Making Hash Browns and Learning About Process

It had been on my mind for weeks to make hash browns.  I kept seeing recipes calling them delicious and delectable, crunchy and satisfying.  Though I'd never been particularly fond of them in the past, I suddenly had an urge to try my hand at making this side dish that others found so tasty.  It helped that I had a few potatoes in the pantry that needed a recipe to call their own.  With an unexpected quiet time yesterday afternoon while three of my four children slept, I started grating potatoes.

I love to eat.  I also really enjoy making the food I eat.  Or at least, I used to find it enjoyable--before I had children.  Now I have less time and more interruptions and cooking is something I often loathe.  Really?  We have to eat dinner *every day*?  Who says?

Because I have learned that daily dinner means daily dirty dishes, I often make a point to double or triple a recipe.  Since my kind husband doesn't mind having leftovers (and my children simply don't know any different), I usually get away with only cooking half the week and having left overs the rest of the week.  It's wonderful.  Truly.

Sometimes, though, a recipe does not lend itself to doubling.  I want to believe that all I have to do is multiply the ingredients, but sometimes that's just not the case.  Yesterday, I got out the largest skillet I own (which is *huge*) and put in all the potatoes I had--four.  The recipe called for two.  And, truth be told, the recipe called for two normal sized potatoes, and mine were like twice the size of a regular potato since, well, that's just how they come in the 20lb. bag from Costco.  I suppose it's more efficient to pack fewer big potatoes into the bag than a whole bunch of small ones.  Way to keep things efficient, Costco.

But, I digress.  The point is, I was practically quadrupling the recipe.  The grated potato was supposed to be sprinkled at the bottom of a buttered skillet and left to cook until brown on one side, and then turned over to cook on the other side.  My grated potato did a wonderful job of cooking on the bottom, but the moment I tried "turning them over" I realized that my dream of deliciously crunchy hash browns was definitely not going to come true.  At least, not with those potatoes.

There were far too many pieces of potato to simply "turn" them over, and very quickly I was left with a mixture of about 1/4 cooked, brown, crunchy potato and 3/4 not-at-all cooked, soggy, non-edible potatoes.  What was supposed to take about 10 minutes of baking time took half an hour, and I was pretty much left with what could be considered extremely buttery mashed potatoes that, with some bites, had a slight crunch to them.

I decided I should be more particular about which recipes I try to double (or quadruple for that matter).  But I also decided this was a great metaphor for some parts of my life.

For how many years, and in how many situations, have I tried to get to my "end goal" through short cuts?  I have a beautiful picture of how I want life to be, but I often try to get to it haphazardly and with little care for the process.  It's not surprising that when I screw up the recipe, I don't get the same results I was looking for.  Know what I mean?

 I can't expect things to work out just like I hoped when I am sloppy and careless about how I get there.  I'm thankful that God has been gracious to bless me even in the times when I've been undeserving and "sloppy" in my process.  And I'm glad to know that even as I strive to be a better runner in this race set before me, He will always forgive me when I stumble.

The Mystery of the Cowlick

Simple Angry Bird mini cupcakes

I was really disappointed recently when I looked up Angry Bird cupcakes to get ideas for my son's upcoming sixth birthday.  There were a ton of awesome fondant ones.... but I don't have any experience with fondant!  And we just moved 1200 miles less than a month ago, so let's just say I don't have a lot of extra time to learn a new food art.  Honestly, I barely have time to get the laundry done amidst all of the moving-across-country logistics.

I wanted a regular cupcake but with something reminiscent of Angry Birds on top.  No, I didn't want anything complicated, but I did want something that looked better than a flat face of a bird on top of a cupcake, and so far that's all I'd found online.  Even on Pinterest!  Can you believe it!? (Besides, of course, the really amazing fondant ones.  But, heck, there's always next year.)

I am luckily in the time of year for candy corn and carmel candy corn with orange ends act as great beaks.  And mini m&ms are perfect eyes, right?  Or at least, yummy ones.

So, here's what I did:

1) First cut the brown ends off your candy corn.  There's a few reasons I did this.  You can try without, but I'm pretty sure it won't work if you leave them with the bigger/longer ends.

2)  Bake some yummy cupcakes!  I used a white cake recipe and added almond extract, which I also did to the icing just to give it a nice flavor.  Simple!

3) Make some buttercream frosting and then add your colors!

