What's cooking???

Good afternoon/early evening Dear Ones.      I hope and pray that everyone is having a blessed day!!!    It is a rather dreary day here in my neck of the woods, but, that's ok.    If you know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, then guess what, the SON is shining brightly for you!!!!    So rest in that knowledge and enjoy the SONshine in your life today!!!     I just wanted to share a little meal prep and what goes on in my kitchen on a weekly basis.    So, come join me at my kitchen table.    (Just a little disclaimer here, please forgive any spelling mistakes or punctuation mistakes you may see.    I try real hard to catch them all, but I just don't so a lot of mercy and grace will be much appreciated.   Thank you.)

Back in very early 2020, just after Christmas of 2019, around New Years of 2020, I subscribed to an online, mail order produce box.   The company is called Misfit Market.     They offer 2 different size boxes on a weekly basis or every other week and you can postpone a box if you need to.    You can get a Misfit box or a Madness box.     With the Misfit box, you get to choose 12 different veggies and fruits, it's perfect for a family of 2 or 3 people and it usually weighs between 10 and 14 lbs.     With the Madness box, you get a choice of 14 different veggies and fruits and it usually between 14 and 18 lbs.    I think those are the weights or very close to them anyway.    It's that simple.   You can cancel at any time.    No requirements at all.

Anyway, I subscribed to this box of produce on a weekly basis.   Then along comes the pandemic.     I had no idea at just how much of a blessing this weekly box would be for my husband and me.    This company is a phenomenal company!!!   They have the BEST customer service of any company I have ever had any dealing with!!    This has been such a huge blessing for us.    Having constant and steady fresh, organic vegetables and fruit has been wonderful.    Another reason it is perfect for us is because when I look for produce in the store (before the pandemic) I was always at a loss as to what I should get.    With this, it's easy.    All of it grown organically.    It's fresh from the farmer.    Sometimes there are blemishes on the produce, sometimes they are overly large or overly small, just not food that the supermarkets want to sell.    So, we get it.   After having been blessed with these boxes for about a year, I thought I would share a little about food prep.

For me, food prep has always been a hard thing to do, a daunting task.    I can't really put my finger on why it has been so hard, but I think after all these years in the kitchen, I finally found my rhythm for food prep.   hahaha     It may have been an issue for me just because keeping fresh veggies and fruit on hand was an issue.    I would go to store with intentions of getting some and come out empty handed of anything fresh.   No.1 reason was the price and still is the price in the stores.    No.2 reason is because most of it looks ready for the garbage by the time it's put out.  

A quick story about this when I first started getting these boxes.    I switched from the Misfits box to the Madness box, the larger of the 2.    When one of my boxes came, I was in awe of how much produce I actually got.    I sat down with phone in hand and done some comparison shopping in my kroger app and the walmart app.   I couldn't get everything at one store.    The Madness box is a little over $30, it may be $35 plus taxes and shipping.    Anyway, I was pricing the exact weight of what I had gotten from my Madness box, and organic produce.    The grand total of the produce that I paid between 30 and 35 dollars for was over $90 between kroger and walmart!!!!!   YES, it was!!!!    I was was absolutely gob-smacked!!!!!    hahaha  So, as I go about my journey with Misfits Market, I continually praise the Lord for such a blessing.      

I know most of us do produce prep as soon as we get our produce into the house.      Some go into full blown cook mode and I don't blame them one little bit. I am just not that organized to do that.      But, I do want to share with y'all what I do, because it may just be an easy way to get started on meal prepping.     I have lock and lock boxes that I use only for prepped food storage, that's it.     I do have 3 larger lock and lock boxes that I store cooked soups and stuff like in.      But, as you can see in the first picture, there are two rounds on the left and the top one has red and green bell pepper tops and bottoms diced up, the bottom one has cipolini onion diced. the middle two oblong ones have celery and carrot sticks in them and then the tall one on the right has strips of red and green bell peppers in them. 
 

I always have onions, carrots and celery on hand and the others vary according to what I have.      I do cut most everything up in sticks and then they are so easy and quick to dice at that point.     When those get empty, I refill them asap, because at meal time, those boxes are the starting point for our meals.       The next box is of sliced mushrooms, they are ready to do what ever I wish to do with them, they are ready to go.

