{comfort food}

There's nothing like some good comfort food when you're at home sick and fortunately my top comfort food is super easy cause it's Ramen. It's true, as much as I love to cook and like all sorts of different crazy foods my number one comfort food is Ramen Noodles. And not just Ramen, but it must be cooked in a glass Pyrex measuring cup int he microwave, as far as I'm concerned that's the only way to eat it.

{Chinese New Year + Whoopie Pies}

Hello world!! I have some super exciting news...*drum roll*...my LAST load of laundry {after a verrrry long time of not doing any} is set to go in the wash next!! Hurray!! I know, I know I live on the wild side...working in college ministry can do that to you. :) Plus I’m watching Intervention on A&E, I hardly ever watch TV but that boy of mine has gotten me to watch it.

So I believe I’m starting to get this whole blogging under control...I caught myself not taking pictures of something today and then I felt guilty{thank you staff accountability ;)} and so because of that you will have the privilege of seeing them :) Also I have a few crafting idea rolling around my head so hopefully you can see those soooon!! Etsy shop here I come! I promise I will open you soon.

For Chinese New Year I made dinner for John and I, it also happened to be the last time we could have dinner together before he had to go to NKY for his real person job. Our menu: Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Crab Rangoon, White Rice with General Tso’s Chicken. And it looked a little something like this...

First every chef need to be properly dressed...

Then you have to make sure you have all the proper ingredients...

Thanks to my dear friend Meghan Chung for the Lettuce Wrap recipe!!!

John helped give me an extra pair of hands...we snacked on the lettuce wraps as an appetizer.

John wanted to take a picture of this cause it may be the very first time he’s ever seen me use a recipe.

The finished product.

Now I’ll show you how to make Crab Rangoon...

The filling is cream cheese, a little sugar, chopped green onion, and imitation crab meat. You combine and mix up all. You also need wanton wrappers {found by tofu products in the grocery store :)}

Now you put a little spoonful in the middle of the wanton wrapper, you dip your finger in a little water and spread it on the side of the wrapper. Then to fold it you pinch all the middle parts of the four sides together and seal it all up.

Then it looks like this...

The finished product...

Our dinner!!

Tonight I felt like making something so I made Banana Whoopie Pies. I used up the last of my Banana Cream Cheese icing that I made a little while back and a box of yellow cake mix I had on hand.

I made the cake as directed but only used half the water so it wasn’t so runny. I greased some cookie sheets and spooned a little onto them and baked them up. The cake cookies didn’t take long bake at all, and they spread out A TON.

Then I used two that were roughly the same size and spooned some icing on one. I didn’t use too much cause I’m not a huge icing fan, just a little.

Then you smash them together and you basically have a cake and icing sammie...how tasty!

So dig in!! :)

This weekend John and I are celebrating valentines days so look forward to a post about the yummy meal I’m making! I know all three of my readers will look forward to it with such anticipation :)

Andrea's First Cooking Lesson

My friend Andrea asked me if I could give her some cooking lessons and teach her how to cook a few things...so of course I say YES!! Yesterday we had our first adventure in cooking. She was a pro! :) Here's what we made.

Our Menu:

Spinach and Artichoke stuffed Chicken with a cream sauce

Balsamic Asparagus

Rosemary New Potatoes

Andrea was pretty excited to get started!!

We got all our affairs in order!

We thawed a small box of frozen chopped spinach.

Chopping up a few artichoke hearts for the filling!!

What the chicken breast would be stuffed with!! Ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, chopped spinach, artichoke hearts, GARLIC, salt and pepper :)

Cutting a pocket into our chicken breasts, after we flattened them a little.

Stuffing the chicken breast pocket FULL with our filling! :)

Some buttery bread crumbs with salt and pepper to top it off.

Our asparagus!! In a skillet with oil, salt, and pepper...till just about tender then add some balsamic vinegar toward the end and let it cook down a little.

POTATOES!! :) Bake cut up new potatoes until soft and crispy, stirring a time or two with butter, garlic, salt, pepper and a healthy dose of rosemary!

Plating our dinner! :)

We put a cream sauce over the chicken. We started with a rue then added heavy cream, a good amount of garlic and pepper, a little salt and a few pinches of parmesan cheese.

Us with our finished products!!

I was soooooo full I couldn't get it all...it was sooo good!! Andrea is already a stellar chef!

{in the eyes of God}

So I’m not always one to be really good with picking up on neat indirect things I learn while reading scripture, if it doesn’t flat out tell me something I might not pick up on it. But something struck me today while reading 2 kings. {Which, by the way, makes so much more sense to me than chronicles which basically tells the same stories, I think cause kings gives more story like details.}

So there are all these kings of Israel and Judah and it just goes through the history of them and what kind of king they were, how long they ruled, who’s son they were, who took over for them and so forth. The most important aspect {to me right now} that is listed in all of them is if they were a good or evil king in the eyes of God. And a lot of times they were a good king in the eyes of God, they worshipped him and were devoted but they could have done more. If they were a realllllly good king they wouldn’t just follow God with their life but would make a path for others to be holy. They would also tear down other sex and religious shrines that we flooding into their country--they were removing sin and temptation from not only their own lives, but for others!! And that was what struck me soooo much today. Not only were things kings devoted to God, they also lived a life that make a path for others.

Now those kings that were still good in the eyes of God but didn’t tear all this temptation down were still devoted and good, but because they didn’t wipe the country of these sinful things the country suffers and falls into sin. Specifically I’m thinking of 2 kings 14-16, which is part of what I read today. These kings of Judah...Amaziah, followed by Azariah, followed Pekah, and then followed by Jotham. These kings, right in a row, did good in the eyes of God but did not wipe out this sin within their people. Even about Azariah in the message translation it says “But he also failed to get ride of the local sex-and-religion shrines...”. But. He. Also. Failed. Daaaaaang. Who want’s that said about themselves?? So then Ahaz becomes king and he gets caught up in all these sins that were left in the country. He does evil int he eyes of God. It immediately made me wonder...what if his dad, and his ancestor had not just lived a live devoted to God BUT made sure others had a clear path to that. What if his ancestors had wiped out the sex and religious shrines in the country. Would he have fallen into them?

It just made me think about making as clear as a path as we can AWAY from sin. Why do we hang temptation right in front of our noses? Or our friends noses? Or our brothers and sisters in Christ’s noses?? We do it all the time. Like Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” {matt 5:29-30 NIV} Take what causes you to stumble in your life OUT of your life. And you know what, it might not cause you to stumble now but it just might later. Why keep something that you know can be a temptation in your life?

In the New Testament Paul has this to say about putting temptation in front of others in your life...” Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.” {romans 14:13-18 NIV}

So it’s not just about us and our sin, it’s ours and others. If we are not helping others to be sin free but only ourselves are we even helping The Kingdom at all? We should be kingdom builders, not a one man army. This is why real christian community is sooo utterly important. We can’t do this alone. We can’t defeat sin alone, we need Christ and we need our brothers and sisters in Christ. We gotta make straight paths, fixed on our Lord for ourselves and for others.