Opposing Dishes

No, I don't oppose the use of dishes. 

I love dishes.

Fine china ... my favorite. I really should eat off of it more often. Beau & I still don't have all of our china pieces and we will be married 17 years this December. But, we're getting there ... VERY slowly. By 25 years, maybe we'll have our full eight sets we had registered for, despite the fact that it's retired.

Wanna see it? It's gorgeous. I still love it.

Here's one cup and saucer. So regal & classic.

Um ... just the cup and saucer costs about $65. Yeah ... hence the reason we don't have a full set, but believe it or not, we're very close with the plates going for about $50.

As I get older, I realize we don't eat on the china enough ... maybe once a year ... not enough at all.

I therefore make a decree on this day that I will use my fine china at least two or three times this year. There. Done.

This post is actually where I'm sharing two different recipes (not at all about china): 

one totally healthy, one totally not. Both equally good!

Cucumber and Tomato Salad with Marinated Garbanzo Beans, Feta, and Herbs

1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas) rinsed and drained well
1 1/2 cups diced cucumbers
1 1/2 cups diced tomatoes
2 T balsamic vinegar
3 T good quality extra virgin olive oil
Chopped fresh basil
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste1/2 cup crumbled FetaAdditional Balsamic Vinaigrette to taste

Put garbanzo beans in colander and rinse very well until no more foam appears. Remove any chickpea skins that come off when you're rinsing the beans. Let beans drain at least 15 minutes. Mix olive oil and balsamic vinegar with a whisk. Place beans in small ziploc bag, pour dressing over and marinate beans in refrigerator 4-6 hours or longer.

When you're ready to prepare the salad, remove beans from refrigerator and drain them in a colander, reserving the dressing. (I added extra Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing for taste.) Taste dressing for seasoning, and if you don't have at least 3 T dressing, add a bit more balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Cut cucumbers into fourths lengthwise, and then into pieces about 1/2 inch wide. Wash & chop basil. Combine tomatoes, cucumbers, garbanzo beans and basil and toss with reserved salad dressing. Season salad with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Divide salad among individual serving plates, and top with crumbled Feta  just before serving.

Ultimate Chocolate-Chip Cookie & Oreo Fudge Brownie

(adapted from kevinandamanda.com)

1 roll Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie dough

Double-Stuffed Oreos

1 family-size brownie mix, prepared

Vanilla ice cream

Smucker's hot fudge sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9X13" pan with cooking spray. Press cookie dough into bottom of pan. Layer Oreos on top. Pour prepared brownie mix over Oreos. Bake approximately 45 minutes or until brownie mix is cooked through. Top each piece with ice cream and drizzle with hot fudge. Enjoy!

Now that's two dishes that do not get along.

Favor

Favor is so important to us. We not only want to have favor with God, but also with those around us, especially those we consider to be our spiritual leaders. They're like our mamas and daddies in the faith.

We also want favor from our friends, our children, and our family.

As human beings, we desire favor. It's something God put in us. It's a good thing to desire God's approval.

And, that's simply what it is ... approval. It's someone acknowledging, "Hey, I like you and I think you're doing a good job at whatever." It's also partiality, which is where it can get tricky for a lot of us. (Some of us have more favor than others. It's just the way it goes, not only from God, but from the people around us.When we're not the one being favored or on the receiving end of the partiality, we tend to feel less than what we really are. It can affect us both positively and negatively. It's up to us to determine which way we'll react to any type of partiality.)

To have favor is a blessing. 

But, I don't want to seek God just for His favor ... His pat on the back. I want to seek God simply for who He is. That's it. Plain and simple. I want to seek God to know Him more and for Him to change me. 

I desire His change more than His favor. 

I know He loves me.  I want His approval. But, I want Him to transform me into someone who's usable. I want to be usable.

I was thinking about favor this morning because of a word that was spoken  over me when I was in El Salvador. Crazy how deep spiritual things can happen that, at the time, we think we'll never forget, and we do forget. We just do.

As we were all praying together one night before we were going out to minister the next morning, the missionary there spoke to me and said He felt like what he was about to say was from the Lord. After He said it, I knew it was. It was an  exact response to what I was dealing with.

