Please watch this...

My friend posted this on a MySpace Bulletin. The words ring with profound truth and the musical accompaniment is simple and passionate. I hope you enjoy...

Experiments in Cooking...

This past week I got to spend time doing one of my favorite things- cooking. I have become the resident dessert maker for our bi-weekly Lifegroup (home fellowship)dinners and undertook a massive effort for Friday's pleasure, which I'll get to momentarily. I also got a little experimental with some ground beef. All in all it was an exciting time and I thought I would share my experiments with you...

Sweet Beef
I was cooking some ground beef one evening and wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. So, I opened my spice cupboard hoping for inspiration. I saw a recently purchased tub of paprika from Whole Foods sitting there in its burnt red gloriousness. (I love paprika!) So, I opened it up and luxuriously sprinkled some over the meat. Then on a complete whim, dusted some ground cinnamon and crumbled some brown sugar into the pan. The result was amazing. It was sweet, a little saucy- but perhaps a bit too much. So, the next night, I happened to be at the grocery store and picked up some more ground beef. I did the same to this, but with a bit less of everything, then mixed it with the leftovers from the previous evening. I served it on some toasted sour dough bread- it was delicious! The milder form of the beef gave it just the right temperament and the sour dough added just the right amount of kick.

Strawberry Dessert Cups
This was my dessert for our Lifegroup meeting. I had scoured blogs, books, websites, etc., for over a week trying to find a recipe that fit what I wanted to do all to no avail. So, I decided to make my own. After going through several ideas, talking them through with multiple people, I finally decided on what is to follow. I must warn, this became a massive undertaking- almost 6 hours of work. This was partly because (as to my recollection) I have never worked with phyllo dough before.
I started by making 4-sheet thick phyllo cups, making sure to spread melted butter and lightly sprinkle sugar inbetween each sheet. Several attempts utilizing different cups, sizes, shapes, etc. I settled on my muffin tin. This later became a time saver as I was able to bake a dozen at a time. Then I melted semi-sweet baking chocolate squares and poured it into the bottom of each cup- just thin enough to coat the bottom. And for decoration I drizzled some on the edges of the cups. These I refrigerated overnight. Then the next evening I sliced strawberries galore and layered them in the cups. Beat up some fresh sweetened whipped cream and piped it onto the strawberries.
The result: Though many hours of work- the dessert cups were described as a "taste of Heaven" and would "surely be served at the Lord's table".

I have a few leftover phyllo "cups" - ones from my first attempts before utilizing my muffin pan. I mixed up some cream cheese, almond extract and powdered sugar then layered some sliced strawberries- scrumptious!

I'm All Shook Up...

Just after 4:30 this morning, I was rudely awoken by a pounding and a shaking. In my groggy haze, it seemed as though someone was in the attic above my apartment jumping up and down, causing my entire apartment to shake. I was quite irritated and on the verge of yelling out to this phantom that people were trying to sleep. But before I could muster the alertness to put together a comprehensible sentence, it stopped. So, I rolled over and went back to sleep, mumbling about the rudeness of some people.

Fast forward about 2 hours. I'm in the bathroom getting ready for work, earlier events almost forgotten and passed off as a probable dream. I have my tv on to the morning news as I always do, when they start talking about all the emails and phone calls they had been receiving about the earthquake. I walked out to my living room, confused as to what they were actually talking about. Then they laid out all the details of this 5.4 earthquake that hit Southern Illinois just after 4:30 this morning. Suddenly, the light bulb above my head bursts into brightness and the dots connect. There wasn't a rude person that somehow made it into the attic above my apartment and was jumping up and down... it was an earthquake.

I can now say that I have been in an earthquake. Something I would have been totally fine with never being able to say...

A Conversation Among Friends...

We (several friends and I) had a beautiful day yesterday. The weather was perfect as we visited Cheekwood Botanical Gardens (perhaps I'll post some pics later), viewing and smelling spring flowers and enjoying the company. Afterwards, we picked up some smoothies and went to a nearby park. During the course of our afternoon, the following conversation occured:

(Please note, this memory is about 20 hours old, so quotes might not be exact.)

Me: While shopping in the mall yesterday, you will not believe what we saw!

Expectant looks around.

Me: In The Limited, they were selling stirrup pants!!!

From several others: No Way! You've got to be kidding! Ewww! etc...

Friend #1: (sarcastically) I'm just waiting for them to bring back body suits.

Friend #2: (this is a guy, of course) What's a body suit?

Friend #3: It's like a leotard.

Friend #1: It's a shirt with snaps... (long pause...) on the bottom...

Needless to say, we sat for a moment in questionable silence, then burst out laughing.