What happened next was that I became an expert Fettuccine Alfredo maker and an ex-fettuccine eater.  I mean butter, cream and cheese… yeesh.  Still, this is one of my chief “go-to” dishes on the nights that we have company over for dinner.  It is one of the easiest dishes you will ever make and one of the most yummy.  Whenever I serve it people can’t get enough of it and are so impressed by the presentation.  It really serves as a blank canvas for your own artistic additions.  I always add seared sea scallops and shrimp to mine but chicken and broccoli would be wonderful too.

This is Mike’s all time favorite thing for dinner.  He would be thrilled if I made it more often… of course he might dead of a major coronary if I cooked it as often as he wants to eat it.  So, for those special occasions when you want an impressive, delicious but oh so easy dish to make I give you Fettuccine Alfredo.

This particular brownie is make special by baking in a pie pan and serving it with homemade hot fudge sauce.  Whenever I make this everyone ooo’s and awww’s over it.  It’s moist, fudgy, pretty and it tastes wonderful.

I found the recipe for this is an old Taste of Home magazine I’ve had for a few years. This brownie pie truly is a “taste of home”.  Hope you enjoy it.

I remember a scene from the movie Julia and Julie in which Julia Child was collaborating on her cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and they were looking at another cookbook sent to them from the publisher.  “Marshmallow Fluff?” protested one of the culinary queens “What is marshmallow fluff?”

Now, just between you and me… I like some of the things that may just get me drummed out of foodie circles… but dadgum it… they just plain taste good.  I love Velveeta; I even use the stuff in one of my favorite recipes “Creamy Cheesy Chicken Cacciatore”.  It’s totally not authentic but man oh man it’s tasty.  I get mauled for the recipe every time I serve it.  And “dump cake” come awwnn…. it tastes good man!

So why am I telling you all of this?  Well because… I think in our efforts to grow in our knowledge and skill levels (a very noble pursuit in which I wholeheartedly encourage you), I think it is important not to forget “where you come from”.

That means that though there is merit to perfecting a silky and unbroken Hollandaise Sauce, it’s also OK to enjoy a spam and cheese sammy every now and then.  I do try to make my cakes from scratch and cut out the processed foods as a rule but sometimes you just gotta have your “processed cheese like food substance”.

With that in mind, I hope you will enjoy my recipe for a hearty, tasty, vegetable chowder that contains not one but two of the ingredients at which the uber snooty food snobs (like me… but I’m reforming) would be tempted to balk.  Cream of Celery Soup AND Cheese Whiz… hahaha, maybe I’m not as snobby as I thought.   Cheese Whiz in soup sounds pretty red neck… but I don’t care cuz it tastes good. 

Come on over to the dark side and try this… I bet you’ll like it.  Shucks, even Julia would like it.

Here is the post as it appeared on my facebook home page…

It is a thought provoking post to be sure.  The heart of it is meant to move us to action.  We can help the poor and the hungry; we can walk justly.  That was the heart of the message and it is true.  Still, despite the good message to do good I couldn’t help but see something in the post, something that troubled me.  In asking God this question the post (or the original creator of the post) was telling me two things about what they believed to be true of God.

1) That somehow God was wrong in allowing these things and

2) That God is altogether like us.

Charging God with wrong:
You remember Job don’t you?  Chapters 40, 41 and 42 of that book is my all time favorite passage in all of Scripture.  If you haven’t read it in awhile I encourage you to do so right now.  It’s thrilling and very worshipful.  That chapter is God speaking of His power and creative genius… lest Job forget to whom it is that he is complaining.  As great an ending to that book as that passage is, it is from Job chapter one that I want to quote.

“In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”-Job 1:22

If ever there were a guy who could be justified in the eyes and hearts of mankind to ask “WHY ME?!”  It would certainly be Job.  He could have asked (in our minds) “Why did you allow this poverty, this pain, this injustice to befall me? ” This verse tells us that  to assume that God is wrong for not stopping these things is sin.

It’s hard not to complain or to sigh “why me” when things around us hurt.  We are human after all and we don’t always discern things with spiritual sight.  We don’t know, we don’t understand, we wonder about the purpose.  We are helpless, scared, confused, and a dependent creation.  We want to understand but our minds are finite and cannot comprehend the infinite.  Because of that we are tempted through clenched teeth and fists to ask “Why does God allow it”.  We must be very careful and tread with wonder and fearful awe because God is not capable of injustice.  He is not capable of wrong doing.  Everything He thinks, breathes,determines, or speaks is all good all the time because He is all good all the time.

