"The" Cookbook

My friend Betsy had recommended this cookbook to me and at first glance I was not interested at all! It had no pictures, few illustrations, and no nutritional fact information; all of which have been previous requirements of mine for a cookbook. But oh friends, let me just tell you about this cookbook! Since getting it for my birthday a week has not gone by that I haven't made something out of it and usually I cook out of it 2-3 times a week! The title describes perfectly what this cookbook is about: everything! Want to roast some potatoes and pork and then use the leftovers for fried rice? Mark will tell you how! Or what about crepes and banana bread? He's got that covered too.

Here are some features that make this book "The" book to have in your kitchen:

• Over 2,000 recipes with tons of variations. As a matter of fact, I don't know if I have seen a recipe in here that doesn't have a variation.
• Basic ingredients. All of the recipes that I have made so far did not cause me to run to the store! His ingredients are simple things that you already have around the house.
  
• Well illustrated techniques. Want to quarter a chicken? It is all drawn out here step by step.
• Essential recipes are highlighted at the beginning of each chapter to get you started. This is especially helpful for me on chapters like beans, which I have never cooked before this year!
• Charts, charts, and more charts! This man loves his charts! My favorite one yet is one that outlines different types of vinaigrettes into their different parts: oil, acid, flavors, etc.
• Variation on top of variation: One title of a list reads, "11 More Ways to Vary Grilled or Broiled Boneless Chicken" Not only do these variations give you good ideas, but you feel freed up to make your own decisions and substitutions without the fear of failure.
• Only 7 out of 56 people on Amazon.com gave this book less than 5 stars and not a single one gave it just 1 star.
• Chapter Titles are: Kitchen Basics; Sauces, Condiments, Herbs and Spices; Appetizers; Soups; Sandwiches and Pizza; Salads; Vegetables and Fruit; Beans; Grains; Pasta, Noodles, and Dumplings; Fish and Shellfish; Poultry; Meat; Eggs, Breakfast, and Dairy; Bread; Desserts
• My favorite chapter is Vegetables and Fruit. For each vegetable and fruit that you can find at the grocery or farmers market he tells you how to pick the right one and then has several recipes on different ways it can be prepared.
  

Weather you are new to the kitchen, new to cooking, or just need some new ideas you need to add this book to your Christmas wish-list. My sister already got his vegetarian version for her birthday.

Banana Bread

My family has a banana bread recipe that I think is just divine! It is a very dense bread and it is oh so good!

Here is the recipe for a 3 (or 5) banana bread:

1 cup sugar (1 1/2)
3 mashed bananas (5)
1 egg (2)
1/2 cup shortening (3/4)
2 cups flour (3)
1 tsp. baking soda (1 1/2)
1 pinch salt (1/8 tsp)
1 cup pecans (if desired) (1 1/2)

I melt the shortening and mix with the sugar, bananas and eggs. Then I add in the pre-mixed dry ingredients (muffin method). Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Aquadoodle!

Ethan got this aquadoodle activity set for his birthday and it is great! It consists of a four panel page that has pictures that are only revealed with water. What is so great about it is that fine motor skills are not really needed. As the page dries the set can be used over and over. It is now in our "going out to eat dinner" kit.

In addition to Thomas, there are also Dora and Sesame Street versions of this kit.

Temporal Thermometer *Revised*

Philip and I were first introduced to this thermometer in our childbirth classes and it is awesome! A temperature reading comes up as fast as you can swipe this thermometer across your child's forehead. In the time it takes a digital thermometer to register a temperature you can take 3 or 4 readings with this one. I know most pediatricians will ask for a rectal temp, but so far mine has taken my temporal readings (even when Ethan was really young). I know this thermometer is more expensive than a digital one, but we did get a coupon from our childbirth classes and even if you don't have a coupon, it is worth the cost.

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Revision: This thermometer has worked relatively well for us for about 2 years. However, recently when Ethan was running a really high fever (over 103) for some reason the thermometer was only registering 99 or 100. I could tell just by touching Ethan that his fever was much higher and another reading with an under-the-arm thermometer proved me to be correct.

My recommendation has now changed for this tool....it is neat to have to get a quick reading, but when you are in more serious situations it is good to have a back up method.

