My Cooking Creations

I'm obsessed with cooking and baking. I love to see the finished product, but even more I love to be able to spend hours in the kitchen with my family, taste testing and maneuvering around the kitchen, and eventually pulling everything together just in time. It keeps my hands busy and unlike arts and crafts, everyone usually appreciates the end product...because it's FOOD that they can EAT!

Here are some of the things that I made over winter break (sorry for the poor resolution, these are cell phone pics):

Cinnamon rolls before.......

And after (no frosting yet).....

Can't you just smell the cinnamon-y, ginger-y, clove-y goodness?! I made the dough from scratch, with yeast and everything! Each cinnamon roll was so big and so sweet, that I could only eat one! Recipe at : http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/05/overnight-cinnamon-rolls.html

And now for some scrumptious gingerbread men....

Seriously, the best ones I've ever had. Recipe at: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/12/gingerbread-cookies.html

I made these Stuffed Bleu Cheese Potatoes for Christmas Dinner...

They were DIVINE! I ate 3! Recipe at: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/03/stuffed-bleu-cheese-potatoes.html

Cashew Sweet and Sour Pork. Yum.....

We used edamame instead of snow peas and it still turned out great! Recipe at: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/04/cashew-sweet-and-sour-pork.html

And last but not least, and possibly my favorite....

STUFFED PIZZA ROLLS! These are the first recipe I ever tried from ourbestbites.com and since then I have made them multiple times! You can fill them with any pizza toppings you like and then dip them in marinara sauce! I made this particular batch at the dorm kitchen. Recipe at: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/06/stuffed-pizza-rolls.html

Here is Lars enjoying one...

Honestly, I was never a fan of cooking AT ALL until I stumbled upon Our Best Bites, so check them out! I even have a link on my sidebar! No, they don't pay me to advertise for them ;) I just really love their recipes and their descriptions of each step, as well as the pictures! I don't think I'll ever need a cookbook as long as they're around.

The Graduates

Here's something that cheered me up today:

This is the top of my Mammaw's mantle (AKA her grand piano). A little bit of backstory: Whenever I visit her in Gruver, TX, I am always complaining that my cousins, who are all boys, are always featured in picture frames around her house where there are not as many pictures of me. I usually attribute it to the fact that all of them grew up in Texas where I was the lone Seattleite, not to mention the only girl (until Reilly was born, 11 years after me). I would only get to visit Gruver during the summers, whereas they got to live there. I was (and still am) quite jealous of them!
It's such a great little town, only a little over 1,000 people but tons of character. It's the most magical and quaint place I've ever been to...the kind of place where everyone knows eachother and there's only one stoplight. My family has lived there for 3 generations, and my cousins still live in the same house that my great-grandfather and great-grandmother built themselves. I have taken Lars there twice and he loves it as much as I do! I could go on and on about Gruver, it deserves a post to itself!
Well, it looks like my face can now be found on the mantle, next to all of the other graduates: Matt, Mason and Miles! Thanks Mammaw! I love you :)

P.S. Nathan, Landry and Reilly are next!

About my Valentine

This is Lars & I's 3rd Valentine's Day together! I love him so! Last night he gave me a Valentine's Day card (I hope this doesn't embarrass him) that quotes Song of Songs 1:15: "How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful!" I thought it was sweet :)

I definitely can't imagine my life without him. We have been through so much together and he has encouraged me to grow deeper in my devotion to the Lord. Last year I read the whole Bible and I don't think I would have done it so quickly if he hadn't been spurring me on. He is my best friend and he SERIOUSLY knows me better than I know myself. I know that sounds impossible, but it's true! He is my best friend and the one who has never stopped opening doors for me or paying for our dates after almost 3 YEARS of dating (of course, I've pitched in once or twice for our dates too - but not as often as you'd think!)

Basically, he is a HUGE sweetheart, and he loves me so much, and I just wanted to brag on him a little bit! OK, a lot!

<3Linds

Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

So, here's what I didnt do this weekend! I certainly DID NOT wear my sweats all weekend, only changing into jeans and a T-shirt when it was absolutely necessary! That would be gross!

I DID NOT fall asleep while standing up, and then fall backwards and hit my head so hard that I thought I might have a concussion (see previous post). That's just dumb!

I DID NOT neglect my homework, opting instead to read blog after blog about stranger's lives who I don't even know! And I certainly didn't waste any time on Facebook looking at random people's profiles!

I DID NOT promise myself I would exercise this weekend, and then did 15 pushups and called it good! I certainly have more physical stamina than that!

I certainly DID NOT sleep in 'til noon every day this weekend! Everyone knows that I'm an early bird!

And there you have it, all of the things I didn't do.

Sleep walker...

