Month: November 2012

  • All I have in Christ

    This was a wonderful way to start my morning. I wanted to share this free music download with you. 

     

    The words showed up on my media player so I was able to worship right along! 

     

    Enjoy and start your morning off right!

     

    All I have is Christ

  • How to make a perfect PIE CRUST

    I have such warm memories of my childhood holidays and many of them revolve around time spent at my Grandma’s farm. My sister and I and our cousins  would romp through the pasture.. down to the back of the berry bushes and look for tadpoles in the small pools of water.

    My grandma was a ‘down home’ cook. She fried her own chicken (which she had raised) and did a lot of canning. But, my favorite memories are her pies. She made every kind of pie you could imagine from mince meat to green tomato along with all the favorites.  I made it my goal, as a young wife, to learn how to make pies just like Grandma. Unfortunately, I never learned  how to make her pie crust before she died.

    Years later a young mother brought a homemade pie to a church Pot Blessing and the crust was so good that I asked for the recipe. I’ve been making it ever since and shared the recipe with many women over the years.

    Perfect Pie Crust (Makes 2 full pie crusts)

    4 cups flour
    2 teaspoons salt
    1 tablespoon sugar
    1 3/4 c. Crisco shortening (don’t use generic brands.. it really does make a difference)
    1/2 c. water
    1 egg
    1 tablespoon vinegar

    Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl.  Add the shortening. Here I am using my Kitchen Aid but you can use any large bowl and a pastry cutter or a large fork to cut in the shortening. When I use my Kitchen Aid I use the whisk until the dough resembles very, very small peas.  But don’t whisk it too long or the dough will start clumping together too soon.

     

     

      Next, I run 1/2 cup water into a measuring cup, break the egg straight into the cup and add the tablespoon of vinegar. Mix it together and then add to the flour/shortening mixture. I change attachments on my Kitchen Aide at this point and use the mixing paddle to gentle mix it together just until it starts clumping together and clearing away from the side of the bowl.

     

     

     

     I wet my rolling board with a wet wash cloth and place two pieces of Seran wrap next to each other so that it will cover a large surface and then I sprinkle a small amount of flour onto the Seran wrap.. not too much…maybe 3 tbsp. or so.. just enough to dust the seran wrap. I take a handful of dough (the dough will make 2 full pies with top and bottom crust) and place it on the seran wrap and then flip it over so that there is a small amount of flour on both sides of the dough. I put one more piece of Seran wrap on top of the dough. So, now you have Seran wrap (2 pieces) underneath the dough and one piece on top. I then use my rolling pin and roll it out thin.

     

    Next, I take the top layer of Seran wrap off of the dough and place my right hand 

    underneath the bottom layers of Seran wrap and lift up the crust so it can be flipped it into the pie pan.
     

     

     
    (The Seran wrap is still on both sides of this dough in the picture because I’m not baking pies today. I just wanted to show you how easy it is to roll out a pie crust with this method. )
     
     
     
    .  
    Peel off the last pieces of Searn wrap and gently press the dough into the pan. Cut off any excess dough around the edges and flute your edges and your done.
     
     If you decide to not bake your pie crust right now you can leave all the Seran wrap on when you initially roll out the dough. Fold it in 1/4′s and then put the dough into a large gallon freezer bag. You can then either keep it in the fridge for up to a week or freeze it for at least a month. 
     
    I made up quite a few batches of dough,  rolled them out and then froze them for the holidays. It makes the baking process much easier when the dough is already made. 
     
    And there you go!
     

  • Dying daily for our families..

    I found this post at Desiring God and it blessed me so much that I wanted to share it. I believe it’s not just for mothers but also for wives or any believer.. because we are called to serve others. I hope it ministers and encourages you as it did me. It’s written by Christine Hoover at Grace Covers Me.

    ***

    As a mother, there is a constant, uncomfortable battle that rages inside of me. It is not the big or dramatic: Will I raise my children to love God? Will I train them to obey Him? Do my children belong to Him?

    The constant battle of motherhood is more subtle, more everyday, more hideable. At the center is one question: Will I sacrifice? Or as Oswald Chambers poses in My Utmost for His Highest: “[Am I] willing to spend and be spent; not seeking to be ministered unto, but to minister?”

    The Everyday Question isn’t answered one time, with the birth of a child, with the planning of school, or with the decision to discipline. This question — Will I sacrifice? — is answered everyday.

    It’s answered when a child wakes early with a need, interrupting my quiet hour alone with the Lord.

    It’s answered when a sick child keeps me from worship and adult interaction at church on Sunday mornings.

    It’s answered when I am emotionally spent, but a child’s behavior requires my patient, purposeful response.

    It’s answered almost every moment of the potty training process.

    It’s answered as I systematically teach my special-needs son how to interact with others.

    In motherhood, the Everyday Question is answered every time a child’s concern or need must come before my own, which is most of the time.

    Too often, I attend to necessary tasks — leaving the stove to help with pant buttons, putting down the phone to search for a beloved toy, excusing myself from a conversation at church to take tired children home for a nap — while my heart grumbles. If I just had one moment to complete a task or have an adult conversation without an interruption.

    The Everyday Question, however, asks not just about what I do but also about my attitude: Will I joyfully pour out my life as a fragrant offering before the Lord for the benefit of my children? Will I serve my children out of obligation and duty or will I serve like I’m serving God Himself? Will I die to myself so that I might live to God in the specific calling He has given me as a mom?

    The Everyday Question must be answered everyday.

    Because motherhood is not so much the big, dramatic acts of sacrifice, but the little, everyday, unseen ones.

    Because we can have a clean house and obedient children and not sacrifice.

    Because we are so easily deceived to think we can live for ourselves and be faithful to God in our ministry as moms.

    Jesus said that those who live for themselves will actually have an unfulfilling life, but those who lose for their lives for His sake will really experience life. As parents, our self-death for Christ’s sake not only produces fruit in our own hearts, but produces fruit in the hearts of our children, fruit that grows by the power of God. Let us, then, choose to joyfully give of ourselves for our children.

    Everyday.

    “For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4:11)

    “For the love of Christ compels us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15)