Saving my bookmarks online!

Do you use delicious? When I first heard of it I didn't think anything of it, but now I have to admit that I am a delicious addict! Delicious is a way of storing your favorite bookmarks online. I first started using delicious to get rid of my Everyday Food magazines. I wanted the recipes out of them, but I don't want to store the magazines anymore. The good thing about their magazine is that 90-100% of the recipes are available for free online. I just bookmark the ones I had earmarked and then I am free to pass along the issue to the next lucky reader!

One online benefit is that I work on probably 3-5 different computers during an average work week. Instead of waiting till I get home to bookmark something, or worse, saving that one email for weeks until I'm at the right computer; now I just hit my "Bookmark on Delicious" button and, "BAM!" I can save a bookmark from wherever I am and access it later from any computer! After you save a link you can also see who else has it saved on delicious and then browse through their bookmark collections.

There are two other really great things about delicious. Number one is that you can share your bookmarks with other users on delicious. Betsy is in my delicious network and we can send each other bookmarks. Tags are the other great thing about delicious! Want to find a chocolate brownie recipe? If you are looking at my account you can just type in those tags and it will pull up all of my favorites.

You can see all of the tags I have used down at the bottom right hand side of this blog. If you are on Delicious please add me to your network!

My Favorite Thing: God

I'm participating this summer in a bible study that is reading a book called "Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God". In the second chapter Francis Chan points out that our next breath here on Earth is not guaranteed. This morning at our study, our leader asked the question, "How would you live your life differently if you knew you only had a week left to live?" I waited a long time to answer the question because I was fully aware of the repercussions of my answer. Why should I be living any differently when I don't know that my next breath is guaranteed? One of the ladies next to me suggested that she would write up her testimony and email it to all her friends. Instead of email I'm going to post my testimony here on my blog and then on my Facebook account. Here is my testimony:

When I was six or so my mom began bringing my sister and I to church. I remember her faithfulness in bringing us to church almost every Sunday through out the rest of my childhood and into my teenage years. I went to confirmation classes in middle school, but I really didn't experience the Christian faith until I was in High School.

Let me clarify what I mean by experience. In church I was taught that God was the creator of the Earth and everything in it, Jesus was the only true son of God and that he came here to die for our sins. We also learned that belief in Jesus was the key to eternal life. John 14:6 says, "Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." It wasn't until a youth retreat in Baton Rouge (when I was a sophomore in high school) that I had someone challenge me with what it truly meant to be a Christian. He explained that believing in God and Jesus was not enough. James 2:19 says, "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder."

Our belief in God does not save us from our sins. We must accept God's forgiveness through his Son and this true acceptance leads to a change in our life. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17

That weekend, when I accepted Christ as my Savior, I made a choice to make him first in my life. I started living for him and I was truly a new creation. I remember feeling this joy in my life that I had never felt before. I started serving Christ any way that I could by teaching and leading the youth in my own church. Of course I still sinned, but for those sins I truly felt remorse and then forgiveness.

God has seen me through some real trials in my life. Periods of extreme selfishness and/or pride, holding on to past sins, and the hospitalization of my newborn boy. How faithful he was during these times! I have felt His gentle (and not so gentle) prodding to change and be more like Christ. I have experienced His grace and His peace and I've seen His sovereignty be evident in my life over and over again.

Now I live my life knowing everyday that God is watching over me and that if I died I would meet him in heaven. Instead of rightfully being convicted of my sins and sent to hell, Jesus would stand in my place and cover all of my transgressions. I will spend the rest of eternity with Him!

Would you live any differently if you knew this week was your last? What has God done in your life that you need to share with others? Do you know where your soul will spend eternity (heaven or hell)? Have you surrendered your life to Christ?

If you have a blog I would LOVE to read your testimony! If you post it please leave a link here in the comment section:

The Children's Catechism

All Christian moms worry about teaching their kids enough about God and bringing them up in a way that will glorify Him. The Children's Catechism is a tool that my friend Betsy introduced me to and we are having so much fun teaching Ethan about God. He is only 23 months and he can answer the first three questions! We have even printed out the first 10 questions and posted them in the library.

Do you use the Children's Catechism? How else are you raising your children in the way that they should go?