My Cheddar Bicuits

This is my very own recipe that I came up with after watching a Red Lobster commercial.  I don't like seafood, but those biscuits sure looked good!  I wanted to come up with something a little healthier (and tastier, in my opinion!).  I love making these on those days that I scrape together some random soup for supper.  It just makes it all so much better!

 

2 cups flour*

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp onion powder

2 tsp. sugar (optional)

5 T butter

1 cup sour milk*

1 cup shredded cheddar

*About the flour:  I usually use about 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup unbleached flour, 1/4 ground flax seed, and 1/4 oat bran...all combined to make 2 cups.

*There are different ways to make sour milk.  Here's my favorite:  add a splash of vinegar (probably 1-2 tsp) to your measuring cup and then top it off with milk to the called-for measurement.  Let it sit for awhile.  In this recipe, it's added last, so make the sour milk first and let it sit while you mix the rest.  I use soy milk because one of my boys is allergic to milk.

(First make sour milk, set aside.  Preheat oven to 450)

Combine 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp onion powder, and 2 tsp. sugar (optional).

With a pastry blender, cut in 5 T butter until you have some nice buttery lumps.

Add 1 cup cheddar and toss with a fork to combine.

Add the cup of sour milk.  Use fork to lightly stir, just until blended.  The secret it not to over-mix.  Dough will be very lumpy.

I use an ice-cream scoop to plop out the biscuits onto parchment paper.  You don't have to use the paper, but it just makes life easier!  I've also used non-stick aluminum foil.  My cookie sheet is supposedly non-stick, but that cheese WILL stick.

Bake at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes, until golden brown.  Let them cool on the pan for a little bit to firm up before trying to remove. 

I hope you like them as much as I do!

Shame

I've had a lot on my mind this week.  Hurting loved ones, people making bad choices all around me, my own feelings of inadequacy, my own bad choices.  I'm becoming more aware of shame and shame-driven decisions in myself and the people around me.  I think the root of our life-messes is the result of acting out in shame. Guilt, embarrassment, unworthiness, disgrace, disappointment, dishonor.  How much of life is just making the best of our situation?

I think this started at the very beginning when Adam and Eve were tossed out of the Garden.  Come to think of it, even before that, it was shame that the serpent used to trick the first humans.  "You are not good enough as you are, you need to eat this forbidden fruit so you may see as God sees and know what God knows.  Your existence as you know it is not enough. You could be so much better."  And then sin enters the world.  Or so the story goes.  The husband blames the wife, the wife blames the serpent, and all of them, deep in their hearts, blame God.  He's the one that made the tree, afterall.  And we all hide in shame because of one bad choice...and perhaps also hide in our shame for not trusting the One who created us.

Ironically, the main thing that promises freedom from this, is also shame-based: religion.  I can't think of any religion that isn't a list of rules, a standard that we can barely attain.  There's a promise of hope only if we jump through the right hoops and reach the right goals.  Christians will claim their religion is "different" from all the others in that our hope is in the Christ and not in what we do.  But that message is quickly diluted by a list of things we need to DO to measure up.  What a double standard!

So, what is the opposite of shame?  What is the key that unlocks the chains?  Love.  Jesus' only command was to love Him and love others.  That's it!  Now, how to live in that love and keep the shame from creeping in?  That's a good question.

Coconut Curry Chicken

This is a recipe I tore out of a Rachel Ray magazine years ago...it's simple and distinctive.
(the original recipe can be found here)

• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• One 13.5-ounce can coconut milk
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 2 pounds), cut into strips
• 2 teaspoons five-spice powder 
• serve with rice

Heat about 1 T of olive oil in a sauce pan.  Add 2 tsp curry powder and cook until it smells delicious (a minute or so)

Add the can of coconut milk and continue to cook (stirring occasionally) so that it reduces by about half.

Meanwhile, cut the chicken into strips (cut across the grain), toss with 2 tsp 5-Spice Powder, salt and pepper...stir fry in olive oil.

My kids don't like the spice powder (which I found in the oriental section of our grocery store)....so I divide the chicken in half and cook half with about 1 tsp spice and the other half with just salt and pepper.  Also, I've found that I really like carrots with this recipe.  The sweetness of the carrots is a nice contrast to the spice and curry.  AND you have a veggie built in!  In this case, I'm using julienne-cut, but halved baby carrots are great too.

By now, the coconut milk will have been reduced to a nice sauce.  You can mix it all together, or serve separately over rice.  (I like Basmati)

I usually don't care for leftovers, but I love this for lunch the next day.  I toss it all together and heat up on the stove, fried rice style.

Driver's Ed...for the rest of your life.

My feelings about attending an institutional church in respectful satire.

So...you'd like to drive a car?  All you need to do is "receive" a license!  You'll love driving...you'll find greater purpose in your life!  In fact, when you can drive a car, good things will start to come your way.  You'll be so happy driving that you won't even want to do any horrible things...like jaywalking.

