Food Quote of the Week
What do you do with PAIN?
Life is a sweet journey – for the most part! I’ve been amazingly graced with a really great life.
But, what do you do when life hands you pain? As a believer in the sovereign plan of God and also the fact that God does all things good and for our good – this year has been a tough year to stand firm on that.
This past year has handed me a lot of pain. We are just a year out from one of the most hurtful conversations in my life. In each of these hurtful conversations I took away good and hard lessons.
Of the hardest conversations in my life, one of those conversations earned distrust. One of those conversations earned freedom. And the last of these conversations earned seclusion and doubt and tears.
So, how do you work with pain in your life?
1. First, I couldn’t blog about it. Blogging is one way I think through what is in my head. But, when I know others read my blog – there are some things that I can’t talk about on it. Instead, I chose basically two people in my life to pour out everything to: a pastor’s wife that I knew faced similiar pain in ministry and the other one was my husband. Both of these people shared wisdom with me and hours, whether on the phone or laying on the couch. My husband was a champ during the months that followed this initial conversation and the tears each night for literally months on end that would stream down my face.
2. Know where your trust is? I used to be a very trusting person. That was until people in my life that I trusted let me down. Then, I don’t trust as much. I really think i’ve come to know that God is the only person I can trust 100% of the time. He is the only person who has never sinned and can’t sin – so that means he can’t let me down. And God will never let me down. At some point, every single person in your life will let you down. Its a fact of sin nature. You will let others down. I will let others down. But, God stands.
3. My introvert self became more introverted. Some people would never mark me as an introvert – but I truly am. I thrive on quiet time during the day, on my boys taking their naps, on my panera time each week, on my laying in bed with a book or social media time. I need to recharge. And part of that being an introvert is usually yourself can’t hurt you. But, others hurt me. (and believe me I know I’ve hurt other people). I’d rather stick with the friends I have who are tremendous and leave it at that.
4. I’ve let go of things that we must agree on to be friends. There are only a few BIG things in life that are worth battling over – those mountains you might say. Don’t let battles rage and hurt fly over the little things. Really. You may not see eye to eye with someone and its ok. Love anyway.
5. Learning to love. Reading Ryken’s book this past year and now going through Goff’s Love Does has been a tremendous thought process for me. Loving is hard. It took MONTHS to even be able to look some people in the eye after this recent hurt. Loving others is one of the hardest things to do. Oh, its easy to love people when they are lovable. But, grace and mercy and a generous love is needed when people are not lovable.
6. I know some of you who many know me think I always take everything even keeled and am pretty much a laid back person. But, as my husband will tell you, I am an emotional and passionate person. Tears flow with friends as they share news of hurt with me. After last summer, I didn’t think I would ever be able to cry any more tears.
“You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” – Psalm 56.8 It gives great comfort to know that the Psalmist was not a stranger to tears. We see him often bringing his heartfelt and tearful please to the Lord. This give me great confidence in knowing that I can do the same thing with the same Savior!
7. But, more tears will come. This year has been one of one hurt after another. And I know that pain is a part of life…so we will start the cycle over again.
How do you handle the pain that life deals you? How do you let God work on your heart with the hope of the Gospel?
Vanilla Lime Watermelon Salad
And summer is slowly coming to an end. Zoo Atlanta is less crowded during the day. More school buses are always on the streets around town. Malls are less jam packed with kids.
School may have started, but summer fruits are still thriving. This past weekend I went over to Alabama to visit with some family and I got treated to two farm-grown watermelons. One had yellow flesh and one had the typical red flesh. Both were beautiful and sweet.
So, I paired them both with some balsamic and olive oil! What? That doesn’t go with watermelon. It does if you have some specialty balsamic and olive oil from Oli & Ve in Roswell. I paired this for a tasting there and knew that I would be purchasing both. That tasted amazing together.
Vanilla Lime Watermelon Salad
Recipe Type: Salad
Cuisine: Fruit Salad
Author:
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 2
Fresh summer fruit that is simply dressed – perfect.
Ingredients
- 1 cup yellow flesh watermelon, cubed and seeded
- 1 cup red flesh watermelon, cubed and seeded
- 2 tsp vanilla balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp persian lime olive oil
- salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
- Put watermelon in a bowl. Combine the oil and vinegar together. Drizzle over top of the fruit. Season with salt and pepper. Eat!
- I like this served room temperature. Would be a great side dish to a pork or tacos or fish
This Week in the Charming South Kitchen
Budget living is not fun, but it is wise. I could spend so much on groceries. Even though when we lived in Little Rock, there was a grocery tax, the cost of food here in ATL is still more. So, we are examining our budget and our needs – especially as our two littles go through growth spurts and eat a lot!
