January Reads

Off to a new year.... I don't have a reading challenge... unless you consider finding something at the library a challenge... which I did for like a split second.... and then I remembered that most of my family (who are avid readers) live in Richfield, Utah... population 7611... with a book to person ratio of only 2:1 (kidding, but not by much).... so really... I didn't have anything to whine about.... with Durham's 200,000 + collection...and that's just real paper books...anyway.... I digress. This year I'm just going to read/listen. That's the goal. I'll still use Sonja's rating system though... cause I like it.

* Glad I read it, but won't ever read it again

** Glad I read it. Won't ever read it again, but I could recommend it

***Book had great things about it, but it was not perfect for me

****I like this book and will tell others about it

*****LOVED this book. I will tell others about it. I will read it more than once. 

1. A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka ****

This was a 'left over' from my book list from last year. It's on the 1001 Books You Should Read Before You Die list and also happened to be in audio format at my local library. Score. This book was so fascinating, and I'm not even sure why. The story was entertaining while giving a little pre-World War II Ukranian history. Tagging between old and new, the story was a good reminder how the past impacts the present and the present brings to remembrance the past. An interesting weave of a tale for sure.

2. Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter ****

Don't you love it when you pick a book up cause it looks fun and then realize that it's the third one in a series and you haven't read the previous two? Yeah. Me, too. Despite having missed the first two books entirely, though in the back of my mind I think I knew there were others, this was a fun teeny-bopper spy book. You really can't go wrong with that. 

3. Committed: A Love Story by Elizabeth Gilbert ***

This is a sequel in which I have read the first book! Elizabeth Gilbert continues her memoirs from Eat, Pray, Love when her Brazilian lover is forced with deportation if they don't get married. Having both been through bitter divorces, neither one were looking to tie the knot anytime soon. But they must.... so she must come to grips with the idea of marriage. So she does her research and shares her findings via the printed word. I didn't always agree with her take on the research, but it did get me thinking. I think the older I get the more skeptical I become of marriage - not on a religious level - but on a political level. So in a lot of ways, I could totally empathize with her qualms. But knowing what I know religiously does help, somewhat, to ease the worries of my own heart. But given that marriage is a bridge I've never crossed, and will not be crossing any time soon, I can at least appreciate this book for its history lesson.

4. Cross Roads by William Paul Young *****
I'm not a huge fan of Christian fiction, but my friend Annemarie once gave me The Shack to read. It blew me away! Though it is not written by an LDS author, its understanding of the characteristics of the Godhead was remarkable. While not perfect, there was so much truth in it. Cross Roads is another book by the same author.... and almost as intriguing. It's one that is not only a good read, but if you pay attention to the details can also teach you a lot about Christlike characteristics. So anyway, I like this one. Thanks to Frankie and Kellee for getting it for me for Christmas!!

5. The Eyes of Willie McGee by Alex Heard **
In 1945, Willie McGee, a young African-American man from Laurel, Mississippi, was sentenced to death for allegedly raping Willette Hawkins, a white woman. At first, much like other "black on white" violence, it received little attention and in just a few weeks his trial had been completed and he was sentence to die. But then the Civil Rights Congress got involved and got him a good lawyer to fight for an appeal. And that she did. By the time he was finally executed in 1951, the cry of "Free Willie McGee" had become a battle cry  for civil rights activists. The tragedy, in my mind, is that he was still executed. The book was a good history of the case, but was engaging as I thought it might be. It just kind of made me sad. The whole "Jim Crow South" makes me sad.

6. The Long Night of Winchell Dear by Robert James Waller **
This book was intriguing, and I'm not even sure why. It wasn't well written, I don't think, but wasn't terrible. There were a few ooooh moments that got me more intrigued, but overall it was kind of flat. But what it did remind me of, was this couple in Richfield. They were an older couple that would come into the Public Library around the same time each week. They would always check out a stack of paperback westerns and a stack of paperback romances. They must have read each one about a gagillion times. Anyway, I thought, how sweet... the little old lady reading romances and the little old man reading westerns. A couple of years into this weekly encounter, the man didn't come with his wife to the library. She still got the stack of westerns and the stack of romance novels and came to check out. I asked about the husband. She told me he was not feeling well, but that he still wanted his stack of romances. Eh? What?? Did I hear wrong? Nope! I had made quite the wrong assumption. It was she who loved the westerns while he devoured the love stories. Ha! Made me laugh! Anyway.... this bitty of a western reminded me of them. 

That's funny right there. 

Sunday Slow Cooker: Coriander Carrots

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 cup water

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon salt

7 carrots, peeled and thickly sliced

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons minced flat leaf parsley

Directions:

Heat oil in large pan over medium heat. Add onion; cook and stir until crisp-brown, about four minutes. Heat water in microwave until near boiling - about two minutes. Put all ingredients, except parsley, in crockpot. Stir and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until carrots are tender when pierced with a fork. Remove bay leaf and discard. Add parsley and serve.

