Easter Thoughts

Easter should be a celebration bigger than Christmas. It's Resurrection Day! If Jesus had not resurrected, he would not have overcome death, and we would still be dead in our sins. Jesus has made us white as snow so that we may spend eternity with God. That is reason for celebration!

Sitting in church we are surrounded by families gathered to celebrate the holiday. Our pastor speaks of the forever family and the feast to be enjoyed when we are all together in heaven with God. We, Tom and I, sit in church alone, and I don't feel much like celebrating. My thoughts wander to the family celebration that will occur tomorrow as my family in Wisconsin gathers at my sister's house to enjoy time together. There is always an egg hunt (rain, snow, or sun) for the nieces and nephews. There are many people and much fellowship as our family and some members of her husband's family gather on this special day. They all recognize the importance of this holiday and I believe it is because they are a Catholic family.

I grew up Catholic. We went to church every Sunday and all the other sacred holidays. We didn't eat meat on Fridays during lent, and we gave something up for those six weeks. When I was little, we couldn't wear pants to church, and our heads always had to be covered. The Catholic church recognizes that the church is a sacred place, God is holy, and we humans do well to remember our place; we are sinners and we need a Savior. There seemed to be so many rules.

It would be much later in my life that I would understand that these "rules" were really the churches way of helping us remember just how holy God is.  I would see these remembrances as rules that I did not want to follow. Today, I attend an independent community church. I love the worship, I love the teaching, I love so much about my church, but in an effort to draw the unsaved, have we lost what it means to understand that God is holy? It seems anything goes. People bring their coffee into church. Men do not remove their hats. It doesn't matter how you are dressed for church, it just matters that you are there. I wonder if we have become too casual about church; too casual about our relationship with God. So casual that we no longer understand the importance of the Easter holiday.

Today, we sit in church alone. I pray it will not always be this way. I pray that it will be a holiday of family, a future family filled with grandchildren. I look forward to the day of the forever family, where no one is missing. No one has other plans or something more enticing drawing them away. We will all be together and we will have forever to visit and be together. 

Until then, I must delight in the small celebrations. I must view the small celebrations as baby steps toward the big event. And I guess if I am really honest, baby steps are about all I can handle right now. Tomorrow, when I would really prefer a large family around the table, I shall rejoice in the small gathering of friends and family who have not lost sight of the meaning of the day. 

Week 16 Part II

Fudge Nut Brownie Cookie ☆☆☆☆☆ [pg. 126 HFC]
As the recipe title states, these cookies are more a brownie bite than a cookie. If you are a person who likes the edges of the brownies, then you will love these cookies.

The ingredient list is short making the mixing a snap. I love that there are both chocolate chips and walnuts in the recipe. I love these two ingredients in cookies. I added the extra flour to make a thicker cookie although I wasn't sure they were thick enough when the first two batches came out of the oven.

I used my smallest cookie scoop to keep the cookies uniform. Although the dough is quite sticky, the scoop  worked pretty well. I love a sturdy cookie scoop! (I have never cared for the double spoon method of scooping cookies.) I made the first three batches on my baking stone and was disappointed with how difficult they were to get off the stone. Baking stones are not greased before use and this hindered the removal of the cookies. The cookies wanted to smoosh a bit, making them more oval than round, and this was frustrating. On the last batch, I used my shiny aluminum cookie sheet and these cookies looked thicker and came off the cookie sheet much easier. I did grease this cookie sheet before baking, and the cookies sat for a few minutes rather than just one one minute. Both these conditions attributed to the easy removal from the pan.

I frosted all the cookies, as noted in the recipe, and determined that a person could easily use their favorite chocolate frosting recipe rather than the canned frosting. Assuming you keep a box of brownie mix on hand, these cookies could be a good last minute dessert. I am wondering if our favorite "scratch" brownie mix could be slightly altered so that these brownie cookies could be made entirely from scratch.

It was hard to put off the taste test until my dinner was consumed, but I was firm. I choose one cookie baked on the baking stone and one baked on the shiny pan. Both cookies were very good with just the right mix of chocolate and nut, however the cookie baked on the shiny pan was more uniformly baked and the edges were done just right. I have made a note in my cookbook that these cookies must be baked on the aluminum cookie sheet. After tasting the second cookie (the one baked on the aluminum pan), I give this recipe five stars. I love the chewy edges of brownies and these cookies have that same great texture. Others who live in this house, and are known to cut brownies right out of the middle of the pan, will not agree with my assessment, but it isn't their blog now is it!

Week 16 Part I

Dinner Rolls ☆☆☆☆☆[America's Test Kitchen Newsletter*]
Tomorrow we celebrate Lynsey and Jason's April birthdays. In honor of this special occasion, I decided to make homemade rolls following a recipe I found this morning. Unlike my mother's dinner roll recipe, this one does not contain eggs. My greatest regret, as I made these rolls, was that I do not have a Kitchen Aid mixer which could handle the dough kneading easily. My little Sunbeam was working very hard to mix the dough.

I like proofing the dough in a warm oven as it cuts the time down considerably. This small recipe only makes a dozen rolls forcing me to make two batches today in order to have enough for tomorrow's dinner. I plan to make dinner rolls for Easter as well, but I will use my mother's recipe. I will allow my bread machine to mix the dough, and after shaping the rolls, I will proof them the second time using the method in today's recipe. Hopefully, we can accurately compare the two recipes although there will be several days between the tastings.

My second batch today turned out much nicer than the first. I made note of the consistency of the dough on the second batch as it was much easier to shape into rolls. The first batch needed a couple tablespoons more flour so that it wasn't so sticky when shaping. The rolls of the second batch also look nicer (they are more even colored). My mother would be proud. The rolls feel light and soft and are very tasty, particularly with jam. :-) I doubt they will last long.

