I did it again- let it get late before starting this episode - and I had so much to say!! Can you believe - January 31 - a month of this new year gone??? Today has been a very interesting and surprising day! I did get to church - almost on time - but trying to put on make-up on all but one eye is strange - much less time consuming!! Oh well - put on a flashy jacket and who is going to notice one bald eye!!! Tonight our preacher had a very sobering lesson on loneliness. One comment he made went straight to my heart - he said sometimes you can be in the midst of a crowd and still feel alone. I experienced that a couple of weeks ago when I attended a shower. I looked around and everyone was talking to someone and I promise - I was the only one standing alone. I felt so alone for a few minutes and it is not a good feeling. I promised myself I would start looking for others standing alone and - as bashful as I am -- I would approach them and start a conversation! At the end of the service tonight Mark, our preacher, read a story about what first appeared to be a really pathetic person. She was blind, bed ridden, disfigured by a cancer that had attacked her face, drooled, and would be someone most of us would glance at and quickly turn away. One man took the time to speak, roll her in her wheel chair and quickly realized she had so much more that he or anyone else he knew at the time. He asked her what she thought about during her 25 years of blindness, and she said "Jesus." She really knew Him intimately and seeked to only please God. She spent hours with him - talking to Him and praying to Him. WHAT a lesson for each of us -- but think how much more we could come to know Him if we did it now - while we are whole "on the outside" and could pass that knowledge on! Why can't we come to know Him and lean upon Him - now -- when we are lonely, when we are hurt, when we are happy, when we prosper? Think what an influence we could make and what a better world we could make around us!!! THINK ABOUT IT!!
Today, as I said in the beginning has been an interesting day. Today someone who hurt us several years ago appolgized and was very sincere. What he and others did - worked out to be the best thing that had happened in years - (now we know that) but the hurt has remained. How do we forgive? I do forgive him for his part - but then I have to ask the question - do we say "I forgive him, but I don't have to have anything to do with him" or I forgive him - but I never want to see him again?" I've thought about that a lot today and tonight as Mark was talking about the lady in the nursing home and how she knew Jesus - I thought about Jesus and how he knew Judas was going to betray Him, but what did He do? He had a meal with Judas just before he did betray Him. I believe that is the example of forgiveness that is expected of us! Don't you? He was and is our example! Hard to do sometimes - Yes - but necessary - Yes!
I have not forgotten my promise to make a list of a well stocked pantry - but to look at my cabinet full of spices, sauces, seasonings, etc., all of what I think is necessary -- and decide what the beginning "chef" really needs has been a challenge to me -- but it is coming!!
I did finally get all of the recipes from the kitchen "drawer" on paper, in plastic protectors - and into notebooks! Yes - NOTEBOOKS - just took 3 - and they are overflowing. I even through away a packed tall trash can bag full of either duplicates that had landed in the drawer or recipes I knew I would never make or make again! I am convinced that was a magic drawer that had some expanding powers that we did not know about - I mean to hold all of that stuff!! I plan to post a couple of pictures of the notebooks -- I am so proud of them!!
Do any of you eat at Casa Ole? Well we do occasionally on Wednesday nights if we are pressed for time and one of the things we like is the Green Sauce. Well - someone got the recipe and now you can have it too:
CASA OLE GREEN SAUCE
4 Avacados
1 (16 oz.) Container Sour Cream
1 Can Rotel tomatoes
1 Tbsp. Garlic powder
1 - 4 oz. Can Green chili peppers
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Lemon juice
3 oz. Cream Cheese
Mix and blend all ingredients until smooth.
Now if we just knew how to make the chips!!!
Do you love those Sweet Jalapeno Peppers that sell for about $7.95 a jar -- well - I do, so if you do - make your own!
1 Gallon Jalapeno slices
1 Large Red Onion
1 Large jar pimentos
4 lb. bag Sugar
Drain jalapenos really good. Chop red onion and combine peppers, onion and pimentos. Put about 1 cup of sugar in bottom of gallon jug. Place a layer of peppers and continue to layer sugar and peppers until gallon jug is full. Top with lid and sit on kitchen cabinet for about 3 days - turning jug by gently rolling it around once or twice a day.
By third day - the sugar should all be melted and will have drawn the rest of the juice out of the peppers. Refrigerate and then eat them all - or package in small jars for gifts, etc.
Enjoy!!
Have a restful night or if it is tomorrow when you read this - have a blessed day! Think about Jesus - and how He would act - and play it forward........
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