Tag Archives: cooking

He Has Overcome

Posted in Faith, Life, The List by

I’ve been trying to work out what has stopped me from blogging recently…  It’s well over due and other than regular life just being busy I am not really sure why I have been putting it off.

Part of me has just been enjoying life without writing it down, but at the same time I do love having it here to look back on… Part of me also wished I had written more about NZ when we got back and has been playing with the idea about still doing it… but I think maybe I need to just let it go and start again… maybe I can look at it again later…  Last year I actually came up with little schedule for how to keep on top of the blog, but I just never followed through… and here we are again… super behind and feeling a little bit lost about how to get it back, what the point of the whole thing is.

IMG_9583In fact it is usually about this time each year that this happens. I haven’t blogged for a bit and then Easter happens and people are using social media for spreading the good news and I feel like I want to join in, but then get caught up in all the things I haven’t blogged about and then just give up because it feels like a waste to just post about the fact that I bake hot cross buns and crossed them off the list and not about the significance of Easter.  But it is Easter and I feel like this is as good a place to start as any, because while bringing my blog back from the dead is nice and important perhaps to me… it’s not quite on par with the redemption of Easter and even though not many people may read this blog, those that do should know that Jesus loves them and died for them.

So because I can never quite do it justice, like a number of other times I have written about Easter I am going to let a song express my heart.  This song has had a way of sneaking back into my life over the past month or so and I love it more now then ever… This is why I sing, this is why I live… He has overcome.

IMG_9580The moon and stars they wept
The morning sun was dead
The Saviour of the world was fallen
His body on the cross
His blood poured out for us
The weight of every curse upon him

One final breath he gave
As heaven looked away
The son of God was laid in darkness
A battle in the grave
The war on death was waged
The power of hell forever broken

The ground began to shake
The stone was rolled away
his perfect love could not be overcome
Now death where is your sting?
Our resurrected King
Has rendered you defeated

Forever he is glorified
Forever he is lifted high
Forever he is risen
He is alive, He is alive!

We sing hallelujah
We sing hallelujah
We sing hallelujah
The Lamb has overcome

The Girl Can Cook

Posted in Family, Food, Life, The List by

December has escaped me… well and truly.  It has disappeared in a whirlwind of work and festive goodness.  But it has been good, and fun and worth it, even now as I sit here and type with heavy eyes, a full stomach and with one Christmas dinner to go.  I have also learnt some things this December and impressed myself a little in the process.

This December has been a month of cooking so I thought I would take a moment to brag a little because I really am quite proud of myself.  I think one of the reasons I am so proud is while I am not a bad cook, I am not a confident cook.   Cooking and baking take me a long time, I am meticulous with recipes and even then things don’t always turn out all that well… in fact you can read about some of my past kitchen adventures here… anyway, this year as part of my list I added a couple of cooking challenges and throughout the year I have been able to cross a few off the list…

2.  Make my own Ice Cream
Ice Cream
13. Make Breakfast Muffins
Breakfast Muffins
16. Make meringues
meringues
35. Make a mocktail
Mocktail
83. Bake something for work
Cookies

But at the beginning of December there were still a few left… some of them on purpose, but not all… And while all the cooking things on the list were things I had wanted to do for a while, or things I felt might stretch me and my skills… and hopefully increase my confidence in the kitchen, in December I got my chance to shine… This month I have been able to knock another 4 cooking things off the list…

41. Try 1 recipe from each of my Donna Hay Subscription Magazines
This one has taken all year, mostly because it was a yearlong subscription… but it has been fun.  I still lean towards baking biscuits and sweets rather than dishes and meals, but I have tried to vary it up a little and this was the result:Donna Hay

54. Use every appliance in my kitchen at least once
I don’t have pictures of every appliance so you will just have to trust me that I did… and it was fun…

93. Make a gingerbread house
This is probably the one I am most proud of, if I am honest.  Previously even just the gingerbread alone has been a disaster… missing ingredients and not tasting all that good.  But not only was the gingerbread delicious, but the house went together and stayed together… and looked pretty good too, even if I say so myself…Gingerbread

100. Have a dinner Party
I am also very happy about this one… this year I hosted Christmas dinner at my house, with my Dad, my brothers and my sister-in-law, and it went well… nothing was a disaster, all had a good time, and it all came together perfectly… dinner party complete.

So after it has all been crossed of the list, how do I feel about my cooking skills? Well… pretty good.  I can cook… I can cook good food and amazing dessert.  Of course, I am not chef quality and it still takes me a while, but I feel like I have proved to myself that if I just give it a go I can do it, even the more challenging ones… the skills are definitely there and it can only get better from here.

1950s

Posted in Family, Love by

On Monday night I had a moment… it was a beautiful, perfect moment… one of those moments that don’t happen everyday, in fact the don’t even happen every good day, just every now and again…

So of you may already know this, but I don’t think I have actually confessed in on the blog, but if I had my way I would be the perfect 1950’s house wife… I would cook, take care of the babies and even clean… have tea parties and just play house all the time.  It’s not that I don’t like the work that I do, I would rather just be a house wife, but because Davo is a teacher… it appears that this may not happen… why am I telling you this… well it all has to do with this moment…

Tonight I was playing the role of house wife, I went to the supermarket on my way home from work and did the grocery shopping, then came home and spent the rest of the night in the kitchen, I cooked dinner, then a batch of soup and some mars bar slice.  While I was cooking Dave sat at the table working on transcribing some music so that he could use it at school it was a perfect 1950’s moment… It didn’t last long, I wanted to watch the final of the voice so Dave left and went to the study… but for that moment it was just the way I had hoped married life would be, sad I know, but true.  Both just doing things we love while enjoying each other’s company… without having to rush off or do 100 things… just enjoying life.

Creating Cookies

Posted in Life, Love, The List by

Day 28: Love creating

I wish I was more creative, I often look longingly at the creations of others and think, how did they do that? what a great idea why didn’t I think of that? Maybe when I am a mum I will be better at being crafty… maybe it’s just practice, or perhaps, I just don’t have it… I can on the other hand create in the kitchen, granted nothing original, just things out of recipe books, but creating all the same.  So that’s what I have done today, loved creating in the kitchen…

At the beginning of the week I rotated to a new site with work, one which is much closer to home which is very exciting. What is also exciting is the fact that my new site has provided me with the perfect opportunity to cross something of the list…

Today was my first team ward meeting and as the roster would have it I was on for Morning Tea, giving me the perfect opportunity to create and cross ‘number 83 – Bake something for work’ off the list. So here is my proof, a fresh batch of my choc-chip cookies…