My Christian walk (which before this week has been a consistent saunter) has changed dramatically. A few days ago the Lord spoke to me in a way I've never heard. I won't dare say He hasn't spoken to me numerous time before but this time I think He may have yelled. He made sure I finally heard Him. I can't quite delve into the many ways in which our relationship has changed quite yet. I'm still figuring that out myself. But one thing is certain, my life has been about theology and doctrine and structure. That's how I like to live my Christian life. That IS NOT how God likes me to live my Christian life. Oh my word, how I have been WRONG. Please keep myself and Joey in your prayers. Our lives are about to change in ways I hope we don't see coming. For the first time in my life, I can and want to say that Jesus is my King. Period.

who's your brother, who's your sister
you just walked passed him
i think you missed her
as we're all migrating to the place where our father lives
'cause we married in to a family of immigrants

my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it's to a king & a kingdom

there are two great lies that i’ve heard:
“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”
and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican
and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him

but nothing unifies like a common enemy
and we’ve got one, sure as hell
but he may be living in your house
he may be raising up your kids
he may be sleeping with your wife
oh no, he may not look like you think


I've heard this song many times before but never really listened to the words the way I did today. It is sticking with me today...

"King and a Kingdom" - Derek Webb

Does anyone have any ideas on improving memory? It's been bad most of my life but the last 4 years or so it has just fallen out of my brain! I have reminders and lists all over the house that I MUST write down the moment it enters my head or else I WILL forget it. Guaranteed! I use my phone (both the calendar and the notebook) as well as sticky notes, a notebook, and several paper calendars. I'm worried about that day when we have kiddos running around here. If I can't remember my own dealings, how am I going to remember theirs? I had to write myself a note this morning reminding myself to eat breakfast and then to pack my lunch before leaving for work. I got to work with a 3x5 card already half filled with things I wanted to get done today. I don't even know how many times I've stood up to go do something and forgot what it was I stood up for. I had an associate come to me today with some things she is concerned about. She rattled 5 or 6 things of to me, no reminder notes. I said, wow, I'm so impressed you just told me all those things without forgetting even one! She said, yeah I have a good memory. Why do you think I asked you to get out your notebook? Everyone knows my memory is bad, we laugh about it from time to time. But what makes it bad? I mean, what is it in my brain that doesn't work properly? Or is it nothing like that at all? Do I just focus on the wrong things or too many things? Do I not listen carefully? Do I have ADD?? ;)
I don't know what the deal is but I would really like to start working on improving it. Anyone else in this boat? Have any solutions?

I'm old enough to retire, right?

Back to work tomorrow. But, that's ok, it's surprising how much my outlook changed when I wasn't even thinking about it. And thank goodness, too. I like my attitude much more this way :)
So tonight was Balsamic Filet of Beef, mashed potatoes, and sauteed peppers, onion, and french green beans. I don't deal with green beans much so I was concerned about sauteing them but they turned out great. The filet was incredible. A little more done than I would have liked but tender and juicy just the same. You've GOT TO TRY this beef. Mix some dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper and just rub it all over the beef. Roast at 450 until it's cooked to your liking and you will fall in love. Yum yum yum!!!! I make my mashed potatoes with butter, sour cream, salt, and pepper. I run the potatoes through a food mill rather than use a masher or mixer and they are the creamiest potatoes ever. I've used the food mill for quite some time (thanks to Ina) but I never thought to put sour cream in the potatoes until last spring when a friend's mom made us meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Thanks, Kim!! She basically taught me how to make meatloaf as well (which is on the menu for later next week). All this food talk is making me hungry so I'm going to scrape up a snack and hit the sack...maybe I should throw poetry into the blog mix as well? ;)

I used 2 heads of garlic at dinner!

We had mom and dad over for dinner today. I love feeding my dad. No offense to Joey but the guy loves everything I make. Of course my goal is to always please him with a dish or new recipe but he's so in love with my love of cooking he only ever has good things to say. It's hard to judge my realistic cooking prowess when he's the only other one eating it. My dad, however, gives me the feedback I'm looking for without even meaning to. When he sits down at my dining room table he acts like he's never eaten anything so tasty. The man had 4 helpings at dinner! Without even verbalizing his feelings of my food, my dad tells me exactly what I need to know.