Verdict:

I took this to a ward potluck after church. It didn't get put out until half way through, so I did have some left over. I thought they were good. I don't think it needed a whole onion, but the coriander gave it a nice little kick without being spicy. So as far as cooked carrots go, this was a hit in my book. I did use only the 2 qt crockpot vs. the 4 qt crockpot the cookbook called for... and it wasn't even half full. Just sayin'. Oh... and I forgot to add the parsley. So who knows how that may have changed the flavor. 

Taste the Rainbow

Despite the rain, the sleet, the snow, and the ice.... the brave ventured out of their warm abodes to celebrate the fabulousness of PIE! This year, the goal was to 'taste the rainbow' and get creative with our colors. 

I made... 

a cherry pie - it wasn't with tart cherries so it just looked pretty

a mango pie - it was delicious

a quiche with squash and fresh thyme - it was delightful

green bean casserole pie -it tasted like green bean casserole with crust

blue jello pie - interesting

and

purple sweet potato pie - not my cup of tea, but others liked it okay. It was too sweet for me

I think I'd like the purple sweet potatoes roasted though...

...and I made them all mini! 

So fun!!!

Here are more pics from our festivities!

Everything we see is a shadow 

cast by that which we do not see.

-Martin Luther King Jr.

Slow Cooker Sunday: Mac and Cheese

One of my DKG sisters shared this idea with me.... and with the cold weather this week, it sounded like a great idea. It's Paula Deen's slow cooker recipe.

Ingredients
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
3 eggs
1/2 sour cream
1 can condensed cheddar cheese soup
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions
Boil the macaroni for six minutes. Drain.
Melt butter
In slow cooker, combine cheese and melted butter.
Add the eggs, sour cream, soup, salt, milk, mustard, and pepper.
Add the macaroni and stir again.
Cook on low for 2 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Verdict:

Folks.... this mac and cheese is not good for you. Butter, sour cream, eggs, cheese soup, whole milk... the fat content can go on and on. So it's probably a good thing that it tastes only eh. I didn't have any cheddar cheese soup, but I had nacho cheese soup, which I thought would actually add flavor... and if it did, that's sad. I mean, this was warm and gooey but  I don't know... it just didn't live up to my cheesy dreams. Maybe with the right addition of something it would be better... I just don't know what that is quite yet. 

Slow Cooker Sunday: Meatloaf

Every once in a while a get a hankering for meatloaf and baked potatoes. I guess there's just something comforting about beef and potatoes. I've never made it in the slow cooker before, but what the hey! Let's give it a whirl.

Ingredients

1.5 lbs ground beef
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp sage

Glaze:
1/4 cup ketchup
2 T brown sugar
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp worcestershire

Directions:

Spray slow cooker with cooking spray and/or use a slow cooker cooking bag (these things are brilliant!) Combine eggs, milk, bread crumbs, onion, and sage. Crumble in beef and mix well. Form beef mixture into a round loaf in the center of the crock pot, with space between the loaf and the edge. In a small bowl, mix the ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, and worcestershire. Spoon the glaze over the loaf. Cook on low 6 hours. Let sit for at least 15 minutes afterwards

Verdict: 
Due to user error on the time-bake function of my oven, my potatoes didn't cook. I was all excited to eat them with my masterpiece of a meatloaf, but when I went to pull them from the oven it was cold. Stone cold. Which led to a frantic cooking in the microwave.... which is so not my favorite way to cook a potato. And it still took more than twenty minutes.... which then made the meatloaf a little cold. But on the bright side, it held together well. Anyway... the taste and texture was good. It was so much loaf like as round lump like, but I just consider it an 'artisan loaf'! Final verdict.... meatloaf in the slow cooker is a success!

Learning by Faith

This is today's Relief Society lesson - the regular teacher ran a half marathon in Orlando yesterday and is still there... so I filled in. Good times. 

It comes from Chapter 1 of the Lorenzo Snow manual. 

“Let us continue, brethren and sisters, to work in the name of the Lord our God; gathering wisdom and intelligence day by day, that every circumstance which transpires may minister to our good.”

Learning requires faith, exertion, & perseverance. Desire, time, & effort.

The whole idea of Mormonism is improvement—mentally, physically, morally and spiritually. No half-way education suffices for the Latter-day Saint.

What has taken you a long time to learn/understand?

Why is effort necessary when we're learning something?

There must be a labor of mind, an exertion of those talents that God has given us; they must be put into exercise. Then, being enlightened by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, we may get those ideas and that intelligence and those blessings that are necessary to prepare us for the future, for sceneries that are to come.

In what ways does your personal learning change when you truly exert yourself?

How can we help children and youth exert themselves to learn?

How do we learn by faith? What does it look like?

The education of the Spirit is worthy of our best attention. -learning the higher law

A little spiritual knowledge is a great deal better than mere opinions and notions and ideas, or even very elaborate arguments; a little spiritual knowledge is very important and of the highest consideration.

