More Fall Goodness

I had bought some sweet potatoes last week as they, along with pumpkins, also remind me of Fall. Although, I think that sweet potatoes can certainly be eaten all year long. I had 2 sweet potatoes left and I decided I'd give it a go at making some sweet potato fries. I just googled for directions (I wasn't entirely sure how long to bake them, etc.) and I found this GREAT recipe for Baked Sweet Potato Fries. I've imagined that since they are baked, they're fairly healthy. I didn't use parsley because I didn't have any and I used regular old plain salt and not fresh black pepper and they were still incredibly delicious. Go to the actual website (link embedded above) if you want pictures.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

2 medium-sized sweet potatoes*
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t coriander
1 t kosher salt
1 t parsley
fresh ground pepper (about 10 turns of a pepper mill)

I also saw on the blog, Our Best Bites, a few other recipes that I'd like to give a try--namely, No-Rise Sweet Rolls, Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites, and Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce. Yum!!

So if you live in Orlando/Central Florida, you just let me know when you'd like to come over for dinner. I'd be happy to cook for you--especially dessert!!! :)

It's Pumpkin Season

I love Fall for a few reasons including cool, brisk weather, leaves changing colors, warm apple cider, and pumpkin recipes. Well, considering I now live in the Sunshine State where today's weather was something like 90 degrees and sunny it doesn't look like I'll be experiencing cool, brisk weather here anytime soon. And the leaves changing colors...well, that just doesn't happen here. Believe it or not, palm trees don't change colors. So tonight, to get myself in the spirit of the Fall season, I decided to do a bit of baking. I originally intended just to make one batch of Pumpkin Cookies with Caramel frosting but once I got started baking I kind of got on a roll. I ended up making 2 batches of Pumpkin Cookies (one batch w/ walnuts and one batch without) which equals a little over 5 dozen cookies and I made 2 batches of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins recipe courtesy of Sara.

The fruits of my labor (minus the cookies and muffins that Ryan and I snacked on this evening):


I must say that part of the reason that I kept going is that I was listening to a couple of really compelling sermons by a few great Reformed preachers. I had been wanting to listen to these sermons and I don't do well just sitting and listening so this was the perfect way for me listen to them. I felt like I spent an evening hanging out with Jesus (however corny that my sound). In any case, definitely check out the message about Baptism by Greg Blosser of Grace Central Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Ohio and these 2 messages about Hope for the World and Hope and the Poor by Tim Keller of Reedemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. The Gospel came alive again for me tonight as I listened to these messages. It's a love story that I will never tire of hearing.

But, let's get back to baking. So, here is seriously the world's best Pumpkin cookie recipe. I got it from my mom and I'm not sure where she got it from. She's been making these cookies for as long as I can remember and they are the definition of Fall for me. Plus, it helps that they are literally so easy to make. Also, I recommend refrigerating them after they are baked and topped with Caramel icing. For some reason, these cookies are delicious cold (served with a glass of milk, too, of course). Also, you can choose to put nuts in them or not. It's up to you. I used walnuts, but I'm pretty sure I've used pecans before and it was just as delicious. I also made some without any nuts, but I think I had to bake them just a minute or 2 longer.

Pumpkin Cookies

Combine ingredients:
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup nut (optional)
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
½ tsp salt

Drop by tsp on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 mins at 375 degrees.

You can tell if they're done by doing the toothpick trick.

The necessary ingredients for cookies:


Pumpkin Cookie Dough:


Cookies ready to be baked:


The final product. Yum:

I don't have any pictures of the cookies with the frosting on them.

Caramel Icing

Cook 3 Tbsp butter, 4 tsp milk ½ cup brown sugar. Cool (Actually, I think it's better if you just immediately add in the vanilla and conf. sugar). Add ¾ tsp vanilla and 1 cup conf. sugar and mix with a hand mixer. Since you're going to do this right in the pan, make sure you use a pan without nonstick coating b/c the handmixer could likely pull up the coating on the pan. Not that I have any experience with that or anything...ahem...right. One of my friends prefers the cookies w/out the icing as she thinks the icing is too rich, but I love the icing (who wouldn't love the sugary goodness?!?). So you may want to make some cookies with icing and some without.