(Side-Note: You know I tend to throw in the towel. It's just easy that way. Even as I sit on my couch, typing this, I think how easy my life would be if I could just quit everything and simply be a wife and mom. However, I know that's not what God's called me to at this time. There was a time that He did and I stepped back from most things and was just that ... a wife and mommy. Now, He's stretched me in more ways than I could have ever imagined and seems to continue to do so, despite my hesitation.)

His word was this:

You can't work for the favor of God. 

(which I also tend to do ... always agonizing over things)

The favor of God already rests upon you. Like Joseph, you will have favor with those you need to have favor with.

That statement: "The favor of God already rests upon you" was huge to me.

It's already there. Mama Belle, stop trying to downplay your role and pass it off to someone else who you think has more favor or is more worthy. Just continue in your obedience and He will direct your next step.

And, having "favor with those you need to have favor with," also spoke volumes. It took a load off of me, a burden gone. Mama Belle, you're not going to please everyone or make everyone happy, and that's OK. Again, just continue in your obedience and He will direct your next step.

I already have the favor. And, if you are a Christ-follower, who lives your life to please God, then honestly, you have His favor too. We need to walk in that favor and stop trying to seek it so much. 

I continuously speak this Scripture over myself. It's for all of us.

Isaiah 61:1-3 (The Message)

The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me because God anointed me.
He sent me to preach good news to the poor,
   heal the heartbroken,
Announce freedom to all captives,
   pardon all prisoners.
God sent me to announce the year of his grace—
   a celebration of God's destruction of our enemies—
   and to comfort all who mourn,
To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion,
   give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,
Messages of joy instead of news of doom,
   a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.

It's our calling. We just need to walk in it and walk it out. We walk in the favor of God when we do as He commands. We just need to believe it.

A penny for your thoughts ...

Wow.

This question definitely got me thinking.

How many things do we not attempt to do because of the fear of failure?

For me ... A LOT.

It's the whole reason I got my degree in teaching. I knew I was good with children. I knew I loved children. I knew kids loved me. I knew that I would be a good teacher. And, I was confident and have always been confident in my teaching ability. It was safe.

I always dreamed about being a ballerina, a famous actress, and singer, but didn't pursue any of those outside of high school because I knew there were so many others better than me. So, what was the point? It was safe to stick with teaching.

It's easier to attempt to do things that we know we're good at. And, it's even more easy to step back and let someone else do the things that we may think we're not the best at. Then we have no worry, no stress, no problems. Easy peasy.

But, a lot of times, God has called us to do the very things we're afraid to do. (Not always though ... if you can't sing or dance worth a lick, He probably didn't call you to that.) 

Just look in the Bible. When we don't find our confidence from our own abilities, it forces us to rely on Him for everything.

Hmmm ... what WOULD I attempt?

What would you attempt?

Let's face it ... there's only so many ways to cook zucchini.

There was a sale on zucchini last week so I picked up a few.

I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with it. There is always the standard zucchini bread or the humdrum vegetable medley (but I had no other vegetables to join in on such a dish). What was a girl to do? This zucchini's days were numbered. It had already been in the fridge for about a week. I did not want it to become another vegetable casualty due to my lack of preparation or just plain laziness.

Then, I stumbled upon this recipe out of an old cookbook of mine. And, like I do with most recipes, I tweaked it a bit. (I used shredded white sharp cheddar cheese because I had no mozzarella ... so yummy! I'm pretty sure you can't go wrong with any type of cheese here.)

This is absolutely delicious! In fact, I would like to make more tomorrow.

Zucchini & Onions with Mozzarella

1. 3 tablespoons butter
2. 3 cups zucchini, sliced
3. 1 cup onions, sliced
4. 1/2 teaspoon basil leaves
5. 1/4 teaspoon oregano leaves
6. 1 pinch salt
7. 1/2 teaspoon fresh garlic, minced
8. 1 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges
9. 1 cup mozzarella cheese
10. 
    
11. In 10" skillet melt butter over medium heat.

1. Add remaining ingredients, except tomato and cheese.
2. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally until zucchini is crispy tender.
3. Add tomato wedges, sprinkle with cheese.
4. Cover; let stand 2 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Easy and so good!

I guess you just learn to live with it.

A question was posed this weekend in our services for newlyweds:

"What is your wife's most annoying habit?"

Beau and I are not newlyweds. Far from it.

This year we will have been married 17 years. Seventeen great years.

