'Tis the Season: Craft Project--The Poinsetta Bowl!

Since I was put on disability back in September, I've been doing a lot of redefining.

For example, contributing to our household used to mean that I worked outside the home to bring in money.

Now, it means that I keep the house nice, plan meals and cook, make sure we're keeping to our budget, etc.

For another example, I was never the artsy craftsy, interior decorating type of girl.

Now, I've found that I actually enjoy crafty things--at least, of the floral variety.

And I love setting things up in my home so that it looks beautiful and well-put-together.

And doesn't Christmas just provide the perfect opportunity to implement these new definitions!

So, on to my most recent project!

I got my inspiration from several arrangements of lillies in bowls that I've seen, like the one below.

I decided to take a Christmas approach to such an arrangement, using a rounded bowl, fake pine needles, holly berries, and poinsettias.

The first step was to use my pretty pink wire cutters to snip off all of the branches from the pine bough.

Next, I bent the wire stems of the pine branches into arcs, and placed them in the bowl.

I continued to layer the bent branches so that, from the outside of the bowl, it looked like a wreath of pine needles nestled in the bowl.

The next step was to use the wire cutters again to snip off the branches of holy berries.

Then I took each little holly berry stem and wove it among the pine needles and branches in the bowl.

This way, from the outside of the bowl, the bright red holly berries peak nicely through the pine needles.

Next, I used the wire cutters to snip the two best poinsettias off of the branch.

I tucked the two poinsettias into the bowl on top of the pine needles.

This serves the dual purpose of covering the middle of the bowl where the pine needles don't entirely intertwine, and looking pretty!

So, in the end, I have a very pretty Christmas floral arrangement that I have placed on the end table!

Eggy in a Basket

Anyone who's seen the movie V for Vendetta will remember this yummy breakfast meal.

Both V and Gordon fix Evie an eggy in a basket for breakfast.

I've made this meal a couple of times, just figuring it out as I went along, basing my procedure on what I remember from the movie.

INGREDIENTS:

2 slices of your favorite bread

2 large eggs

2 Tablespoons of butter

1 small diameter drinking cup

The first step is to melt 1 Tablespoon of butter on medium heat in a medium skillet.

As the butter is melting, place both slices of bread flat on a plate.

Press the open end of the drinking cup down into the center of each piece of bread until the cup touches the plate.

This results in two slices of bread with holes in them, as well as two small round pieces of bread.

Next, make sure your cooking buddy for the week is keeping his nose away from counter!  Silly Tiberius.

Then, place one piece of bread in the melted butter to toast.

While it's toasting, crack one of the eggs into the hole in the toast.

While the egg is cooking, slide the spatula under the whole thing a couple of times to make sure it isn't sticking.

Let the whole thing cook until the egg white is almost solid all the way up.

Now, take the spatula and carefully flip the whole thing--egg and toast--onto the uncooked side.

Let it cook for a short while on that side--a very short while if, like me, you only want to seal up the egg yolk, but still leave it liquid!

Peak under the edge of the toast with the spatula to make sure it doesn't burn.

Once it's done, flip it onto a plate.

Add the second tablespoon of butter and let it melt, and then repeat the whole process with the second slice of toast and second egg.

Once both eggies in their baskets are cooked, go ahead and lightly toast the two bread circles in the leftover butter.

They make great sop bread for when the egg yolks break on the plate!

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday: 'Tis the Season--My First Homemade Wreath!

Menu Planning Monday!

So, I had some crummy dreams and now I can't sleep.

Which is why I'm doing a Menu Planning Monday post at 4:45 in the morning.

This one isn't going to have any frills--just the facts ma'ams (and sirs).

Breakfast:  yogurt and (if I can remember to buy it at the store this time) oatmeal, or eggs and toast

Lunch:  sandwiches of the ham and cheese variety

Dinner:

MONDAY:  Tonight was Bryan's birthday!  Hooray!  His papa and mimi took us out to Spring Creek Barbecue--yummm!