4) At this point, you have all your materials ready, so get to decorating!  Once you ice your birds, be sure to decorate them quickly before the buttercream gets harder.  Buttercream will always stay "soft", but it *will* develop a nice top coat and you want to make sure you get your things stuck in before that happens.  I would suggest working on one group at a time so you don't end up missing your window of opportunity. :-)

5) Though they are pretty simple Angry Birds, I would recommend at least putting some angry eyebrows on them.  But, as my daughter pointed out, there are NO eyebrows on the blue birds.  Which ended up working out for me since I didn't have much space for them. ;-P  But if you play the game, you'll know why I had to make three of all the blue birds.... :-)

And then you're finished!  They are super yummy, not tricky, and at least to some degree resemble Angry Birds.  Or at least, I think so!  The real test will be when the birthday boy sees them and if he a) responds in joyful glee that I made Angry Bird cupcakes! or if he b) says to me despairingly, "it looks like you tried to make Angry Bird cupcakes, but they don't really look like Angry Birds...."

PS--I tried making the yellow ones in a square formation at the bottom when I was piping.  Didn't work out so well.  But I am really not very good at piping icing, so maybe others of you will have better luck!!  (Since the yellow one is more of a pyramid shape, not a circle/oval)

UPDATE!!

Upon seeing the cupcakes, my son told me that we could definitely give the blue ones to his friends, but not the red ones or the yellow ones.  "If my friends saw them they would laugh and say, 'those aren't Angry Birds--they have no feathers!'"  He instructed me to put brown feathers on the tops of their heads and on their backs.  Of course, I had to oblige.  Here's the updated picture:

Christians and Life: On the Topic of Abortion...

My heart has been breaking lately, seeing articles like this one about Kermit Gosnell's trial...the grotesque images of what happened in his clinic in Philadelphia...  My mind has been on those tiny hands and feet of each of those lives he cut off from this world.

This won't be a long post, but I just wanted to share a question... Something my mind has been pondering for a long time, and perhaps something you should be asking too.  Yes, those of us who are "pro-life", we are waging war, but I wonder if we haven't had something to do with how far this war has come.

This question is for Christians--those people claiming to follow Christ, to live as he lived and who are called to seek his will.

Has this war come to such a front because we have lost the value of life?  

Oh yes, we quote our Scripture that talks about its holiness and uniqueness.  I do not mean to say that we don't know what our faith teaches.  We do know.  And His Spirit in us reminds us of the preciousness of our own life and those of others...

But our lives are busy.  Cluttered.  We are consumed with bettering our selves and our children.  Consumed with the newest fads and latest technology.  We have more to think about and do than ever before.  Our lives are like a whirlwind blowing from one locale to the next.

Is it right for us to live in America and preach our choice--our choice to live in what manner we want, and yet to point fingers at others and tell them that in this particular area, they can't?  They can prioritize choice in anything they want, except this.  In all other ways, god is self.  But in this one, no, our God says "don't kill the babies."

Yes, I am pointing the finger at you.  And me.  All of us.  We write, we talk, we live day to day going from one choice to the next.  I'd wager a guess that more of our Facebook statuses are about the choices we've made, will make, or are unsure about making, than we do about how highly we value our lives.

We've done it.  We, too, have accepted the lie that choice is King.  We cannot fight the battle of abortion on choice.  We do not choose when life starts.  God already did.  We cannot choose if it's important. God has already made it so.

Our battle is in the value.  But it's no surprise the war has gotten as far as it has, because we have been confused... we have thought it was of choice.

What if we started to live like we really valued life?  Ours.  Theirs.  Everyone's.  What if I valued life itself, this gift--this amazing thing that God has given that enables me to live and move and have my being--higher than I value choice.  I wonder how this war would change.  I wonder if eyes that were blind would see.  I wonder if we would change, and let go of our hold on choice as King, and let our Savior reign instead--breathing in joy and thankfulness for the simple things--of life and love, and of the true JOY it can bring when we savor it.

In essence:  We won't show them God by telling them what the Bible says.  We will show them how God values life when we value it.  1 John 3:18, "let us love not with words or speech but with actions and in truth."

A snowy winter day

This morning we went out and got our customary milk and bread before the snow.  Well, we actually went out for a whole list of things, of which bread and milk were a part.  But it seemed fitting to mention we had gotten those typical staples, as a storm was indeed on the horizon.

It started snowing after lunch and has been snowing since.  I've tried to get outside as much as possible lately, but with the freezing weather, we never seem to be out more than half an hour tops.  It's made for mighty cabin fever around here.

I noticed the other day that we've accumulated a large array of plastic containers for storing left overs.  It seems that I've kept every useable container, and now my plastic drawer is overflowing.  We do recycle, and I could very well simply recycle many of these containers.  But, I thought--before we recycle them, maybe we can get a little crafting use out of them...