*You need to be a member of America's Test Kitchen to access their recipes. I shall honor their copyright and not retype the recipe for reposting here.

Week 15—Part I: There Was No Baking—Really, NO Baking

Nut Goodie Bars ☆☆☆☆ [pg 133 HFC]
Stress creates a desire for chocolate for me and my husband. The day of the cupcake fiasco, we had received news that a close family member had suffered a severe heart attack and was not doing well. There was a strong desire for chocolate at our house. After the trifle was gone, I desired some other type of chocolate. I checked my list of April recipes to try, and it included Nut Goodie Bars, which only used the microwave—SCORE! No baking in that recipe.

I did some measuring, a bit of melting and mixing, but no baking. It should be noted that someone had gotten into my stash of baking peanuts, so my nut goodie bars had peanuts and some sliver almonds. Then I had to wait for the bars to harden. The next day I had my first nut goodie bar. They are yummy and easy, as stated near the recipe name in our family cookbook. Peanuts are definitely the nut of choice for these bars, but the almonds worked well too. I wisely made 1/2 a batch and I am pretty sure I ate my half of the 1/2 a batch; more than enough.

Monday, we will celebrate a few birthdays at our house, so I will need to break the No Baking vow I had made to myself. It is very hard for me to Not Bake. Baking relieves stress, as does eating. It is a very dangerous combination. Moderation is the key and that seems to go out the window when I am under stress. It is a vicious cycle and I have to find a way out. My next efforts to control the stress will be focused on more walks with my puppy Zoey Lyn. She will be so happy!

Week 14—Part I: Win/Lose Non Baking Adventure

A bit over a week ago, dear daughter had a hankering for cupcakes. My husband's sister was coming for dinner so after my dinner came out of the oven, cupcakes were to go in. Sadly, the oven got turned off and it wasn't realized until the timer for the cupcakes went off. Bummer! Oven was started again and we attempted to bake the cupcakes. The second time the timer went off, we had baked cupcakes. They didn't look quite right and there was concern they wouldn't taste right. Dear daughter didn't even want to bother frosting them, and I hate throwing food away, so I decided to try a trifle.

Now, I must emphasize, I did NOT bake. I stuck to my pledge to abstain from baking sweets for two weeks. Dear daughter baked and I just mixed a few things together; some whipped cream and chocolate pudding to be exact. I tore the cupcakes into fourths and layered the cake and chocolate stuff in a nice trifle bowl. The recipe originally called for brownie pieces to be layered with the chocolate stuff and after tasting my trifle, I admit I like the original brownie trifle much better.

The problem was the texture, at least for me. Although I tried the brownie trifle over a year ago, I distinctly remember the delightful combination of chewy brownie and smooth chocolate "fluff." The cake and fluff didn't have enough difference in texture to create that same sensation in my mouth. It was boring.

So, the cupcakes didn't go to waste and I did some adventure "baking" (not a normal thing for me). That is the win side. I create something boring; that is the lose side, and I did not bake.

Time off from Baking Challenge

This morning I decided to take a week or two off from the baking challenge. I love to bake—this is going to be difficult and not just because of my love of baking. Sugar is addicting and there is no question I have lost all willpower when it comes to the wonderful things I am baking. My body needs a break to "detox" from some sugar. Back soon.

April Disposals

For April disposals I will tackle the hardest disposals of all—books. I love books, my husband loves books, and both our kids LOVE books. Powell's Bookstore is one of our favorite places to visit. When the kids were little, the library was a very regular visit; weekly in the summer. My kids always knew Mom was a sucker for books. If we were on vacation or visiting a tourist attraction, the kids knew I could probably be talked into a book souvenir. I have the largest book collection at our school, and it was with stiff-upper-lipped determination I approached our book shelves.

There are 91books in the disposal pile. Rather than listing each of the books in that pile, I am going to list some of the books we kept.

• All Randy Alcorn's books were kept. We love Randy and his writing. These books have been read more than once and will probably be read again, however, if that has not happened when it comes time to move from this house, they will be passed on to others.
• My most loved book by Mac Lucado and one by Charles Swindoll were kept, however only one from each author. These men greatly influenced my early Christian years. I had to keep one from each. I have vowed to read these two books again this summer.
• The books we have received or purchased to assist with marriage mentoring were kept.
• We still have all the Bibles the kids had through their growing up years. I kept those, to maybe pass down to grandchildren one day.
• My "Quilt in a Day" books were kept, as I have hopes of quilting again in the future, and maybe Lynsey will want to borrow these one day.
• Several general craft books were kept for the same reason I kept the quilting books.
• We own quite a few books related to genealogy; historical books about my hometown and such. These serve a purpose far different from a pleasure book and they need to be kept.
• We have a strange and assorted collection of vintage books. Some came from Tom's grandparents and some are books I have purchased—specifically the 1950' Dick and Jane readers. 

That is the essence of what I kept. As I read Dave Bruno's book The 100 Thing Challenge I appreciated that the author counted his library as one thing. I don't have plans to get down to only 100 things, but my minimizing goal will be to keep our book collection to those books that can fit on one of our book shelves.

In addition to the 91 books that were disposed of, I let go of 4 purses, 3 pair of shoes, and 1 sweater. It should be mentioned that 2 additional pair of shoes went in the garbage. One was a very tired pair of slippers I haven't worn for over 2 years and the other pair of shoes were a well loved pair of blue shoes. Zoey helped make the decision to dispose of that old pair.