Fifty Years Later...

C. S. Lewis has been given the great honour of having a memorial stone placed in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner. You can read more about it here. The ceremony took place earlier today, the 50th anniversary of Lewis' death.

Makes me want to pull out my copy of The Weight of Glory and read it in his honour... And to the honour of God, who gave the world such a great thinker and writer in the man Jack Lewis.

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” ― C.S. Lewis

Something Yummy for Cranberry Season

I promise that my blog is not simply becoming a recipe site. I have been thinking about a lot of complex things recently, but I have been rounding out those thoughts in various dialogues with friends. Once a few of them get a little more polished I may try to write about them.

Until then, I have been making all sorts of food lately, and I think it is fun to keep a sort of recipe journal for various seasons. No pumpkin this time, on to cranberries! There are plenty of ways to use cranberries, but I made up a recipe today so that I could both make sandwich bread, and eat something tangy.
 

CRANBERRY OAT SANDWICH BREAD

1/2 C rather warm water (110-115º)
2-1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar

Combine and set in a warm place (about 10 minutes) while you complete the next step

1-1/4 C cooked steel cut oats, heated (110-115º)
1/2 Tbs oil (your choice)
2 Tbs sugar or honey

Combine, add proofed yeast

1/2 tsp sea salt
2 [ish] C bread flour (unbleached white/whole wheat), sifted
(If you do not have bread flour, add about 3 tsp of vital wheat gluten to all purpose flour - that is what I do -- it works just fine)
1 Tbs flax seeds (chia, sunflower, or millet seeds work, too)

After you work the flour into the dough, knead by hand for 6 or 7 minutes. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes and oil a glass bowl. Knead for another 6 minutes. Tuck the seam of the dough on the underside and place in the oiled bowl (roll the top of the ball in the oil so it doesn't dry out).

Cover with a cloth and let stand in a warm place for about 1 hour (I put mine in my gas oven -- it always has a bit of heat inside due to the pilot light).

After the dough ball has approximately doubled in size, spread it on a very lightly floured workspace. Knead for 30 seconds to 1 minute to work the gluten strands - do not pull the dough, you will break the gluten strands. Flatten into a round about 8 inches in diameter and spread about 1/3 C of cranberries down the middle. Tuck the sides and end of the dough around the berries (you can add walnuts or pecans, too), place the loaf seam-side down in an oiled bread pan. Dust with old fashioned oats. If you wish, put 3 or 4 diagonal slash marks in the dough at this time with a very sharp knife or razor blade.

Let loaf stand in a warm place 30-45 minutes. Preheat oven to 400º, place bread in hot oven. After 5 minutes, turn the heat to 350º and bake for 45-55 minutes (or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped). Allow to cool (if you have patience) for at least 1 hour before slicing.

Makes delicious sandwich bread, or a great side for soup when all slathered with butter. I ate four pieces today alone... I also hiked. ;)

The Taste of Autumn

In case you had not observed this fact, I delight in eating pumpkin. I would say I adore pumpkin, if adoration were not specifically set aside for God alone. I really do enjoy the versatility of the marvellous squash He made. Perhaps my taste buds adore Him when I eat pumpkin things and drink pumpkin spice lattés.

I recently acquired four or five cups of pumpkin when I roasted and puréed a small 'pie pumpkin'. Let me tell you, I have been revelling in pumpkin recipes since that time. I have made a pumpkin roll (with my mum), pumpkin sandwich bread, the afore posted pumpkin pancakes (twice!), a failed attempt at curry pumpkin soup, pumpkin spice cake, pumpkin pastry cream, and the two items I am about to highlight.

(No, I didn't make all those things out of my roasted pumpkin. I also used three cans of the stuff... A very respectable amount of goods to be made from ten or eleven cups of pumpkin, indeed.)

Pumpkin and canned chicken broth are on sale this week, so I 'stocked' up on these delectable (and useful) supplies. Wanting to redeem my miserable failure of 'pumpkin soup', I tried again to make something delicious - with much more success on my second attempt. Taste the result yourself:

SAVOURY PUMPKIN SOUP

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbs butter

(sauté these first over low heat - don't burn the garlic! Slowly add liquids next, then pumpkin)

1 can chicken broth (reduced sodium)

1-1/2 to 2 C. whole milk

1 can pumpkin

1/3-1/2 C flour (beat with hot soup mixture in a small cup/can - add this paste to the whole soup, more or less flour depending on how thick you want the soup to be)

3/4-1 tsp applewood smoked sea salt (or 1/4 tsp seasoning salt, optional)

1/2-3/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp ground coriander

dash of onion powder

small dash of nutmeg

Toasted pumpkin seeds for garnish and crunchy texture.

Paired with this creamy soup, try these pumpkin, honey-butter dinner rolls. Mine did not look as soft and fluffy as these, but they were very tasty.

Why?

Do you ever find that the answer to "Why all of this, God?" is, "I am Good." It is not "I am God" - though in another way it is that, too. But His answer is "I am Good." 

And He is.

He is good, whether or not the situation changes. He is good, when the heart of a man is slow to change, and all we feel is the tension. He is good when cancer is not cured, or the car crash happens. He is good when He holds us in the midst of searing pain, though He may not remove us, or it. 

God's goodness is not trite. And often pain, sorrow, suffering, and loss are felt more intensely in the midst of knowing just how good God is. Yet it is His goodness that brings Him to walk with us now through the valley of the shadow, through anger, through disappointment, through realising we do not have what it takes to be this or that. We do not have a God Who suffered with us, but a God Who suffers with us, present tense. That is Good. That is God. And that is why.

~ Johanna

Abigail Rose

My new little niece arrived on Thursday! She is absolutely adorable, and I cannot wait to go home and see her next week. :) Her name is Abigail Rose, and she came very quickly - hooray! Mom and baby are quite well and return home today.

Here she is with my dear JJ boy (a pretty proud big brother):

Thank You, Lord, for bringing my niece safely!

~ Johanna

Pumpkin Pancakes

For Columbus Day, here is a yummy [sort-of-healthy] Autumn recipe for orange-pumpkin pancakes.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 1 C pumpkin 
• 1 orange (both zest and juice)
• 1 egg
• ½ C yoghurt
• 1 C whole milk
• ----- 
• 3/4 C whole wheat flour
• 2 Tbs wheat germ
• 1/2 C oats (I used old fashioned, but I think steel cut may work, too)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4-1/2 tsp nutmeg (to taste)
• dash of cloves

Mix wet ingredients well and let sit. Sift dry in ingredients (except wheat germ and oats, just add those in by themselves), fold into wet. Stir until just moist, you may need to add more milk for the correct consistency. Do not overmix. For a fun zing, add 1/2 C coarsely chopped cranberries.

Put a little butter or oil in your skillet and cook over low/medium heat. I make them by 1/4 cup-fulls  (each one is about 100 calories) and then toast a pancake or two (or three) as desired all week. They are quite tasty with yoghurt and a sprinkle of brown sugar, or syrup and butter, of course. 

In spite of the length of the ingredient list, these were very easy to make. It took less than 30 minutes for slow-poke me to put them together. It does take about an hour to cook the whole batch, but you can just make as many as you need and refrigerate the rest for the next day. If you do not have wheat germ on hand, just add more oats and call it good.

Final step: Go hiking in the Autumn sun to burn off some of the good carbs and hearty pumpkin you consumed. Perfect combination.  :) 

*Sorry for the photo qualities - since my camera took a kamikaze dive on the floor, I have to exclusively use my webcam for photos around the house.

~ Johanna

Welcome, October!

OCTOBER was a beautiful month at Green Gables, when the birches in the hollow turned as golden as sunshine and the maples behind the orchard were royal crimson and the wild cherry trees along the lane put on the loveliest shades of dark red and bronzy green, while the fields sunned themselves in aftermaths.

Anne revelled in the world of colour about her. "Oh, Marilla," she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs, "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it? Look at these maple branches. Don't they give you a thrill...?"

~ Anne Shirley, in Anne of Green Gables (Chapter 16)

 October gives me a thrill, dressed in bright yellows,fresh greens, burnt orange, and flashes of scarlet and purple. I have driven across Colorado a good bit since October began on Tuesday -- up to Vail, and over to Maroon Bells with my parents, and I finished up the week with a hike up Raspberry Mountain, near Cripple Creek. 

The colours, the crisp air, the scent of leaves all washed me in the glory of Autumn. Truly, I think every season is bursting with God's glory, and that glory is reflected in us when we take the time to just be, to drink in the Beauty all 'round us. Perhaps it is easier for me to see the Beauty of each season because I live in the mountains and it is always beautiful here... Perhaps. But I think that one simply has to have the right eyes to see Beauty. Then one can see the glory behind every fiery bush and flaming stand of aspens, or in the dripping fog and the bent cornstalks of the Midwest. There is 'scope for the imagination' anywhere you are, and there is always Beauty to be found if you will look.

So, welcome, October. I can never have this September back, but I can have this October in its wake... And that is glory!

