Happy Thanksgiving Day!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving y'all.          even if you're not in the US, you still can give thanks to God for all His blessings on you.          we should live with a spirit of thankfulness.           I hope your day is filled with family, friends, food and blessings abundant.          we all have so much to be thankful for.          I'm so thankful for my husband.         I'm thankful for our health as we work toward being healthier.     we're so thankful to still have our Momma with us.      I'm so thankful still to have all my brothers.       I'm so thankful for my friends too.       I'm thankful for the presence of God in my life.        most of all, I'm thankful for Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of my life.         He is so good to me.       I hope you make a list of all that you're thankful for today and every day.        things can change in less than a heart beat, so I try my best to keep a thankful heart.   

Psalm 107:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." NIV   

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what about another "2 minutes in the kitchen with me" today?        well, ready or not, it's happening.  hahaha           I made some "butternut squash sweet bread".        and never turn your nose up at it till you've tried it.         hahahaha          I just replaced the pumpkin with equal parts butternut squash.      you can do a substitute like this with any of the winter squashes or sweet potatoes.         when I get some winter squash, I will roast them all up.         whether it's butternut, acorn, buttercup, kabocha, pumpkin or any of the other winter squash, I'll roast them all together and then mash them all together and package it in 2 cup amounts then freeze them.        the secret is to roast them with molasses on them.         just line your cookie sheet with parchment paper and dice up your squash in about 1 inch pieces and then brush on the molasses.        if you have sorghum, wow, all the better, but some of the really deep brown molasses that you can find in the grocery stores, sometimes it's near the baking section.           

the bottle needs to actually say "molasses" on it (and not just dark syrup) the darker the better.          that is what actually makes this bread so dark.        and I always roast them till the molasses is caramelized.   that makes it even darker.         this is without a doubt the BEST sweet bread we have ever had.       my recipe is over 40 years old and I started to rewrite if for y'all, but I just decided to save myself some time and took a picture of the recipe instead.        this has been on the inside of a kitchen cabinet in all the homes we've lived in.         I've taken it down and brought it with me when we have moved.       I pray we don't move again, but if we do, it'll come with me and I'll put up in the next kitchen cabinet.   hahaha         

so, I have pictures to share.   don't drool y'all, it's not very becoming.       hehehehe       I lined my oblong baking pans with parchment paper and they just lifted right out.         my baking pans are not the really large ones, that's why I actually got 3 loaves of bread.       the recipe says 2.       I sprayed my small 6" bundt pan with avocado oil.          be sure and get recipe if you're interested in it.        hope you enjoy the rest of your day.  

this is so delicious.       I wish you could taste it.      the "molasses" is key to this tasting so good.

just look at that.     I keep some frozen winter squash in the freezer at all times for this.

this is the recipe.      hand scribbled, but it's a wonderful recips.      hope you enjoy it.

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An artist contemplates a new canvas.         What will the artist bring to life on the canvas?          As with each individual, the possibilities are endless.         Will it be still life?         Will it be a portrait?        Will it be a landscape?          Will it be a collage, of sorts?         At this point, even the artist doesn't know.   Today is a new canvas.         What will you do with your new canvas today?          What are some of the choices that you will make today that will make your canvas a work of art, a master piece?          Isn't it kind of exciting just thinking about the very first stroke of paint going on that new canvas?         Well, to me, it's just as exciting to see the direction that my canvas of life will take today.          And the very first stroke on my canvas today will be asking God to send me where He needs me to be today.        Put words of life in my mouth.          Tender my heart to see as He sees.          To be His hands and feet today.           The foundation of any plan is what determines the outcome of the project.          So, for today, my foundation is prayer and the rest of the canvas belongs to God.       I can't wait to contemplate His master piece at the end of the day that He has let me be a part of. 

  

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let's have another segment of "2 minutes in the kitchen with me".          I got a recipe from somewhere  and I could not get it off my mind.         I will do almost anything to break out my bread machine again and again.         I use it a lot just to make up the dough, although I do still bake in it a lot.        this recipe was too easy to be true.        that's why I had to try it.          I finally convinced myself that it would be worth the sacrifice of the ingredients to find out.       hahahaha        for those of you that still have good hand function and like to work up dough by hand, you don't need a bread machine or stand mixer.  

this is the recipe:

Onion Bread

1 1/4 cups of warm water

1 envelope onion soup mix

3 cups of ap or bread flour

3 tsps of yeast

(since I used ap flour, I added 2 tablespoons of vital wheat gluten, but it's not really necessary.     it just gives the ap flour better structure, since it has less protein than bread flour.)

for my machine, I start with the liquid ingredients in any bread.         then go on to the flour and any other dry ingredients.        ending with the yeast on top of all the dry ingredients.          that's important to make sure the yeast doesn't start in contact with anything that has salt in it.        salt can stop the yeast from working in the bread and you'll end up with a very dense flat hard bread.       

