More than a cup of tea

This is just a quick post to share with you my method of preparing herbal teas in a bulk form versus one cup at a time. I find this useful when my son is having allergy problems and I know he will need to be drinking his tea for a few days, or when I have multiple sick ones in the house. I begin by getting out the necessary dry herbs that I will be using, which will vary depending on the cause for use of the herbs. Next, I place the desired herbs into a mixing bowl or other large vessel making sure to use enough herbs to make a whole pitcher.

Then I boil my water using a full teapot. While the water is boiling, I get out the pitcher that will hold the herbs after they have steeped. I place a large strainer over the mouth of the pitcher to catch the herbs so that only the tea ends up in the pitcher. When the water is ready, pour contents of teapot into mixing bowl with the herb mixture in it. Let steep for the necessary amount of time and then pour contents of mixing bowl into the prepared pitcher.

Next, you would add some sweetening agent if desired. We usually add a little honey or stevia since sugar tends to slow down the immune system. Then whenever a cup is needed, simply pour into a cup and enjoy!

Paying it Forward

The events in this blog happened in May of this year. I am republishing them here from my blog because a similar thing has happened to us recently, which reminded me of God’s gracious provision and the blessing that brethren can and should be to one another.

One of the amazing blessings I have observed over the years is the way the Lord provides for his people…. sometimes in the most unexpected ways! We’ve all heard stories of money/ food /clothing, desperately needed, turning up, seemingly out of the blue. “Our God shall supply all our needs…”

This week, we had one such chain of events, though minor, which reminded us of God’s gracious provision for us and the way he attends to even the least of our needs. And how our good deeds and blessings are “paid forward”, so to speak.

A friendly neighbour, who often drops in home grown produce, sent a pile of pineapples over early in the day, which we really appreciated and we decided to pass them around.

Now some elderly friends have been really struggling with poor health, adult children and grandchildren problems and generally coping with everything. When hubby returned from a visit there in the morning he suggested I go over to help in the afternoon. I took our (already prepared) chicken casserole dinner over, both of us feeling we could manage without it that night and have a “scratch” tea. I spent a lovely few hours both doing chores and visiting. What a blessing these aged saints are and have been to us. I came home refreshed, though concerned for their plight.

We ate our basic evening meal and I was surprised as I did the dishes to receive a call from a dear friend. Could they call round briefly? Of course, that would be lovely! (But secretly I’m thinking – this is unusual?) Now these friends have had a very difficult year. Hubby, who is self employed, has been off work for 4 months, had an operation, and will be off a few months yet. I was wondering, are they okay?

When they arrived they came bearing several kilos of steak, sausages and mince!!

During their period of hardship many have given “care packages” to their large family and this day they had been generously given a large meat order. They in turn felt led to share some of this bounty with us!!
Marvellous provision indeed!
And we’ve all really enjoyed the pineapples!

Pumpkin Cake

It’s that time of the year again! The Lord has blessed our garden and we have a small pile of pumpkins from the garden to enjoy.  Tonight I’m going to make a pumpkin pie, but many of the others are destined to become pumpkin cakes and pumpkin bread.  My mother-in- law gave me this cake recipe and it’s one of our family favorites.  It’s best if you wait a day before serving.  Serve chilled.

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup oil

2 cups pumpkin  (or a 1 lb can)

Mix these together. Add in oil.  Mix on medium speed for 3 minutes.

In separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.

2 cups flour

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking soda*

1/2 tsp salt

Blend the dry ingredients with the wet ones. Pour into a greased and floured cake pan. Bake at 350 for 45 mins. Cool on wire rack.

Icing:

2 TBSP melted butter

8 oz pack of Philadelphia Cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup confectioners sugar

Add icing when cake is cool.

Keep in refrigerator covered with plastic wrap.