But, I wondered ... "Hmmm ... What would Beau think my most annoying habit is? Do I even have an annoying habit because I don't find myself annoying? And if he couldn't think of an annoying habit for me, I could think of at least two of his that drive me batty. Or would he do the typical-male thing of proclaiming I'm perfect? (nah ... not Beau)"

So, I did pose the question to him.

He thought a while and said, "I really can't think of anything."

I said, "There's gotta be something."

I gave suggestions: 

The fact that I don't squeeze the toothpaste from the bottom of the tube (and actually squeeze it right in the middle just for sport now)

The fact that Beau has to scoot the driver's seat back every time he has to drive after me because our huge height difference (like I can help how short God made me)

The fact that I subconsciously rub his leg with my foot in a back-and-forth rocking motion when I'm falling asleep (blame Mama for that one ... rocked to sleep every night ... which makes me smile)

Nope. None of those. He claimed they didn't really annoy him at all.

So, like any good wife, I told him his annoying habit ... biting his nails. Grrrr. But, seriously, I've given up the fight. I'm looking forward to the day he loses his teeth.

Trust me. There are a few others that I think most wives battle with ... the clothes on the floor, the constant flipping of TV channels, etc.

However, none of these things irritate me so much that I complain about them. He knows how I feel and I realize I do correct him like a child sometimes about his nails. But it really does no good.

I think as couples grow older together, these little things become insignificant. They really do.

Believe it or not, I wouldn't trade that nail-biting for the best manicured nails in the world (or for anything for that matter).

I like pretty stuff.

Hence my newest addiction to Pinterest.

Oh ... you haven't been there?

You must go.

I really can't explain it, but I pretty much stay there every night just looking around at all the pretty things and neat ideas. If you join, you will also become addicted.

Without Pinterest, I wouldn't have found any of these things:

(I'm having anxiety thinking of how to narrow this down to 10 things ... OK, this is gonna be hard.)


Gorgeous clothes, shoes, & accessories ...

Yummy-looking food & sweets ...

Home design ...

And, my favorite things ... all kinds of sayings & quotes, both funny & serious ...

Yeah ... I couldn't stick to 10. 

You'll be addicted. Don't say I didn't warn you.

My Family's Idea of Humor

All I asked for was one picture of K Belle and La Petite Belle getting out of the vehicle or maybe even standing in front of the school on their first day. You know, that's the thing we do as parents on the first day of school, but, of course, I forgot to get one before they left home.

Our morning routine includes me getting the girls up, making sure they have everything they need, making breakfast, making lunches, etc. Beau is the one who drives them to school. (Our plan for K Belle to ride the bus this year failed. The bus-stop time was 6:10 a.m. No thanks. And, she was starting to have doubts about the whole idea. So, we made it work.)

I got this barrage of picture texts from the three amigos, saying they wanted to document every moment of their ride this first day.

K Belle's first day of high school was great. Her quote when I picked her up and asked how it went: "It was so much fun. I can't wait to go back tomorrow." Wow.

La Petite Belle was less thrilled, but started the year out with the most organized binder and neatest penmanship I have ever seen. Hope it'll last longer than the first week.

The night before the big day was not what was expected.

So, it's finally here ... The first day of school.

So much excitement in the house. So much anticipation.

Not just because it's the first day of school, but for K Belle, the first day of high school (and a new school of 2400 kids at that). Whew. That's serious stuff for a 14-year-old. I wish I could just go with her and hold her hand down the hall, make sure no one's bothering her, confirm that she has all the information she needs for each class, and assure that she's not eating lunch alone. But, obviously that would be extremely embarrassing. Now, that makes me have a little anxiety.

Ok. Calming down.

She'll do great! She's confident. She's friendly. She's smart. She's got a great smile. What's not to love? She'll do great! I'm sure of it.

La Petite Belle goes simply across the hall to her new 5th grade class. We're believing that this will be a much better year for her and she will excel and grow.

Although the house was filled with this excitement last night, it ended in drama.

Mama wanted a nice, peaceful evening, where we all talked about goals for the year ... a time where Mama would encourage her children and we would have a special time of prayer.

Instead, Mama lost her mind.

Yep, I did.

I was in cleaning mode as most moms are the day before school. We like stuff organized and ready to go.

I had given each of my girls a job to do yesterday: K Belle ...  to clean the downstairs closet, which she did, and La Petite Belle ... to clean out from under her bed (this was quite the task).