Tonight's cuisine was Italian. Shrimp Scampi Linguine and Bruschetta. I have never liked bruschetta. I had it at Olive Garden some time back and it was so bland and lifeless. Never counted myself as a fan. Joey has wanted to try it out for a while so we ordered some at Macaroni Grill last weekend. OMG, it was perfect. The tomatoes were bright and fresh, the basil and garlic complimenting each other and the seasonings were just right. I know it couldn't be harder than tying a shoe so I called my parents, the guinea pigs and asked them to dinner. Anyway, not to brag, but my bruschetta was even better. I used roma tomatoes and a 25 year old barrel aged balsamic vinegar that just put it over the top.  Shaved parmesan and grilled rustic Italian bread (brushed with a garlic olive oil) just made it all that much better. It was so good that when we ran out of bread, we were throwing it on the linguine just so we could continue slurping it's juicy goodness.

The Shrimp Scampi Linguine was very surprising as well. The last time I made something like that was way back when Rachel Ray first came out and I knew nothing about cooking. Her recipe called for chicken broth in the sauce. The shrimp tasted like they had just finished eating chicken ramen and it was terrible. This scampi was exactly how it should be. Butter, oil, garlic, lemon. So fresh. Toss with linguine, lemon zest, and red pepper flakes, good to go! Tomorrow forecast calls for balsamic filet of beef...it's our present to us before we go back to work.

Speaking of work, tomorrow is our last day off. I've honestly never had such a relaxing, yet multi-faceted vacation in my life. I am in no way, shape, or form looking forward to going back to work, but I can say that this vacation was good and long. Tomorrow is going to be 100% vegging. I probably won't get out of my pajamas. We have a stack of movies ready for viewing and a clean house to demand we sit down and enjoy it...in fact, I think I'll start right now.

Blogger Virgin!

So this is definitely the first time I've ever blogged. Seeing as how inconsistent I am 99% of the time I know how I plan to use this blog, but let's all be prepared for it to take another direction at any given time :)
Let me go take the cookies out of the oven...
Mmmm, warm shortbread!

So this blog will be two-fold. I am going to use this as an experimental cooking blog (Picture Julie and Julia). I also wanted to try my hand at good ol life blogging. It won't take long to find out how blogging will agree with me, let's just give it a few days ;)

So Joey and I are on the last leg of our 10 day vacation. Boy, has it been glorious. I've done ALOT of cooking, more on that later. We moved our bedroom downstairs and moved our office upstairs. Our bedroom is super cozy, has wood floors, A CLOSET, ceiling fan, and french doors. Tall ceiling and close proximity to the bathroom and kitchen (for midnight snacking) are also great too. Don't know why we never thought of it before! The office is now upstairs as well as a library, reading room, and scrapbooking cubby. We really feel like we are bringing this house up to it's fullest potential. We've spent so much time thinking about and trying to get out of it that we've missed all the opportunities we could make for ourselves here. We are really beginning to fall in love with what this house has to offer us at this point in our lives.

Tonight I made my first ever roast chicken. I was fine getting it out of the packaging. I was fine getting it into the pan. I was fine pulling out the giblets. I was not fine, however, when I picked up a wing to tuck it under the body. I don't know what that noise was that came out of my mouth but I hope I never make it again! Realizing that I was pulling on an actual dead chicken arm really did me in. Joey had to fix up the rest of the chicken for me. Think I'll ever be able to cook a lobster??? Anyway, once  we got the chicken into the oven and on it's way to being double dead, things were looking up. I roasted some asparagus and mushrooms and whipped up some extra creamy mashed potatoes and dinner was ON! Made a white wine sauce with the chicken drippings and we were in hog...em...chicken heaven. Shortbread cookies are on their way to joining the party in just a few minutes.

We've got plenty more recipes planned to round out our beautiful looooooooooong weekend so I'll keep ya posted on those. Gonna go round up some chocolate sauce to dip those cookies in.