TUESDAY:  Gan Gan's Meatloaf

WEDNESDAY:  Mushroom Chicken

THURSDAY:  Easy Stuffed Shells...though this might switch to Wednesday or Friday night.

FRIDAY:  Pita Pizzas

This Saturday and Sunday is a hill country trip for family Christmas.

This week I will be baking my snickerdoodles, as well as trying my hand once again

at Bryan's great-grandmother's peanut butter fudge recipe!

Speaking of baking, my lemon buttermilk pie attempt--while not quite up to my mom's delicious standards--turned out very well!

Faith Friday: The Problem of Pain

Well, I'm certainly not starting off with a light topic, am I?
In advance, I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts on this too!

Just to preface, I'm looking at the problem of pain from the point of view of the Christian tradition, as that's what I'm most familiar with. :-)

The problem of pain refers to the conundrum that if God is loving, omnipotent (all-powerful) and just, how can there be pain and suffering in the world?

Or put another way, since there is pain and suffering in the world, how can a loving, all-powerful and just God exist?

This is a question that had broken many a person's faith in God.

For some reason, however, I've never had a problem reconciling the two seemingly mutually exclusive concepts.

I took me quite a few years to actually verbalize why I can reconcile suffering with a loving, just, all-powerful God.

The first and most important point to make is that I believe God gave us free will.

Some might argue that free will is pointless since God is omniscient (all-knowing), but I'll address that next week.

For now, let it suffice to say that I disagree.

Anyway, God gave us free will.

You can't "sorta kinda" have free will.  There are no half-measures involved.

You either have free will or you don't.

Since we do, our decisions are our own, and the consequences of those decisions are ours to bear. 

 Having established that, lets move on.

The way I see it, there are two categories of pain and suffering.

First of all, there's suffering and pain we bring upon ourselves, or suffering and pain whose cause can be clearly seen.

For example, someone gets drunk, drives and gets into a car crash, killing another person.

The person who chose to drink and drive brought their share of the suffering upon themselves, and those who have lost a loved one can see a clear cause-effect relationship between another person's bad decision and their pain and suffering.

Secondly, there's suffering and pain that people do not bring upon themselves, and that seems to be without cause or reason.

For example, the millions of children starving in Africa.

Those children have done nothing to bring their pain upon themselves, and there is no clear person responsible for their suffering.

Now, God is loving--which means that He wants to spare us all pain and suffering.

God is omnipotent (all-powerful)--which means that He has the ability to spare us all pain and suffering.

Generally speaking, everyone's on board and ok with these first two.

It's the third charcteristic--God is just--that causes the problem.

Remember, God gave us free will--total free will.

It's an integral part of who and what we are.

Looking at the first type of pain--the type we bring on ourselves or for which there's a clear cause--OF COURSE God wants to spare us.

After all, we're the ones making the stupid decision that hurts ourselves and others.

Now, in regards to the drunk driving example, God could strip the drunk driver of his free will.

Force him to decide that, no, he's not going to drive in the state he's in.

That would prevent the car crash and the attendant suffering.

 However, would that be the just thing to do?

Of course not.

It's a lesson that I had to teach my high school students over and over again.

Just because something is contrary to what you would like or how you believe things should be, this does not mean that the situation (or the person in charge) is unjust.

One aspect of justice is treating everyone the same.

Since God gave everyone free will, it would be UNjust of Him to pick and choose the moments during which and the individuals from whom it would be taken away.

And a just God cannot be unjust.

Now, looking at the second type of pain--the one that we've done nothing to bring upon ourselves and for which there is no clear cause.

It's important to understand that free will does not just affect those whom the decisions directly touch.

Take the children starving in Africa.

The political and economical situation in Africa is a result of a multitude of factors, including colonialism and its effects, war, corruption, etc.

Each of these factors were brought into the equation by the individual choices that people in the far past and present day have made.

Decisions interact with each other, and their effects can and do echo down through time.

Could God stop this interaction?  

Could He spare those in the present day the consequences of past actions?

Not and still be just.

Just as being just means treating everyone the same, it also means allowing all of the consequences of choices to play out, both for good and bad. 

To not do so is to negate the original choices that were made.