The other 2 pictures are 2 of my "go to" meals.     I fix these weekly and we will enjoy 3 or 4 meals from each.     One is what I call "chicken corn chowder" and it starts off with at least 2 to 2 and a half cups of mixed veggies that I diced, sauteed in the instant pot and then the other ingredients added.    It usually has carrots, celery, onions, bell pepper (red green yellow), and broccoli, then the rest of the ingredients that I just throw in.       It is a crowd pleaser of 2.    hahaha 

 

This next dish is a teriyaki pork, chicken, or beef, (what ever meat I choose) brown rice and another 4 cups of fresh veggies to start the dish off.    It has watermelon radish, 3 different kinds of onions because you can't have too many onions, celery, carrots, broccoli, red and green bell peppers, I'm sure I'm missing something from that mix of veggies.     But these are 2 of our faves for the time being. 

 

At the end of the week, if I haven't used everything in my little boxes, it goes on the dehydrator and then added to my stash.     Then I refill the boxes.     When I was fixing my chicken corn chowder, I emptied them all and when I refilled them, I happened to think about sharing this with y'all.    I hope that someone can use this little bit of info and see that meal prepping doesn't have to be scary.     It used to be for me, but it's not any more.     When I cook beans sometime this week, I will have a head start on the onions being diced. also, if I want to, instead of dehydrating anything left, I can bag it all up and toss it in the freezer for the next teriyaki rice and whatever dish, since that always starts with a ton of veggies.     

Just a few of the staples that I always try to get is all kinds of lettuces and greens, all kinds of onions, celery, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes of all kinds including sweet potatoes, all colors of bell peppers, broccoli, radishes of all kinds, cauliflower, apples, oranges, pears, plums, mandarins, mango, ginger, zucchini, yellow squash.     Those are just a few of the items that I try to keep on hand regularly.    Having all these wonderful foods at the ready, cleaned and prepped makes meal time a pleasure and it's not a chore anymore.

When my little boxes get empty, about 15 to 20 minutes and I have them full and ready for the next time I need them.    It is so very refreshing for me to be able to meal prep and enjoy it and then I have my version of "fast food" on hand, but it's healthy!!!    Not all fast food can claim that.    So, YAY!!!     I hope someone finds a little bit of inspiration from this post and that you can see that it is pretty easy to get started with meal prepping.

I hope and pray that y'all enjoy the rest of your day and that can see God clearly in it all.    I pray that you can call Him "Daddy" thru the shed blood of Christ.    That's what we get to call Him when we know His Son.    How special is that!!!!!     That gets me shouting every time!!!!!    

But, I'm afraid that we, as Christians, are in for a hard time coming from people who do not know Him.    We will have to stand firm and believe that God is faithful.   We will have some hard, bleak days ahead of us.    We need to be prepared and the only way we can be prepared is to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior.     Paul said that to live is to serve Christ and to die is to be present with Christ.    Persecution of Christians in our land is about to begin, if you know Christ, keep what Paul said in your mind.    Jesus Christ bled and died for me/us, so as long as we have breath in our bodies, we should live for Him.     If we are living for Him, that will mean persecution.     We just have to remember that the end result will be in the presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.    

Also, keep in mind that we are sojourners here, we're just passing thru in this life, the next life will be eternal.    This is world is NOT our home.   We are strangers in a strange land.    I know a lot of people make fun of Christians for what we believe and that's ok.    I've never been a "go with the flow" kind of person, let them make fun of me and let them make fun of you too.    Just remember one thing.  What you believe matters and it will show in how you live your life.     I don't want anyone to ever mistake me for someone who doesn't care, but I also don't want anyone to mistake me for a pushover.     When I'm quiet, I'm usually studying my surroundings.      I'm studying what I see and also what I don't see.    I'm usually praying and asking God to help me to discern between the truth and the lies.    Sometimes I ask Him to make clear what I don't see.     

Dear ones, again, just remember that what you believe DOES matter.    I can't stress that enough.     Everyone sins.    Everyone!!!      Don't let anyone tell you they don't.     If you have unconfessed sin in you life, take care of it.     It's not becoming for a child of God.    Ask our Father for forgiveness and then ask Him to help you.     You can't wait for it to go away, it doesn't.     You can't wait for God to take it away, He won't.    But you can ask God to help you through it, and He WILL!!!!    

As the day approaches, get in the Word.     Read the love letter written just for you.  Understand just why it matters so much what you believe.    Share with someone you know that God loves them and He wants them to be able to call Him "Daddy".  That's what Jesus called Him when He called Him "Abba Father".    He was actually calling Him "Daddy".     I love that.    He is just waiting for you to call on His glorious Name.    Please do.    I will probably never see you in this life, but I'm counting on seeing you at the Master's Table one of these grand days and then we can talk about it all.   Just know that Jesus loves you all, dear ones, and so do I.  love, hugs, and blessings beyond measure, patty

Thought for the Day....What you do matters

Good morning from my neck of the woods, Y'all!!     We got up with about a half inch of white stuff on the ground!!!   WHAT?!?!?!?!     hahahaha     Yes, we did.   Thankfully, the ground wasn't frozen, so it had even started to melt before I even seen it.    Just looked out the window a few minutes ago and it was still spitting a little.    It is gorgeous to look at, but I'm getting to the age that I don't want to ever have to get out in it again.     We used to be dare devils and had to get out in the snow and go driving, regardless how treacherous it was.     No more, I finally have good sense and don't want to act so reckless in my old age.  hahahaha 

I love looking at a fresh blanket of new snow.     There is just something so comforting about that sight.    One of the things that always pops in my mind is how scripture says that thru the shed blood of Christ, our sins can be washed as white as snow.     So, when I see a new a blanket of snow, no matter how thin the covering is, it's like the covering of Christ over us and when God looks at us, all He sees is His Son.    We must be a beautiful sight in God's eyes when He sees His Son while looking at us.     Can you even imagine the love that God must feel for His Son and in turn, He feels that same love for us.    That is something, that at just the mere thought, of the depth of our Father's love for us, it totally melts my heart.    It makes me feel ashamed sometimes of how I may feel towards another person.     I never want to withhold the love of God from another human being, even though I may think that person is not worthy of the love of God.     At one point in time, I wasn't either and I'm sure in the eyes of some, I'm still not worthy.    And to be quite honest, on my own, I'm not worthy.     I could never be worthy enough on my own.     I'm just so thankful to my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, that I don't even have to try to be worthy of the Fathers love.     Jesus IS worthy and He is my covering, just like the blanket of snow outside covering all the barrenness of winter, He covers the ugliness of my life and makes me acceptable to our Father.

I would love to know that every person that I have ever known and the multiple billions of people I won't ever know, would and could know the love that God has for them. 

Sometimes, we place ourselves in God's position as judge and jury over the world and when we do that, we are even judging the Creator of the Universe.     I don't know about you, but that's one job that I don't want or need.     I can't even handle small obligations, like being kind to someone, very well.    I don't make the wisest of decisions even on a good day.    So with all the hurt and pain that I carry around on a daily basis, I can't be judge and jury over God.    Oh, I don't mean to carry around a boat load of hurt and pain, but it seems I do.     And I'm afraid as long as I'm in this earth suit, that I'll continue to pick up the things from time to time that I have laid at the foot of the Cross.    And I don't even mean to do that, but sometimes we find ourselves going back to what has been so familiar for so long.  We go back and visit those things that brought us so much pain, hurt, discomfort, and division and sometimes we even pick them back up and drag them along behind us like a decaying corpse.     The stench precedes us.    We reek of death once more.    Not that eternal death has a grip on us again, because it doesn't!!!    We just lose sight of what God sees and when we do, we make poor decisions.

Let me say this.    We are not to go back in the past.    Anything we've lain at the foot of the Cross is no longer ours, it belongs to Jesus.    So, unless Jesus wants to take us to a point of more healing, leave the past alone and when the enemy comes knocking at your door, wanting to take you back, let Jesus get that door for you.    He can deal perfectly with the enemy, we can't.

As far as looking back and remembering where we have been and seeing how far we have come, that's a good thing.    That is how we share our testimonies.     We have to look back and see where we was to know exactly just how far we have come, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.    That is an amazing thing to see.     It is an amazing and powerful thing to see in others also.    Just don't go back to graveyard of your sins and hang out there expecting something good to happen. Even if it is familiar, no good thing will come from it.    Remember that your direction is toward the unfamiliar things of God.    You are a part of the Kingdom of God.    Moving towards God gets us out of our comfort zone.   It stretches us to see and embrace life differently.     It forces us to acknowledge sin.    It forces us to see our own sin.    It forces us to our knees in repentance because we want to be in right relationship with our Father, thru Christ.   It forces us to get out of the safety of the familiar and get in unfamiliar territory and that's where we will find God.    With out stretched hand waiting to guide us thru the narrow path.

In scripture, we are of told of 2 different paths.   One is wide and has lots of people on it and it's a path to death and destruction.    The other path is narrow and few are the people on it.    The narrow path is the path that leads to an eternity with Christ.   And the decision is ours to make.    There will be some snares along the way on the narrow path to try to throw us off.      But when we let God hold on to our hand, knowing that under NO circumstances will He ever let go, we will make our destination on time.    Not because of anything we done, but because God held our hand.

So, with all that in mind, always remember that what you do matters.    Regardless of how small or insignificant you may think it is, it matters.    You may be the only person that said thank you to someone who was feeling under appreciated.    You may be the only person that smiled at the cashier today and that person just needed to see one friendly face to know that all hope is not lost.    You may be the person that helped someone find their vehicle in the parking lot.   Just try to be the person that you hope shows up when need a little comfort from God.    We are put here for a reason and that reason is larger than ourselves.    While we are NOT Jesus, we are to show the love of Jesus.    So, what we do matters.

Who is this for????    ME!!!!!     I have a tendency to forget all of this.     I do.     I ask the Lord to help me remember.    He does help me.     I am so thankful and appreciative for Him being in my life.    I don't like it when He shows me my sin.   I really don't.    But it's the only way to be able to acknowledge my sin, confess my sin and ask for forgiveness of my sin.   I believe that Jesus is the only answer to my sin.   I am a sinful creature.    I recognize that in myself.   So, once again, I repent of my sin and seek forgiveness.    NOT to be saved all over again.   That's once and done.    I want to always be in right standing with the Lord and for what ever I have said, thought, or acted upon, I want that covered by His blood too, so I can always go to Him and not be ashamed of what ever it is that may be standing between us.    It's like apologizing to your friend.    You want to always know that you can go to your friend with anything and being in right relationship makes that possible.    Being in right relationship with Christ all the time makes it possible to go to Him with anything.   I hope and pray that this makes some sense to just one person.

I hope and pray that you all have a blessed day today.   If you have unconfessed sin, today is a good day to take care of that.    It was for me.    Tell someone you know that Jesus loves them so much.    Tell someone that what they do matters to those around them.    hugs, love, peace and blessings be y'all's today. patty

Just a little note today

Good morning Y'all!!!!!!       Ok, don't go in shock, please!!      I have just about shocked myself this morning.      I instinctively came to my blog to make a post.      Wow!!!!!       It will be short and sweet for now and I may add to it before the day is over.      Who knows???       hahahaha

Anyway, I love to be quiet in the early morning and 9:15am is early for me.     hahahaha       I love to listen to morning sounds.       Especially this time of year when there are no leaves to muffle the sounds coming from across the way.      I hear the train roll thru and he toots his horn as he does so.     Little red caboose, Little red caboose, Little red caboose behind the train.........that's what runs thru my mind when I hear it.  We used to sing that in 1st grade.      I'm amazed I can still remember that much of the song.    hahahaha       Every once in a while a bird will sit in one of the trees right out side just by my chair and it's as if that bird is talking to me.      Sometimes, in warmer weather, there will be a little tree frog that will do the same thing.      He will sit there and make his noise and it makes me happy.     One day back in the summer, I met one of my little tree frogs.      I was walking, and just glanced out of the corner of my eye and seen something yellow stuck to the side of gray sided house.     Upon closer inspection, it was one of those tiny little frogs, smaller than a quarter in over all spread out size.     He or she was a cute little thing and left it be so it could talk to me some more.       Sometime, I also hear dogs bark in the distance and wonder what stirred them up.       Maybe they spotted a deer or a wild turkey or some other critter that we see out here, or maybe it was just someone taking their daily walk and the dogs was just saying "good morning".      If we let ourselves, we can hear all kinds of sounds.      I have to tell you that in the days past, I have taken those sounds for granted.      But as I lose more of my hearing, I value the every day sounds even more.      I hope you will listen to the sounds in your world today and enjoy them a little more.

Do you ever have a thought that gets in your noggin and won't leave until you write it down?       I do and this is one of those times.       I really don't know why this came to be, but it did, just this morning and that's the real reason for making this post this morning.      I wanted to journal it and then come back to it ever so often to see what the Lord reveals to me about.        I'm calling it "thought for the day".  Here it is:  

Thought for the day:  We are only as good as the lessons we learned from our last mistake.

I make mistakes every day, that's nothing unusual.     But I guess the question for me is, do I learn from my mistakes?       Do I take away anything valuable from the mistakes I made?       Can I do the task again, or what ever it is, without making the same mistake, because I learned what I done wrong and make efforts to correct it the next time?       Or, do I just float along and not learn and continue to make the same mistakes time after time after time?       

