and welcome, some we don't. This is the kind of "new" things I like.........
Start your New Year off with a free book. In my Welcome! I explained a new page has been turned for my Seven Pillars Book Nook and to celebrate my SPBN Grand Re-Opening, the New Year, and in honor of "Enduring" books and the love of story, reading and learning, I'm giving away a new copy of our favorite Winnie-the-Pooh book: Winnie-the-Pooh, The Collection edition copyright 2009 E.P. Dutton and Co., Dutton Children's Book, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc. A slightly different edition from my personal favorite but just as delightful. Read more here.....
Happy New Year!
Winter -- some times it's rainy, some times it's mild, some times it's cold, some times it's just brown and gray but some times it is very, very white -- as the past couple of years have been. Last year about this time, Daisy captured the beauty of our winter at dusk with her camera. (photo used with photographer's permission-thank you!)
Do you enjoy reading and sharing good literature, "Living Books", with your children? Do you want to purchase good books to read to your children? Do you collect vintage, antique books?
Please, visit my Seven Pillars Book Nook blog to look around at Vintage Collectible Lovely Treasures and Books -- good books for parents and grandparents to read to their children.
I always squirm and have to think about it because I just can't remember the correct use of these two words BUT I've found some thing that I think will help me. Grammar Girl has a mnemonic help for understanding and keeping them straight: "Affect" Versus "Effect"
"This is by far the most requested grammar topic, so I have a few mnemonics and a matching cartoon to help you remember....
"...most of the time, affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun; and now we can get to the mnemonics. First, the mnemonic involves a very easy noun to help you remember: aardvark. Yes, if you can remember aardvark -- a very easy noun -- you'll always remember that affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun. Why? Because the first letters of "a very easy noun" are the same first letters as "affect verb effect noun!" That's a very easy noun. Affect (with an a) verb effect (with an e) noun...
"But why Aardvark?" you ask. Because there's also an example to help you remember. It's "The arrows affected Aardvark. The effect was eye-popping." It should be easy to remember that affect with an a goes with the a-words, arrow and aardvark, and that effect with an e goes with the e-word, eye-popping. If you can visualize the sentences, "The arrows affected the aardvark. The effect was eye-popping," it's pretty easy to see that affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun..."
More grammar at Grammar Girl.
I have been wanting to find Honey Crisp apples for a couple of years now and finally was able to find them locally. They are fairly new, at least in our area.
Read the S510 bill . Watch the Senate Hearing Committee live -- around 70 minutes mark they discuss farmers markets, small local and organic farm and how it will affect them.
Read more from the Farm-to-Consumer Defense Fund:
Senate Food Safety Bill
"The debate on food safety is heating up in Congress. Last Thursday, October 22, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) held a hearing on S. 510, the Senate version of the draconian House food safety bill (H.R. 2749).
While FDA claimed that the bill only covers food in interstate commerce, the language of the bill would impose sweeping regulations on all farms and food processors. Meanwhile, S. 510 does not address the problems of uninspected imported foods or the contamination from feedlots. We think this bill is too bad to be fixed and should be defeated!
ACTION TO TAKE:
1. Contact both of your U.S. Senators and ask them to vote NO on S.B. 510 because it will harm local and sustainable foods without fixing the real problems in the mainstream industrial food system.
For contact information, go to www.congress.org or call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
2. Also contact the Chair and Ranking Member of the HELP Committee:
Chairman Harkin, (p): 202-224-0767, (f): 202-224-5128
Senator Enzi, Ranking Member, (p): 202-224-6770
You will have the greatest impact by faxing a personal letter or visiting their district offices in-person. Next best is a phone call, followed by an email.
TALKING POINTS
1. Although FDA stated that the bill only applies to food in interstate commerce, the language of the bill does not contain any such limitation. On its face, the bill applies to any farm or food producer, regardless of the size or scope of distribution. If the intent truly is to limit the bill to food that is crossing state lines, then it must be amended. And even then, the bill would still negatively impact small farmers and food processors who live near state lines and who cross state lines to reach local farmers markets and coops.
2. The major foodborne illness outbreaks and recalls have all been within the large, industrial food system. Small, local food producers have not contributed to the highly publicized outbreaks. Yet both the House and Senate bills subject the small, local food system to the same, broad federal regulatory oversight that would apply to the industrial food system. Increased regulations, record-keeping obligations, and the penalties and........"
Read more here AND here.
"Think what a change, unperceived by many, has within a month come over the landscape! Then the general, the universal, hue was green. Now see those brilliant scarlet and glowing yellow trees in the low lands a mile off! I see them, too, here and there on the sides of hills, standing out distinct, mere bright [an indecipherable word] and squads perchance, often in long broken lines, and so apparently elevated by their distinct color that they seem arranged like the 
remnants of a morning mist just retreating in a broken line along the hillsides. Or see that crowd in the swamp half a mile through, all vying with one another, a blaze of glory. See those crimson patches far away on the hill sides, like dense flocks of crimson sheep, where the huckleberry reminds of recent excursions. See those patches of rich brown in the low grounds, where the ferns stand shrivelled. See the greenish-yellow phalanxes of birches, and the crisped yellowish elm-tops here and there. We are not prepared to believe that the earth is now so parti-colored, and would present to a bird's eye such distinct masses of bright color. A great painter is at work...."
~Henry David Thoreau~ Writings of Henry David Thoreau in Twenty Volumes, Volume XVI
Orangeblossom has been baking sweet treats for the grandmas and for us again this week. These turned out really cute and taste like a brownie in a cookie.
Ingredients:
1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
24 wooden craft or Popsicle sticks
48 candy corn candies
24 red-hot candies
Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls. Place 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets.
2. Insert a wooden stick into each cookie. Flatten with a glass dipped in sugar. Pinch top of cookie to form ears. For whiskers, press a fork twice into each cookie. Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are set. Remove from the oven; immediately press on candy corn for eyes and red-hots for noses. Remove to wire racks to cool.
Orangeblossom omitted the wooden sticks and didn't make a centerpiece but the directions for making the candy corn clay pot to hold the cookies for a table top centerpiece is here. They look more chocolaty brown in the photo but actually bake a darker brown black. Black Cat Cookie recipe and photo above from Readers Digest.
"In the late afternoon of April 18, 1521, in the city of Worms, Germany, Martin Luther, a 37 year-old Catholic monk was called to defend himself before Charles the Fifth, the Holy Roman Emperor. The speech he delivered that day, "Here I Stand," marked the beginning of the Reformation, a critical turning point in Christian history, that decisively altered the spiritual map of the world....."
"Unless I am convinced by the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures or evident reason (for I believe neither in the Pope nor councils alone, since it has been established that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures adduced by me, and my conscience has been taken captive by the Word of God, and I am neither able nor willing to recant, since it is neither safe nor right to act against conscience. Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen."
AUTUMN
With what a glory comes and goes the year!
The buds of spring, those beautiful harbingers
Of sunny skies and cloudless times, enjoy
Life's newness, and earth's garniture spread out;
And when the silver habit of the clouds
Comes down upon the autumn sun, and with
A sober gladness the old year takes up
His bright inheritance of golden fruits,
A pomp and pageant fill the splendid scene.
There is a beautiful spirit breathing now
Its mellow richness on the clustered trees,
And, from a beaker full of richest dyes,
Pouring new glory on the autumn woods,
And dipping in warm light the pillared clouds.
Morn on the mountain, like a summer bird,
Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales
The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer,
Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life
Within the solemn woods of ash deep-crimsoned,
And silver beech, and maple yellow-leaved,
Where Autumn, like a faint old man, sits down
By the wayside a-weary. Through the trees
The golden robin moves. The purple finch,
That on wild cherry and red cedar feeds,
A winter bird, comes with its plaintive whistle,
And pecks by the witch-hazel, whilst aloud
From cottage roofs the warbling blue-bird sings,
And merrily, with oft-repeated stroke,
Sounds from the threshing-floor the busy flail.