If God negates the effects of our choices, He in effect negates our freedom to make those choices.

Since God would have to pick and choose which consequences to allow, and thus whose choices to negate, He cannot do so and still be just.

And that is how I reconcile the problem of pain with a loving, all-powerful, just God.

One last thing to consider.

Pain teaches lessons.

 As a child, you stick your hand in a fire and it burns you.

You learn pretty quickly not to touch fire again.

When you are bringing pain upon yourself, it's important to learn not to make the choices you're making.

If someone else's decisions cause you pain, you also learn what not to do by avoiding making the same decisions they made.

I believe that God hopes that--since He cannot justly prevent our pain and suffering--we learn from the consequences of choice, and grow into stronger, better people thought our experiences with pain and suffering.

Granted, many people close their eyes to lessons brought about by pain and let the pain and the perceived unfairness of it all consume them

But that too is an exercise in free will.  

Mom's Lemon Buttermilk Pie!

For as long as I can remember, the holiday season has been 

marked by the smell of my mom's lemon buttermilk pie.

Back in college, I tried several times to make my mom's recipe with varying levels of success.

My apartment ovens were fairly temperamental creatures, burning either too hot or not quite hot enough,

so there was always a great amount of guesswork that went in to making a pie.

Now that I have my own home, and an oven that heats up reliably and consistently, I figured it was time to try my hand once again at making my mom's lemon buttermilk pie.

The recipe is deceptively simple, but with patience and attention to detail, I think I go it right this time!

So, first step is to assemble the ingredients!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 a stick of butter

3 rounded Tablespoons of flour

2 cups of sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups of thick buttermilk (WHOLE buttermilk--NOT reduced fat, skim, or any other kind!)

2 teaspoons of lemon zest (grated lemon peel)

2 Tablespoons of lemon juice

1 unbaked pie crust

Now, preheat the oven to 350 degrees!

Also, this is a good time to go ahead and take your refrigerated pie crust

out of the fridge and let it reach room temperature for later.

Next, measure out the flour and sugar and the butter.

I used the super-cute already-packaged-that-way half sticks.

Put all three ingredients in the mixer and cream them.

This takes a few minutes on a medium high mixer speed.

When the mixture looks like the picture below, it's done!

While the flour, sugar and butter are creaming, go ahead and grate the lemon peel.

Keep grating until you have approximately 2 teaspoons of lemon zest--a bit extra never hurt anyone!

From this point until the end, with the exception of when adding to the mix, I keep the mixer on low.

Next, measure out the buttermilk.

Again, it needs to be WHOLE buttermilk--nothing reduced or skim or anything like that.

It might be "healthier" but the taste and consistency just plain SUCK.

Add the 3 large eggs to the buttermilk and beat it all together.

Stop the blender and pour the buttermilk-egg mixture into the creamed mixture.

Turn the mixer back on low and let it do it's magic.

While everything is mixing, measure out the 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice and the 2 teaspoons of lemon zest.

This time you can leave the mixer going as you add in all the lemony goodness!

While the mixer continues mixing, get out your 9" pie plate.

First grease the pie plate.

Now roll out the pie crust into the pie plate.

Make sure to press the crust into the corners and along the sides of the plate.

 Then take a fork and gently poke some holes in the pie crust--it helps it bake better!

Now, put the pie crust in the oven for about 10 minutes.

At this point, the pie mixture should be very well mixed and ready for pouring!

Once the pie crust has baked for 10 minutes, remove it from the oven.

Pour the pie mixture into the crust.

Don't worry if it looks really full--it's supposed to!

Do stop before the pie mixture overflows the plate, however.

I forgot to take a picture of this step...sorry!

Now, CAREFULLY place the pie in the oven.

Bake it for one hour.

At the end of the hour, carefully take the pie out.

It should be a light golden color and jiggly when you take it out of the oven.

Make sure to let the pie cool completely before cutting into it--that way it has plenty of time to set!

Once it has set--enjoy!!!

Wordless Wednesday on a Thursday! 'Tis the Season!--Island Centerpiece