I have to do mine a little differently because I’m working with the fresh pumpkins.  Cut pumpkin in half. Clean out the seeds and bake for 30 mins at 350. I put mine  in a cake pan with water in the bottom. When you can stick a fork in it easily, it’s done.  Cool then scoop out the pumpkin and measure 2 cups. Puree in blender with the oil and eggs. Mix with the sugar and other  ingredients.

 

* There is no baking powder in this recipe, only baking soda.

Yearning for Our Inheritance

“We know that all that is possible or conceivable of what is good and fair and blessed shall one day be real and visible. Out of all evil there comes the good; out of sin comes holiness; out of darkness, light; out of death, life eternal; out of weakness, strength; out of the fading, the blooming; out of rottenness and ruin, loveliness and majesty; out of the curse come the blessing, the incorruptible, the immortal, the glorious, the undefiled!

Our present portion, however, is but the pledge, not the inheritance. The inheritance is reserved for the appearing of the Lord. Here we see but through a glass darkly. It does not yet appear what we shall be. We are now but as wayfaring men, wandering in the lonely night, who see dimly upon the distant mountain peak the reflection of a sun that never rises here, but which shall never set in the ‘new heavens’ hereafter.”

—Horatius Bonar, “Home”

Motherhood

I thought this article was worthy of a post here. It’s by J. R. Miller from the GraceGems site.
http://gracegems.org/C/Miller_motherhood.htm

Contentment

I am very thankful to Heidi for inviting me to post on “keeping house” and quite excited to join this lovely group of ladies. I have been reading, learning from and enjoying your posts and trust that I will be able to add a little to the mix.

I am thinking this evening, as I sit here enjoying the cool after a warm Spring day, that our very hot and humid Summer is just around the corner. This seems so strange when you are posting about Autumn and shopping for Winter clothes. Here in Central Queensland the heat becomes oppressive, we sit right on the Tropic of Capricorn! Even in our Winter it is so mild we never see snow and rarely need a second layer of clothes through a whole day.

So, I am contemplating CONTENTMENT….

As I brace myself for the inevitable heat, the humidity, the lethargy, the frustration of day after day, week after week without rain, I realize that one can begin to rail against God and His providence in such conditions. Complain. Whinge. Protest. I have often fallen into an obsession with the weather and what it will or more so won’t allow me to do.

Does the cold produce this faithless response as well?

Let’s uplift one another in facing the oncoming challenges with temperature. Encourage one another to keep running the race, keeping our eye and heart set upon the goal! I want so much to focus on what I can accomplish and not what I am missing out on.

Some Reasons to Love this HOT climate…(or let’s play the Pollyanna Game!)

I’m glad we have about 15 hours of sunlight per day in Summer.

I’m glad we have about 360 fine days per year.

I’m extremely glad that the beach is only 40 minutes away. Phew!

I’m glad I can make great savings on the cost of running a clothe’s dryer. Clothes dry in unbelievably quick time. (Be careful not to leave them out as the sun can really fade them quickly too!)

I’m glad that the Public Library, Supermarkets have Air Con and we use it A LOT.

“…But Godliness with contentment is great gain.”

 

basic bread

I followed through on my threats to make bread :-) The missionary lady I lived with long ago as a mother’s helper gave me this recipe, and I made it a few times in Mexico to give to friends there; but hadn’t used it since.   I pulled it out a couple weeks ago and decided it looked simple enough to start with.  It worked beautifully, and it tastes really delicious.  I think Susan collects recipes; and, I think, baking bread is one of the nicest smells on earth.

(If you have favorite oven recipes, please post them?  I’m looking for every excuse to use the oven right now and I expect everyone else is too now that one can, as Laura recently remarked, use the oven without worry about driving up the electricity bill.)

~

Home-Style Yeast Bread

1 pkg. active dry yeast

2 cups warm water (110 to 115)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter or margarine

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 eggs, beaten

7 to 8 cups bread flour

In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, butter, salt, eggs and 4 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down. Turn onto a floured surface. Divide into thirds. Shape into loaves and place in 3 greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

YIELD: 3 loaves

Note: One (0.25-ounce) package of active dry yeast is equal to 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast in bulk.