So, on this snowy day, we started with craft #1 using the plastic containers.

Hats.

And, since I am a big fan of Amazon.com, I have lots of cardboard to spare.  Making a hat didn't take any out-of-the-ordinary supplies at all.

Here's a preview of my first idea on how to use those left over containers :)  (Well, maybe I should call it my second?  Since I used one of them last year as the face of Thomas the Tank engine in my oldest son's Valentine box as shown here.)

Chaos All Around

I was told last week that I need to be writing in my blog more often.  Seems to be that in hard times I hide away like a tortoise in his shell, but it's in the happy times that I sing out like a bird.  Right now, these, are hard times, and the silence of my blog is testament to that fact.

I've been thinking a lot today about the "problem of evil" and of grace and of mercy... of God's plan and provision... of His sovereignty and love...  Far too many thoughts to write here, and they would be anything but coherent, I'm sure...  but, have you ever heard Sara Groves' song "Why it Matters"?

Sit with me and tell me once again
Of the story that's been told us
Of the power that will hold us
Of the beauty, of the beauty
Why it matters

Speak to me until I understand
Why our thinking and creating
Why our efforts of narrating
About the beauty, of the beauty
And why it matters

Like the statue in the park
Of this war torn town
And it's protest of the darkness
And the chaos all around
With its beauty, how it matters
How it matters

Show me the love that never fails
The compassion and attention
Midst confusion and dissention
Like small ramparts for the soul

How it matters

Like a single cup of water
How it matters

(listen to it here)

I was thinking of it tonight.  How lovely it is, and how true.  I am learning more about the beauty in the darkness, grace in the midst of chaos.

In the midst of pondering these hard things, a thought popped into my mind.  Perhaps not so much a thought as a picture... a picture of chaos--of chaos, but of joy and grace as well.

Do you see it?  My eldest there in the forefront acting as if there's nothing going on inches behind him, as he tries hard to show off his toy and snazzy looks to the camera?  And then there's the two younger in the background, vying for space, wrestling, fighting with no concern being in the picture at all.  Do you see it?  The chaos?  And the beauty?  The hilarity of it all?

Okay, so my troubles (and yours) are not so light and funny as my children's antics in front of the camera.  But, truly--do you see it?  The connection of darkness to light?  That there is no mercy without despair?  No grace without challenge?

Craft Therapy

I will admit that I am prone to anxiety.  And when there is a lot to be anxious about, I can easily slide into depression.  Years ago, after birthing my first son, I realized that unless I stopped the cycle, real damage could be done that would effect my whole family.  Now, I try to recognize the signs and do whatever I can to keep from sliding down that slope.

Lately, with all the hardships in my life, I have been tempted to hide away and wallow.  I'm thankful for a Spirit that reminds me that this is not the way to healing.  And while Bible reading and prayer is a wonderful tool for encouragement and right-thinking, I also find that I need a mission or focus when I find I have a lot of time on my hands.

Last night, as my husband sat working and my children were all in bed, I knew there was a lot of housework that could be done.  Of course, on the list of priorities, wallowing is higher than housework on any day.  And while Facebook can be a great way to catch up on other people's lives, it does nothing for my mood.  If anything, it's just a tool for coveting and jealousy when I'm already in a foul frame of mind.  I needed a focus.  I needed a project.  I needed some distraction.

So, to Pinterest I went.

I didn't have to scroll much to find a whole bunch of people were pinning this super cute baby carrier for a toddler.  I was like, "man, that's super cute.  My daughter would love that!"  I'm not so great at doing things well, but I am good at seeing something and making a basic copy.  Mine is never as good as the original.  But I know my intentions are this: to make what I want in as little time as I can and have it function for as long as I think the owner (of the thing) will use it.   So, in less than an hour, I had come up with my own version of a baby carrier, based on that super cute one mentioned above.

Using old clothes that had stains and holes, I put together my daughter's new favorite toy.  Of course, at this point in her life, she much prefers stuffed animals to dolls, and the animals don't quite fill out the carrier correctly.  But that's okay.  We made do.  I actually put a child-sized scarf in the bottom pocket so her favorite stuffed turtle could poke it's head through instead of sitting way at the bottom with it's feet hanging out. :)  And that pocket on the front?  Actually a piece of a dress that had stains on it and was unraveling.  The top with the ruffles was part of the bodice of the dress.  Yep.

Well, I have to say I'm pretty excited about my project.  Not only did it do the trick of distracting me from my foul mood, but (and even better), now my daughter is ALL SMILES!  And what's better than seeing your two year old light up a room with her joy?  Not much.