New cover for an old journal

This is what happens when I’m in a funk and need to distract my mind with something creative and cheery!

The back

All you need are some old magazines, a glue stick, some scissors and something made of thick paper or cardboard to cover with your creation.

Make a pot of your favorite tea, put on some great music and start creating…

One of the things that’s been distracting me is a great book by Tim Chester called  A Meal With Jesus. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to be inspired by the way that food and christian fellowship can change lives, as well as  to anyone who wants a little insight into the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

I love the following part of the introduction:

“ How would you complete the sentence: “The Son of Man Came…”? The Son of Man came… preaching the Word… to establish the kingdom of God… to die on the cross.

…..There are three ways the New Testament completes the sentence, “The Son of Man came…” “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45); “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10); “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking…” (Luke 7:34).

The first two are statements of purpose. Why did Jesus come? He came to serve, to give his life as a ransom, to seek and save the lost. The third is a statement of method. How did Jesus come? He came eating and drinking.

The Jews of Jesus’ day would have said the Son of Man will come to vindicate the righteous and defeat God’s enemies. They didn’t expect him to come to seek and save the lost. And they would have said the Son of Man will come in glory and power. They would never have said he would come eating and drinking.

….Jesus spent his time eating and drinking – a lot of his time. He was a party animal. His mission strategy was a long meal, stretching into the evening. He did evangelism and discipleship round a table with some grilled fish, a loaf of bread, and a pitcher of wine. “

 

Don’t you love it? I get chills every time! (Maybe I’m just a big food nerd…)

My mission for you is this… Find this book! Read it. Live it.

And right now… tonight… I love the rain that is falling outside. Keep it up a few weeks more and I’ll be sick of it. But for now… I am content.

There is something so completely refreshing and cleansing about getting done with your job in a hot kitchen and stepping out into the dripping pouring dusk.

I love driving in pouring rain just as it’s getting dark. Add wind and I’m not as happy, but rain I like. Everything looks so dramatic… Black roads cut only by shining beams of yellow lamplight. The mist that covers the far edges of the fields makes it easy to imagine that ghosts exist. I can see a softly glowing figure walking alone in the distance with trailing hair and dress.

The rain is coming down and most of my car windows are fogging up and I smile as I near the well known spots on my drive home that are sure to capture extra water. Water that will tug my car to the right and surge over my tires. It’s fun when you’re prepared for it!

The spray from the road combines with headlights to create a friendly yet visibility destroying glow around each passing car.
For now – I like rain.

If you haven’t figured it out yet – we Farris’ like to eat good food. And if I’m going to be camping I’m going to be cooking over a fire. (None of that bring-your-own-gas-grill stuff for me!) So the challenge is to make good food over a wood fire! Veggies, some kind of meat and some sort of bread seem to be a winning number!

For dinner there was grilled shrimp on a skewer along with grilled veggies and lightly toasted bread! (Tip: I always bring my own grill grates to lay over the top of the rusty one that may or may not be provided.) I cut up some zucchini (long big strips), quartered some bell peppers and cleaned some mushrooms (leaving them whole). Tossed the whole bunch with some olive oil and salt and pepper and grilled them until just tender! Also sliced up some crusty bread and threw that on the grill. The shrimp we kind of cheated with by buying them pre-skewered from the seafood section of our local grocery store. When grilling shrimp it is important to keep a close eye on them and pull them off almost before you think they are done… Over cooked shrimp is dry and chewy.

Of course… because we waited to long to get all of this going, we were cooking in the dark (no pictures) by the light of one small flashlight and the dimly burning camp fire. It was challenging. All-in-all though – it was a delicious meal!

*Stay tuned for my next post to see what we had for breakfast!

I’m excited to announce the winner of my first ever Birthday Blog Party Giveaway! The winner will be getting some delicious spices and fabulous loose leaf teas from my favorite shop Wonderland Teas & Spices (Bellingham WA). I decided to opt out of sending chocolate because… well… it would melt :-/

And the winner IS… Meg S. Congratulations! (I’ll be sending you an e-mail soon – if you don’t see it let me know!)

Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes and fun birthday tradition ideas! I had fun “planning” this party and picking out the teas and spices I was going to give away! Can’t wait to do it again

Birthdays are interesting things. When I was younger I always thought I would wake up feeling different somehow… Older maybe. I always felt the same – although I usually felt pretty special My family has some great birthday traditions… When I was little we would wake up to a bedroom completely covered in crepe paper! We would have to climb out of it like a spy through laser beams or rip our way through in order to get to the door. As I got older my parents decided that toilet paper was cheaper, so from then on we just got our room “toilet-papered”. One year (when I was either 21 or 22) my dad called up my neighbors/good friends and (easily) talked them into toilet-papering my entire apartment! This year I won’t be waking up to a room strewn with toilet paper. I will instead be waking up at 5:00 am to go to work and cook for 10.5 hours. I’m not complaining. I’m grateful to have a job! I’ll be celebrating my birthday with my sisters on Sunday when we go camping! And next week I’ll be able to see my family and have a little family party…

With my brother at my birthday last year!

Another family tradition that we have is that the birthday person always gets to pick what they want to have for dinner. And when I was little we had “money  cakes” that were just traditional style cakes with coins stuck in them! (Don’t worry, the coins were thoroughly washed.) We always got really excited if we got anything bigger then a penny

This year I want to start a new tradition! I want to celebrate with all of you by hosting a little blog party/giveaway! I’m going to give away a gift box filled with stuff from a couple of my favorite local shops (spices, teas, possibly chocolate), simply because it’s my birthday! In order to be entered to receive this gift box of foodie goodies you need to leave me a comment telling me what your favorite birthday tradition is!

It would make my day if I got a whole bunch of comments – so spread the word!