Also note: This recipe makes wonderful sweet rolls.

(pictured are my very first :-)  I sent them to work with Ruben)

Spaghetti Squash — or my very first post

Let me preface this by saying that I’m typing on a computer with keys set to the touch of a caveman. Wait… even throwing my body weight into each key stroke does not help. It seems that the only strategy is to type in a sort of slow, controlled manner, making sure that each letter appears on the screen when it should. Oterwise, the result is somthin like this–writng which maes it appear tht I am mssing sme teeh, and somebrain cell, as well.

Down to the business at hand… Spaghetti Squash.  What did the Indians call this? After all, they didn’t have spagheti. Something tells me this is a rather young plant, but whatever it’s age, it’s attraction is the way the insides peel out like spaghetti noodles. I’ve been eating it in various ways this last week. I’ve had it with butter, cinnamon and sugar; with butter and parmesan cheese; with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese; and in a sort of “goulash” dish. I can’t wait to try it as a substitute for spaghetti noodles with real meat sauce.

For anyone unfamiliar with this squash by name or appearance, it is yellow and rather football shaped (without the pointy ends and the laces). One cooks it by cutting it open lengthwise (another job for a caveman, since it’s outer shell is quite tough), removing the seeds (some people cook it with the seeds, I hear), and baking the halves face up on 42 for 30 – 40 minutes. Then, simply peel out both halves and add pretty much whatever you want. I cooked mine for 30 minutes last time, and it was still a bit crunchy.

Extra tip: Do not cook this and leave it lying about in your crawl space (a comment necessary so that I can post this under two categories).

P.S. I’ve been typing this so slowly that I think it also comes under the non-existent category of “self-control.”

Batido de avena, first take

So I tried the recipe I mentioned in the comments on Heidi’s post, for a “batido de avena” or oat shake. The recipe is from Ingrid Hoffmann’s cookbook Simply Delicioso, which I read in Spanish, but I promise I double-checked any uncertain vocabulary in this short recipe before attempting to make it and pass it on. I partly double-checked it because usually a “batido” is the equivalent of our smoothie; you blend the ingredients in a blender. With this drink you don’t blend anything and there is no fruit. In fact all you do is heat milk and oats (and pumpkin, see below) together, add cinnamon, then strain out the solids after a 2 hour or overnight chill in the fridge. I made it last night and stood over the stove reading this very funny and informative book by an ER pediatrician (I’m reading it partly in an attempt to feel slightly more in control of things when I babysit and the kids are running around incurring various injuries as they are wont to do) during the 10-15 minutes of constant stovetop attention.

I used 1% milk (one of the greatest sacrifices I make for our marriage, no doubt) and was afraid it wouldn’t be very thick, as Ingrid didn’t specify what sort of milk was used in the original, and if you haven’t noticed there’s a big difference between 1% and whole milk (oh how I miss thee). But I would be afraid to try it with whole milk—it would probably be like drinking a full-on milkshake first thing in the morning (this was in the breakfast section of the cookbook, I believe, and I drank it as such). Even with 1%, and though it didn’t look that thick the night before, after I strained it into my glass it had a very creamy, frothy texture just like a light milkshake. I guess that’s where it gets the name—from the effect rather than the technique. I’m drinking the rest of what I made now. It is a very refreshing drink and I will be making it again. I can imagine it heating up well for a more suitable fall/winter drink, too.

For this first try, I just used 2 Tbsp of canned pumpkin for the 2 servings I made. I might add more next time, but 2 Tbsp. does give it discernable pumpkin flavor. Plenty of earthy oat flavor, though it is kind of sad to use the oats for flavor and then throw them out. At least if it is like cooking vegetables in water, then some of the nutrients will still be in the milk, I think. Feel free to correct my simplistic reasoning here.

