And it's been a month since I've posted...

My how a month does fly, especially in the spring when we can get outside (read: not bundling up in a blanket drinking coffee, blogging or napping with Baby P). Here's what I've been doing...

Reading:

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and it's sequel The Wise Man's Fear

These books are so, so good. They were recommended to me by a friend and I've been enjoying them immensely! If you like fantasy then you will love these! Though this is way over-simplifying, think: "Harry Potter is suddenly dark, brooding, brilliant, good looking and goes to college."

I've also been finishing Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller and let me say that if you read ANYTHING, read this book. Keller's insights on American culture, analysis of those things that the human heart makes into idols, and application of Scripture are deeply convicting and incredibly uplifting and gospel focused at the same time.

Idolatry is not just a failure to obey God, it is a setting of the whole heart on something besides God. [...] Jesus must become more beautiful to your imagination, more attractice to your heart, than your idol. [...]

Rejoicing and repentance must go together. Repentance without rejoicing will lead to despair. Rejoicing without repentance is shallow and will only provide passing inspiration instead of deep change. Indeed, it is when we rejoice over Jesus's sacrificial love for us most fully that, paradoxically, we are most truly convicted of our sin. [...] When we rejoice over God's sacrificial, suffering love for us--seeing what it cost him to save us from sin--we learn to hate the sin for what it is. [...]

(My favorite) To rejoice is to treasure a thing, to assess its value to you, to reflect on its beauty and importance until your heart rests in it and tastes the sweetness of it. 'Rejoicing' is a way of praising God until the heart is sweetened and rested, and until it relaxes its grip on anything else that it thinks it needs. (Keller 171-173)

Singing:

It's Easter season so it's been music, music, and more music preparation for Easter Sunday and other special services. There's a piece that we do every year with 70 member choir, organ, timpani and glorious brass that I absolutely love and I think the text is one of the most moving and beautiful poems ever written about Christ's resurrection.

Joy to the Heart

1. Look there! the Christ, our Brother,

comes resplendent from the gallows tree

and what he brings in His hurt hands

is life on life for you and me.

Refrain:

Joy! Joy! Joy to the heart

all in this good day's dawning.

2. Good Jesus Christ inside His pain

looked down Golgotha's stony slope

and let the blood flow from His flesh

to fill the springs of living hope. Refrain

3. Good Jesus Christ, our Brother died

in darkest hurt upon the tree

to offer us the worlds of light

that live inside the Trinity. 

Joy! Joy! Joy to the heart

all in this good day's dawning!

Here is this "Joy to the Heart" by K. Lee Scott

performed on Easter 2009 by the choir

at the American Church in Paris.

My friend Zach is the organist and assistant there!

Cooking:

Well I have been cooking, but mostly on the grill. That's been great! We have been experimenting with marinates and rubs. I'll share some of our favorites soon.

Last week I had to take a dessert to a dinner so I looked on Tasty Kitchen for ideas. Found a great one!

Three words...

Nutella Cream Pie

Make it. I one and a halfed the nutella part of the recipe and topped it with simple whipped cream instead of the corn starch spiked cream. I also used a sweet tart shell recipe instead of plain pie crust, but that's just preference.


Cleaning:
Well, I have been doing some packing and cleaning to get ready for our move at the end of June, a little yard work here and there in honor of spring and some wiping down baseboards on my hands and knees...but....I've mostly been doing some fun sewing projects.

Found a website that I love! Dana at MADE is so talented and she posts free tutorials for sewing projects from baby diaper covers to women's skirts and home improvement ideas. I've been making tons of these sweet diaper covers in cute prints for Baby P. They're not just for girls!! He's small enough to pull them off with a cute little onesie and a sun hat.

I've also been making little pants, shorts and overalls. Pictures to come...this post is already too long.

Happy Easter week! Reflect on what God has done for us through Christ, in His 'hurt hands' He brings life and peace and joy! 

Two Good Reads

A Discovery of Witches

(From Goodreads.com)

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism

I loved this book and think the review above does a great job of summing it up, although I usually cringe when anything is compared to the Twilight series. I am an unabashed Twilight fan, but the whole new "vampire/werewolf" genre that is trying to ride on its success is full of absolute trash. This book is not in the same category at all, despite 'vampiric' characters and a brief reference to werewolves.

Anyway...this book was a recommendation from a friend who has tossed other great books my way, so I bought it immediately and didn't put it down. Six hundred pages later I was hankering for more and tantalized by the hook at the end which clearly pointed to an upcoming sequel. I will definately be looking out for it!

After finsishing A Discovery of Witches, I felt the need to supplement my diet of fantasy fiction with a little biography/literary criticism. I am a huge Jane Austen fan. I've read several biographies on her and I have one of those neat folio books from Barnes & Noble with maps, pictures, paintings, copies of letters and drawings, among other interesting facts and things about Jane Austen and her life. I've even read Jane Bites Back (in which Jane is actually a vampire and still living today), although I did refrain from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies...

I'm now reading Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman. Isn't the cover great!?

