Yellow + Red +(some cinnamon, sugar, and butter) = ORANGE

“What if church leaders and parents synchronized their efforts to fuel wonder, discovery and passion in the next generation?” By combining the critical influences of the light of the church (yellow) and the love of the family (red) the Orange Strategy shows a generation who God is more effectively than either could alone.”

Over two years ago I was introduced to this concept of ORANGE... take note of the quote above...  and recently I have become even more convinced of the importance of this concept! Kids spend something like 3000 hours with their parents and only about 40 in the life a church (per year) and as a Middle School Ministry worker these stats are crazy! I am only going to get 40 hours per year with a student, and now some of you are like... 40 hours with a 12 year old... OHHH NOOO! But seriously this is just not enough. That is not even once a week for an hour. If we are going to make a difference in the life of a student, IF CHRIST is going to make a difference in the life of a student, then 40 hours a year is JUST. NOT. ENOUGH. 

I am not a parent and so I cannot even begin to tell you how a parent might disciple their children, beyond that which is obvious... prayer, worship... etc. and so if I am going to try and partner with parents I am going to need new and practical strategies, not to mention the life of a youth worker is hard (*taking a step back to be fed spiritually is a MUST DO!), and the opportunity to spend three days with others in the same field, worshiping, learing, and being revitalized... sounds like a raging good idea!

So. The point of all this is: I am going to bake my way to the ORANGE conference! It is expensive, and I want to raise the money to go. Here is a breakdown of the cost:

Airfare - I have got some frequent fliers... so this can be subtracted

Rent Car - Probably around 120 Bucks for the 3.5 days

Hotel - Around $300

Conference - $220

I would eat regardless of where I am (which you all learned from my past post) so I am not going to include that money. 

So. Do you want to buy some delish, bomb digity, cinnamon rolls?? I bet you do. My next post will have the specs!

Much love to y'all on this Wednesday morning!

Sara

12 (cough) I mean 11 Month Food Challenge Update

Well folks, I know you are dying for an update on the foodie challenge so here is what I have got: 

...it looks like may is the only open month I've got! Whoo

Rolls from Christmas...

February - CINI's Fo Yo Sweetie

1. Orange Cinnamon Rolls

2. Chocolate Chip Cookie Rolls

3. Caramel Apple Rolls

4. Raspberry Almond 

5. Regular too!

 
*Please remember February tomorrow when I tell you about baking my way to Orange*

 
March -Desserts                      April - BREAD     

1. Rainbow Cake                     1. Challah

2. Scratch Fruit Pie                 2. Pastor Ryan's Dutch Oven Bread

3.                                          3. Corn Bread Variations?                                   

4.                                          4.

May                                      June - CANNING       

1.                                          1. Pickles - Dill Variations & Bread and Butter

2.                                          2. Okra & Jalapenos

3.                                          3. Fruit Preserves                                    

4.                                          4. Fruit other

July - Veggies                        August - Meat     

1.                                          1. Pork

2.                                          2. Fish

3.                                          3. Beef                                   

4.                                          4. Lamb

September - Finger Food         October - Ethnic  

1.                                          1.  Mongolian

2.                                          2. Thai

3.                                          3. Japanese                                 

4.                                          4. 

November - Soups                  December - Sweet Holiday Treats 

1.                                          1. 

2.                                          2.

3.                                          3.                                

4.                                          4.

Dear Food, I really do love you.

The latest addition to my kitchen might not yet be a shiny new dutch oven, but it is a newly framed magazine page out of the latest REAL Simple. I am pretty excited about it, not because of its awesome crookedness in the frame (even though I hung it myself), but because of the quote that is stated underneath the photograph itself. Here is what it says:

" One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote ourselves to eating" 

I love it because it is so true. Eating causes us to stop (if done properly, not just a 5 minute snack crunch on the go) and appreciate the finer things in life. It is a way to connect with friends, old and new, to celebrate holidays with family, to cope with a break-up, to savour and discover new flavors, and to satisfy our bodies' hunger. 

For me, food has always been something of an issue... Growing up I was always on a 'diet', being told to watch what I eat, to have this and not that, and food became something I had a strong HATE and love relationship with. I have always loved food, not just in the gorge in it kind of way, but in the discovery of new flavors, recipes, and awesome-ness that who knew seaweed, fish, and rice make an awesome combo kind of way. Anyways, so as I have gotten older and have established who I am as person I have begun to even more take a look into my relationship with food. As most of you know, I love to cook, and what would cooking be without food? Stupid question, I know. But seriously, I love to cook, and not for myself by for others and the more I have thought about it as of late, maybe my cooking and passion for it, is tied to my general desire for people to know that I love them. It might seem silly that I cook for people so they know they are loved, but when you grow up with food tied to several relationships where love and acceptance seemed to be on the line, it might not be that far of a stretch, ya know?  