Please don’t think for a moment that I myself am innocent of charging God with wrong.  I am not.  I have asked Him the “why” question before.  I hope that I will never again but given my track record for letting Him down (especially on the heels of determining that I will never do so again) I am likely to repeat the offense.  I suppose that this is the true purpose of this blog post today… to serve as a reminder.

Speaking of reminder… I am reminded of a little poem that I have long adored.  I don’t know the origin of the poem but I do know where I first learned of it.  It was from Corrie Ten Boom.  I love Corrie!  If you don’t know who she is… well… don’t get me started that is another post unto itself.  Please learn who she is and read her books “The Hiding Place” and “Tramp for the Lord”.  She has written others but start with these two.  It will be the biggest devotional favor you ever do for yourself. God’s hand in this little Dutch woman’s life is miraculous and worshipful.  Anyhow, back to the poem I learned of from Corrie..

The Weaver

My Life is but a weaving
between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.

Oft times He weaveth sorrow
And I, in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper,
And I the under side.

Not til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver’s skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.

He knows, He loves, He cares,
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives His very best to those
Who leave the choice with Him.

The Weaver’s Perspective

The underside of the loom

(photo credit: Craig of “Deep into Love“)

Corrie lost most of her family to the horrors of Nazi concentration camps.  Herself a prisoner for hiding Jews, she never asked “why”.  She knew He must have a purpose. Later that purpose was revealed.  Oh it’s good… read the book!

The point of this is, we don’t see things from the same perspective as our eternal God does.

Before we charge God with any wrongdoing we had better understand that we are not the sovereign, almighty God of the universe; we are His creations.  He gets to do as He wishes when He wishes and whether or not we understand it is irrelevant.  He is Holy and Just and will always do what is the exact right thing to do.  He is incapable of wrong.

We, on the other hand, are sinful from birth.  We are self involved, capable of every unspeakable evil and by nature are driven to do wrong and ungodly things. Comparing God to ourselves, as the little post has done, is not only wrong but it has at the heart of it a low opinion of God.

He is not like us.

That brings me to the real point of this post.  I think the question “Why does God allow bad” is the wrong question to ask.  We are in of ourselves incapable of good, we in our nature are at enmity with God.  The question should be “Why God, do you allow good” or “Why God do You not destroy us with Your holy and just wrath”.   One possible answer is “Because, He is not like us.”

Voddie Baucham is one of my favorite Pastor/Teachers.   This is an excerpt from a “Desiring God” conference wherein Dr. Baucham discusses the Sovereignty of God.  It is so good  please take some time to view it.

“I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man.”—Hosea 11:9
Spurgeon handles this passage better than ever I could so I will quote him in closing.
THE LORD, speaking of himself as “God, and not man,” mentions as the special point in which he is above and beyond man, that he has greater grace, greater long-suffering, and greater willingness to forgive: “I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man.” In a thousand respects, God is greater than man; for us to enter into that theme, would require a very considerable length of time; but the Lord here puts this truth most prominently forward, that he is “God, and not man,” in that he is infinitely more forbearing, infinitely more tender, infinitely more ready to pass by offenses than any man ever can be. What men cannot do by reason of the narrowness and shallowness of their goodness, God can and will do by reason of the height and depth and length and breadth of his immeasurable love.”

He is an awesome God and His ways are infinitely better than ours.

On the other hand, it is a bad question to ask because when trying to be winsome and approachable (the message we carry has offense enough) it can appear arrogant to the non-believer and may shut down further communication which is the exact opposite effect we were hoping for.  Now you and I both know that Jesus is the Truth so if we know Him then we know the truth… but conveying that to others… well, that requires some delicacy doesn’t it?  We should be bold and unashamed of course yet there is a great deal of finesse involved in being bold while being humble.  Making sure that our speech isn’t filled with grandiloquence (much like using the word grandiloquence in a blog) but with grace is our goal.