So, we get a little creative – or maybe a little boring when we get to the last week of the month, especially one with 5 full weekends and 31 days! And this week also brings with it a date night to the Braves game – can’t wait to try some stadium food – any suggestions?
Vegetable Slow-Cooker Lasagna (this is cooking right now and will get the recipe up to y’all soon)
Grown-up Green Eggs and Ham (recipe coming later this week as well)
Trader Joe’s Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage
Zucchini and carrot muffins (combined, not separate)
Something savory and something sweet with some watermelon I’m getting today – haven’t decided what
My friend Tasya took the above photo and I got the idea for labels from my friend Shannon.
Vanilla Lime Pound Cake
For this week’s edition of Sundays in the South, I am featuring I recipe I finished up this morning.
I am definitely from the South. And if there is any dessert that is commonplace in the South, especially the Deep South, it is pound cake. Unfortunately, pound cake might rank right up there in my just-never-asked-for-desserts. Unless you are this one particular pound cake found at a tiny bakery in a tiny town off I-40 in North Carolina.
Ketchie Creek Bakery serves an amazing Five Flavor Pound Cake with a rich and smooth buttercream which I would take over most any dessert in the world. You get a huge piece and need to split it with about 4 friends, but man, it just melts in your mouth.
But, this pound cake features two of those flavors…lime and vanilla. I made it today for our family reunion and my Dad’s comment “Its dense and moist.” Exactly what a pound cake should be.
I tweaked How Sweet Eats recipe of this – I thought it was too lime-y, so the recipe you see below makes that adjustment. Also, I didn’t have a vanilla bean, so I upped the amount of vanilla. The end result was still tangy and smooth.
Vanilla Lime Pound Cake
Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: Pound Cake
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8-10
Tart and warm…a Southern vanilla lime pound cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
- 3 eggs
- 3 T whole milk
- 1 1/2 T REAL vanilla extract or paste (don’t use imitation as this is a huge taste of your pound cake)
- 1 T lime zest
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- For the glaze:
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 T heavy whipping cream
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- juice of two limes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Put parchment paper in a loaf pan and spray with cooking spray.
- Mix dry ingredients. Sugar in this recipe is a dry ingredient. Reminds me to always read directions before starting a new dish.
- Mix wet ingredients and combine with dry.
- Bake for about 60 minutes or until done.
- Let the cake cool.
- Mix the glaze, adjusting the sugar and lime juice to your consistency liking. Drizzle on top of the cake.
- Slixe, share, and enjoy.
Link Love – Weekend Edition
We are coming up on the end of summer. So, I want to send some links your way on how to relish these last remaining hours in August. 8 links for 8 last days in August!
Here are some lessons someone learned while blogging for almost a decade. I’ve been blogging for 9 years and here are my brief thoughts: Its fun. Its challenging. Life isn’t perfect. And if you are going to be real and share life on your blog – then most likely you will offend someone. Don’t let it stop you from sharing and being real!
Summer is usually a time to read books. Isabel over at 9th Letter Press is reading and designing. I love her covers – especially one of the ones she did for Jane Eyre. You need to check out her whole store. One of my favorite letter press companies!
If you are into theology and how loving God intersects with every day life – go check out Tim’s post on some great blogs by and for women.
While I won’t be doing these until 4 days after August, they just look too good not to share – and you can make them now if you want!
My husband and I adopt a debt free lifestyle: meaning the only debt we have right now is my college and a recent surgery I had to have – which is really so low. That’s right: thankfully no house and no cars. Hopefully we will have a mortgage again one day – but that’s fair. No consumer debt. I love this post that talks about a thankfulness in our hearts that we should have – and teach our children to have.
I will be making this in the coming week to put in some carrot and zucchini muffins for the Mister.
Given my love for egg dishes recently, think this might definitely be a go-to for the last week of Summer.
Speaking of reading – I love to sit down with a good cookbook and read it from cover to cover. Here are some ones you can pick up this week and read before August gets away from you
Asparagus, Ham, and Mozzerella Quiche
Quiche – the brunch delight I once thought was only reserved for the dainty tea-drinker types – how wrong I was. Quiche is so good and healthy (proteins and vegetables galore) and so versatile! I make a new one regularly and my whole family (including the two toddlers) enjoy them. You can serve by itself, or have a side salad, fruit, and/or bread with it to round out the meal. This is perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Brunch and Linner. Brunch or Brinner. Whatever you wanna call it – its delicious.
I love asparagus. When spring hits and I see those tall skinny luscious green stalks all bound together – I can’t wait to get home and roast them simply with sea salt and lemon zest. That’s what made me think of this quiche.
Hope y’all enjoy!
Asparagus, Ham, and Mozzerella Quiche
Recipe Type: Quiche
Cuisine: Brunch
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
A hearty quiche with asparagus, ham, and mozzerella!
Ingredients
- 1 frozen deep dish pie crust, thawed
- 1 lb asparagus, end removed, and chopped in 1 inch pieces
- 3/4 cup diced ham (aim for low sodium regular ham)
- 8 oz shredded mozzerella cheese
- 1 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp Holly & Flora’s Yard Blend (blend of chopped dried herbs)
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- zest of one lemon
- 7 eggs
- 2 T evoo
- 2 T unsalted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400. Bake pie shell for about 15 minutes.
- Saute the onions, ham, and asparagus in the evoo and butter in a cast iron skillet for about 3-5 minutes. Add spices.
- Mix the eggs and whipping cream.
- Add onion mixture, cheese, and egg mixture together.
- Pour into pie pan until full. You won’t use all of it. I had little tartlet pans and made 6 frittatas with the remaining quiche mixture.
- Bake on 375 for about 45 minutes or until middle of the quiche is set.
- Enjoy!
Patchwork Butternut Squash, Kale, & Chicken Pot Pie
Bring on the Fall. This week seems to be one of the hottest in the whole summer – just when I’m thinking of pumpkin lattes and vanilla and sweet potatoes.
I look forward to evenings when I can snuggle on the couch under a blanket with my hubs – watching a movie – after the boys go to bed – knowing that it is getting cool outside!
Patchwork Butternut Squash, Kale, & Chicken Pot Pie
Recipe Type: Main Dish
Cuisine: Southern
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6-8
A fall flavored pot pie with chicken, butternut squash, and kale
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts, cut into pieces
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 T unsalted butter
- 2 T evoo
- 1 1/4 cup diced butternut squash
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 massive handfuls of chopped kale
- 1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 1 pie crust, torn in pieces
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350.
- In cast iron skillet, heat oil and butter. Add in onion and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
- Add garlic and cook for about 1 minutes
- Add squash and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Remove from pan.
- Cook the chicken in same pan until done.
- Combine the vegetables, chicken, spices, and cheese.
- Pour into a deep dish pie pan. Cut strips of pie crust and make a lattice or patchwork pattern out of them. Layer on top of pot pie.
- Cook for about 45-50 minutes or until top crust is golden brown.
I’d never made a pot pie until I moved back to Raleigh in 2010. My boss’s wife – and friend – made a delicious one and said it was so easy – well, this one is too and has wonderful Fall flavors!
Faith Quote of the Week
This life throws so much at us. I live in metro ATL and every day I could worry about my Mister as he drives to and from work. I could worry about how my sons are going to turn out and if they will love Jesus one day. I could worry about our finances because my Mister is in a commission job. I could worry about friendships and blog readership and if I will ever fit in the size 8 skirt that I love?
But, all of that wouldn’t be believing God.
At the beginning of this year I really wanted to be daily reminded of the fact that God wants me to BELIEVE HIM. Not only believe IN Him but, to also wholeheartedly believe Him. This year has definitely been trying – and God is allowing me steady contact with Him to help me with my unbelief – making it believing!
Toddlers and Edible Finger Paint
Combining two of my loves – my boys and food. What could be greater?
Usually we go go go out of the house, but when Daddy is home, we like to chill and do something fun together. So, I saw a post from a NC blogger and new that if I could talk my Mister into it, then we would be doing this. My Mister loves to be neat and not get messy, but I convinced him to put aside his neat and tidy ways to let us all have some fun and then we would dump our boys into the bath! So, an adventurous morning we had!
My boys are all boys – which obviously that morning didn’t involve finger painting. What did they do? They headed straight for the rocks. That is all they cared about. So, bring on more rocks!
With this edible finger paint – you don’t get art (because it doesn’t harden) but you do get fun times in the back yard!
Items you need:
Small containers to put the finger paint in (I used tupperware small square containers)
Sweetened condensed milk
Food coloring
Newspaper or tarp of some sort
Diapered kids (better than ruining clothes)
Spoon
I poured some of the condensed milk in each of the container and put in some food coloring into each one, stirring it up, and gave each boy his own containers so there would be no fighting over them. That helped.
Then we laid out newspaper on our back porch (read slab of concrete) and stood back to see what would happen? Neither of them went for it. I helped BabyBach a little but Elibuddy was definitely more interested in the rocks.
So, what do we do with the extra? We are giving it to our neighbor who has two little girls. She said they love to color.
This can be a great way to get to know your neighbors who have young ones. Just bring them all to the back yard and let the silliness begin!
Then we just took their diapered little selves straight to the tub and gave them a long soak and scrub.
So – how do I think about this as shepherding my boys: God is a beautiful creator and has given us many things to enjoy : finger paint and rocks! Let them get messy, be creative, and have fun. Its a way we were created to worship!
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