I knew I wanted to make some sort of pumpkin bread or muffins and I remembered that my friend Sara had posted a recipe recently for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. I decided to give them a try and honestly, I may have a new favorite pumpkin recipe. They are SO. INCREDIBLY. DELICIOUS. And they're pretty darn easy to make, too. When you check out Sara's blog, she wrote that she always doubles the recipes and recommends doing that. She's right. You'll want to double the recipe. It's that good. Seriously.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

This is for a single batch....you'll definitely want to double everything below. Yum!

Mix these ingredients well:
3/4 cup pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling . . . regular pureed pumpkin)
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix these ingredients in a separate bowl and then add gradually to the wet mixture until everything is combined:
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Once everything is combined well to form a batter, add the chocolate chips. The recipe calls for 3/4 cup - which would be 1 1/2 cups if your doubling the recipe - but when I double the recipe, I add at least 2 cups. Probably a little bit more. The moral of the story: Add chocolate chips until you have your desired amount. I ended up just using a bag of chocolate chips which is about 1 1/2 cups, I believe.

Pour into a 9 x 5 loaf pan (or 2 - 9 x 5 loaf pans) and bake at 350. I think for around 50 minutes to an hour for loaves. More like 25 - 30 minutes for muffins. You know . . . until a knife comes out clean. I ended up baking the muffins for 27 minutes and they were perfect.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin Ingredients:


The wet & dry ingredients. (it doesn't look very appetizing at this point):


Finished batter with chocolate chips:


Baked muffiny goodness:



So there you have it. My evening of Pumpkiny goodness. I love making recipes with pumpkin in them...I may have to try out some more soon. In the meantime, try out my above recipes and let me know what you think. Enjoy :)

My question today...

I was reading on a church website today that the church was growing and adding a fourth service. At first thought, it sounded impressive. Wow, 4 services. That church must be doing good things for it to be growing like that. But then it got me thinking. Just because a church is growing, does that mean it is a "good" church. What I mean by "good"--Is the church honestly teaching Truth? Is the church teaching the redemptive story of Christ? Is the church teaching the entirety of the Gospel?

I'll preface this next part with saying that I think I'm often a skeptic when it comes to issues of the church. In any case, I get concerned when I see a church growing so fast and then peek into what the church is teaching and it's just self-help messages. Our society thrives on ways to make us feel better here on earth. So of course, you can pick and choose verses from the Bible that can sound like tips for better living and improved happiness for here on Earth. But paraphrasing Tim Keller, Christian Hope isn't about our happiness here on Earth, but about our ultimate, eternal state. While I'm not suggesting that we should be unhappy and miserable as Christians here on Earth, I do think we need to evaluate the types of messages churches are preaching. We can't pick and choose what makes us feel good, but rather, we have to accept the Bible in its entirety. Being made aware of our sinful nature, being called to live needing and wanting less, giving all that we have (our money, our time, our talents) to Christ (it is His to begin with, after all)--all these things and more can be hard. At times we can feel out of place and unwelcomed in society when we live according to the call of Christ.

Now if I see a church teaching the entirety of the Bible and it's growing in leaps and bounds--now that's something to stand in awe of!

Just something I was contemplating today...

Thoughts?

An Opportunity...

An opportunity to go to Ethiopia in December/January for 2 weeks to do missions has presented itself. I instantly thought "Omigosh I want to go" and then I instantly thought "How will I raise the money?". But I think that second thought is evidence of my lack of faith that God will provide. I'm going to be praying about it (and I ask that you would be too! please! and thank you!), but I'm pretty sure that this is an opportunity that I shouldn't pass up. I've been building up my vacation time at work searching for a good way to put it to use. What better way? Plus, the trip takes place over New Years. What would be more amazing than ringing in 2010 in AFRICA?!?

Okay, I'm welcome to your thoughts, comments, prayers, suggestions, etc. etc. etc.

