On the Wisdom of Today's World

Psalm 14:1a - The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.

That one sentence is an entire blog post in itself. Living life without God is foolish and vain.

• Ignoring His designing hand in all of creation every day is foolish.
• Trying to love your spouse unconditionally and sacrificially without God is foolish. Trying to build a marriage on any lesser love than the love that God commands is also foolish.
• Trying to raise children without acknowledging the foolishness of their hearts, the sinful bent of their natures, and the need for them to submit to their Creator and His ordained authorities in their lives is foolish.
• Trying to overcome anxiety and live joyfully and hopefully in a world filled with bad things is impossible without God. Yet so many people try... and it is foolish.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-29

Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

No one exists on this earth who was not at one time a foolish sinner. We all start that way. A Christian is a fool who simply acknowledged his sinful state to God, and accepted Christ's invitation for rest. Repent of your sin and leave the path of foolishness. Accept Christ's payment for your sin and choose the path of life and wisdom. A life that embraces the truth of the God of the Bible is a life that has meaning and joy-- a life worth living for all of eternity.

Summer Recipe - Pudding pie

Ok, in the summertime, I get a craving for cool desserts, but I've never been a big ice cream addict. Don't get me wrong, take me to Cold Stone Creamery (a place with good ice cream and lots of yummy add-ins) and I will have no shortage of tempting orders to decide between. But when I think dessert, I've always been more of the cookie/brownie type. However, the warm days of summer make cool desserts a little more tempting, and I've discovered the fabulous land of pudding pie. I love it for all of the following reasons:

1.) Cheap
2.) Quick
3.) Delicious
4.) Easy to make interesting, with minimal work. (See point#2)

Now you could follow the directions on a box of instant pudding and make a pie. Or you could add just a tiny spark of creativity, and make a layered dessert! My favorite method is explained below.

Use an Oreo Pie Crust two boxes of pudding (one Cream Cheese or vanilla and one Chocolate), one container of cool whip, and milk.

Step One - Mix the cream cheese pudding first. (Simple: add required milk to mix according to box instructions, beat, then pour into crust). Add it into the pie crust, but hold out maybe half a cup of pudding. Otherwise you'll fill up the crust before you get to all of your layers! Pop unfinished pie into fridge to set a little while working on your second step.

Step Two - Repeat step one, but with the chocolate pudding. Pour it gently on top of the cream cheese pudding, holding out a portion. (if you allow the pudding to pour too forcefully, you will pour a "hole" into the previous pudding layer and lose the smooth evenness of your bottom layer.) Layering in this order allows you to use the same bowl b/c having traces of the vanilla pudding mixed into the choc won't change anything. If you do it in reverse, however, the traces of chocolate will discolor the lighter pudding, even though it will taste the same. :)

Step Three - Dollop softened cool whip onto the top of the chocolate pudding and spread evenly to cover pie. You should use around half of a tub of cool whip.

Step Four - use pudding that has been held out to make one or two individual little pudding dishes. Layer them to mimic the pie, or keep the flavors separate! I usually prefer to repeat the steps of the pie.

Step Five - (may be best to withhold this step until right before serving pie) Drizzle chocolate or caramel ice cream topping across top of pie. Or decorate with sprinkles, crumbled cookies... be creative!

When you finish, you have a pie that has pretty layers alternating dark and light from crust to topping. Whole making/combining process takes maybe 15 minutes and you're done! Total price, maybe $5. If you shop coupons and sales - much cheaper!

Variation: A vanilla cookie crust also works nice. You lose some of your layered contrast, but the taste is still yummy! I do prefer either cookie crust over a graham cracker crust for this particular dessert.

Building a Marriage

I recently finished reading a book on marriage that I recieved... um... a little over a year ago. Don't judge me! It was a busy year involving things like wedding planning. Granted, you could consider a marriage book PART of wedding planning, but I read some other ones that I recieved first.

Anyway, I finally got to this one and thoroughly enjoyed it. Part of being a housewife includes building the relationships within the home, including the one with my spouse. This book was a great tool in that regard. It was thought provoking and very helpful. In fact, it's been the best marriage book I've read so far. I highly recommend it to anyone. Sooo... the link is included below. Check the book out for yourself!


What Did You Expect?

Cake Mix Doctor - Stacy's Chocolate Chip Cake

Sorry for the posting break. I was knocked out with a cold for several days and then the Thanksgiving celebrations got a little busy. My presence might be scarce for the rest of the Christmas season as well. We will see. But for today....

I want to share with you a super duper yummy recipe. I got a terrific cook book from a friend called The Cake Mix Doctor. When you open it, there are pages in the front with pictures of ALL the delicious recipes and looking through those is enough to inspire a week-long baking spree. :) I have not normally been much of a fan of cake, but the kinds this book turns out are terrific because they are embellished with all kinds of good ingredients. :)


Today's recipe is Stacy's Chocolate Chip Cake.

