A Proverbs 31 Kind of Day

Pinterest is the "in" thing! Everybody, who's anybody, is on Pinterest ! I'm a nobody. I'm not on Pinterest . Well, yes I am. I'm a ghost pinner. That's right, a ghost pinner. My mom is on Pinterest . She had followers. She had NO pins . . . NO bulletin boards . . . NO repins . . . Nothing! So in an effort to keep her cool and her followers intrigued, I've started pinning for her! It's great! She's looking cool and I'm seeing some neat things! Like the salad in a jar. Not my idea, but I sure thought it was clever. So I tried it. That's right. Made my salad right in the jar. It was great. Actually, my girl cherub tried it first and she really thought it was great. I couldn't let her have a great experience by herself, so I tried it too. It was great. Here's the concept. Use a mason jar, with a lid, and make your salad u...

 Image from The Lion King; taken from the Internet; www.glimpsefilms.com We've been gluten free for one month! Today starts our fifth week of a radically difficult way eating but we've seen instant results! On Monday, January 2 we woke up to a new way of doing business;  no gluten for our girl. It's been hard and it's been difficult and we keep learning about this opportunity for alternative living. But the best thing is that it's been successful! Since the very day we started we've had not one, I tell you, not one experience with allergy, rash, itching, swelling, or tingl-y feeling. Not a smidge of benedryl has been used.  Matter of fact, I don't even know where the benedryl is at our house! So while I know it seems a little "voodoo-momma" to jump off into a world of self diagnosing, at least I've not made things worse! We have lots to learn about this gluten-free living and there's a bit of difficulty for our bo...

Every year we I send out Christmas cards. Ummm, that's not exactly the truth anymore. Let me re-phrase: I now send out e-Christmas cards. We I started doing this 2 years ago. I figured up exactly how much time and money we were spending on sending out cards and I decided we could do more with the money. Like give it to ministry. So we've started a new family tradition. The e-Christmas card goes out and the money and time goes to a ministry that our family chooses. It's great. It's freeing. It's a blessing -- really! But here's what happened this week. A nice little surprise was in our mail box. I looked at the return address and thought, "Oh, I bet Heather has sent a New Year's card." That's the kind of envelope it was in. I opened it and found this: "Thank you so much for sharing your 2011 Christmas greetings with us! We prayed for your family this week. 'In this is love, not that we loved God...

You'll never go back after making your own . . . ok, maybe in a pinch, but not very often! I love pudding. But you know what I really love? Warm pudding. Weird. I know. Blame it on my mom. Or my dad. I remember eating pudding warm when I was a kid. Specifically, banana pudding. Without the bananas. That's how my dad liked it. Without the bananas. Weird. I know. Blame it on . . . Forget it -- go make some pudding. And eat it warm! Homemade Vanilla Pudding 3/4 cup sugar 4 TBSP cornstarch 1/8 tsp. salt 3 1/2 cups milk 3 egg yolks 1 TBSP butter 1 TBSP vanilla Combine sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a pan. Whisk in the milk and egg yolks.  Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly for 3-5 minutes or until thickened . . .kind of like the pudding you would make if it were from a box.  You'll know what it should look like! Remove from the heat and add the butter and vanilla.  Whisk until the butte...

I love fresh herbs. In the Spring, we always plant a variety of herbs. It's so exciting . . .  . . .at first! Then, I forget to water them. I end up with "herb sticks." You know what those are, don't you? It's limp, dry, sunburned, unusable wanna be herbs that suffered at the hands of me. It's sad. Every year, I vow to do better. I don't! But I do try!  That's worth something, isn't it? Remember, my trips to the grocery store are purely perfunctory. I rarely buy "new and great, just discovered" things because I don't take time to look around. I'm working on that -- there really are some great things to try. But old habits are hard to break and all I want to do is get out of there and get the junk put up at home. However!  One day at the store, while trying to be interactive with my surroundings, I did find something new! And boy!  Is it a treat! It's basil in a tube! It's great!  N...

On a whim, I whipped this up. I started with the cream cheese. Thought I'd add a bit of stuff to it. But didn't really know why I was making it. Didn't have a plan. Didn't have a reason. That makes cooking fun sometimes! I thought to myself, "Self, I think an orange cream cheese would taste good." I was thinking this while cleaning the bathroom and folding laundry. I gathered my ingredients and I made it. Viola!  Done! Now what? We don't have any bagels to eat it on. What am I going to do with this stuff, I thought? Here's what I did. I put a dollop on top of the bite-sized chocolate rice cake. Tried it. Liked it. Posted it. Orange Infused Cream Cheese 4 oz cream cheese, softened zest of one small orange 1/8 tsp. fiori di sicilia (King Arthur; citrus extract) 2 TBSP powdered sugar Place cream cheese in bowl large enough that you can stir your stuff. Zest the orange.  I used the entire zest of the orange ...

There's a lot of chicken salad recipes out there. From the very basic to the very creative. Most of us have our "trusted" chicken salad that we always make. But I want to share another option: This one is simple. This one taste really good.  . . .and I was very surprised! I'm a chicken "with grapes and nuts and apples and other fun stuff" salad  girl. We needed lunch one Saturday and I had all of the ingredients to make this salad.  It's from the 2011 Southern Living cookbook. Cathedral Chicken Salad 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 TBSP lemon juice 2 tsp. Dijon mustard 1/2 tsp. ground pepper 1/2 tsp. seasoning salt 3 cups chopped cooked chicken 1/2 cup chopped celery Place chopped chicken and celery in a bowl.  Mix in mayonnaise, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, salt & pepper.  Toss until well combined. Serve with pita chips, Hawaiian roll, or on a lettuce leaf with a side of fruit.  Makes a great l...