I'm only a few chapters into it, but the preface was fascinating. Harman goes into the different ways that Austen's work (plots, titles, and quotations like the intro to Pride and Prejudice) have been used in everything from major news headlines to commercials to movies to operas to Facebook quizzes.

" 'All the reading world is now at Miss Austen's feet,' and a hundred years on, Austen is the only author who is instantly recognizable by her first name." (Preface xx)

That's true, you know! If it's an uncommon name, you could make some guesses. Charlotte. Ernest. Homer...no, wait?

The Brownies of my Dreams...

For the past couple of months I've been searching for a really fantastic brownie recipe. I don't like box brownies. Put them in front of me and I'll eat potato chips instead- even though I'm a huge chocolate fan. I don't like crisp edges, chewiness, icing, chocolate chunks, or cake-like texture. I love dense, dark chocolatey, not too sweet, European style brownies. After trying many recipes and reading many more, here are the things you need to look for in a good brownie recipe then I'll share mine with you!

-Not too much flour. If the recipe calls for a ratio of more than 1 cup of flour to
5-7 oz. chocolate, then it's going to be cakey. Cakey = not good.
-Lots of chocolate. Calls for melted chocolate, not just cocoa powder.
-Calls for eggs but NOT baking powder or soda. Powder or soda makes them too fluffy and cake-like.
-Calls for butter, not oil.

Now for...

Duh, duh-duh, duuuuuuhhhh!!!

The Brownies of My Dreams:
1 stick of butter
2 T. of strong, brewed coffee
6-7 oz. of bittersweet chocolate
      (this is preference, ok to use semi-sweet or a combination)
2 T. cocoa powder
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 large eggs
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350, grease a piece of parchment paper to fit an 8x8 or small rectangular baking dish.

Melt butter and chocolate in a small saucepan, add cocoa powder, sugar and vanilla. Continue stirring over low heat until sugar mostly dissolved. Lightly beat 3 eggs in a separate small bowl or cup, stir about a cup of the hot chocolate mixture into the eggs while mixing then add eggs back into the saucepan. Add flour and salt, mix well.

Pour a bit of batter onto the parchment (helps weigh it down while you fold corners like wrapping a package so that you'll end up with a nice square edge). Add the rest of the batter. The good thing about baking with parchment is you can just lift the whole pan of brownies out and onto a cutting board. It would be great for cakes and things too!

Bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with crumbs stuck to it. This is a trick I'd never heard before. If the stick comes out clean, then they are overdone.

Ok,  happy baking, I'll try to post some pictures later!

Brussel Sprouts...

Why do brussel sprouts have such a bad rep? As a kid, cartoons and such always portrayed brussel sprouts and lima beans as the worst, most disgusting thing your mom could possibly force you to eat. Well, I don't often eat lima beans, but they're ok and I've decided that brussel sprouts might be one of the best vegetables ever...if they're prepared the right way.

One of the most fabulous meals I've ever eaten (even including when I visited Paris, where the food was amazing) was at The Tulip here in town. It was a piece of peppercorn encrusted/wine and mushroom sauce drenched filet mignon with brussel sprouts. The brussel sprouts were drool-worthy...buttery...still a little crunch to them...oh, my...

Anyway, I have been cooking brussel sprouts a couple nights a week (I don't make my husband eat them every time because he's not a huge fan). Here is a super-easy, delicious recipe for brussel sprouts.

(serves 1)

8-10 brussel sprouts, cut in half (wimpy leaves removed)

1 or 2 pieces of bacon, crisp and crumbled OR several pieces of good quality, deli ham, chopped and browned OR something fancy like pancetta

butter (so much better than olive oil, which I have used before)

salt, pepper, chicken bouillon, a little water

delightful, creamy goat cheese (optional)

Decide whether you prefer bacon or ham, I actually like the ham a lot because it's quicker and a little less greasy. Last night, I only had bacon so that's what I used. Fry the bacon until crisp, remove from skillet and dispose of most of the bacon grease (all but maybe 1/2 tsp). Now add a dab of butter and the brussel sprouts, you want them to be browned and seared a bit before you add the rest of the ingredients. If you're using ham, add the butter and chopped ham together and brown a bit then just add the brussel sprouts directly (don't need to set aside the ham) and add more butter if needed. After the sprouts are a bit seared (2-3 minutes), add a 1/2 tsp of chicken bouillon (crystals or solid...) and one or two tablespoons of water. (put the bacon crumbles back in) Put a lid over and let them simmer for 3-5 minutes, the liquid should be mostly cooked down. Poke with a fork every so often, you don't want even a semblance of mushiness.

Next, dump them on a plate, season with salt and pepper and dot with goat cheese if you want. It's really good! If this is a meal by itself, add a quick fried egg and voila!

Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

Occasionally, I like to read a sensational, action/adventure novel. I enjoyed Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons. Plot twists and turns, interesting characters, accurate historical background, fascinating setting. The Lost Symbol is the newest installment of Robert Langdon stories. It's on the New York Times best-seller list and I needed something new to read. Here are the pros and cons:

Pros
1) A real page turner.
2) One truly shocking plot twist.