O what a glory doth this world put on
For him who, with a fervent heart, goes forth
Under the bright and glorious sky, and looks
On duties well performed, and days well spent!
For him the wind, ay, and the yellow leaves,
Shall have a voice, and give him eloquent teachings.
He shall so hear the solemn hymn that Death
Has lifted up for all, that he shall go
To his long resting-place without a tear.
~William Henry Wordsworth~
The photo is from one of my most favorite autumn CDs "Flowers in October" by Tim Janis. It's the Gold Edition with an additional Inspirational DVD with music put to beautiful videos of nature. The wonderful compositions of instrumental music make me listen closely without even trying and I simply drift away in the beauty of his music. On this CD, his pieces are composed with instruments of piano, violin, oboe, flute, penny whistle, acoustic guitar, fiddle, fretless bass, cello, and assorted percussion, along with the occasional synthesizer and recorded sounds. Music that makes it seem as if the sun dances on sunny days and uplifting music for the cloudy days of autumn. Titles are:
1. Isles of Shoals (one of my favorites! Listen here.)
2. Cathedral of the Pines
3. Cry of the Blue Whale
4. A Midnight Full of Stars
5. The White Mountain
6. Ocean Ledges
7. Harvest Moon
8. Penobscot Trail
9. September
10. Mountain Road
11. Echo Lake
12. Dandelion Star
13. Flowers in October
14. In Autumn Gold
We've been busy making muffins from apples, pears, and pumpkin. These are great with a cup of coffee, tea, or some Apple Cider. One of our recipes:
Apple Pumpkin Muffins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, lightly grease muffin cups. Peel, core and chop 2 cups of apples.
Make topping mixture and set aside:
½ cup butter, softened
½ tsp cinnamon, or to taste
1/3 cup granulated sugar
In a large bowl, whisk together:
1¼ cup pumpkin puree
½ cup vegetable oil
2 egg, lightly beaten
In another large bowl sift together:
2 ½ cups cake flour
1 tbsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1½ cups granulated sugar
Add dry mixture to the wet mixture and gently stir just until moistened, approximately 10 folds while counting slowly to ten, everything will not be completely blended and some flour will still be visible.
Next, carefully add the chopped apples and fold the apples in with about three stirs. Use an ice cream scoop and fill the greased muffin cups about half to ¾ full.
Finally, top with sugar topping mixture and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Enjoy!
by Charles Spurgeon
"It is not the healthy who need a doctor--but the sick!" Matthew 9:12
How frequently you who are coming to Christ look to yourselves. "O!" you say, "I do not repent enough." That is looking to yourself. "I do not believe enough." That is looking to yourself. "I am too unworthy." That is looking to yourself. "I cannot discover," says another, "that I have any righteousness." It is quite right to say that you have not any righteousness; but it is quite wrong to look for any. It is, "Look unto me." God will have you turn your eye off yourself and look unto him. The hardest thing in the world is to turn a man's eye off himself; as long as he lives, he always has a predilection to turn his eyes inside, and look at himself; whereas God says, "Look unto me."
From the cross of Calvary, where the bleeding hands of Jesus drop mercy; from the garden of Gethsemane--where the bleeding pores of the Savior sweat pardons; from the cross of Calvary--where the bleeding hands of Jesus drop mercy--the cry comes, "Look unto Me..." From Calvary's summit, where Jesus cries, "It is finished!" I hear a shout, "Look unto Me..."
But there comes a vile cry from our soul, "No, look to yourself! Look to yourself!" Ah, look to yourself--and you will certainly be damned! As long as you look to yourself--there is no hope for you. It is not a consideration of what you are--but a consideration of what Christ is... You must look away from yourself, and to Jesus!
David said, and it was a strange thing, too, "Have mercy upon me, for mine iniquity is great." But, David, why did not you say that it was little? Because, David knew that the bigger his sins were, the better reason for asking mercy.
Oh! there are many who quite misunderstand... they think that their good works qualify them to come to Christ; whereas SIN is the only qualification for man to come to Jesus!