We either grow or we grow stagnate.        That is the 2 options we have.      I have mentioned a lot on here about choices.       Again, this boils down to choices.      I pray that I move forward in my day and in my life and that I can learn lessons and grow.       I have already been stagnate.      If you know anything about that word, then apply that to a body of water.      A body of water that has constant movement from an outside source, such as a stream or a spring will not grow stagnate.       It will remain a healthy body of water and good things will grow and thrive in it.      It will be a healthy source of life giving sustenance to what ever needs to drink from that water source or what ever lives in it.  That is truly what Jesus is to us, a healthy stream or river of life giving water and movement.    There is no stagnation in Jesus!!!

On the other had, if it's a pond or a body of water without a fresh source of any kind, it will grow stagnate.      The water takes on a foul smell and color and what ever lives in it is not healthy or useful.  It's usually moldy and stinks to high heaven and has green or brown rotten stuff in it.    The only source of movement would be from the air blowing across it.      

If you had the 2 bodies of water I just mentioned side by side, you would more than likely see that the animals in the woods and fields that came to drink, would make the choice to drink from the fresh water that looks refreshing.      If the stagnate water was the only choice, they would drink that.      But if there is fresh water, that's what most will go to.

I don't want to be a stagnate source of water for myself or anyone else.       I want to be a nourishing and flourishing pool of water for whom ever needs to refresh themselves.      We live in a day and time where there is a lot of unrest and discomfort.      A lot of mistakes have been made.      Most are not learning from the mistakes they have made.       They are refusing to learn.      But there are some of us who are trying hard to learn from our mistakes.      I am trying to be one of those few.      I pray that God will teach me and help me learn from my mistakes.      I guess the greatest lesson I can ever learn is to trust Him to meet my needs.      And ask Him to teach me what I need to learn.       People are trying to teach us a lot right now, but it's not what we need to be consuming as learners.       Pray and ask God for wisdom and discernment.      Discernment is one of the best spiritual gifts that you can have.      If you have discernment, you won't be blown about by every thought that others have and you will know instantly if what they are saying is something you need to be listening.      Discernment is a great teacher.      When you practice it daily, your discernment will get sharper and sharper.      You won't be victim of a lot a false information.      You will know the truth when you hear it.

I don't know what all else God will show me about learning lessons from my mistakes, but I'm sure He will help me learn.     One thing that I do know for sure, it's better to have a few flourishing and growing people in your life who strive for learning and wisdom each day also, than to have a bunch of stagnate people in your life that is growing more foul with each day.     I have a small handful of ladies in my life that help me be a better person each day thru their own growth and lessons learned.     They too, have had some stagnate days and they have learned from them.      These ladies are very important to me and I count them as sisters in Christ.      If you have people like that in your life, consider yourself blessed and favored.      I sure do.      I am pretty outspoken, but I try to filter what I speak thru the change that Jesus has made in my life.      I try to speak truth in love when I can, but I will always speak truth.      Sometimes truth is harsh.      Sometimes harsh is all someone will hear.      But I will always try, with the help of the Lord, speak truth.      I trust the Lord to show me when I'm wrong and I will correct it.     Then I will consider that "a good lesson learned from the last mistake I made".   

I hope you can make some sense from this and that you can relate to what I just wrote.     

Well, on with my day.      Misfits Market Box will come today and I will get all my produce processed, cleaned and in the fridge.       When my box gets here, I will try to remember to take a picture and put it on here to show you what I get in my box.      I am going to make another batch of my cornbread swirls/rolls from yesterdays post.      I'm going to get my dehydrator going with some pears and some kombucha fruit and maybe a couple cans of pineapple tidbits.   

This is my delicious box of Misfits.      It came about 5 minutes after I got this blog post up.       It is a spectacular box and I already have most of it in the fridge.      I'm going to dehydrate the kale, seranno peppers, mushrooms and possibly some of the citrus.        I already have some pears in the fridge that I'm going to make pear chips out of by dehydrating  and some more lettuces that I want to get dehydrated.       It's a great way to preserve produce and then store it in small containers after it's been crushed or powdered.       You can easily add nutrition to just about anything using the powders and most of the time, the flavors will be unnoticed.       Green powders is great to add to a lot of different things, soups, meatloaf, sauces, even some breads.  

This is my washed produce.     Some of it is already in the fridge.      I love staying stocked up on potatoes, carrots and onions.      I haven't had to buy any of those from the store since starting having this delivered to my home each week.       It's well worth the value for organic produce and most of it is heirloom also.     Sometimes my lettuces will come with rootballs and I pick the lettuce off and plant the rootballs and grow more lettuce.      Last summer I kept several of those all summer long and I have some in my greenhouse right now.      If you get a chance to try Misfits Market, I suggest you do.       It's an awesome way to have nourishing produce in the house year round.    The produce also varies as the seasons vary.      I run a sink full of cold water with a splash of vinegar and soak everything in it for a bit and then drain it.      This picture, everything has been washed and draining waiting for the fridge.      Hope you enjoyed seeing this.

