I Resolve

...To seek truth, wisdom and beauty...

"Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;

you teach me wisdom in the inmost place." NIV Psalm 51:6

"Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." NIV John 8:32

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair, and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." NIV 1 Peter 3:3, 4

"My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair -- every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul." NIV Proverbs 2:1-10

....To love...

"Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." NIV Matthew 22:37-40

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." NIV 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

...To pray...

"...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." NIV 2 Chronicles 7:14

...To serve...

"...But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." NIV Joshua 24:15b

...To rejoice...

"Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." NIV 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Baked Beans

I wasn't looking for it specifically...it was on a dusty shelf over a workbench in the garage at my father's house. But there it was, the beanpot I wrote about last spring.
So, I had to make beans.

I followed the recipe in Marjorie Standish's cookbook, but I remember my grandmother putting an onion in the pot. I scored an "X" in the bottom like she did. And I studded it with cloves, because it was New Year's Day and because I was topping my beans with leftover ham instead of bacon or salt pork.

I also used Yelloweye beans instead of navy pea beans like Grammie did, because those have gotten hard to find.

I read once that beans were dinner for many a working family in Olde Boston. Cooking fuel was precious, and you could get your beans ready in the morning and take them to a public oven on your way to work, then pick them up, ready-to-eat on your way home. It's also one of the many old New England recipes to take advantage of the readily-available molasses.

I like cooking them at home, as it cozies up a cold day. It also provides a great warm stovetop for bread-baking days. Maybe I'll try making brown bread next.

Cranberries

I've been walking at lunchtime. We've had a mild season of fall tumbling into winter. So the cranberries growing wild on the roadside weren't ruined and mushy from frost.
I filled my gloves with them and brought them home.

What a fun discovery! How could I have missed them before, so bright and cheery?

As Alice Walker wrote in "The Color Purple", something to the effect of color in nature being one way God uses to get our attention and show us his love. Well, it's working on me -- I get a little thrill deep in my heart when I drink in this lovely color, don't you?

The last time that little wooden spoon looked so pristine.

Boil in half as much water. I had only 1.5 cups of berries, so this is 3/4 c. water. You can hear them pop. 10 minutes is good.

I don't have a food mill - yet, but this sieve worked fine.

Back to the stovetop to boil and stir with 3/4 c. sugar, about 5 min. Then chill and serve. If you have more berries (4 cups, say), you can use a mold.

The pulp stained the spoon. And I'm glad.

There it is: Jellied Cranberry Sauce.

It's risky making homemade. Takes time and makes a mess, and spoils you for store-brought.

My recipe is from the cookbook on the right.

These cookbooks are used a lot in my family. I think they are a little hard to find now, (maybe out of print? What was it you told me, Diane?) And someone "from away" has had the gall to assume the legacy and "revise" and re-publish. Rubbish.

Beginning the New Year

I have so many things I want to post about, and I have been taking pictures, mainly of my exploits in the kitchen. But I can't seem to upload my pictures. Blogger just freezes when I try.

So, I'm going to work on that problem in the background, and I'll just post on other things I have on my mind.

I recently ran across a blog called "Pleasant View Schoolhouse". I have, over the course of a few days, read every post in her archive. Anna gave me a new perspective. As amazing and accomplished as she is, what I have taken away is the inspiration to just live. Live, however imperfectly. Over the years, I have overly complicated my life, and really bogged myself down. I have been heavily influenced by Martha (Stewart), and not so much by Marla (Cilley, FLYLady). Since I have a tendency to focus on details (minutiae, really), I am easily swept up attending to inconsequential matters, while letting important things go neglected. Over time, I have become overwhelmed and discouraged and ultimately ineffectual. In the last several months, I have been making some changes in how I approach my days and my duties. Really, I feel like I have been coming out of a sort of a coma - a minimally functional coma. Oh, recovery is good.

Welcome 2012!

Happy New Year! 2011 has been a full and busy year, and I am looking forward to 2012. I know it will be a better year. I know it because I am in a better place now than I was 1 year ago.

I haven't written out resolutions for the New Year, but I probably will before Monday is over. I have not done so in the past. It feels like setting yourself up to fail. But this year, I am feeling more optimistic. I feel better able to face what comes and keep things in perspective. But of course, time will be the test.

