Allrecipes Love

Do you know allrecipes.com? I remember when the internet was new [to me], being amazed that I could look at recipes on this new cooking website.....the recipes were in categories and I would just read through them. It's changed a lot since then, but I still find that it's my trusted website for recipes that aren't weird.

After so many heavy posts recently, I thought it would be fun to share the links to my favorite allrecipes.com recipes. 

Here are my favorites with a few comments {in totally random order}:
Too Much Chocolate Cake with Satiny Chocolate Glaze; is easily my favorite bundt cake. LOVE IT!

Pretty Chicken; this is my favorite grilling marinade. The recipe instructions are a little fussy - not necessary, it's more flexible than it appears at first.

Donut muffins; made in mini muffin tins these are amazing. I cut the amount of nutmeg to 1/4 teaspoon.

Pineapple Sherbet and Buttermilk Syrup; I blogged about these recipes here. The wonders you find when you are stuck home on a snow day with buttermilk.

Quick Easy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas; I was looking for something like this after a trip to New Mexico where everything delicious had green chiles. I don't do the charring of the tortilla part; just layer it all in like a casserole.....when I take this somewhere I bring home an empty pan.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake II; just yum and easy.

Peanut Butter Cake II; I made this recipe into cupcakes and loved it....I reviewed this one (and several others) as fishermomma.

Slow Cooker Beef Vegetable Soup; this is the first soup I ever made using all canned veggies. It's good and really easy.

Easy Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream; I have a table top electric ice cream freezer that holds a smaller amount than a traditional freezer.....this recipes fits, doesn't require pre-cooking, and is YUM!

Feather Light Biscuits; shortcut recipe that is amazing. I blogged about it here. I cannot find the recipe on allrecipes anymore to link - they do remove them sometimes.

Asian Country Style Ribs; I switched the amounts for olive oil and sesame oil (sesame was too strong for us) and shortened the cooking time. This is very unique and very good.

Butterscotch Bread Pudding; we make this for a large lunch we do at church. My favorite part is the description of how to tell when it's done (jiggles like a well-endowed thigh---seriously). My non-bread pudding eating friend loves this and makes it all on her own.

Chantal's Cheesecake; great classic recipe.

Heavenly Angel Food Cake; if you ever want to try making one from scratch. I frost mine with homemade cream cheese  icing.

Charleston Breakfast Casserole is my go-to breakfast casserole. The croutons give it lots of flavor and keep it from being too soggy. I leave out all the peppers and meat and make mine cheese only. Great to mix up the night before and bake in the morning.

Winter Fruit Salad with Lemon Poppyseed Dressing, I omit the cashews and swiss cheese and use walnuts and shaved parmesan cheese.

Homestyle Turkey; I make this one in my electric roaster and I brine it first - but it was my first successful turkey and I've made it several times now.

So, those are some of my favorites from allrecipes.com. I learned almost everything I know about cooking from my mom, but this website has added a few good ones too. 

This is the only picture I could find of me actually IN the kitchen! {Strange since I spend so much time here}....
This is Carly and I learning how to make creme brulee.

Do you have a favorite food website or allrecipes recipe?

Fearful Kids

Here are some verses to pray over and with your children when they are afraid....

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you..." Isaiah 43:5

"Don’t be afraid; just believe.” Mark 5:36

"For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." 2 Timothy 1:7 ESV

"They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord." Psalm 112:7

When my older children were babies I had a Scripture CD that I played in their bedrooms at night. One of the songs was based on Psalm 56:3, "When I am afraid, I will trust in You...." I remember trying to backward tiptoe out of the nursery while this song played. In the toddler and preschool years that followed I could silence my children's fears with my protective efforts. But they are old enough now to know that I can't always protect them and my platitudes of "it won't happen...." just don't ring true. There has to be more to comfort them and protect them. I have felt the frustration as every coping mechanism and Truthful word and comforting touch I offer bounces off of my child's fear as if she were wearing immovable armor and I was tossing handfuls of cotton candy.

With the tornado devastation so near us this week, and the recent repeating stories of shootings and violence against young women and children; fear is creeping in again. I expected it to hit hard yesterday as we watched the hour by hour coverage of the tornadoes in Moore. I tried to give my husband code signals to change the channel as they began to broadcast the horrible reality that children had died; unsafe in their school {which is THE big fear for one of my kids}. My husband missed my cues, but my child didn't simply saying, "It's ok Mom, you don't have to hide it from me." Later I wondered why it was better and easier this time....why this child was able to go to sleep....why the only tears shed were my own as I tucked in three children safe and sound in their beds.  

Had she simply finally outgrown her fears? Partially. But then I remembered that a couple of months ago, this child and I figured out a way to study and share God's words together. For the last several weeks God's Words have been read and considered daily by this young heart and so when fear struck she was better able to deal with it; maybe for the first time.

I realized this Truth, the day to prepare your child to battle fear is not on the day of crisis; but in the everyday discipline and habit of hearing and believing God.

That little stack of books on her bedside table are the guides and God is both her destination and her traveling companion. I want to be one of the ones pointing her to Him both in the way I live and the way I encourage her. As you and I are figuring out how to parent our children through such difficult loss and unanswerable questions; we need wisdom. 

So, I will say "I don't know why." I will be patient.  I will creatively point my children to the right belief and thoughts on easy days. And on crisis days I will be honest and vulnerable and present in their grief and my own and our neighbors'. I will serve and believe the best in people, including my kids. I will start there and continue there, and I will be thankful and "When I am afraid, I will trust in You...."

In the Night

I come from a long line of great sleepers....
At least I think I do, I've been sleeping. I don't do "no sleeping" graciously and am not very patient when non-sleepers interrupt my sleeping. 

But, I'm learning that bouts of sleeplessness will hit everyone at some time or another....

Recently sleeplessness has hit my home a bit. What is it about night time that makes everything seem harder to manage? Darkness seems to usher in fear and loneliness that is easier to fight come morning. The truth is that dawn always comes, but in the middle of the night it can seem so far away. If you struggle in the night, you aren't alone. The psalmists did too. Wanna see?

Psalm 4:8

In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 92:1-2 

It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night….

Psalm 3:1-5

Lord, how many are my foes!
 How many rise up against me!

Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him. But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.

Psalm 74:16

The day is yours, and yours also the night;
 you established the sun and moon.

Psalm 16:7-9

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
 With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure…

Psalm 63:6-8

On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

Psalm 42:8

By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.

Today I learned that the word "night" in these passages comes from a Hebrew word which means "a twisting away of the light, when the light holds back, darkness set in. In a figurative sense it can mean ominous."  The definition goes on.... "However, since God created both light and darkness, both are good. God does not sleep during the night...Each day and night is a regular reminder of His covenant with mankind. Night is like day to God." {Has there ever been a more beautiful however?}

Night twists us up and feels ominous as if the light could be held back by dark. If you've ever lit a candle in a dark room then you've seen the limited power of darkness....its only strength is the absence of light. 

At night we need to remember Light. In our sleepy neediness and exhaustion we are prone to forget that God created night, so it's good. It slips our mind that He doesn't leave us alone at night or ever (Deuteronomy 31:8), and since light dwells with Him (Daniel 2:22), night is always full of our God (Psalm 139:11-12) who never sleeps (Psalm 121:4). 

I'm not so naive to imagine that all of our sleep issues are solved easily. But, could it be that rehearsing Truth at night will help our thoughts and emotions to stay steady? Could we believe and rest, knowing we are tightly held and surrounded by Light?

Saw this from Marilyn Meberg on twitter while these night-time thoughts were rolling around in my heart.
Don't you love this?

I hope these verses are an encouragement to you. What verses do you claim when you can't sleep?



Definition came from: 
The Complete Word Study Old Testament - King James Version, Warren Baker, General Editor, published by AMG Publishers 1994, page 2328.