Where I'm From Wednesday

Where I'm from, families display hundreds-of-years-old doll sets, which have been passed down through generations, every February in preparation for Girls' Day in March.

Winter comfort food

It's snowing. Again.

I dashed to the post office this morning and realized, as my fingers froze to the steering wheel, that I hadn't set foot outside the house since Sunday. A very good thing, when daytime highs are in the negative range. Today is a warm spell, though...the thermometer registered all of six degrees when I got up this morning! It's snowing again now...

I've been hunkered down in the basement all morning studying calculus. I love my little study area, which looks out over my winter-napping garden. My guinea pig is nearby and talks to me every now and then (usually to demand something...more grass...vegetables...pet me...let me out into my playpen...). The only problem with my study area is that, well, it's in the basement. And, after many days of sub-zero temperatures, the floor is a wee bit chilly. <--colossal understatement

Days like today (and feet as cold as mine) call for warm and filling comfort food, and one of my favorites is rice pudding. We got the recipe years ago from the side of a bag of rice. Living in Japan, the recipe was always the preferred method of getting rid of leftover cooked rice after dinner. We don't eat rice as often now that we live in the US, but it still gets made several times every winter.

Mid-Winter Rice Pudding

3 c. cooked rice
2 1/2 c. milk
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
3 TBSP butter
3/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 c. raisins or chopped dates
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Combine rice, milk, sugar, butter, and nutmeg. Cook over medium heat until thick, 20-25 min., stirring often. (Do not allow to boil hard, or pudding will be grainy.) Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and raisins/dates.

If, by some remote chance, you have leftovers, reheat by putting in a pan on the stove with a little more milk.

We always eat short-grain white rice in our house, and hence, always use short-grain white rice for this recipe. I tried using brown rice once. Don't. It's yucky. (Well, brown rice in general is yucky, but that's another subject entirely...) We get our short-grain white rice in the ethnic food section at our local grocery store. I can't imagine how this would turn out with long-grain rice. (Come to think of it, I can't imagine how anyone eats long-grain white rice, period. Yes, I freely admit I am a rice snob. But I digress...again...)

If your family is like mine and there are people who don't like raisins (umm...::raises hand::), let them serve themselves after you've stirred in the vanilla but before you add the raisins. (We never use dates since this recipe is usually a last-minute creation, and dates are not something we keep in the pantry.)

Also, if someone in your family is on a restricted diet (umm..::raises hand:: again), you can go with a modified version which, in my opinion, is actually pretty much as good as the original.

Substitute:
Almond milk for cow's milk
Maple syrup for brown sugar (the extra liquid doesn't seem to make any difference...yay!)
Coconut oil for butter

Winter comfort food at its finest.

Maple Cinnamon Trail Mix

I've made three or four batches of this trail mix since the beginning of the year (when I first made this recipe) because all the ingredients are on the wheat-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, soy-free, caffeine-free diet I'm on. It's really simple. You should try it. (Do not be afraid of the loooong explanatory paragraph. That's just me being verbose. The recipe really is simple.)



Maple Cinnamon Trail Mix

(All measurements are approximate.)

2 - 2 1/2 c. rolled oats
1 - 1 1/2 c. almonds (whole or sliced...or both)
1 - 1 1/2 c. raisins

1-2 TBSP coconut oil (or you can use butter, but coconut oil is healthier)
3/4 c. maple syrup
1-2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Put the last three ingredients in a small saucepan and heat until oil is melted. While it's heating, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Pour the maple syrup mixture over the dry ingredients and stir to mix well. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, and spread the mixture over it in an even layer. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove from oven and stir. Return to oven for 15 minutes, and then stir again. If it's not done at this point, put back in the oven for another five to ten minutes and stir again. Repeat until it's done toasting. How will you know it's done toasting? It will turn a wonderful, golden-brown color, your raisins will start to puff up, and you will smell a rich, maple-y, toasty aroma. You DO NOT want a dark brown color, black shriveled raisins, and a burnt smell. That means it's overdone (duh). Ask me how I know.

I eat this plain as a quick snack, or with almond milk just like granola. I love it either way!

I have been experimenting with soaking the oats and almonds first to make them more digestible, with not-quite-satisfactory results. I mean, it's still fine, but the oats and nuts don't have quite the fabulous crunch that they do when you use them un-soaked. I'm trying to figure out the right combination of oven temperature and letting them dry out before toasting to get the texture I want.

(Learn more about soaking grains and nuts at Passionate Homemaking.)

What can separate us?

I came home yesterday after six days of friendship, sunshine, below-zero temperatures, laughter, fun, trying new things, and experiencing the grace of God in new and unexpected ways.

I'm always a little sad on days like today. Just me, myself, and I at home feels quiet and lonely after nearly a week of being a part of a big family tripping over each other in a mountainside dollhouse. I miss someone's laugh. I miss another's hugs. I miss special facial expressions, and favorite phrases, and inside jokes, and the many hands that make a load both light and fun in the doing.

But I am comforted.

The day before we all headed our separate ways, scattering across the state and the country, I read Romans 8 in my devotions. Verses 38 and 39 have always had special meaning for me on the path God has taken me in this life, and He is using them afresh in my heart today.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Yes, the house is a little too quiet today. Yes, I am lonely for these dear ones that I love all the more in every time we have together. What I am clinging to today, though, is the fact that I will never, never, be separated from God and His love. He is here, today, right now. He is my Friend, my Brother, and my Helper. What's more...He loves me.

I can't ask for a greater promise and a greater truth than this.

Cooking for the soul

I love my new kitchen. Seriously. But...I haven't used it much yet. After we moved, it was under construction for so many weeks. By the time it was finished, I was in the throes of preparing for a month-long vacation, and cooking unfortunately ended up near the bottom of my priority list. A lot of days, it was cold cereal for breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner. One of my goals for this fall is to get back into my healthy eating habits.

To that end, here is the spinach frittata I made for lunch. The recipe called for goat cheese, but, since I don't usually keep that stocked in my refrigerator (*cough, cough*), I used Swiss instead. I also more or less halved the recipe (it's hard to make half a recipe when it calls for nine eggs...), which still made plenty. These things are best consumed while they're fresh, in my opinion. (And yes, we do use 1970's olive green and gold china for everyday in our house... Hee...)

Amid all this cooking, I have discovered something. I think I knew it before, but I forgot. Cooking is, quite simply, good for the soul. You take a bunch of unrelated ingredients, mix them up, and something yummy and nutritious (hopefully) results. Kind of what God does in our lives...puts a bunch of seemingly unrelated events and circumstances together, mixes them up, and in the end, it's all good.

The View from My Window

One of the things I'm most thankful for in our new house is that it has a walk-out basement. I can see our yard and my garden from my desk and from my sewing workspace. The "mushroom life" (as my dad called it!) in our previous house was just so...mushroom-y. I am loving seeing the leaves change outside my window! I also love the natural sunshine that streams in all morning and early afternoon.

October

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it?"

~Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables