Mentoring Woman: CALL ME WHAT YOU WILL!

Mentoring Woman: CALL ME WHAT YOU WILL!: I have a habit of giving my kids and grandchildren nicknames.  I don't know why, other than the fact that I was called a nickname by my...

CALL ME WHAT YOU WILL!

I have a habit of giving my kids and grandchildren nicknames.  I don't know why, other than the fact that I was called a nickname by my grandpa and dad.  Grandpa always called me "Betsy" even though my name was Becky and dad called me "Sears", I suppose after Sears and Roebuck (get it??? Roebuck and Rebecca...yeah, me either). Anyway, now that I am older, I recall those names with great affection.

Do the names Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah sound familiar from the Bible?  How about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?  They are one and the same people!  When the Jewish nation was taken into Babylon, these men were taken into the kings court.  In Daniel 1:4-5 it says of them:  "young men without any physical defect, handsome showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace.  He (Ashpenaz, chief of the court officials) was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.  The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king's service."

Something struck me about this whole scenario, the king and those serving him, thought by changing these men's names and training them for three years, they would better fit into the culture.  But because of these men's strong beliefs, their hearts remained the same. We remember the story from scripture that Daniel and these three men chose not to defile themselves with the royal food and wine and when the ultimate challenge came of bowing down and worshiping the king, their refusal led them to be cast into a fiery furnace.  (Daniel 3:16-30)  Because of their refusal to go along with the culture, God chose to use them in a mighty way.

I am sure you see where my mentoring challenge is going today.  As women, we need to give prayerful consideration  to our boundaries with today's culture, not only for ourselves, but for our children. Some things we can let slide (like perhaps a name change) but some things God may be calling us to take a stand on. This looks different for each one of us but basing our decisions on the word of God remains the stable force in our decision making. May God use each one of us to change and influence this world for His glory!

I'm posting a go-to recipe for a simple salad dressing that my mom always made at home.  Some might call it French Dressing or Catalina (not sure of the difference).  "Call it what you will", when the boys were growing up, if I didn't have the time to go to the grocery, this was the dressing I made since I always seemed to have the ingredients on hand.  You would think it would be super sweet, but the vinegar gives it a tartness and adds a little punch to the sweetness of it. You could also add garlic powder if you wanted to add another flavor.

FRENCH OR CATALINA DRESSING

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup ketchup

Mix all ingredients in a jar and shake it up.  

Serve over salad.  Keeps in the refrigerator for several weeks.

Mentoring Woman: "COMFORT FOOD"

Mentoring Woman: "COMFORT FOOD": I am busy making two pans of peach crisp today.  We bought some Red Haven Peaches from Michigan this past weekend. Now you know peaches are ...

"COMFORT FOOD"

I am busy making two pans of peach crisp today.  We bought some Red Haven Peaches from Michigan this past weekend. Now you know peaches are ripe when the juice is dripping down your arm as you peel them. YUM! Little did I know when I bought them the reason I would be making a crisp this very day. You see, I just heard that the daughter of our retired pastor, died this morning.  She and her husband were missionaries overseas in Turkey.  It is so hard to understand why this happened because you would think that serving the Lord in this capacity would exempt a family from such happenings.  However, it gives me comfort to know "that God's ways are not our ways" and He has a greater plan and purpose to our lives. Dorcas's mother, was a lovely Christian lady, who died a few years ago so I am sure they are having quite a reunion in Heaven this very day!

For those of us left behind, it is hard to know what to do or what to say in these circumstances so I thought I would make a peach crisp and run it by Pastor's home this evening.  I was born in the Northern part of Missouri, and I can tell you when someone passes away in that community you have no shortage of food. When my father died several years ago we had more food than we had room in the refrigerator for! What a blessing that we did not have to be concerned with preparing food at such a stressful time.

My mentoring nudge today is this:  "When in doubt do!"  Don't wait for someone to call you to minister to someone who might be grieving.  Believe me when I say that this is because it is years of wisdom speaking. Do make or take something to the grieving family or simply stop by and visit for a few minutes they need and they want to talk.  Don't know what to say?  Then just listen!  I have stopped at the dollar store and bought coffee, toilet paper, kleenex, or disposable cups and plates if I didn't have time to bake anything. With extra family and friends around who really wants to go to the store and purchase these necessary things?  2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says:  "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."  Because our family was comforted by neighbors and friends, then it should make me want to do the same for someone else and after all, this is a "Pay It Forward" concept instituted by God!

Here's the Peach Crisp recipe I used.    It was a snap to put together and hopefully will show the family that our prayers and thoughts are with them.

EASY PEACH CRISP

6  Fresh Peaches (Or you could use 1 large canned of sliced peaches minus half the juice)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over the peaches

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 pkg of instant brown sugar oatmeal (the ones in packages)

Crumble together using your hands

Sprinkle this mixture over the peaches

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the top is brown and crispy.

This would also be great with apples!

Mentoring Woman: "Something Out Of Nothing"

Mentoring Woman: "Something Out Of Nothing": I have another confession to make this week...I am a Food Network Junkie!  There I've said it!  Give me "Guy's Grocery Games&qu...

"Something Out Of Nothing"

I have another confession to make this week...I am a Food Network Junkie!  There I've said it!  Give me "Guy's Grocery Games", "The Next Food Network Star", and "Iron Chef" and I am a happy woman.  I especially love the show "Chopped".  The fact that contestants can take a few random ingredients out of a basket and make an appetizer, main course, or a dessert is incredible!  Last week they had the Junior Championship and kids who were 14 years old or younger were making dishes out octopus and bison steaks!  Now that is a feat!

I asked my husband once to pick out some things from the pantry and freezer because I wanted to try my skills at this endeavor.  Now, he doesn't watch the show much so I got things like fish sticks, mozzerella sticks, brocolli and cookies to try and make something out of.  YUCK!  Needless to say our stomachs were upset the rest of the night!  Today I am going to try it again and pick some random ingredients out for myself. (Lesson learned last time!)  I have some zuchinni, onions, and potatoes from the garden that need to be used and a steak in the freezer that was bought in April so here I go:  

I just love the sautes of various vegetables you can order at restaurants, so I think I will go that route.  I thought I had some green peppers to add to the mix but I guess not, so think I will just use celery instead and add some carrots. Those little round green things in the picture (that look like small pumpkins) are a new type of zuchinni I tried this year.  I really liked it, because it grilled well and didn't have those big seeds that the long ones do. I cut all the vegetables up into like sized pieces and rubbed them with olive oil.  I then sprinkled with the garlic herb seasoning salt (that I bought for $1.00 at Big Lot's, I might add) and popped them in the oven for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees until they were tender.  The kitchen started really smelling yummy! Don't I sound just like the hosts of those shows?

Then for dessert I thought I would make two parfaits.  I did this all the time when the boys were growing up. In this case I used some vanilla pudding mixed with Almond Milk, crumbled chocolate coated cookies, cool whip and pears (in those little lunch containers) and topped it with some of my homemade strawberry jam (which a friend told me the other day could be eaten by itself for dessert with a spoon!)  I used my single smoothie maker and crumbled up the cookies then I put them in the parfait glass first, then a layer of the pudding, then the pears divided into the two containers, then cool whip and ended with the strawberry jam.  (Picture below)  At this point I must confess that since I already had the smoothie maker out so I put a couple more cookies, a scoop of butter pecan ice cream and almond milk into it, and made a milkshake that would compete with Dairy Queen!  (That was another "Round Two Idea" at no extra charge!)