Just a thought I was having. 

So food, yep. I love ya, I might need to take a slight reprieve from eating all the 'violently ooozing butter' that accompanies some of the most delish things in the world in order that I don't go up a pants size - and thats ok, at least for now! 

Mmmm, I can already smell the wafting smells of Cini for yo sweetie month!

Stay tuned... today, I might have 5 posts, because I am finding it hard to blog regularly, so I just pile my thoughts (and pictures on my iPhone) in my brain and then they come exploding out!

SH... not Shhhhhh!

Well people I needed a name for when I sold baked goods, and thanks to PMF's beautiful wife Amy, I now have one!

READY.
SET.
HERE IT IS....

So Homemade - WAHOOZIE. Sounds Deeeelish!

And since I needed a logo, well here is a small one:

<--- Yeah buddie... hehe Can you tell what is on my mind!






More later... I am doing my first of two jobs today. A post to come!

5 things...

1. I have a confession... About my Cast IRON Confessions... Yeah so I hate anything grammatical. Spell check is my life, and basically I forgot to hit the button. Iron is not spelled I.o.r.n. Bahhahahhha but guess what, I thought it was, and so did my spell check! So todays re-vamp, well that is because I can't spell worth a durn and I get typos ALOT, aLOT of typos.

2. Meat, I like it! I think this is a great suggestion AND I'm not that great at grilling so I will grill 4 different kinds of meat in different ways! Best. Suggestion. Yet. Well, except mine, the cinnamon rolls that is, mostly because my mouth is just salivating just typing the words... Cin nnnnnn nnnnnamon rolllllls.... Yum!

3. Because veggie month will be a challenge in itself, I accept! Although my roommate, Argyle, will probably kill me if I make any more mushrooms...I think it will be a great learning experience! Stay tuned for an awesome picture about my roommates lack of fondness for all things mushroom !

4. PW's posted a food photography assignment, take creative pictures of what you make and then one could win a $350 gift certificate to B&H! Get excited cause I am up for that challenge, and if I won, well I could get the lens I've been drooling over for months!

5. Dear Dutch Oven,

I know you are out there and you want to come live at mama sara's house. Don't worry it won't be long until we are together. I can feel it in my soul!
Love, your new best friends for life-- butter, chicken, bread, and dumplings



Ps... I know alot is spelled a lot. It's an inside joke. Please check out fellow blogging extraordinaire Allie Brosh with hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com

Not like mashed potatoes...

So. The cooking challenge. Well it's almost halfway through the first month of the year and I have yet to get my cooking project underway. In case you have not heard me talk about it enough, I have not solicited or taken your advice yet, or you just plain have zero idea what I am talking about here's how it is gonna go!

12 months. 4 planned recipes per month. Each month to focus on a specific ingredient, theme, food group etc.

****OHHH MY GOODNESS I just experienced some divine intervention. JUST. NOW. I am going to dedicate a WHOLE month to canning! HOT DOG. I forgot that wonderful conversation I had with my LONG TIME AWESOME friend Laura, she is a like the home economics queen! She told me all about pickles, and jams, and okra. YUMO. WAHOO. Canning. Get. Excited. Laura, although she doesn't know this, she will be featured in some way during canning month. Yay Laura. WOOT

Ok so canning can be one month. Bread, what the heck is cooking challenge without making lots of bread? So I can forecast a month of bread, probably needing to be the month I decide to quit just 'making a donation' to the gym, and actually go there. HA.

Here are some of the other suggestions that I have gotten... hmmm...
Mediterranean
Thai
Mashed Potatoes
German Pancakes
Chili
Pies
Cocktails... although this might not be exactly a food, and besides a whole month of cocktails... hahahhah that might not be good for me anyways??!!?
and my own suggestion, cinnamon rolls


Got any more? Now, more specifically, and even though I LOVE me some mashed tators... I need some more, well I am not sure how to explain it, categorical, specific, less specific ideas. PS... you know if you provide input and your are near me, please know, you too will get to reap the benefit of, you fill in the blank, month...

January - might be a wash. I'm busy. I have made burgundy mushrooms and a half dozen more recipes...
February - Cini's for yo sweetie... the month of cinnamon rolls.
March
April - Bread month, and as per Abby's request I will try to make Challah
May
June - Canning
July
August
September
January (now wait this does not belong here... its 11:29..)
October
November
December.

Ok now, get ready to help me fill in those months!


It's ok, everything I make is 100% calorie, sugar, and fat free. Enjoy!

HOME... in Houston

Be Prepared... it might be lengthy!

