Running aground

"In the book of Acts, chapter twenty-seven, Paul tells the people he is traveling with that God has called them to their mission. Not only that, he is certain the Holy Spirit is on their side. And yet, for reasons he doesn’t go into, we read in our key verse that he also tells them they must run aground, which means they’d be delayed on some island before their purpose would be accomplished.

This delay, it turns out, is part of the plan. This setback is actually sovereign. But of course at that moment they can’t see that. All they can see is a looming shipwreck, a deserted island.

Perhaps you are on your own deserted island—a personal exile that has been painful and prolonged. You wonder if God sees where you are, if He cares. You remember the time you were moving along, the wind in your sails, full speed ahead. And you miss that time. You wish God would rescue you from the island, put you back on course. Perhaps you’re beginning to doubt God really does have a plan for you.

I don’t know what your deserted island looks like. It might be the desolation of a marriage, the barren land of motherhood, the wasteland of a career. It might be the emptiness of simply not knowing what your purpose—your passion—really is, even as you watch other women seem to steam forward.

When I start to feel this way, I think about this verse. I remember that even Paul ran aground, even Paul faced setbacks. But I also remember that the island wasn’t the end of the story. Rescue was coming. Running aground doesn’t mean you’ve run outside of God’s will. It might just mean you are exactly where you’re supposed to be. Use this time to increase your trust in God and to see Him work on your behalf, even when the palm trees obscure your view."

This giant quote is from my devos this morning and have found it very applicable.  I definitely feel like have run aground and am less frustrated with this feeling.  Good to know that while I can wait for the tide to come and carry be away I can enjoy the palm trees and warm breeze of His love.

I love when my daily readings are very much needed for the day!

VERY EASY Chicken Pot pie

So, for the longest time I have had a craving for chicken pot pie.  The only thing holding me back was the thought of making pie crust.  I had never made crust before, did not have a good recipe for it and since my mom makes pretty killer pies I was scared.

I rose to the challenge though and this is what the end product looked like.

Pie crust recipe:

4 Cups flour
1 Cup crisco
1 tsp Salt
1 Cup VERY cold H2O
2 eggs

Combine flour salt and crisco in a bowl.  Add crisco and mix with pastry blender or two knives until the crisco is pea sized.  Make a well.  Beat eggs and H20 together and pour in well. Mix together until a ball forms.  Pour out on a floured surface and roll out until it is 1/4 inch thick.  Cut into four pieces. (the should all be large enough to cover the entire pie dish with extra hanging over.  Place in pie dish cut away the extra around the sides. Poke bottom with fork.

Make 2 pie - 2 tops, 2 bottoms.

Filling
4 tbsp Butter
4 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth
2 1/2 cups cooked chicken
1 cup peas
1 cup carrots
3 stalks celery
4 potatoes
salt and pepper to tast

I added to this
1/2 cup green beans
1/2 cup chopped zuchini
mushrooms

Chop all vegetables to desired size and set aside.  Melt butter, then whisk in flour. It should come together in a ball. Cook for a few seconds to get rid of the flour tast. Slowly add the milk and broth. Stir til Thick.  Add all vegetables except peas and zuchini. Simmer for 5-10 minutes just to cook the vegeatables a little.  Bring to boil. Add the remaning ingredients.  Add to prepared pie shell.  Cover with remaining pie dough.  Pinch sides closed and cut slits in top in order to let air out.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30-45 min, until crust is golden brown and pie bubbling.  Let sit for 10 minutes, then cut and serve.

I know.. I know

I know I know, I has been a LONG time since I last posted.  To be honest, I lost all the desire.  We have had a beutiful August and early September I honestly chose to soak up the sun, and be outside with the boys.  

 Gabriel and Caleb asleep together on a Friday MOVIE NIGHT!

 A happy morning I'd say ....

 and then we come to this face :( hmphhhhh

 I'd say he is pretty pretty CUTE :)

 then, we spent a day at the lake... it was wonderful, so beautiful,

This was Samuel's first trip ever and Caleb's first time at the beach this summer :)  We had such a good time playing in the water and building castles... until next year now. 

 This boy is afraid of water.  The sprinkler and bath tub are a-okay, but heaven forbid I take him in a pool, or ocean or lake.  He freaks.. Gabriel was like this as a child as well but I guess I will be making many many trips to the indoor pools to help make him a little more comfortable.

He sure loves the sprinkler though, as long as it is not sprinkling on him.  

Sammy and Caleb both loved the cookies. I had to hide them due to the flax and kept warning Caleb he was going to have to poo lots if he kept eating so many :)

So.. if any of you are wondering, we love them!!