For two servings:
3 c. milk
1/2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
2 Tbsp. canned pumpkin
1 Tbsp. sugar
pinch cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla

Heat the milk, oats, and pumpkin in a medium saucepan over medium heat until milk is starting to boil. Turn heat to medium-low and simmer gently for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, til thickened. Stir in cinnamon and sugar and chill at least 2 hours, or overnight. Strain milk through a wire mesh strainer or a colander with fairly small holes into a measuring glass or some sort of pourable container. Stir in the vanilla and serve.

P.S. This reminded me to try another oat and pumpkin recipe, the one Elizabeth posted here last year. And we recently discovered that pumpkin bread and vanilla ice cream are a Ridiculously Good combination.

ramblings and questions about calling and domesticity

The Lord bids each of us in all life’s actions to look to his calling. For he knows with what great restlessness human nature flames, with what fickleness it is borne hither and thither, how its ambition longs to embrace various things at once. Therefore, lest through our stupidity and rashness everything be turned topsy-turvy, he has appointed duties for every man in his particular way of life. And that no one may thoughtlessly transgress his limits, he has named these various kinds of living “callings.” Therefore each individual has his own kind of living assigned to him by the Lord as a sort of sentry post so that he may not heedlessly wander about throughout life. …
It is enough if we know that the Lord’s calling is in everything the beginning and foundation of well-doing. And if there is anyone who will not direct himself to it, he will never hold to the straight path in his duties. Perhaps, sometimes, he could contrive something laudable in appearance; but whatever it may be in the eyes of men, it will be rejected before God’s throne. … From this will arise also a singular consolation: that no task will be so sordid and base, provided you obey your calling in it, that it will not shine and be reckoned very precious in God’s sight.

— from Calvin’s Institutes Book III Chap. X

I feel like I can always use further insight, even particular directions, as to what my calling as a married woman entails. I hope that is not an unhealthy “law-thirstiness”: a desire to “discover” and adhere to man-made laws that go beyond Scripture, in order to build a case before God and man that I am especially righteous. I’ve never been guilty of that before, but there’s a first time for everything. *ahem* Of course, this question, which essentially boils down to, “How do I use my time and gifts as a married woman in the 21st century?”, arises much more readily for a woman without children, whose constant demands pretty well answer the question before it can be asked (assuming there is time and energy to ask it). But I am not the only childless married woman here or in the potential (hypothetical?) audience, and perhaps my questions and musings will help you too. I simply want to know better what it looks like for a married woman to “keep to her sentry post,” and what it looks like to stray—not to judge others but myself. One thing I’m pretty sure of is that this seems to be yet another matter of wisdom rather than law—“yet another” expressing my natural aversion to doing the work of praying for and getting wisdom. Reading a book or an article would be much easier.

From my limited historical studies (more like occasional observations; I do always invite correction), I gather that even into the 1950s, when it was not absolutely necessary that someone—whether the mistress of the home or a trusted servant—be at home ensuring that the family had food and clean clothes (and had clothes, for that matter), the average young woman was either active in her family’s home and community, in a school of some kind, or busy with some outside occupation (such as teaching) up to the point of marriage. At this point, she regarded herself as fully employed in homemaking. She typically quit her job if she had one and took up the very happy duties of managing a home for her best friend. Of course the feminists in the 60s called all this into question, arguing that this supposedly noble aspect of womanhood was rather demeaning; it imprisoned a woman in her house and her life revolved far too much around the man, the domineering, self-serving, pig of a man who perpetuated this unthinkable inequality. Why shouldn’t the woman have the recognized, fulfilling career, while the man stays home to keep house and watch the children (if they must exist)? Well, why not?