Well, now that you are getting started with driving on your own, you really should start coming to our weekly Driver's Education classes.  Yeah, you might be able to drive just fine, but you really need that weekly support to keep you from driving clear off the road!  Our Driver's Ed teacher spent a long time studying the Driver's Manual, so he's just better equipped to better explain all the complicated rules of driving to you.  It's really important that you are the best driver you can be.  It would just make my heart sad to hear that you forgot to use your turn signals a few times.  Actually, class once a week probably isn't enough.  You can come to my house to meet with a few other couples from our class and we can talk even more about Driver's Ed.  We'll even commit to being your friends.  It doesn't matter if we have totally different personalities and interests....the only interest that really matters is driving...right?  Besides, don't you feel a little bad for your old friends who don't go to your class?  At least some of them go to another class, but, well, their teacher just isn't as good as ours is.

It's so exciting that you are so involved with our Driver's Ed class.  Don't worry that you don't have any interactions with anyone other than your fellow classmates.  There are a lot of crazy people out there doing crazy things like horseback riding, snowmobiling, walking...you know the type.  Yeah, we still have to love those types.  We just have to do our best to convince them to drive a proper car, just like us.  Did you hear we're planning a special "outreach" program to try to get more people to join our Driver's Ed class?...um...I mean...we just want them to learn to drive and have a good life.

Well...now we need to talk about something that will make you a really good driver.  You should probably donate 10% of your income to the Driver's Ed class.  It's just a good practice for you.  Oh, and we need to pay for the building we hold our class in.  And we need to pay the Driver's Ed teacher...and the teacher's secretary...and everyone else who probably wouldn't do what they do for the class if we didn't pay them.  Some of us really don't like to drive, so some of the money can go to pay others to drive for us.  We could also buy a big bus and form committees to car pool.  It all costs money.  But it's not about money, it's just about driving, after all.


I could go on and on....  My intention is not to mock.  And metaphors are not perfect.  I don't go to church anymore and I want to start talking about it.  This metaphor popped in to my head as a good way to voice some of my feelings about the institutional church.  Let me just say I have no problem with anyone who chooses to attend a church, and I sincerely love the people I met while I did.  But for me, it would be just as silly as going to Driver's Ed for the rest of my life.  I have not lost my faith.  I'm not saying I am unteachable or that I know everything.  I'm just saying I want to drive and I'll continue to learn as I go down the road.

Resolutions

The most over-used, under-achieved New Year's resolution has got to be "I will lose weight."  As I said before, I shy away from resolutions to begin with...I won't touch that one with the proverbial ten-foot pole.  I do need to lose weight, but I've found I usually fail whenever that becomes my focus.  I need to focus on being healthy and making good choices that will make me feel better.

I'm at an exciting (for me) turning point in my life.  I've been pregnant five times in the last 8 years...and I don't plan on being pregnant ever again.  I've gone up and down in size so many times, and I never took losing weight very seriously because...well...I was usually pregnant again!  My major downfall is that I hate exercise.  I keep telling myself that if I keep doing it, I'll eventually learn to like it.  I have a feeling that is a long way off.  I will persevere because I know it will make me a better person...and better able to keep up with my 4 kids.  But I still hate it.

A big thrill for me has been getting rid of maternity clothes...and even some of the in-between clothes.  And definitely the old-too-small clothes.  It feels so good to "clean house".  Recently, I have to keep reminding myself when I shop for clothes that I need to only buy clothes that FIT NOW.  I don't need "expanding" clothes for a pregnancy and I don't need those "wishful thinking" too-small clothes.  It is so much better to be realistic and just be comfortable with the way I am now.  If I need a smaller size in the future...well, that's a good reason to do a little shopping!

Another aspect of "cleaning house" for me has been releasing baby stuff.  Once my youngest boy and only girl grow out of something...I can get rid of it!  That sounds pretty basic, but it's actually a new way of thinking for me...and it feels great!  I'm learning new ways of thinking about a lot of things.  I am learning to live in the freedom of God's love.  I am simplifying some things, and getting more involved in others.  Rather than having a "grin and bear it" attitude about our crazy life and current schedule (my husband is in school and working nights), I want to enjoy these moments along the way.  I want to have a more positive focus.  I want to dance more.  I want to make more time for friends.  I want to love my husband, and love him very well.  I want to take control where I can to minimize my frustrations with the day to day.  I want to always be aware that almost anything I'm doing is not as important as reading the book that my son is waving in front of me.

It's a New Year!

I have never appreciated "New Year's Resolutions" because I tend to shy away from anything that even resembles a broken promise.  2009 was a horrible year for us.  2010 found us the "poorest" we've ever been, with the busiest schedule we've ever had, and the most children we've ever had to wrangle.  I think I have grown more in the last two years than I have in a long time.  Though this patch has been terribly difficult, it has been so sweet.  I appreciate things like I never have before.  I am starting to feel comfortable in my own skin.  I am no longer waiting for "that thing" to come and change my life...whatever that may be.  Every day IS my life and I am doing what I (no one else) was created to do.  As simple as that sounds, it is profound to me.

There have been times that I have felt like a leaf floating down the rapids of life.  I stayed afloat by keeping above the water and not feeling its depths.  I closed off certain parts of me so I could focus on the problems at hand.  None of this is conscious, of course, and none of it is as simple as a story that can be told.  Now, to take the metaphor a little further, I feel like I have a pretty good boat.  I'm learning the correct ways use my oars.

I'm excited about 2011.  And for the first time, I actually have some resolutions....because I know that I have the power to keep them.