And, if you're feeling especially loving and giving while reading this and have this nagging desire to donate somewhere around $2500 then you will have sealed the deal for me. Seriously. I'm not even kidding a little bit. :)

Oh and if you want more details in order to give me better advice and offer more prayers, just let me know and I'd be happy to share with you the details (as much as I know) about the trip and the organization it's with.

Thanks friends.

Roommate Bonding

Roommate bonding time. It's true. We find entertainment in the most ridiculous things.

Divas.


Thinking. Fawn has found a solution.


Silliness. It's what we're about.


Don't mess with Fawn the Princess. I'm her bodyguard. I look tough, don't I? Oh yeah, Westside represent. Hahahaha.


Utter ridiculousness. Can you see all of my teeth?

Thankful and Blessed

So I was going to write a blog about how I feel blessed even amidst a time of trials and struggles. I had literally just started writing when I received an email from a friend that can be described as nothing but divine timing. This friend sent me an email full of encouraging words--exactly the support and encouragement that I needed right now. It's a reminder that my purpose is to honor and glorify God and to continue to seek His will. I'm so thankful that God knows when I'm struggling and sends encouragement just when I need it to remind me to keep pressing on.

Similarly, I'm thankful and blessed for the community of believers that God has placed in my life. I feel energized, enlightened and encouraged (there's a lot of that going on recently in my life!!) by spending time with these people. The more conversations I have with friends talking about God's promises for his people, what the Bible says, etc. the more energized I feel. The more I desire to seek out Jesus and continue to get to know Him. I'm thankful that these friends are willing to live life so transparently with me.

Finally, I'm thankful b/c of a gift I received this weekend from a good friend. I was hanging out with my friend Dan and we were talking about something having to do with the PCA Church (actually, I believe we were discussing the differences between Arminianism and Calvinism). He pulled out a copy of The Westminster Confession of Faith (along with the The Larger Catechism and The Shorter Catechism) to show me something when he realized that he had 2 copies of it and offered to give me one. This may sound totally unexciting to many, but I was THRILLED!! Learning and understanding reformed theology is not only interesting to me, but continues to draw me closer to Christ and to understanding more of who God is.

To leave you with words from the Heidelberg Catechism that are of continual encouragement and reassurance to me:

My only comfort in life and in death is
That I am not my own,
But belong--
Body and soul,
In life and in death--
To my Faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

Note: Apologies if this is just a jumbled mess of thoughts. I don't always expect for the Truth that God is revealing in my heart and the works that He is doing in my heart to be fully capable of being articulated right away. I think I'm still discovering the full effect of what He is teaching me.

Who says Ohio isn't football country?

As the 2009 college football season kicks off, I'd like to bring everyone's attention to this lovely fact (brought to you by USA Today):

And while less than 4% of the U.S. population lives in Ohio, 15% of college football's major-conference head coaches were born there, the most from any state, according to the Journal. These also happen to be some of the nation's most successful coaches: 14 of the last 18 teams to make it to the national championship game had head coaches with Ohio connections.

Some current examples:

Jim Tressel, The Ohio State University -- Born in Mentor, OH
Bob Stoops, University of Oklahoma -- Born in Youngstown, OH
Urban Meyer, University of Florida -- Born in Ashtabula, OH
Bo Pelini, University of Nebraska -- Born in Youngstown, OH
Mark Dantonio, Michigan State University -- Grew up in Zanesville, OH
Les Miles, Louisiana State University -- Born in Elyria, OH
Gary Pinkel, University of Missouri -- Born in Akron, OH
Ron Zook, University of Illinois -- Born in Loudonville, OH
Mike Stoops, University of Arizona -- Born in Youngstown, OH
Jim Harbaugh, Stanford University -- Born in Toledo, OH
Mark Snyder, Marshall University -- Born in South Point, OH
Nick Saban, University of Alabama -- Played at Kent State University in Kent, OH


Read the rest of the USA Today article here.
And then read some more about Ohio being a college football goldmine:

• Successful College Football Coaches from Ohio Reflect State's Culture
• Why Ohio Makes the Best Coaches

GO BUCKEYES!! :)