Trail leading up Raspberry Mountain

~ Johanna

Well Donne

Once, I was in a sea of persons at the airport and I heard chime over the loudspeaker, "Paging John Donne. Please come to ___ airlines service desk." I laughed. Probably it was John Dunn, a common enough name. But sometimes I have wondered if that announcer was more interested in literature than in paging people. Perhaps he was playing a hilarious joke that only he, and a very few other literary travellers, could smile about to themselves.

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

~ John Donne

September Days...

"What a splendid day!" said Anne, drawing a long breath. "Isn't it good just to be alive on a day like this? I pity the people who aren't born yet for missing it. They may have good days, of course, but they can never have this one."

~ Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery -- Chapter 15

And that is precisely how I feel about this day. Oh, how thankful I am for September days!

(photo credit: mountainphotography.com)

The Telltale Heart

Do You Listen to Your Heart, or Does it Listen to You?

Have you ever realised that Disney princess films and pop love songs have the same mantra? Think about it, they all whisper the same line: listen to your heart. There is even a classic 80's song by that name. Some of the lines are as follows:

Sometimes you wonder if this fight is worthwhile
The precious moments are all lost in the tide, yeah
They're swept away and nothing is what it seems,
the feeling of belonging to your dreams

Listen to your heart
when he's calling for you 
Listen to your heart
there's nothing else you can do...

 There is nothing else you can do... Really? Are we simply trapped in the dichotomy of listening to our hearts or listening to outside opinions? As with most dichotomies presented to us, this one is false. We do not have to listen to our hearts to be happy (happiness is temporary, anyway), nor do we have to live under someone else's idea of success. When life does not go as planned, when we feel the pressure of needing to achieve the American dream, or we feel miserable because we have not achieved some idea of love, success, and affluence, we absolutely should not listen to our hearts. We should not listen to the world, or even well-meaning Christians breathing out 'feel better' pop psychology.

What other option do we have, if we ought not listen to the world or to our hearts? We need to tell our hearts. We need to speak Truth to our hearts and minds, even when we feel miserable.  The most oft quoted reason for unhappiness I hear from my friends is, "I don't have a boyfriend!" Is a spouse your idea of success? Have you made a good thing an idol? Do not wallow in the misery of what you have not. Speak Truth to your heart, "He who finds a wife finds a good thing," says the writer of Proverbs. Marriage is good. But if you are not married, then singleness is your garment of glory. 

I want you to be free from the concerns of this life. An unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord’s work and thinking how to please him. But a married man has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to please his wife. His interests are divided. In the same way, a woman who is no longer married or has never been married can be devoted to the Lord and holy in body and in spirit. But a married woman has to think about her earthly responsibilities and how to please her husband. I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.

 ~ St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 7

Perhaps you are in true lament, a valid thing for Christians to do. You are not wallowing, you are deeply lamenting the loss of a person, a dream, a good thing, or the way your relationship with God used to be. Speak Truth to your heart in this, too. Lamentation is not a sin, but in the midst of grieving, remind your heart to hope.

The valid lament: 

For I used to go with the multitude;
I went with them to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and praise,
With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.

Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you disquieted within me?

 The equally valid Truth spoken to the heart/soul:

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
For the help of His countenance.

(Psalm 42:4-5, NKJV)

We may not be yet in the place where we have hope in God, and certainly not in a place of rejoicing. However, we must speak Truth to ourselves: hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, as the English Standard Version words it. The Psalmist is reminding his own heart of how he used to joyfully praise God. Yet it is no longer he who is so full of praise that he is at the head of the people going to God's house. Does he sit down an kick and scream? No, he tells his heart to hope in God, for at some point in the future he will again be able to Praise Him.

Perhaps you are in the midst of many crises all at once. I know many persons who are in that place - health troubles, family frustrations, financial crunches, and cars breaking down are just part of their stress. In that place I am tempted to say, "God, a little kindness, some ray of hope would be great right about now. Look at all I am going through, I deserve a little help." Yet I do not dare to believe that I deserve anything from God. All is gift, as a friend of mine told me recently. It is true, all is gift. I cannot win God's goodness or kindness. I cannot earn my redemption and salvation. I do not deserve any good thing from the hand of God. All He gives is a gift, and all I can do is to receive that gift with an open (not grasping) hand. This I must remind my heart, when it would rather think it was entitled to good things.


Finally, after you tell your heart what is True, do not become myopic. Do not dwell on how right you were and how wrong your friend was in an argument. Do not sit on the couch feeling overwhelmed when there is laundry to do, or dishes to wash. Speak Truth to your heart and then do something. Sometimes that means taking a long walk -- without a friend, phone, or iPod. Sometimes it means cleaning your house. And sometimes it means looking at the trees and the sky, simply listening to the silence.

~ Johanna