As you go thru your day, notice the sounds around you, whether near of far away.     See if you tell what the sounds are and while you are at it, thank God for the gift of hearing.      Think about some of the lessons you have learned and how you learned those lessons and maybe share them with someone you know and love.      As you get on with the busyness of today, thank God for allowing you to be a part of this fine day.     Remember in all you do that God loves you and wants to be in right relationship with you.    I love ya too!!   hugs, love and blessing in abundance be your today, patty

Recipes and a Snow Day

Good evening Y'all!!!      Is it cold where you are?      It is where I am.      Oh, it's not cold as it is other places, but it feels colder than it really is.       We had a pretty good little snow flurry last night and we still have white stuff around.      When we got up this morning, we couldn't wait to see what it looked out side.      It wasn't much, but my sweet husband said, "Snow day!!!"     So we had a snow day today.  hahahaha    There wasn't anyone to tell us we couldn't have a snow day, so we enjoyed it.     Not that we done anything, but still, it was a snow day.     hahahaha

So, for this snow day I was in the kitchen.     I made a pot of Electric Pressure Cooker Cream Cheese Chicken Chili.      It is delicious!!!!!       I made some cornbread swirls, they were delicious and the recipe is below.       Then after lunch, I made a pot of "hamburger helper noodles and sauce".      It is delicious too.    I like to have at least a couple of good pots of good stuff in the fridge to eat on during the week and these 2 dishes meet the needs.   

Tomorrow, I will be getting my Misfits Market box and will be making room in my fridge to put it in and I'll get my dehydrator going and get some items dehydrated for long term storage and then to use in my cooking.      I love dehydrating and I love to use my goods in dishes.

So,  today was the day that I got my cornbread swirls made and I might say, they are delicious.      yay!!  They are a copy of the cornbread swirls you can buy in a can at the store and peel out like a canned biscuit.    When not on sale, they are about $2 a can.      They are good, but I can't pay that much for them.       So, I set out to figure out how to make them.     Guess what, I did.

This is the recipe for the cornbread swirls:

This is a bread machine recipe.      For those of you who know how to make yeast bread, just do what you know and knead it and let it rest and knead it and let it rest over and over for about 30 minutes.

For bread machine set on "dough":

1/2 cup luke warm milk

1 egg

1 box of jiffy corn muffin mix (recipe below to make this mix)

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp yeast

1 tbls melted butter

1/4 cup cornmeal-optional

Put first 5 ingredients in bread machine in order as listed.      Run dough cycle on machine.       (It will knead the dough and rest many times during the 1.5 hours of time.       I don't keep it in there that long.  I take it out after about 45 minutes.)        Remove the dough and roll to about 15 x 8 inch triangle.    Once you get it rolled out flat and thin, turn the long side towards you and roll the rectangle into a log.  Shape it pretty good and then slice it in about 1 inch slices and reshape as you put on parchment lined baking sheet.       Brush with melted butter and sprinkle extra cornmeal on them, if you want to.      Let rise for at least 30 minutes.      Preheat oven to 375* during the last few minutes of rise time.        Bake for 12-15 minutes.      Enjoy!!

While the jiffy corn muffin mix is relatively inexpensive, you can make even that mix yourself for actually pennies.

Cornbread Muffin Mix:

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup cornmeal, yellow if you prefer

1/3 cup of sugar

1 T baking powder

1/2 t salt

2 T oil

Mix the first 5 ingredients well.       Wisk in oil till smooth and no clumps.      Use this as you would the cornmeal muffin mix in a box.  

The good thing about this mix is that you can pronounce everything in it.      It's also a bit healthier than the stuff you can't pronounce.

To make muffins: add 1 egg and 1/3 cup milk.

To make cornbread swirls with this mix: use the mix just like it was a cornbread muffin mix in a box and then add all the ingredients from the Cornbread Swirls recipe.

The muffin mix can be made in big batches.        Just don't add the oil.        If it isn't used in a timely fashion, the oil can go rancid.       So, when you use it from a big batch, for every 8 oz of muffin mix, add 2 T of oil and wisk it till is blended well and no clumps.      Then proceed with the cornbread swirls or regular muffins.