****************************************************************************

I have been baking today. I made coffee cake to have with brunch.

Menu: Scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, coffee cake, cantaloupe, red reedless grapes, coffee and juice.

Next: 4 loaves of bread to get through the week. I use the "Bread 101" recipe from the King Arthur Flour Baker's cookbook (awesome). I'll share it sometime as it is not on the (awesome)website.And finally, I baked these rolls, which are the Honey Wheat Rolls, recently featured in the blog on the KAF website. I'd be providing links, but for some reason I can't today, as I can't get my cursor to select text for linking...sigh.

We had the rolls with our New Year's Eve dinner: Glazed Ham, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole (you know the one), tossed salad, and Holiday Eggnog (on the EggBeaters website).

I made one other special item, but I won't be serving it until tomorrow, and I'm still not sure if it will all come together, so I'll post about it with pictures, if it works.

Home Cooking

When I was in jr. high school, I got my first very own magazine subscription. I paid for it myself with babysitting money. I think it cost $2 for 12 monthly issues. I hesitate to name it. Since it is no longer in publication, the title is now being used by a publisher for what I can only describe as filth. I found this out by Googling to see if it was still around (or at least if there was any account of it on the web. (So don't bother to Google it...) I did find out that it was put out by Scholastic Books. It was called "co-ed", and I find a few issues for sale on etsy. There is an issue available with Donny and Marie on the cover, and with a poster of Shaun Cassidy inside! And there are dozens on ebay.One feature I habitually passed by was the recipes. But if I was particularly bored and looking for some more entertainment from an issue, I would go through it again, page by page. One time, I looked at the recipes, and discovered an interesting aspect. They featured recipes from foreign countries. I think the first one I took notice of was for Christopsomo, a traditional Greek Christmas bread. For some reason, this intrigued me, and I wanted to try making it. My mother was always baking bread, so raising and kneading a yeast dough didn't seem too daunting. Mum responded enthusiastically to my giving it a try, and agreed to get the needed ingredients for the coming weekend, (and be on standby for assistance). Waiting for the weekend, I looked at back issues and discovered that they too had recipes from other countries. I chose a German Sauerbraten recipe and suddenly had a menu for a meal for the family for Saturday night. I think it came out okay, as far as I remember. Mum still calls it to mind as "the time you made dinner for the family". That says it all right there, that I wasn't often in the kitchen, beyond washing dishes after supper. There was a glitch, though. The sauerbraten recipe required slow cooking in a sealed pot for a few hours. I had to make a flour and water paste to make a seal around the edge of the lid, to keep the steam in, I guess. I don't know if I did something wrong, but the paste became like cement, and my brother had to use a flat-head screwdriver like a chisel, and a hammer to get it open and in the process, put a chip in the lid of my mother's bean-pot.

Mum made a pot of baked beans about every week or two -- after all this is New England, and when the beanpot wasn't in use, it became a cookie jar. The first thing after school, we would check for cookies in the beanpot. Mum kept up a regular rotation of molasses (my fave), oatmeal raisin, and Toll House cookies. With a glass of cold goats' milk......mmmmmmmm. We raised goats and my brother and I took turns milking twice a day. Sometimes the cookies had a faint taste of apple. They stay fresher, moister in the cookie jar, if you place a small potato or apple in the bottom. Mum always used a small MacIntosh apple.

Saturday

I'm always thinking about something. And sometimes I'm thinking that what I'm thinking might be the beginning of a good blog post.

When I finally sit my tired self down in the evening, I find the thought of trying to type out my thoughts, coaxing them into eloquent expression too daunting. And yet, all day long, they are bubbling, roiling, persistent in their desire to be developed from embryonic ideas into formed essays, like an op-ed piece Because to me, even the most trivial thought is like a tiny piece of an infinite jigsaw puzzle, unique to me, and representing who I am and how I interpret the mysteries of our world and our place in it. So, I'm going to try something a little different to try and capture the cool fresh running water of brilliance bubbling up from the fount of my brain in clay pots, discrete aliquots of moist refreshment delivered into the parched void of my blog.