Methinks I see one trembling here, and saying, "...I have been something worse; for I have attended the house of God, and I have stifled convictions, and put off all thoughts of Jesus, and now I think he will never have mercy on me." ...says another, ..."But, I am so peculiar; if I did not feel as I do, it would be all very well; but I feel that my case is a peculiar one." ...another one says, "There is nobody in the world like me; I do not think you will find a being under the sun that has had so many calls, and put them all away, and so many sins on his head. Besides, I have guilt that I should not like to confess to any living creature." ...thou sayest, sin will not let thee look. I tell thee, sin will be removed the moment thou dost look. "But I dare not; he will condemn me; I fear to look." He will condemn thee more if thou dost not look. Fear, then, and look; but do not let thy fearing keep thee from looking. "But he will cast me out." Try him. "But I cannot see him." I tell you, it is not seeing, but looking. "But my eyes are so fixed on the earth, so earthly, so worldly." Ah! but, poor soul, he giveth power to look and live. He saith, "Look unto me..."
... it is not seeing, but looking unto Jesus...in all thy troubles...look unto God and be saved. In all thy trials and afflictions, look unto Christ, and find deliverance. In all thine agony, poor soul, in all thy repentance for thy guilt, look unto Christ, and find pardon...remember to put thine eyes heavenward, and thine heart heavenward, too. Remember, this day, that thou bind round thyself a golden chain, and put one link of it in the staple of heaven. Look unto Christ; fear not..."Look unto him...and remember that "he is God, and beside him there is none else."
O, taste and see that the Lord is good! Now believe on him; now cast thy guilty soul upon his righteousness; now plunge thy black soul into the bath of his blood; now put thy naked soul at the door of the wardrobe of his righteousness; now seat thy famished soul at the feast of plenty. Now, "Look!" How simple does it seem! And yet it is the hardest thing in the world to bring men to. They never will do it, till constraining grace makes them. ....
whereas SIN is the only qualification for man to come to Jesus!...there it is, "Look!"..."Look unto me..."
"It is not the healthy who need a doctor--but the sick!" Matthew 9:12
"Looking unto Jesus..." Hebrews 12:2
Spurgeon's Morning by Morning on Hebrews 12:2
It is ever the Holy Spirit's work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan's work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ. He insinuates, "Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you have not the joy of His children; you have such a wavering hold of Jesus." All these are thoughts about self, and we shall never find comfort or assurance by looking within. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self: He tells us that we are nothing, but that "Christ is all in all." Remember, therefore, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee--it is Christ; it is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee--it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that be the instrument--it is Christ's blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to thy hand with which thou art grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to thy hope, but to Jesus, the source of thy hope; look not to thy faith, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of thy faith. We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul. If we would at once overcome Satan and have peace with God, it must be by "looking unto Jesus." Keep thine eye simply on Him; let His death, His sufferings, His merits, His glories, His intercession, be fresh upon thy mind; when thou wakest in the morning look to Him; when thou liest down at night look to Him. Oh! let not thy hopes or fears come between thee and Jesus; follow hard after Him, and He will never fail thee.
"My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesu's blood and righteousness:
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesu's name."
Looking to myself to be good enough, to have enough faith, to believe enough, to know enough, to try harder is something I continually struggle with, my sinful heart prefers to look at myself, which only leads to self-condemnation but also real guilt. As the Holy Spirit moves me away from myself, turns my eyes from myself, I can look to Christ and His forgiveness, true forgiveness and liberty in Christ. Continually confessing my sin and looking to Jesus brings forgiveness, even if I have to do it 700+ times a day. How beautiful! What a balm for my soul. I am praying God will keep me looking unto His Son Jesus each day for His forgiveness.
but of the life; is not apprehended by the intellect and memory merely, like other branches of learning; but is received only when it possesses the whole soul, and finds its seat and habitation in the inmost recesses of the heart... but it must be transfused into the breast, and pass into the conduct, and so transform us into itself, as not to prove unfruitful."
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