These are really good recipes and I hope y'all can use them and bake lots of cornbread swirls.

This is a couple of pictures of my cornbread rolls and they are as good as they look.        I was kinda proud of them and love that I can make them any time I want to and with recipes, y'all can too.     I hope you do enjoy them.

That's about all I have this evening.       I pray that as you wind your day down and get ready for a night of rest that you will talk to God sometime and thank Him for this beautiful day that you got to be a part of.      Remember those around us who are sick, healing from surgery, suffering from a broken heart because of the death of a loved one.       There are so many who are hurting tonight and I lift those precious people to our Lord to comfort as only He can.       I pray that He will mend the hearts of the people of this nation and all across the world tonight.      We are in a season of unrest, but we as Christians know that our rest is from the Lord and we can rest when we know Him.       Tell someone tonight that Jesus loves them.        Sometimes we forget that He really does.      So, let me tell y'all, Jesus loves each and every one of you.     He wants to be in your life.      He wants you to want Him in your life.       He loved us enough to die on the cross in our place.         That's love.      I pray as you fall asleep tonight, you know that you know that you know, you belong to Him and nothing can change that.   Good night y'all!!!!!   Jesus loves ya and so do I.    hugs, love and blessings beyond measure, patty

First blog post of 2021

Good afternoon y'all.       I hope and pray that wherever y'all are, you are having a great day and a great start to 2021.       Already a week in, just 51 more weeks to go.       hahaha        2020 left most of us with a sour taste in our mouths so to speak and we are praying for better days ahead.       The pandemic is still going full force, but the vaccines are coming out, slowly but surely.      Just praying that they work and keep us healthy when we get them.    

I have ignored my blog for a while.      I sure haven't meant to, but I guess it has become my place to share my feelings about things and get them off my chest and then come back to it and see how God has helped me work thru those feelings.      It really can be an amazing thing to see how He can help us make sense of what we see, feel and do.       With that said, I'll jump in here.

I hope and pray that everyone who checks out my blog from time to time has a Bible and reads it.     If so, then you can easily find the story that I'm gonna talk about for a minute or three.     In the scriptures we read of the assignation of our Lord and Savior.     We can read the full story of what happened.      There was a mob scene in the midst of all the goings on.       Pilate had washed his hands of the whole situation, letting them know that what happened next would be on their shoulders.      That didn't relieve him of his part in the whole scene though, he still has to stand before God on judgement day.      But the crowd was given a choice.      There are always choices in life.       Always.      More than we can count in one days time.       Choices to do this or do that; go to work or stay home, what we wear, what we eat, who we chose to hang out with, what we read, what we let into our brain, what we watch, what we let into our heart, what we let influence us, what store we shop at, cash or credit, what bank we use, where we buy gas at, what vehicle we drive and a multitude of many other choices in just one day.  The thing is, we don't think about them as being choices because we've done them for so long and they are almost like a reflexive instinct instead of a choice.       But, when we look at it like this, we can definitely see that they are choices that we make.       The way we live our life that God has given us is definitely a choice.

So, with the choice that the crowd was given that day came a big decision.     Set Jesus the innocent one free or set Barabbas free.      Barabbas deserved the death penalty, Jesus didn't.     In the big picture, the grand scheme of things, we know that Jesus' sole purpose was to be God in flesh and our means of salvation, to be in right relationship with His Father, Our Father.      So, the events had to take place, no matter how evil and heinous the events were.       What has always been so hard for me to grasp is the fact that there are always people ready and willing, at the drop of a hat, to do the devils work.      It goes back to the choices we make, reflexive and unthinking.      It goes back to the influences, places we go, what we let in our hearts and minds.      

The people in the mob scene made the choice to be there that day.      Even the women.      It always goes back to the choices we make.       When asked who they wanted to be released, Barabbas who deserved death or Jesus who was innocent, the mob chose Barabbas.        "BARABBAS, BARABBAS, BARABBAS!!!!"        

If you had been in that mob that day, whom would you have wanted to be released?        A common criminal or an innocent man?       I hope and I pray that, had I been in that scene, I would have been screaming for Jesus to be set free!!!!!        This has always been troubling to me.       I don't know what side I would have been on.       I just don't.      I just pray that I would have been one of those who loved Jesus as deeply as the other women that we read about in scripture.       But, again, I don't know what side I would have been on.       Do you?