Do we not as Christians have to deal with the fact that Eve was created as a “helper suitable to the man”—that “the woman was made for the man, not the man for the woman”? That this suggests at the very least a certain orientation towards serving her husband that her husband is not obligated to reciprocate? Is not the married woman called by God, in the very sense in which Calvin speaks, to manage the home and serve her husband and children with all the gifts and strength she has been given (Titus 2, Proverbs 31)? A thousand qualifications come to mind: chiefly that a Christian woman is also to be of real assistance to the church (Romans 16, etc.), to her parents and older relatives (1 Timothy 5, etc.), and to non-church friends or neighbors in need (simply part of being a Christian, besides the many “proof-texts”). She is still a church member, daughter, friend, neighbor. But she does all this as a married woman, very often drawing from the resources that her husband has earned, serving such people on behalf of him. She does it with his blessing, and with his guidance and oversight as to the time and effort committed to these abundant opportunities.

With that much clear, then, one of the more practical questions I have is about the role of domesticity in my calling as a Christian wife and homemaker. There are the inevitable chores involved in managing any home, like laundry, paying bills, and cleaning the tub. Then, thanks to technology, there is the “discretionary time,” when chores have been done. (I am sorry, homeschooling moms or any moms of young children; it probably feels like they are never done for you, and as an aside I think that unmarried or even married childless women in the church should be ready and willing to offer themselves as help when that is overwhelmingly the case.) So if you don’t have children to watch and/or teach, you could either get a job to fill up your time, or find other ways to invest in the home beyond the necessary chores. Those are the only two options that I can see, other than idleness, which we will consider an invalid option for obvious reasons.

On the one hand, you have the ideal of domesticity a la Martha Stewart. You put effort into and learn skills pertaining to all manner of domestic comforts, for the enjoyment of family and friends. Martha Stewart herself is no paragon of biblical femininity, yet I think this sort of domesticity, in its place, is worthwhile and commendable. I love that it values domestic happiness and peace, at least in a superficial way. I love that it affirms, contra feministas, the inherent value of housework or homemaking done to this end. One of my favorite excerpts from an old housekeeping manual echoes this: “A bedroom, in a way, represents the girl or woman who occupies it and cares for it. If it has an atmosphere of order and simplicity and repose, it is beautiful and tells of a personality that dominates worldly things and is not confused by them. … Everyone has seen a bedroom so full of charm that she longs to know the person who is responsible for it.” Surely we do well to appropriate the spirit of this domesticity even if we have no natural gift or even inclination for crafting paper lanterns and painting intricate designs on them, after filling each with the scented soy votives that we made last week. On the patio overlooking our 3-acre garden and arboretum out back. Etc.

Yet in defense of women who are less than attracted even to a toned-down version of such domesticity, a wife is only called to obey God and please her husband as she manages the home. Period. If God hasn’t prescribed craft-making, hobby gardening, or the cultivation of mad pastry skills, and the woman’s husband has not expressed an earnest desire for any of these (can you imagine a husband with a fever for more crafts? sorry, strikes me as hilarious), then it is up to the woman to decide whether or not these would be profitable for her family. So what I am sure of is that changing and sometimes arbitrary standards of domestic skills are not to be equated with good homemaking. “Order and simplicity and repose” can be preserved in a home without a Martha Stewart at its head. (Certainly the simplicity bit might exclude a Martha Stewart from even applying. End of MS jokes.) But it does require someone in the home, with a clear sense of her responsibility to preserve that order.

I have too many thoughts on this subject to corral, and many of them are way too uncertain and ill-formed for public blog material. As was hinted earlier, I am finding that much more of the Christian life consists of matters of wisdom—as opposed to hard and fast rules—than my lazy and legalistic flesh would like. I want my life—my daily work—to reflect biblical principles and priorities, but I do not want to endorse or even hold myself to a certain standard of domesticity or “home-centeredness” as if it were divine law. Surely biblical femininity is much more complex: both more elastic and more rigid, more liberating and more difficult, than the world and our tricky hearts would have us think. Discuss amongst yourselves, if you even have time to read this rambling essay.