It doesn't look all that impressive in it's picture, and it wouldn't have been my first choice to make, but it was the only one I had all the ingredients for one day. WOW, I was surprised at the incredible outcome. Made it twice and it is delicious! It's not super sweet, so it almost reminds you of a muffin, but yummier. Everyone who's had it so far loved it and usually needed a second slice. :) So here it is. Enjoy!

Serves: 16

Preparation Time: 15 Minutes

Baking Time: 58 - 60 Minutes for a Tube Pan; 50-52 Minutes for 8 in. loaves

(I've actually made mine in a bundt pan, following the tube pan guidelines. Worked fine.)

Items Needed:

Vegetable oil spray for misting the pan

Flour for dusting the pan

1 bar (4 oz.) German Chocolate -I've used all kinds of chocolate

1 pkg .(18.25 oz) plain yellow cake mix

1 pkg. (3.4  oz) vanilla instant pudding mix

1 cup whole milk -I've used 2%

1 cup vegetable oil, such as canola, corn, safflower, soybean, or sunflower.

4 large eggs

1 pkg. (6 oz; 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips. -I follow this guideline casually. More chocolate is always better. :)

Steps:

1. Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 F. Lightly mist a 10-inch tube pan (or three 8-in. loaf pans) with vegetable oil spray, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside.

2. Break the chocolate bar into four pieces. Grate the bar using a food processor or hand grater until the bar is finely grated. (If you are using a food processor, insert the steel blade and drop the chocolate pieces into the processor one at a time.) Set the grated chocolate aside. -I also grated a regular Hershey's almond bar once. Another time I just used already shaved chocolate that is for super good hot-chocolate. It worked great and was easy. I've seen it particularly in the check-out aisles at places like Marshalls HomeGoods or TJMaxx.

3. Place the cake mix, pudding mix, milk, oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl.

Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.

-Stop the machine, fold in the grated chocolate, and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

-Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping sides as needed.

-Fold in the chocolate chips. The batter should look well blended and the chocolate chips should be evenly distributed.

-Pour the batter into the prepared tube pan (or divide equally among the loaf pans) smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pan in the oven.

4. Bake the cake at 325* until it is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 58-60 min. for tube pan (50-52 min. for loaf pans). Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool 20 min. for a tube pan (5 min. for a loaf pan).

-Run a long sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a rack, then invert it again onto another rack so that it is right side up. (I just do whatever is pretty)

-Allow cake to cool completely, 30 min. more, then serve. (Cool loaves out of the pans on their sides.) I have followed these directions, and the cake is usually still warm. It makes it a little crumblier when you're cutting it, but the taste is LOTS better. I actually recommend warming it up just touch -maybe 7 seconds for a slice- any time you are going to eat it. The warmth brings out the flavor alot better.

Store the cake covered in aluminum foil or plastic wrap at room temperature for up to 1 wk. (I've also used a plastic cake holder with a snap-on lid and it worked great, cake stayed moist.) Or freeze it, wrapped in foil for up to 6 months. Thaw the cake overnight on the counter before serving.

Wilton Armetale

OK, so not everything on this blog is philosophical. Some is just fun, and today is one of those days. I want to introduce you to Wilton Armetale. This stuff is COOL. :)

When I was registering for my wedding, I was blessed to be recieving a set of china from my grandmother. However, it is an older set that I could not match, so I needed to find serving pieces that would complement it. I ran across Wilton Armetale at the store and loved the idea of silver-colored pieces, so I signed up for them without examining the product to closely.

Well, much to my delight, when ladies went shopping, they looked at it alot more closely and they liked what they saw! So I recieved tons of the stuff and it has been fabulous so far. WHY is this stuff so amazing, you ask? Ok, well I'll tell you. :)

It is versatile!

Yup, that's it, the favorite word of a cook, particularly one who hates dishes. :) The pieces are lightweight, but still sturdy. They are made to edure heat and cold, so you can use them on a grill, stovetop, and in the oven as well as in the freezer. The metal element of the dish keeps hot food hot when it is being served, and it keeps cold food cold. Envision with me a moment.... You have a piece of meat. You can oil the dish, put it on the stove and heat it up, add the meat and sear it. When you are done, you can pick up the dish and put it into the oven. When it is finished, you can take the dish to the table and keep your meat piping hot. The salad that you tossed up earlier in the day in your beautiful bowl has been kept in the fridge and now you can set it out on the table as well and the cool bowl will help keep your leaves fresh. You can also just set out food on a regular tray that isn't hot or cold, and it looks very nice.

If you want to go to their website, you can even watch a demo video where they cook an entire meal in these dishes. Regardless, just wanted to share with you the product because I love it. Might be time for you to update that Christmas list! ;-)