Want to know more about the Foodie Pen Pal program? Want to join? I highly recommend it! Check out the details and sign up here: The Lean Green Bean.

Halfway through page eight the idea for a delicious new soup struck me and I immediately jumped up and rushed off to make it The following is the recipe for that soup (along with a few adjustments that I came up with along the way):

1 large onion (white, sweet or yellow will work fine), half a stick of butter (about 1/4 cup), spoonful of coconut oil (about 1 Tbsp), 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp yellow curry powder, 16 oz chicken stock, 1/4 – 1/2 cup coconut milk, a few pinches red chili flakes

Melt the butter and coconut oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Finely dice the onion and add to the saucepan. Cook on medium heat until the onion begins to caramelize (about 8 minutes). Once the onions have caramelized slightly, add the curry powder and salt and stir to combine. Add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. (At this point the soup can be pureed if desired – either in a blender or with an immersion blender.) Take soup off the heat and ladle into bowls. Spoon some of the coconut milk into the center of each bowl and lightly swirl in with a spoon. Sprinkle the red chili flakes on top of the soup and serve immediately! (Makes enough for 2 large bowls or 4 appetizers.)

This soup is rich and satisfying, the perfect thing for a rainy day like today I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Well I’m here to help! Not. actually. to help you clean… But to help YOU help you clean.

Start by doing some laundry (if you don’t have on-site laundry then just get it ready to go). Strip your bed, grab all of the dirty towels/clothes/kitchen rags and start a few loads!

Open a window and put on some music. Don’t let yourself be distracted picking out the perfect “cleaning” music – just throw on something upbeat and loud

Look around the space you are trying to clean and pick up anything that can be thrown away. Throw it away. The obvious is trash. The less obvious is stuff that’s been hanging around that you never use. If you are afraid to throw out something that could be “useful”, set it aside to donate to a local thrift store. Don’t spend to long hunting for every little thing that you could throw away – just take about five minutes and grab anything that obviously needs to go.

Pick up any dirty dishes that are lying around and stick them in the sink to wash later. If you only have a few and you happen to have an empty dishwasher you can go ahead and load them, but only if you have a few. Don’t want to get sidetracked on scrubbing cupboards! (Believe me… It happens.)

When you’re ready to begin putting things away, be sure to have a damp cloth handy to wipe down shelves and surfaces. You should try to clean as you go but try to only clean what is necessary. Don’t pull everything out of the game cupboard to deep clean the shelves. The goal here is to get your space in livable, working order! If you just really want to crawl into that closet and start scrubbing – make a note and plan on going back in the near future.

As you pick up and put stuff away, focus on specific types of things. Example: books, games, electronics, etc. Put away as much of one type of thing at a time as you can. It makes it easier to clean when you have a goal such as “Put away all of the books” and helps you to stay focused. Try not to be distracted by all of the cool stuff you find as you clean! (Other ways to look at the “groups” is by which room they belong in, what color they are or which activity they go with. This is also a good way to get kids to stay focused on a task!)

Don’t forget to switch the laundry!

Once you get most of the “big” stuff thrown away, picked up, folded or put away – start working on the smaller stuff. This can sometimes be the hardest stuff to deal with. Just looking at that collection of cords, batteries, pens, receipts, coins, notebooks, candles, tools and emergenC packets can be overwhelming! The same principle as above applies in this case as well. Throw away any of the papers and receipts that you don’t absolutely need. In fact – if they’ve been on the floor or in that old purse for a couple of weeks, chances are you don’t need them and probably only need to glance through them before tossing! Pick up all the writing utensils and stick them in a jar. Wrap up all of the cords and get rid of any old head phones and cell phone chargers that you haven’t used in the last 6 months.

Keep going until the only thing left to do is vacuum or sweep/mop the floor! Make sure that any empty surfaces have had a quick wipe down (including desks and window sills) and then finish the floors.

When your laundry is dry – re-make the bed, fold, hang up and PUT AWAY anything that was cleaned. As you are hanging up the clean clothes – try to pull out a few things to get rid of! An old shirt, a dress that no longer fits, a scarf that you were given but haven’t worn in two years. It’s amazing how easy and refreshing it is to clear out stuff you look at but never use!

(If the room you’re cleaning is the bathroom or kitchen you should should first clean and put away anything that normally sits on the counter top so you have a bare space to work with. Next clean such areas as the shower/tub, toilet, sinks, stove top or microwave. Scrub and wipe down the counters and any open shelves. Lastly – clean the floors.)

Last step: bask in the cleanliness that you worked so hard to achieve!

I would love to hear how you clean when you have a big mess to work on! Leave me a comment below

Recently I made all of the judge food for our Regional speech and debate tournament (about 120 people, 3 meals a day, 4 days). I had some excellent helpers! Couldn’t have done it without them

Now – the part that I’m bragging about is this… One day for lunch I made four salads. Southwest Quinoa, Chicken Penne Thyme, Greek Orzo and Chicken Curry. Everyone LOVED them! Everyone. I’ve received e-mails saying how great the salads were! (Everyone except some guy who wanted some meat. Beef to be exact. Chicken wasn’t cutting it!)

I love it when I can make people so happy that they won’t stop talking about it

I thought I would share one of the salad recipes with you!

Chicken Curry Salad: 4 cups diced chicken, 1 granny smith apple diced small, 2 cups chopped celery, 1/4 cup diced red onion, 1/2 cup raisins. Combine ingredients in a medium bowl. (Alternately you can add halved grapes and/or chopped walnuts.) For the sauce combine: 1 cup mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper. (I always taste, taste, taste and adjust seasonings as needed. There’s a pretty good chance I add more curry and salt than this recipe calls for – but only after I taste it!) Stir sauce into chicken mixture. Chill until ready to serve. Enjoy!