It's easy for us to be here some 2000 + years later and say, "oh, I would never have done that!!!!!"       I have even said that myself.       But at one point and time in my life I was the devils helper.       I didn't mean to be.        You see, I was lost and in my state of lostness, I didn't realize I was lost and needed help that I couldn't provide for myself.       Even in my state of lostness, Holy Spirit was doing a work on me to help see that I needed something.       His job is conviction and He was doing a great job convicting me.     I didn't know what I needed, I just knew I needed something.       And when you cry out to God, even in anger, He knows your heart and He knows your need.       He knows the source of your anger.      He knows if you are truly searching for something and He also knows if you are truly seeking Him and just don't know that you are seeking Him.       I hope this makes even just a little sense to someone.       So when I found what I was searching for and knowing it was God, thru the shed blood of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, a change took place in my heart immediately.       It took a while for the head to follow suit, but it did.       My life changed.       My words changed.        My thoughts changed.         My actions changed.       All because the Holy Spirit now resided in me and helped me to be better than I could be on my own.       Jesus became real to me.    The mob scene became even more real to me.       Before accepting Christ as my savior, I could easily see myself as one of the mob.      But now, I can see myself as one of the women who loved Jesus and would be with the other women, sobbing as they witnessed what was happening to the best friend they ever had.      I can feel some of the emotions from that day.  

I'm not perfect.     Far from it.       People that know me in person would never mistake me for someone that is perfect.      Oh, if they had a grudge against me, they may say something smart like I think I'm miss perfect, but that is so far from the truth.      Every day, I have thoughts, actions, deeds and words that are not becoming of a follower of Christ.       I'm still in the flesh, so I have to to still wrestle with the flesh.    I have to make choices each day that either represent the influence of my Lord and Savior in my life or choices that represent the flesh side of life.

A lot of people in that place that day made choices to be there.        I'm sure there were some who seen what was happening and left.      I hope so anyway.        It's plain to see that mobs are not a good place to be UNLESS you are looking for trouble.       Today, that's what people still do.      My philosophy on that is "those looking for trouble will find it, and those who can't find trouble will make it".        Just watch, that's the way it is.       Those words are true.        2020 proved that in a big way.       I'm sorry, but I don't have any respect for people, especially people who call themselves Christians, Christ Followers, Followers of The Way, who will put themselves in a mob setting and do the things we have seen done  and even if they are not there, they support what they have seen done.      Sorry, those are the devils choices and they have to live with and accept later consequences of those choices.      Don't tell me you're a Christian, don't try to act like your a Christian.       Show me you're a Christian by grieving over the state of evil behavior which is nothing but choices made by the people involved.       If you support the behavior and actions we seen in 2020 and in the first 7 days of 2021, than your credibility as a Christian just went to -0- that fast.      When we let our emotions control our choices, then we see what we have seen over the last year.       A lot of people think they are saved.       A lot of people are sadly mistaken.        

The Bible tells us that things will start happening in the last days.       Guess what, they're happening.    The thing that we need to make sure of on a personal basis, "is my heart right with God, is my life in order?"        If you are a rabble rouser, then you need to ask yourself these questions.        If you use your social media platform to be disrespectful to decent human beings, then you need to ask yourself those questions.

I think that has been my biggest disappointment of 2020.       Seeing people that I had once respected making mean, hurtful and hateful choices.       These are people that I know personally.         These are people that I know from social media.         These are people that I know from blogs and you tube videos.       These are people that you build relationships with and form a community bond with.    These are also people that I no longer have any respect for.      

When people let bad choices dictate their behavior and never admit their fault and apologize for their behavior, then I make no apologies,  I have no respect for them anymore.      It is a disgusting state of affairs when we act like criminals and expect that to be ok.   

BARABBAS, BARABBAS, BARABBAS!!!!!!!!         This is what the mob always screams!!!!!!    Because they don't want their own sins brought to light.    They don't even realize they have just turned the spotlight on their own sins.  

I would ask us all to examine our choices a little closer as we move further into 2021.       I know that God has convicted me already of some of the sins that I need to repent of and get rid of in my life.       I ask Him to help me, because I am sinful and I can't do it on my own.      He tells us in His word to "be holy as I am holy".        There is one thing that I know, God doesn't ask us to do anything that we are not capable of doing.       No, I can't be holy on my own, but with the blood of Christ, I can do anything that God asks me to do.         You can to.        We all can.        One of two choices, be holy or not.       As a Christ Follower, which choice will you make.

Something for us all to think about as we move into the unknown future.        Make no mistake, God is already there and He is willing and waiting to help us make right choices.

Hugs, love and blessing to all.    God loves you and so do I.  Be blessed this day!!    patty