Here’s the point to all of this… we who are disciples of Christ are messengers of His gospel.  We are His ambassadors and we are serious students of His word.  We study it, we memorize it, we meditate on it and we are ready always to give an answer for the hope that lies within.  We seek out good, sound, doctrine because we have a humble and teachable spirit and we want to study the truth.  Don’t we?  Do we?  Is any of that correct?

For a large part of the modern American Evangelical church, they would be trackin’ when I said “messengers of His gospel” and “ambassadors”.  They would likely nod in agreement at the appellation “serious students”.  When the conversation starts to turn to doctrine however, we’d be hard pressed to find the enthusiasm that we would hope to find.  Doctrine?  It sounds so dogmatic.

Doctrine is teaching; it’s precept.  To say of someone “That person has sound doctrine” is simply saying “That person was taught well”.  Now here is the tricky part… I betcha every single Johnny Churchgoer out there believes that they have sound doctrine.  I mean, who would want to think otherwise?  It would be like saying “I’m being taught some bad stuff and a lot error but you know, I just don’t care.”  Something pretty amazing happens however when one does seek to be a serious student of the Bible.  They learn.

When Mike and I were new Christians we were just happy to be saved.  We went to a church that was all about just being happy to be saved.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  We should be happy all the time… I mean ALL the time especially in light of what we deserve and what we actually receive.  The trouble is… we didn’t go too much beyond that.  Our church was content to splash around in the kiddy pool of “Isn’t it great to be in the club?”  which left an ocean of “Who it is that saved us” unexplored.  Sad.

Thankfully, God placed in our path those who were not content with the shallows but sought to go deeper and to take others with them.  We are still learning and with each new fathom explored we realize how close to shore we still remain.  His depths are ever deeper and we will never exhaust all that there is to learn about the seemingly simplest truths from His word.

Some of those “teachers of good teaching” challenged us to rethink some of the things that we thought.  The gauntlet was not combative or presented in an “I’m right and you’re wrong” manner.  It was an invitation to appeal to the Scripture, to allow Scripture to shed light on itself, to prayerfully study the word of God with diligence and humility and to allow the truth of His living word to instruct us… doctrine.

Because we are grateful that our Lord has put good and godly teachers in our path we would love to use our resources to do the same for you.
Please join us each Wednesday night (if you are in Okinawa) as we start a semester long Theology course… exploring the depths of Who He is and What He requires.  If you follow us on this website, stay tuned as we would love to share some of our Wednesday nights with you.

It all starts this week with Christology- the study of the work and person of Jesus Christ.
Can’t wait to dive in to the deep with you.

David is pretty much the final authority on ice cream.  You won’t find better out there… you can look… but you won’t find it.  Every recipe of his that I have made has made me look like a culinary genius.  This terrific coffee ice cream recipe that I’m going to share with you is a case in point.  Delectable, creamy, rich, and just plain delicious.  I made this ice cream for Mike (my coffee addict) and if I hadn’t already married him I think he would have popped the question right then and there.  :)

Try it for yourself; you’ll see.  Oh and by the way, your house will smell like a bit of coffee house heaven as you are steeping the coffee beans in milk.  Bonus!

So far in the game, it has been a wild ride.

I’ve started washing my hair with baking soda and making my own conditioner with apple cider vinegar and lavender essential oil.

I stopped buying commercial deodorant (which is filled with bad cooties) and started making my own (which works like a dream and smells like coconut cookies).

No more lotion (organic cocoa butter does the trick), no more chap stick (soon I’ll share a recipe for a lovely tinted lip balm made with shea and cocoa butters and beeswax.

All the convenience mixes that once were a staple in my kitchen have been abandoned and replaced with homemade (and better tasting) versions like this taco seasoning recipe.

We don’t buy as much breakfast cereal anymore , we eat this instead.

No longer do I need to spend a lot of money on various household cleansers, one multi purpose homemade formula has replaced my 409, windex, clorox spray, and pinesol (it cost only pennies a use and has no harmful chemicals).

The blue toilet bowl cleanser has been replaced with good ol’ vinegar and baking soda (I use that to unclog drains too).

Homemade laundry detergent and fabric softener are other great discoveries.

So why am I telling you all of this on a bread post?  Well, we like bread.  We like bread a lot.  We like bread too much.   Bread also likes me.  It must LOVE me because it sticks around and wants to be part of me… literally.