Delete. Yep. Just highlighted and pressed the delete key to the entirety of what I had written moments ago... yuck.

Home. I recently got back from spending the Holidays in my home town, Farmington New Mexico. I truly love it there; my mama and step dad live there, along side many of my friends. This trip for me was unlike any visit I have had. For the first time my home, well it was no longer my home. I moved to Houston about a year and half ago, and it is my home. My mama said to me one evening during one of those mother daughter heart to hearts... "Sara, its ok that this is not your home anymore, your life anymore, it is ok to outgrow places, people, and times in your life." And at first I wanted to be defensive and almost stick up for something, not really sure of what... but then I thought about it, and I already gave you my conclusion. My childhood home was no longer my home, my life had moved on, it had outgrown one place and now had begun to sprout a whole set of healthy, wonderful roots in a new place, Houston.

I love this. A year ago home meant a place that I missed, not where I was. Home can be anywhere really, as long as you allow enough room in your heart for change, challenges, and even the unknown. That is the real beauty of discovering that you are home. For me discovering Houston as my home took just that long, over a year...over a year to make relationships, awesome ones, over a year to make mistakes, a move to a different house, the addition of two fantastic roommates, the discovery of a passion for cooking, laughter (the kind that makes your belly ache and your eyes water), and truly growing and being humbled everyday by our radical God!

ps... I love Farmington... its beautiful and it definitely has its' place in my heart!

So that was my HOME story. I have a couple more, and maybe actually I should have written them first... but alas here we are.

So, for tonight, and really I should blog when I first get a thought in my head, because seriously all last week I had about 100 things I wanted to say, never got the chance to sit down, and now that I do I am having real REAL trouble trying to be eloquent and witty with my writing, and figuring out how to catalog (and remember) all the thoughts I had... So please stay tuned... maybe I will have two posts tonight... or three... or seven. Who the heck knows. Not me.

Ok. Ta Ta for now! hahhahhhaahh love ttfn.

I hope wherever you are, you are HOME.

"It's a piece of cake... CHEESEcake!"

January TWENTY ELEVEN. Now that is crazy. So, I started my blog, one post down, several months later here we are. I really do want to catalog my life, especially my cooking experiences. So, for today I shall enlighten you on yesterday's cheesecake 'experience'...ha. 


It is PMF's birthday today, yeah I know you don't know what that means, well it is Pardon My French, that is my boss (his last name is French, he has a blog, Pardon My French... he think it's hysterical, the name in all...)... anyways and as I love to bake, share the baking, etc etc I thought I might make him a delightful treat in honor of his 17th 21st Birthday! Get. Excited. 

I said, "PMF, What would you like my kitchen-aid to make you for your BIG day?" And well let me tell you he deliberated... deliberated... and came up with... "I like cakepops, or wait, pie..well not cherry pie... umm white cake is good, ohh Cheesecake, yumm. I dunno though, maybe something chocolate or what is that flavor, oh yeah, amaretto?" 


LONNNG story short... we were gonna have a Chocolate Amaretto Cheesecake. 
I really do not make cheesecake, now this is not to say I never have, but it never seems to come our right... so I tend to shy away from it... Before yesterday here is what I knew about cheesecake:

• It has cream cheese
• A graham cracker crust
• Spring form pans are a good idea
• The dang things always look hideous when I make them!

So I did A LOT of research, and by the way I decided that NO LONGER was it going to be enough to just be able to make something and have it turn out good, I want to know why its good, how to use each ingredient to it's best ability, and understand how best to make each part and process of a recipe...(this is why the research).


Here is what I learned... Helpful tips in case you are standing in your kitchen, reading this and wondering what the heck happened because now your crust is soggy, your top is brown and cracked, and you put it in at 350 just like the recipe said, but now it is WAY. TOO. DENSE.

• No matter the recipe cook at 325, for starting at 40 minutes, increase time as needed
• Once the cheesecake moves as a unit, is shiny in the middle but firm to the touch, turn off oven and leave for an hour. 
• Spring form pans leak. So, wrap foil, first by using three heavy duty sheets crisscrossed and then wrapping them around the pan. 
• Using a water bath is a must do. 
• 1TB of flour per LB of cream cheese is like your cheesecakeable insurance - your cheesecake won't crack and look like the worst wreck of your life... so add some when you're adding the sugar. 

Good advice. I know, because I did all of this, and well, the result... please see below. YUM. 

*You will have to excuse this one, the use of my cellular device as a photo taker... gross. ...no cracks, no brown, no leaks... just plain delish.                                                                  Ok so, Happy 17th 21st Birthday PMF! I didn't die from pre cheesecake anxiety, but I might now from salivation.