Summer F.U.N.

We have been busy busy busy.  Summer is quickly passing us by and we are trying to soak up all the sun we can before the rain returns.  I can not believe that I have not posted in over a week but hey, with a stomach flu that hit our home and two boys that run me (literally) off my feet it is all I can do to tuck myself in at night let alone think about typing.

Sammy cookies

Ingredients
3/4 C Butter softened
3/4 C Brown Sugar
3/4 C Sugar

Beat until light and fluffy.

2 eggs
1tsp Vanilla

Add to the above mixture

1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/4 cup All purpose Flour
1 C Oatmeal
1 Cwhole wheat flour
1/4 C Ground Flax
1 1/2 C Raisins
1tsp cinnamon

Stir to combine. Bake at 375 for 9 min.

I wanted to make a cookie that Sammy can have and was craving oatmeal cookies. I totally adapted this recipe to make it my own.  I added the whole wheat flour, ground flax and baking powder.  The recipe called for 2 3/4 cups of oatmeal but I ran out at 1 cup.

Mine are cooling on the rack but this is what they looked like after :)

MY to d.I.E. for chocolate chip cookie

A photo just does not do this wonderful cookie Justice!

Three reasons why I LOVE LOVE LOVE this cookie

1. Chewy! I under cook them just a tad so that as they cool they get all crinkly and ewwweyy gooey!

2. You taste all that butter and brown sugar

3. You can not eat just one.

Recipe 

Beat 2/3 cup melted butter, 2 cups brown sugar, 2 eggs, 2tbsp HOT water; mix well.  Stir in 2 2/3 cups flour, 1tsp baking p, 1 tsp baking S, and 1/4 tsp salt.  Stir in 1 1/4 cup MILK chocolate chips. Drop from a small spoon and bake for 10 min at 375.  Remove immediately from baking sheet and cool completely (or eat warm). 

YIELD: 5 dozen.

I only bake mine a dozen at a time, due to the fact that I WOULD EAT THEM ALL.... 

ENJOY

The "Secret" book

I am so excited about a book I am reading at the moment!  I am unable to share the title with you at the moment .. because it has to be read in secret.  I have a girl friend who has joined me on this wild ride and we are both very very excited :)
Please look for updates, ideas and a full book review post reading and doing what this "secret" books tells.

Post dinner pic!

Daddy we miss you :(

Art, By Caleb

He told me he wanted to make a cake and put it on there.. hmm how can you tell he has been spending a lot of time with ME?

COMMENTS... YOU OUT THERE??

Are YOU able to comment????  I have been having a few complaints about people not being able to comment... I have tried a few things. Please let me know if you are unable via email gmezamora@gmail.com

Blueberry Lemon Birthday Cake

This past weekend I baked this cake and cupicakes for a dear friend.  Can I tell you how much fun I had, though there are a few things that I would do differently.  What I do love though is how simple and elegant the cake looks. I do not have a picture of the completed cake. I garnished it with some sprigs of mint in the middle of the cake and right before we brought it out to serve I put lemon slices around the outside. I was caught up in the action and forgot to click the camera.

Next time when I make this I will use a lemon cake recipe instead of just a simple white cake.  I am not a white cake person. If I were to make a cake for myself I would make a chocolate cake, but I loved the blueberries on the outside.  I would also instead of just using icing in the layers I would put blueberries or blueberry filling or lemon curd or something more.  People raved about how nice this cake was because it was not too rich or to sweet it was nice.

I had typed out the recipe I used and then deleted it because I want to do a total revamp.  I want to find the perfect icing. The icing tasted yummy but I had to play with it A LOT in order to get it that way. The cake was ok but I think it needed more.

If you want to know what I did you can  comment and I will share but I think if you wait to another day and another cake the outcome will be far tastier and yummier and oooo sooo delish!

Blueberry Buckle

Yummo yummo yummo.

I was looking for something yummy with a fruit I had kicking around. I chose to bake with blueberries and I am so glad.

Blueberry Buckle

Streusel topping
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chilled butter cut into pieces

Cake batter:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup milk
2 cups blueberries

Preheat oven to 350, grease a square pan or a round cake pan.  If I were going to make this recipe again I would def. double this and make a 9 x13 instead.

for topping combine all of the Streusel ingredient and cut in butter with fork.

In a seperate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.  Then Yes get a new bowl.  Cream butter until smooth and add sugar eggs and vanilla.  Beat until fluffy.  Add the flour mixture alternating with milk just until combined.  Spread batter using a spatulla in pan. Spread on blueberries, pressing them into the batter. Sprinkle on the streusal and bake for 40-50 min or until when poked with toothpick comes out clean.

Set on cooling rack until cook. Served warm or chilled.  I recommend with a cup of Guatemala Antiga (from Sbucks) and a friend, husband or child to share it with.

WARNING: You may feel enticed to eat the entire cake.  :)

Our newest favourite snack.

All of you out there with toddlers you must must must try this snack idea.  I had seen quite a few variations of this idea and came to the the apple mouth the best :)  Caleb loved it and since daddy HATES peanut butter I was able to jump in and share them with him.

Ingredients
1 apple
peanut butter
mini marshmellows

Wash and begin by slicing apple into sections. I would say as thin of sections as possible. I began by cutting mine in half and then cutting the half into pieces. Remove core on pieces and slather on the P.B.  On one side of the peanut place marshmellows and cover with the other piece of apple.  continue with the rest of the pieces. Eat and enjoy!!!  I have been wanting to make them again but we are on the tail end of our pb :(

So, it is supposed to be summer here, but I am afraid that "summer" is quickly passing and my little boys are spending more time inside than out :(.

Caleb and I have been out collecting rocks. I do not know what for, but my stroller is becoming HEAVY with the number of rocks in our basket.

This will be tomorrows activity. A rock garden. I AM SOO STOKED! :)  WE love painting and I know this will be something we can do while the baby naps and we are left to quiet activities:)

Maybe first thing since we are playing with a friend in the am we will rock collect, then in the pm paint.  Can not wait to post the aftermath of letting a 3 yr old paint rocks :)

YAY for fun

What a week!

When my week started and we had headed out Strawberry picking I did not know that by the end of that day and for the rest of my week I would be sitting at home consoling a baby sick 1. with an ear infection. 2. with pneumonia 3. with his little body covered in hives from an allergic reaction to penicillin.

Three trips to the doc 3 days in a row and one trip to the hospital for xrays during fab. sunny days is not my idea of fun.

 Tuesday evening trying to bring down a fever that would not budge even with advil and tylenol

 Sammy spent 3 days in only a diaper :) helped me with laundry

 Daddy googling fever remedies.

 Enjoying a pancake for daddy's bday! :)

What I was missing out on... beautiful sunshine

Thankfully it is Friday and he seems to be recovering.  My shoulder and left arm are sore from all the carrying and I sadly had to give him back his soo soo which we had successfully taken away. 3 days of consistant crying and not letting me put him down.. made me treasure the soother more than ever :)

Strawberry Rhubarb muffins

With all the strawberries that we picked yesterday I made Strawberry Rhubarb muffins.  Now when I make them again I WILL use liners.  They are a very moist muffin and pretty much refused to be removed from the pan without falling to pieces.

Strawberry Rhubarb muffin

Yield 12

2 Cups flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 Cup butter softened
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
3/4 cup Milk
1 cup strawberries sliced
1/2 cup Rhubarb

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. In a seperate bowl cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Slowly add milk.  Make well in dry ingredients and quickly add the wet mixture.  DO NOT OVER STIR/MIX.  Add strawberries and rhubarb.  Stir to combine.  Pour into muffin tins and bake at 375 for 25-30 min.  Make sure you poke where the rhubarb is to make sure you do not end up with any raw sections.  USE MUFFIN LINERS!!!!

ENJOY

Strawberry Picking

We spent our July 4th berry picking.  I had never been before so with two little ones I did not know what to expect.  Well let me tell you. WE WILL BE GOING AGAIN!  My friend Julie, her 3 kids and myself and Samuel and Caleb managed to pick 30lbs of Strawberries in less than 45 minutes.  It was a ton of fun and the kids all want to go again. :)

Canada Day

I only snapped a few pics.. but we spent the afternoon at White Rock. SOO fun. My girl friend Leah and I went with the intention of staying until the fireworks but with three kids who are normally in bed at 7pm we only lasted until around 8:15.  It was a beautiful day. Sunny, peaceful and relaxing.

Planning parties!!!!!

The hubster turns 37 this week, and so my mind is motion as to what to plan. We are heading out of town for the weekend to celebrate but his actual birthday will be spent home with family.  

 So far I have decided this one thing.  

ChocoFlan!!!

As for anything else... I dont know. We all know I plan dessert first... so I thought I would tickle some taste buds..

NOW I am scared to make flan. I have never attempted and know that the baking process takes A VERY VERY VERY long time. So if it is a flop I will let you know. 

Can not wait.. we love our flan, and our son loves Chocolate cake.

Next weekend we will be staying here :) Can not wait for a relaxing weekend.