I just used the bread machine to mix it up.       after about 45 minutes,      I took it from the machine and put down my silicone dough mat and rolled it out and cut it into squares as much as I could.       the side pieces that were a little wonky, I worked them into balls and flattened them and let them rise for an hour or so and popped them in a preheated *350 oven for about 15 minutes.      since there wasn't any butter/oil or sugar in the dough, they didn't get browned like they would if those 2 ingredients is in there.  (I brushed a little melted butter on the tops when I took them from the oven.)     but wowzers, IT"S GOOD Y'ALL!!!!       I mean really good!!!       so this recipe gets 2 big thumbs up!!!      it's that good!!

the first picture is just cut and placed on the baking sheet to rise.      the second picture is of them rising and the third picture is the baked rolls.       they are so good.       I know I keep saying that, but it's true.  try them for yourself.        ok now, go bake some bread. 

these are good sandwich rolls.        really tasty.        I wouldn't have thought about onion soup mix.    hahaha           I wonder what else I'm missing out on.        hahaha

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I was cutting up the butternut squash for the sweet bread, I got to thinking.          Sometimes that is dangerous.        Hehehe, but NOT this time.         I love butternut squash and I'm always looking for different things to do with it.           I took the seed end of it once I got it peeled and cut up and sliced that end up in chunky fries and tossed them in about a tablespoon of evoo and sprinkled cinnamon, mace, nutmeg and a pinch of salt and popped it in my air fryer for about 12 minutes on high shaking a time or two and this what they look like.        They are absolutely wonderful!!!        Wish I would have made more, but the rest of it is in the electric pressure cooker.       Yum!!!!        I WILL be doing this again.

they don't get really crispy at all, but they are so stinking good.        really yummy.  

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I seen this and thought it was worthy of resharing.        sometimes we do make the mistake of including everyone as being God's children.        when in fact that's a huge lie.        if we purposefully live in sin we are not His children.        we all sin daily, but we repent.         if we keep doing the same thing, then that's a choice and we chose not to be  a child of God.         if we call ourselves His, then our lives will reflect Him and not the world.          there is no such thing as a worldly saint.       we are just sinners saved by grace trying hard to be better each day with His help, or we are blatantly sinning and still calling ourselves children of God.         God is holy and cannot and will not look at us as His children when we willfully sin.        just something to reflect on today.

***Reminder, 

Not all of God's creations are God's Children. 

If you live in sin you are not a Child of God!!

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

1 John 2:16 

Repent to be a Child of God!!***

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as we think about Thanksgiving, I'm so thankful that we serve a God that loves us and cares about us.    this is the perfect prayer for our Thanksgiving Day prayer.

A Prayer Using the Names of God

Elohim,

I KNOW You can create something out of nothing, please create something out of any nothing areas - the impossible situations in my life.

El Elyon,

I KNOW You are in control, sovereign, and I give You my circumstances today.

Adonai,

I KNOW You are my Lord and Master, I choose to follow You instead of the ways of the world.

El Shaddai,

I KNOW You are God Almighty, and I trust that You are sufficient for my deepest needs today.

Jehovah Jireh,

I KNOW You are my provider, and will supply everything I need today.

El Roi,

I KNOW You are the God who sees me, and that I am never alone, and nothing in my life goes unnoticed, for You know it all and see it all.

Yahweh,

I KNOW You are the one and only, self-existent, eternal, covenant-keeping God and that You will always love me.

Jehovah Rapha,

I KNOW You are my healer and I come to You now with every area of my life that needs healing today.

Jehovah Nissi,

I KNOW You are my banner, and the victory in every situation that threatens me today.

Jehovah Mekoddishkem,

I KNOW You are my sanctifier, making me holy, doing for me what I can never do for myself.

Jehovah Shalom,

I KNOW You are my peace, and bring calm in every storm I face in life.

Jehovah Sabaoth,

I KNOW You are the LORD of Hosts, and bring deliverance as You defeat my enemies.

Yahweh Ro'i,

I KNOW You are my shepherd, and intimately care for me even if no one else does.

Abba, Father,

I KNOW You are my Father and that I can run to You and rest in the security of your everlasting arms.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.

Thank You Father God that You are  all these and so much more!!

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I hope and pray that you all have a wonderful day today.          Thank God from whom all blessings flow!!!!         and remember to do this one thing, "gobble till you wobble!!!"         hahahaha  

Happy Thanksgiving Day!!!   

hugs, love and blessings to you all, patty