Why can’t lima beans or brussels sprouts be the things that are carb laden and therefore on the “eat in moderation” list?  Sigh.  Anyhow, because I am no longer buying preservative laden foods for my household, I find that I am having to make my own bread.  It used to be that I would make a loaf of whatever hit my fancy. Now I’m having to put thought into the bread I make.  Brioche Burger Buns are yummy terrific, as are Honey Yeast Rolls but  sometimes you just want a nice piece of good white bread. So, my bread making day has gone from one day a week to two days a week.  One day it’s all about yummy specialty bread the other day is all about our good ol’ sandwich bread.

I found this recipe on the King Arthur Flour website.  It’s pretty tasty delicious and the dough is a pleasure to work with.  It is fluffy soft , slices beautifully and is just as the name states, a loaf of perfect “Classic Sandwich Bread”.

Hope you enjoy it!  Whether you are turning into some crazy hippie like I am or not you’ll still find that this bread will beat out any bread on the grocers shelf in both the taste and cost per loaf categories.

It all starts with this “first stage” spice rub.  So much flavor in this bowl!

After slow cooking for most of the day and undergoing two more flavorful stages… it’s time to eat.

On the occasion that some service minded guys just show up and mow the lawn or ask Mike if he needed any help with rugged he-man jobs around the house, we would fire up the grill. Ranch hands need feedin’ so I tried out my debut rib making venture on them and well… as you can see… they loved them.  I named this gathering the Saturday Afternoon Rib Eaters Guild.

“Eatin’ speaks louder ‘n words.”- Driscoe Darlin

These are from the latest batch I made for Mike for Father’s Day.  I got the dates wrong and just found out that next week is Father’s Day.  DOH!  Mike is more than OK with it because he thinks this was my practice run for next week.  Sigh.  :)

 

Tada!  I found this one over at Jules Food.  It should be noted that she planned ahead and therefore took great photos of her cake.  I, on the other hand (as is often the case when I cook on “study” nights), remembered to snap a photo only as an afterthought and I didn’t get a good “slice photo” either because I had to slice them so thin (we had a big crowd) that the puny slices kept falling over.  When I make this again… and I will make this again… I’ll update with purty pictures.  :)

So… don’t judge the recipe based on my photographing ineptitude… judge the recipe based on the fact that the origin of this recipe is credited to Paula Deen.  Yup, it’s full of buttery goodness.  It’s rich, it’s all brown sugary pretty, it’s moist and it disappears quickly.

]]> http://www.hansenchristiancenter.com/2012/06/07/brown-sugar-pecan-pound-cake/feed/ 0 http://www.hansenchristiancenter.com/2012/06/06/miracle-pan-release/ http://www.hansenchristiancenter.com/2012/06/06/miracle-pan-release/#comments Wed, 06 Jun 2012 07:09:29 +0000 Lisa http://www.hansenchristiancenter.com/?p=1363

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I’m so excited about my newest recipe… for this…

It looks like it might taste good… but it won’t.  It’s not frosting or batter… it’s what makes cake and frosting possible though.  It’s Miracle Pan Release.  :D

 

I’m not buying cooking spray anymore.  I don’t know if the stuff that is in it is bad… it just doesn’t sound good.  I generally like the food I eat to be free of “propellants” anyhow.

Tonight for the midweek Bible study here at the house I decided to make a bundt cake (Oh Man!  Have I got a new recipe to share with you) anyhow, while I was waiting for the butter to soften up a bit I thought I would whip up a batch of this “pan release”.  I found the recipe on Pinterest and it promised to be the answer to all my cake, cookie, and brownie pan release needs.  Sorry there is not a source to link for the origin of the recipe; when I returned to it on Pinterest something wonky happened with the pin and the original site disappeared.  I’m so glad I wrote it down before that happened so I have it and I can share it with you all.  :)

It’s kept at room temperature and it’s supposed to keep for quite a long while.  That will be a non issue for me because of the amount of baking I do (I even made a double batch of it).
Once you make it, store it in an airtight jar and when ready to use just “paint” it on your pan with a pastry brush.

My cake is in the oven now and is making my house smell like happiness.  I’ll let you know how my new “pan paint” worked out.

Update June 19, 2012:  It works like a dream!  My bundt cake slid right out of the pan with no effort at all.  :D

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