Cons
1) A page turner because from Chapter 4 onwards, almost every section and chapter ends a little something like this:

       * "He stopped dead in his tracks. Something was very, very wrong."

       * "He heard an unexpected sound in the distance. [...]

         Someone was screaming."

       * "[...] he realized he was looking at the

         severed right hand of Peter Solomon."

       *"If Langdon had not yet grasped his role here tonight,

          soon he would." (Duh, duh, duh)

       *"To his horror, something was staring back."

       *"Then, like an oncoming truck, it hit her."

This is just a small sampling. The phrases lost their effectiveness because they kept coming back over and over, like too many sweet tarts.

2) The one really great plot twist, the one that made me gasp out loud, was only related peripherally to the central plot. When the main 'question' was finally answered, it had lost its oomph because the peripheral plot twist was so shocking and the answer seemed mundane.

3) Christianity is horribly misrepresented and scripture is misinterpreted and taken out of context over and over throughout the book. The deity of man is proclaimed time and time again. The idea of man achieving enlightenment and making himself a god through meditation, positive thinking, science, intelligence, and education is introduced in so many different ways that it is nauseating. The author even goes so far as to claim that our Founding Fathers believed that attaining Enlightenment would make them gods. He cites the painting on the ceiling of the capitol rotunda. Brown wrote that this is a representation of George Washington becoming a god, 'the Apotheosis of George Washington.'

I need to do some reading to find out what it really means, but I know that our country was founded on the principles of scripture and the idea of bowing to God not making gods of ourselves.

Overall, this book is interesting, but not up to the quality of Dan Brown's earlier books and I was saddened by and tired of hearing about the deity of man by the end.

The Rotisserie Chicken

Yum, yummy, yum! If you've never eaten a rotisserie chicken or used one in a recipe, get going! It makes meals so quick and easy and it's great for 1-3 or 4 people, depending on what you're doing with it. Rachael Ray, Pioneer Woman and lots of others call for rotisserie chicken in their recipes. This month's Real Simple has 10 meals using RC and they look really good.

I have lots and lots of meals that call for 'shredded or chopped cooked chicken.'  It's not a hard thing to make and it's a bit cheaper than the rotisserie chicken, but it adds a significant amount of time to your prep work for dinner and makes for more dishes. So...enter rotisserie chicken, stage left. I generally divest the chicken of its skin and pull off/chop all the meat. That leaves you with 3-4 cups of chicken, depending on its size. This is great on salad, in pasta, inside puff pastry/crescent roll with cream cheese, onions and mushrooms, you name it.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day and we decided to stay outside and take a long, long walk so I didn't want to spend a ton of time cooking. I ended up making a simplified version of Pioneer Woman's Asian Noodle Salad. It was sooo good, see below.

Asian Noodle Salad with Chicken
1 package of whole grain thin spaghetti (cook al dente and drain)
1/2 bag of good quality chopped cabbage (cole slaw mix)
3-4 handfuls of baby spinach
1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro
1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
meat of 1 rotisserie chicken, chopped
(you could add lots of things to this, any veggie that seems Asian...)

Dressing:
3 T. canola oil
2 T. tahini (or you can use some sesame oil)
2 T. peanut butter
4 T. soy sauce
1/4-1/2 c. seasoned rice vinegar
a little white sugar (tsp.)
several dashes of cayenne (I had sriracha so I used some of that too)
* Season to taste at the end, usually I add a few more dashes of soy sauce, vinegar or a bit of oil if it seems too dry.

Whisk together dressing ingredients (be sure pasty ingredients are dissolved), pour over noodles, chicken and veggies, toss together. It's really good hot or cold!

Especially great if you want to do this...instead of stand around in the kitchen...

T.M.I.

Lately I have felt that people share a little too much personal info in their facebook status updates. I don't think you should announce to the web (read: potential stalkers) exactly where you are at a specific time, disturbing psychological comments, weird growths that you found on your feet because a piece of glass has been festering in there (I did NOT make that one up), among other things...

Recently, I've been made aware of a whole new realm of frighteningly informative facebook status updates. Childbirth. No, no, no, no No, NO!! Friends, let everyone know your child was born, healthy, boy or girl, what time, how big, all that jazz, but Lord in Heaven, please, spare us the specific details. True fact, here are two that I read just this week:

"It's a boy! [Name, weight, time] Mama did great. All natural, vaginal birth with no epidural."

"It's a girl! [Name, weight, time] A natural birth and right into her Mama's hands."

Ok, congratulations, love those babies...BUT I seriously cannot stop thinking about "right into her Mama's hands." Like, in labor you leaned over and pulled your own baby out? Sorry to drag you readers into this disturbing mental image with me, but just so not right. There's also a certain amount of pride attached to these statements: You are more awesome if you don't use anesthesia? Here's my philosophy.

Sin entered the world, pain entered the world. Childbirth became painful. Over thousands of years God has been constantly redeeming the world from sin...anesthesia is invented and redeems women from the pain of childbirth. Lay hold of the redemption that God offers to His people!!!

Moral of this story. Keep your medical history out of your FB status.