What a crazy story I have to share! This morning, I was in a half-awake, half-asleep state at around 11am, thinking about getting up but not wanting to. Finally, I figured that I had to pee, so I roused myself. Then, as I was walking the 10 steps to the bathroom, I started feeling really dizzy, probably from getting up too fast. That's the last thing I remember. I'm not sure if I fell asleep right there while standing up, or if I passed out/fainted, but the next thing I heard was the loud crack of the left side of my head colliding with my bedroom door. I had fallen backwards! Frightened, I crawled into bed. I was checking to see if I was bleeding, or if I was still "normal". Thankfully, everything was fine, I was just in shock. It was not until a few minutes later that I realized I had never gone to the bathroom as I was intending. It's kind of funny, now that I think about it!

3 things I love!

Here are some of my latest obsessions:

1. Anything and everything organic!
Especially raw, organic honey! It is so much more delicious in it's natural, creamy state, when it is unheated and unfiltered and fresh from the comb! I actually use it as a face treatment in the morning and at night. Honey in its natural form is great at resisting bacteria, so it's great for acne! Surprisingly, one of the best things you can put on your face. (Thanks to Emily Riolo of Daily Bread with Emily for this excellent tip!)

2. My teaching program
I just love all of the girls that I've met in my classes (and yes, there are mostly girls in all of my classes. Education is a VERY female-oriented major. We are natural nurturers! Of course, there are guys in my classes too, but I can count them on my fingers!)

3. Hiking
I want to go hiking soooo bad. Every day I look out my window and see Squaw Peak and Camelback mountain and I just want to climb them! One of the many drawbacks of not having a car is not being able to just go wherever you want!

Oh well. I've been surviving long enough!
<3Lindsay

I'm a Cryer

NOTE: I wrote this post yesterday, but it wouldn't let me post it, so I'm posting it now!

For some reason, I was crying a TON at church today! Lars and I actually went to 3 church services today. First, we went to Praxis (an Acts 29 church) with our friend Karsten. Pastor Justin let loose a total tear-jerker of a sermon (in a good way). It was about hell and heaven. The former was obviously a difficult subject to breach, but he made an excellent point: we are OK with God doling out justice (i.e. sending someone to hell to burn in eternal torment) when it's someone that we think deserves it. But when it's our friend or family member that we think of as a "good person", it's a horrible thought. Justin said "I'm sure there are some people that you don't want to imagine going to hell. But imagine if during a trial of a mass murderer, the judge let him off because he was a 'good person' and wanted to give him another chance. People would be outraged. They would cry 'Injustice!' That's why God can never be that type of judge."

The best part of the sermon, and the one that made me cry tears of joy, was the part about heaven. He had us close our eyes and told us to try and imagine the most joyful time in our life, where we were surrounded by the people we loved in a place we loved, and never wanted it to end. I thought of my childhood, surrounded by my brother, mom and dad. I thought of high school, hanging out with my best friends. I thought of being with my cousins and grandparents in Texas. And more recently, I thought of hanging out with Lars and his family. He told us to open our eyes and said "Now imagine that that moment never ended, and no sin ever got in the way to cause tears, separation, pain and suffering." And all of a sudden I was overjoyed! He went on to say that heaven is not a place where we sit in the clouds, playing harps and wearing fleece diapers. Nor is it a huge ampitheater in the sky where all people past, present and future are standing, singing to God nonstop forever. I agreed with him when he said that those things would be hell in themselves! Instead, God will regenerate this earth and restore it to the way it was before the fall - a new garden of eden, a new Jerusalem. We will live in resurrected physical bodies, similar to what Jesus had when he appeared to the disciples after his resurrection. God created us as physical beings, and we will remain physical beings, except that our bodies will be redeemed and no longer subject to disease, decay, pain or suffering. I personally think that there will still be art, culture, sports and even things like institutions of higher learning in heaven (there will be a lot to learn about that our puny minds can't even comprehend in our current state!) It is a place to look forward to going! And I want everyone I know to go there with me, so I can enjoy a perfect eternal life with them! One quote that I really enjoyed from the sermon that summed up all of these complex ideas nicely was "For those destined for heaven, this world is as bad as things will ever get. For those destined for hell, this world is as good as things will ever get." (paraphrased)

We also watched a Mark Driscoll sermon about the Haiti crisis. Of course, I cried at this, too. The images of suffering and devastation were so heart-wrenching, especially in contrast with the perfection of heaven. For the sake of all those in Haiti, I wish Christ would come today and make all things right.

And I cried YET AGAIN at Desert Springs night service, where the sermon was about thankfulness and how often we ask God for gifts and blessings, and then forget to thank him for them. It's like you give someone a great gift that you KNOW they will love, and they open it and they are so completely enamored with it, and then they thank themselves, or the person next to you. The giver of the gift isn't acknowledged. All the glory goes to someone else. And that's what we do to God when we forget to thank him for the blessings in our life. We rob him of the glory that He alone deserves! I got so emotional thinking about all the times I have done exactly that.

I know, I know...these are a lot of BIG theological concepts. But I felt the need to share what God revealed to me today, in hopes that it will be helpful to you :)

<3lindsay>

P.S. I got invited to my first bridal shower today. I am soooo excited!