Next, it was time to tackle the steak. I  trimmed it and cut up into bite sized pieces.  I had some Teriyaki Marinate in the pantry and seasoned salt so I sprinkled that over the meat and marinated it  for 3 hours like the bottle indicated in a plastic zip lock bag.  Then I got out my trusty iron skillet and put a little olive oil and butter in it and browned the steak.  I tasted it and did not care for the Asian flavor I was getting, so I added a few tablespoons of brown sugar and that made the mixture too sweet, so I then added some Worchestershire sauce and A-1 Steak sauce to the mix and then it was just right! (I sound like Goldlilocks don't I?)  Much to my delight, this also created a wonderful pan sauce to pour over it!

My mom was always good at making something from nothing, probably because with 7 of us in the family she had to really make the groceries stretch. She was the original "Semi-Homemade Sandra Lee!"   Here's what my final creation looked like:  

I had to taste it for seasoning (yeah right) and it is gonna be a winner, winner, chicken dinner! (or steak in this case.)

Now for our mentoring thought:  I don't know if you ever thought about it, but God is the ultimate champion of making something from nothing.  In Genesis 1:2-5  "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  And God said, "Let there be light, and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and darkness he called "night".   And there was evening and there was morning--the first day."  He just spoke at it all came into being and it was very good the scripture says!  If we serve a God like that, I think we can trust Him with our children at school this year, our struggles with our health, our disappointments and griefs that we must bear in this life.  The thing about this wonderful God that we serve, once we trust Jesus as our Saviour, we will never be chopped!

Mentoring Woman: When Some Things Go Horribly Wrong!

Mentoring Woman: When Some Things Go Horribly Wrong!: Now here's a picture you won't see on "Pinterest" everyday.  An oven bottom cooking disaster!  My goal was to make an...

When Some Things Go Horribly Wrong!

Now here's a picture you won't see on "Pinterest" everyday.  An oven bottom cooking disaster!  My goal was to make an Angel Food Cake to take to our son's for supper.  I had a few things against me at the git-go.  First, I bought a generic mix (I know this fact will shock my sons and daughter's-in-law) and second, the mix had expired at the first of the month.  (Didn't notice that tidbit when I bought it!)

When I opened it, it had two packets, now that seemed odd to me, because most of the mixes I recently purchased came with only one.  The instructions said to whip the egg white packet into submission on high for 5 minutes until it formed stiff peaks.  Now the liquid was so runny that whenever I tried to turn it to high batter went splattering all over the counters, not to mention me, and the cabinets.  (Sorry, no pictures of this lovely scenario!)  After turning the mixer down a bit, it never did form peaks so I decided to add the flour packet and hope for the best. (Bad idea!) I put the batter in the angel food cake pan and placed in the oven. Next thing I know, I smell something burning and  it looked like an explosion at a marshmallow factory on the floor of the oven.  Trust me, this cake mix was no Angel Food...it was of the devil!  Anyway, I happened to have another name brand angel food cake mix in the pantry.  It was one I had used before and with only one packet. This one said "do not over mix" (my kind of instructions) and formed non-messy foamy peaks on its own. The final cake results turned out yummy.  I divided it into and sandwiched some of my homemade raspberry jam in the middle,  frosted it in cool whip and drizzled it with some more melted jam on top.

Can I get a spiritual analogy from this travesty?  Why yes I can!  In our Christian walk we may have a tendency to want to take an easier route.  One that we might think will be better for us.  But in order to know God and His word it takes work, patience, and yes obedience to get the results that He desires for us. Sorry there are just no shortcuts or bargain shopping!  God tells us in Proverbs 2:1-5:  "My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God."

I could have whipped those whites until Jesus comes, but I just did not have the right ingredients to accomplish the task.  I also thought I could get by with a much cheaper shortcut and it just didn't work. Upside to all this is I now have a clean oven (something I had put off for awhile).   My mentoring challenge for us today is this:  In order to be a women of God it is gonna take some work on our part and it's going to take some time but hopefully it won't take too many cleanups in the process!  Are we up for the challenge?

Mentoring Woman: It's All Written Down!

Mentoring Woman: It's All Written Down!: I'm back at my quest of reading through the Bible.  I will finish...I will!  As I ended with Numbers, I read something that I had never ...