Dad's Cornbread

Isn't my cook-book beat???

Growing up it was my dad who was passionate about cooking. Don't get me wrong, my mom can cook, but my dad obsesses about it...pies, chili verde, pizza, sour dough bread, salmon with mango salsa, cornish game hens, dutch oven eclairs....

It was with him that I took a dutch oven cooking class the year I was twelve. When he gave me this recipe over the phone years ago, he of course included the dutch oven details, which are at the end of the recipe. I love this recipe, probably because it is sweet enough to be more of a corn "cake". I've never served it without someone else loving it too. May it accompany a yummy soup or stew in your house this fall or chili verde on a mountain river next summer!

Dad's Cornbread

Mix:
1/2 cup melted butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (or lemon juice/vinegar soured milk)

Add and mix:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
(I use whole wheat flour. Do you think that balances out the sugar and butter???)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Grease bottom of an 8x8 baking dish. Pour batter into dish. Bake at 350 F for 30+ minute, until edges are browned. You can double the recipe and bake in a 13x9 baking dish.

Serve with butter and honey, of course!

(Dutch oven details: for a single batch use a 10" dutch oven. Bake with 9 briquets on top and 6 briquets under the d.o. Bake for approx. 30 minutes, rotating both the d.o. and the lid periodically.)

p.s. If you are looking for yummy soup recipes, check out the soup swap at Turkeycookies. Where do you think her blog name came from??? I'm so curious....

Thought for Friday....

"Our greatest gift is the ability to love and have compassion."
a thought from my cousin Alisha when talking about family and challenges

This is a picture of me with my sister, one of the people I love most in all of the world and who has shown me great love and compassion. Who do you love?

Choices & Changes....

UPDATE: Seriously considered deleting this post today as circumstances have changed and I am in a new process of decision-making. However, I'll just leave this addendum to say, life is a process and this, as well as any other post is only a snap-shot of my life and my thoughts in any given moment. All are seriously subject to change. Quoting my sister's favorite sign-off, tongue firmly in cheek..."My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right." :)

I am a dancer. Have I mentioned that before? Today on my mind is a friend's project that I would LOVE to be a part of. This project will use dancers from different faiths and spiritual practices to explore the theme of spiritual foundations through movement and text. She wants to use a collaborative process and perform it for different congregations as well as regular dance venues. Oh, it's right up my ally and I really love working with her. However, I keep having this sense that adding one more thing to the mix this fall will be too much and spread me too thin.

But I majored in "spread too thin"! Can't I put all that training to good work??? I am not exactly used to choosing NOT to do something, especially something I want to do. How do I do this? Help!!! How do I choose to let go of something I would really, REALLY like to do and trust that my inner sense will guide me? Trust that God has many wonderful opportunities ahead of me, as a dancer, yes, but also in other areas of my life? Let go of it enough in my heart that I can bless her in her endeavors with my whole heart as she moves forward without me?

Aaaaaaaaaarrgh! That's how I feel about it! Yes, that is offset by moments of peaceful calm, but that anxious, urgent howl kicks in too and makes me want to rethink the whole thing. Is this normal??? Do you ever go crazy making decisions too?

Well, enough....even with the voices of "aaaaaaaaaaargh" and "it's going to be just fine" battling it out, I am going to get on with my day. Hope I get the most important things done and hope you do too!

Upward and onward...one of the steepest trails I've ever hiked, and yet I survived that one!
Hmmmmm.....Petersburg, Alaska

Be back soon...

Raspberry jam is made! Will be back to blogging soon..... :) Thanks Amawalk Farm!

(Note: They are supposed to be posting a totally kick-butt Raspberry Crumble recipe soon! I'll let you know if I make it!)

Beautiful Quilt & a Cupcake Award

When I first heard about Tina's giveaway, I thought it was too good to be true. Who makes a quilt, in fact a different quilt each month, and then gives it away on her blog? Tina at Dragonfrye News is who. Even once I won the drawing I thought, no body really does this!!! For a brief moment my suspicious paranoid New York perked up and declared "It's a scam! Some one is going to ask for my address to "send me a quilt" then really trace it to my credit card bills and social security benefits and....and....and....." But no. Just an adorable quilt in the post! Don't you agree?


I loved it in the picture on her site and I love it even better in person. Some of the fabric reminds me of vintage sheets (I keep reading people obsess about them for quilts, but just didn't catch the vision until I got this quilt!), some is plaid, some has metallic gold thread, one great dark purple block, some pretty paisleys...oh, and the cute polka-dot fabric??? Love it! Just love it!


I have to admit I have curled up under it already, despite my best intentions to put it in a hope chest for future daughters who will love it. I am afraid those daughters will have a hard time sneaking it from Momma for an occasional snuggle!


So thank you Tina! Here's a cupcake to you for sweetness! Yes, your generosity gets the second Cupcake Award on my blog.

Photo by Kelly Sue DeConnick, used under Creative Commons License

Who else wants some of Tina's sweetness? All you have to do is check out her site at the beginning of October. Her next drawing will be posted on October 6! Hope one of you wins the next one!

Thought for Friday....

Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
Sir Matthew James Barrie

My dad is an engineer, but more importantly, he is a mountaineer. The picture above is of him climbing the rope he hangs in the welding shop most days to do some lunchtime training. When there are mountains to climb, one must constantly train! He even took a hanging gym with us on our Washington trip this summer...rope and rings and who knows what else that he hung from the tree at our rental house. When he climbs the rope he uses only upper body strength...no legs to shimmy or support or climb or hold. That alone is impressive (I can barely hang on it like a wet rag), but my dad is almost 60 and he's been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

At his worst two years ago, when the doctors were trying to figure out what was wrong, he could barely open his car door with one hand. Walking from his car to work (about 100 yds) took 20 minutes. Getting into the car and buckling up required a rest. Showering required a rest. Everything required a rest. I look at him now and am in awe of how he pushes himself, how he fights to be able to do the things that matter most to him, how he struggles to beat, no obliterate, the odds. He talks about the pictures of himself he plans to send to his rheumatologist...tops of mountains, in handstands, in handstands on the rings. His rheumatologist has never had a patient like this!

While I am amazed that his strength and abilities are greater than almost everyone out at the plant (from 18 to 65 and completely healthy) or even everyone I know, they are still dramatically less than what they once were and what he hopes them to be. He works to keep his vision as a powerful climber strong. He battles for the strength he once had, the strength he needs, fighting to restore his ability for the one thing he loves more than anything in the world (except his daughters, of course!)...being on the mountain.

First time back on the ice, Dec. 2007

Some of the battles we fight are obvious to others. Everyone in the office knew my dad was fighting something awful when he was really sick, but I don't know if they realize how hard he fights now. They know my dad is a warrior just from talking to him, but do they have any clue about his daily physical and mental battle ? Do they see how hard he is fighting every single day?

I think all of us at different times in our lives have battles like this raging. Things that weigh on us everyday or pop up and pull the rug out from us from time to time. When I first read the quote above on my cousin's blog (thanks JJ!), I was having a particularly hard day in a struggle that only some people knew about. It was weighing on me, making focusing on work and doing my day-to-day things difficult, yet those around me had no idea what was going on. They couldn't see me fighting for the emotional equivalent of getting one more rep out on the rope. I thought about how often our personal lives, our fears, our insecurities, our losses affect us deeply and then we go to work or church or rehearsal or out to dinner, and life demands that we carry on as usual. While I am not a fan of denying what you're going through, sometimes the battles are internal and private, fought personally, but hopefully with the encouragement and love of a few close supporters.

Dad leading a climb in January of this year! Rock it, Dad!

Today, the pictures of my dad are a reminder that there is progress possible. The things we love can be within our reach. The struggle can give us back the things we need most. But also, sometimes it continues to be a struggle. Sometimes it aches....everywhere! Sometimes we fight internally where few people see. Sometimes the successes are small and the workouts long.

Be kind, please. Be encouraging as we all struggle and learn and progress and succeed! I know the kindness of others has sustained me at times when I was bottoming out. I hope all of our daily inside battles ultimately lead us back outside and to the things we love. Thanks for the reminder, Dad! Hope there is a wonderful ice season ahead of you this year! I love you!

Happy Birthday to Husbando

(Husbando is Spanish for husband....obviously!)

Today is my hubbie's birthday! In honor of his big day, I am going to share 10, nope 11, favorite random facts about him, all things that I love, even those that I wonder about...like no. 7!

1. He has subtle, but utterly adorable dimples and crazy curling eyebrow hairs.
2. He was once a white-water river guide. Talking about it on our first date resurrected teenage fantasies about running away with (rowing away with?) a river guide and solidified my serious interest in him.
3. When he really laughs, he sometimes busts out a little "Ernie laugh"..."kehehehehe".
4. He out "movie-trivias" me (which isn't hard to do) but he does it even on MY favorite movies. (p.s. Don't challenge him and his siblings to a movie trivia contest. Unless of course, you like to lose. Badly!)
5. He's a Spanish-speaking Scot. Every now and then I am lucky enough to get him to whisper sweet nothings to me in Spanish. (note: I never ask for sweet nothings using Scottish vernacular as they might include references to haggis.)
6. Oh he makes me laugh! laugh! laugh!
7. Shoe tying is absolutely optional for short excursions.
8. He listens and listens and listens.....and listens some more.
9. He is ticklish, but don't you dare tell him I told you as he really doesn't like it. Bummer!
10. He can cook and iron and clean!!! Thank you Momma Mac! He took care of so many of those things while I was in school. Lucky, lucky girl!
11. He had hair longer than mine when we first met and I LOVED it. Funny thing is, now I think he just looks smashing with short hair and can't imagine him as a "long haired freaking people", as he used to describe himself.

I love the man he was when I met him and I love the man he is becoming. I am so unbelievably grateful to be married to him. Happy birthday, babe!

p.s. If you don't know the Ernie laugh...here's a little sample...enjoy!

p.p.s. I think I just figured out one possible explanation for the shoelace thing...perhaps he is avoiding the grave dangers of having shoelaces tied too well when you must engage in a game of chicken on a tractor! He is so smart! I knew there was a reason I loved him more than punch dancing Ren McCormick/Kevin Bacon! Wahoo!