by Kimberly | Dec 1, 2010 | Uncategorized
Oh, bring on the holiday season. I love baking for things during the holidays…trying new festive recipes that get out of my kitchen in a hurry. These will be gone tomorrow! 🙂 And I did much better on tasting them than the buttercream sessions earlier in the week.
I found this recipe on
:
Pomegranate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup pomegranate arils
Cream butter and sugars, add egg and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and add to the creamed mixture. Fold in oats and white chocolate. Fold in (gently) the arils. They will pop, but you want them to pop in your mouth, not in the dough.
Spoon onto sprayed cookie sheets and bake at 375 for 10 minutes.
Enjoy the pop of tart and the creamy goodness of white chocolate and the chew of oats. These are definitely a holiday winner!
by Kimberly | Nov 30, 2010 | Uncategorized
I remember when Mom and I used to do Angel Tree from the Lakeland Square Mall. I’ve now not done much of anything in that realm for Christmas for many years, although I would give to other organizations or missions endeavors. This year, I wanted to do an OCC box. So, I did, and delivered it to my local CFA who was giving away free sanctified chicken sandwiches with the drop-off of each box. It was fun shopping for my Girl, 10-14 with my friend, Tina.
I also had the opportunity to take a charter bus trek down to the Queen City and serve at the distribution center for OCC. They do have a well-oiled machine going there. We were given a short tutorial and then put right to work, not to miss much of our 6 hour shift. I got to work alongside friends and packed boxes that were going to Sudan and Malowi (sp?).
Coolest part of the day: Many of you know I’m writing curriculum for churches that will eventually be translated for the nations. So exciting. The first lesson we wrote was on the tower of Babel and one of the games was a Jenga tournament. One of my proofers said that people in other countires may not have Jenga games so I better have a alternate game they could do. Well, I just so happened to open a box and it had a jenga game inside. I was so excited. Right before I passed the box off to the next person, we stopped to pray over these boxes. I rested my two little hands on this one box and prayed for the child who would receive this box and wondered if God would ever allow them to study the story of the Tower of Babel and be able to play the Jenga game. So cool.
Here are some thoughts:
1. We are such a material culture. I thought much about this as I was searching the boxes for “unapproved” items. There were some boxes that were half empty and I thought, man I wouldn’t like to get that box. There were some that were full of school supplies and underwear, again, I would not be happy with that box. It tooks some cool toys, candy, notebooks, etc that made me smile at the box. I’m sure these children that get these boxes will be ecstatic just to get the box.
2. We are greedy. There were some pretty cool toys in some of those boxes. Can I find some of those toys?
If you are packing an OCC box this year (still) or will pack one in the future, please help your packers by remembering these helpful hints:
1. Follow the instructions. They come with every box or you can find them on the internet.
2. Don’t pack chocolate (except Tootsie Rolls, and I haven’t figured out if those are chocolate or not).
3. Any other type of candy is fine – PLEASE SEND IT. But, if you do, please put it in a baggy. That way, when we open it, it won’t go flying everywhere.
4. Don’t put liquids in the boxes. Liquids will be removed. If you want to give them hygiene stuff, send bars of soap, preferably not Irish Springs, wow – those bars are really strong!
5. Don’t put stuff with all English writing on it. Most of these boxes are going to places where the first language is not English. How would you feel if you got a book in Chinese and you don’t speak it and have no way to learn it?
6. Mix up the box some. Add some “helpful, useful” stuff in it (socks, udnerwear, notebooks, pencils, etC) and then also include fun stuff (toys, candy, etc). Wouldn’t you want your Christmas presents to be the same way.
7. Don’t wrap the box in a rubberband. We’ll just take off the rubberband and throw it away.
8. Don’t send your unwanted toys and used items. We’ll take them out. Would you want to get a bunch of dirty, used toys under your Christmas tree, probably not (unless you are a thrift store snob)!
9. Please pack a box. Make it a family mission opportunity. Pray for the children who might receive it. Have your children fill a box for a child the same age as they are. How fun it will be!
Give this season. It is definitely better to give than to receive.
by Kimberly | Nov 29, 2010 | Uncategorized
Well, I don’t feel like November really happened – its already over. Gracious so much happened this month – but did anything? I feel like this month just kinda scooted by and here we are in the last month of 2010 and about to start 2011.
1. Loved wearing flannels during Thanksgiving dinner. Just my parents and I – so after running, the flannels came on. It was great. I did set the table real nice though.
2. It was good having my parents here, sad to see them leave, sort of a lonely feeling, don’t know quite how to explain it.
3. I do not relish the thought of going into another winter season single. Yes, I love being single, we all know that, but winter is somehow different: holiday parties, Christmas Eve and Day, New Years, birthday, valentines day. Just seems like it would be better with a significant other – but not worth settling.
4. More dreams coming true for people – love watching it. God is so gracious to us. He is the ultimate Dream fulfiller!
5. I ran an 8k. 64.21 – beating my previous time of an 8k by 3 minutes, but man, I gotta run more and get a run/walk split down that I can keep and practice and improve.
6. Doing some fun reading: Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain and Eat Pray Love by Gilbert. Good reads. And yes, I take notes even in fun reading.
7. Heard a line today in an Andrew Peterson song that went something like this: Your payment was more than all our lambs we sacrificed. We can never do enough to earn God’s love or salvation – it is all grace.
1. A friend of mine who is a pastor here in Raleigh wrote this about how to prepare for Sunday morning worship.
2. I need to make these since I now have a whole box of sweet potatoes to eat before they go bad, or I get sick of the box. Can’t wait to experiment. If you have any ideas – please pass them along!
3. I made these for Thanksgiving, very yummy. I have a few leftovers. Will be enjoying this week, too!
4. Do you have a love/hate relationship with your grocery store?
5. My friend, Dana, speaks on Christmas traditions in a Christian home. You will want to check back as this is a series…
6. My lovely and creative friend, Christine, made these to hang in their home. Art doesn’t have to be expensive.
7. Girls Gone Wise on single women using protection (read on to answer all your questions)…
by Kimberly | Nov 28, 2010 | food, Uncategorized
This will be one of my fave restaurants in Raleigh, with good food and better music, ambience, and a wonderful martini that Mom and I shared…it was a good foodie night.
What we had the day after Thanksgiving:
Roasted pear salad with pomegranite dressing
Beef Tips risotto
14 oz ribeye
collards
sweet potato chips
Strawberry martini and margaritas
The strawberry martini and sweet potato fries were my fave. I finished up the collards yesterday. The decor was set in Humphrey Bogart style which was my favorite part. Will be spending one dinner of my bday week here with some girl friends. It will be a fun night!
by Kimberly | Nov 28, 2010 | food
I love diners. I love the Dam Diner in Oklawaha, FL. I love Floyd’s Diner near in High Springs, Florida near the Suwannee River. And, now, Boone is home to Troy’s 105 Diner, fabulous waitress, cheap, delicious food, and elvis on the walls. Good stuff.
We had the bacon bbq burger (complete with an onion ring piled high on it), and the veggie platter (2 mac and cheeses bc we both wanted some, green beans, corn, and a biscuit). All very good. And all eaten (well, some of the fries were left). Hiking works up an appetite.