Why?

We benefit from hearing gospel principles over and over again. - Repetition is good

It is with us as with the child learning the alphabet. The teacher says to the child, “Here is the letter a; will you try and remember it?” The child replies, “Yes, I will try to remember it.” The teacher goes to the next letter, and says, “This letter is b; will you look upon it and try to remember it?” “Oh, yes,” says the child. Then the teacher turns back to the letter a. “What letter is this?” The child has forgotten it. The teacher once more tells the child that it is a, and turns to the letter b, and discovers that the child has forgotten that also, and again has to be instructed on the letter b. This is in the morning. In the afternoon the child is again called up and questioned, and the teacher once more finds that the child has forgotten the letters and has to be taught over again. And so the lesson has to be repeated over and over again, so much so that if the teacher had not had experience, and knew what to expect, he certainly would be discouraged.

How does that story relate to our efforts to learn the gospel?

As you have studied the words of ancient and latter-day prophets, what principles have you seen repeated?

2 Nephi 28: 30 - For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon ^aprecept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn^bwisdom; for unto him that ^creceiveth I will give ^dmore; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.

When we gather to learn the gospel, both the teacher and the learner need the guidance of the Spirit. - Be a good learner

What I want of the Latter-day Saints is that during this conference, as the Elders shall arise to address us, our faith and our prayers may be exercised for each one who speaks, that he may say such things, and that we may have the spirit to receive such things as shall be beneficial to all. This is our privilege and our duty. We have not come here accidentally; we have come in this conference expecting to receive something that will be advantageous to us. You should ask the Lord to let [the speakers] say something that you want to know, that they may suggest something to you that will be of some advantage. I suppose that many of the audience now before me have come from a long distance to meet with us in this general conference; and that all have been moved to gather here by pure motives—by a desire to improve and perfect themselves in matters that pertain to their usefulness in the kingdom of God. In order that we may not be disappointed in this, it becomes necessary that we prepare our hearts to receive and profit by the suggestions that may be made by the speakers during the progress of the Conference, which may be prompted by the Spirit of the Lord. I have thought, and still think, that our being edified does not so much depend upon the speaker as upon ourselves.

We have gathered for the purpose of worshiping God and transacting business necessary for the furtherance of the cause of truth on the earth. The character of the instructions will depend largely upon the condition of our minds. We should dismiss therefrom our secular business and devote our attention to the purpose of this Conference.

Bishop's promise... which he gave last week in Relief Society/Priesthood - was that if we come a few minutes early to Sacrament meeting and prepare to take the sacrament, then the Lord will reveal Himself to us. 

Why? What's in it for me?

Let us continue, brethren and sisters, to work in the name of the Lord our God; gathering wisdom and intelligence day by day, that every circumstance which transpires may minister to our good and increase our faith and intelligence.

D&C 130:18-19 - Whatever principle of ^aintelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the ^bresurrection. And if a person gains more ^aknowledge and intelligence in this life through his ^bdiligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the ^cadvantage in the world to come.

Slow Cooker Sunday

Church starts at 12:40 this year.... which means there's a whole morning with time to fill. I've decided I can do a lot of things with that time - go to choir practice, scrapbook, blog, read, write letters, practice music, cross-stitch, sew, basically anything but play ipad games in bed. This is going to be hard.

Also, with that amount of time in the morning I realized my slow cooker could come quite in handy. There are so many options I could do, a high cooked lunch, a low cooked dinner, a high cooked dinner, an overnight breakfast? So many choices.... so many blogging opportunities!

So, welcome to the first edition of Slow Cooker Sunday!!!

This week's installment - White Chicken Chili from Our Best Bites: Mormon Moms in the Kitchen cookbook - the one I got from my awesome sister Sonja for Christmas.*

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon EVOO
1 medium onion, diced

1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 pound boneless chicken, cubed
1 (3.5oz) can green chilies
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 (32oz) box chicken broth
2 (15oz) cans Great Northern beans
1 lime, juiced
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Toppings: sour cream, chopped cilantro, shredded cheese, avocado, tortilla chips, lime wedges

Directions (vaguely)... get the book if want the true recipe.
Sprinkle the cubed chicken with salt and pepper, and cook with oil, onions, and garlic. Don't stress if the chicken's not completely cooked, it'll cook in the slow cooker. Put that cooked concoction in the slow cooker. Add the chilies, remaining spices, and chicken broth. Cook for 6-8 hours on low or 3-4 hours on high. The last 30 minutes or so, add the beans, lime juice, and cilantro.

Verdict: I liked this. I have a not so secret obsession with cilantro, so the more the better in my opinion. But this had a nice tang to it without being overly spicy. The chicken didn't dry out, though I do think it would be really good even if I had not precooked or cubed the chicken and just shredded it at the end. Texture wise it was more soupy than chili-ey, but if you want a more chili like texture, you could blend some of the beans up and add them back in as a thickener.


*Note - I tend to use recipes as guidelines rather than specific directions