The losing of my mind occurred when Beau & I lifted her mattress to see if she had gotten everything out. 

OH MY WORD! 

DE. SCUSTING. 

I cannot even begin to describe to you what was under there. I'm surprised I didn't find any dead animals. I actually said these words, "This is like an episode of Hoarders." It was bad, ya'll.

It was similar to this little girl, except instead of hoarding dolls, it was GoGurt wrappers, fudge popsicle sticks, and bags of crackers. (We don't allow food in her room, mind you. So we have many issues to deal with.)

I couldn't handle it.

So, the night before her first day of school, I threw her bed out.

Out.

No more frame. No more box spring.

She's lucky I let her keep the mattress because, at one point,  I suggested that maybe she should just sleep in her sleeping bag on the floor for the next month or so.

My logic & explanation to her: Having a nice bed is a privilege. If you can't take care of what you have, then you shouldn't have it. When you have proven that you can take care of your room and can handle not putting anything under your bed (which is actually impossible right now), then we can consider you having a bed again.

Yep. See? Lost my mind.

But, on a side-note, I am giving away a queen-sized bed frame.

We'll revisit this bed issue in a month.

Maybe I was a little harsh ... nah. I bet she doesn't throw trash and junk under her bed anymore. And, don't worry. She'll survive. Her mattress is quite comfy.

Who would have thought God could speak to me through Erma Bombeck?

Yeah.

He did. Loud and clear.

All I could do was hang my head in shame and say, "I hear you, Lord."

Yeah. You hit the nail on the head, sister!

I want to say I used everything He gave me.

I may not think what I have to offer is that great, but I'm going to use it the best way I know how. Yes, someone will do a better job than me at pretty much everything, but that's not going to discount what God's given me. All God expects from me is my best and He knows exactly what that is.

I want to enter heaven empty-handed.

How many birthday celebrations does one person need?

Even after our weekend getaway, Beau had me send this text to the girls Sunday:

"Your daddy can't wait to see what you have planned for his birthday tomorrow. He says it can't cost a lot of money and he's expecting something spectacular!"

No pressure.

I gave them ideas. Free ideas. The best they could come up with was breakfast in bed.

One problem: Beau has a tiny aversion to not eating at a table. It's pretty crucial to his eating enjoyment.

Just another way we differ: If I could eat on the couch every day, with a plate in my lap, I would. And, eating in bed ... heaven. But, that's not good family time so we eat at the table. (But, when I'm alone, I eat on the couch watching DVR'd episodes of "Intervention.")

Although he does have this abhorrence to the eating in bed part, he does not hate breakfast in itself. We both agree on that part: We love breakfast.

The problem with the girls cooking breakfast is that they sleep until almost noon these days. They're in for quite a rude awakening when school starts next week. I  knew they wouldn't be up. So I got up and started the cooking: Sour Cream Blueberry Pancakes with Turkey Sausage on the menu.

I made a major boo-boo in the recipe. I used up all the blueberries in making the blueberry syrup so that I had no blueberries for the blueberry pancakes, so I just called them sour cream pancakes with blueberry syrup. But, the recipe calls for blueberries in the pancakes themselves.

Turned out pretty good, even without the extra blueberries.

Blueberry Sour Cream Pancakes

• 
  
• SYRUP:
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup cold water
• 4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• 
  
  PANCAKES:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1-1/2 cups 2% milk
• 1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

In a large saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in water until smooth. Add blueberries. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; cover and keep warm.

For pancakes, in a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the eggs, milk, sour cream and butter. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in blueberries.

Pour batter by 1/4 cupful onto a greased hot griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top; cook until the second side is golden brown. Serve with blueberry topping. Yield: about 20 pancakes (3-1/2 cups topping).

After breakfast, the girls gave him this card. La Petite Belle's message cracked me up.

Then, Beau and I sweated our tushes off working in the yard. Not really, but wouldn't that have been awesome? Bye-bye, Tush!

Ya'll ... it was hot! It's still hot.

Stinks that as adults we still have to work or do chores on our birthdays. Ah well ... Ce'st la Vie!

There was a nap thrown in at some point of the afternoon because when you reach a certain age a nap is pretty much like a gift.

The night ended with a movie and a quick bite to eat with friends.

Now ... the birthday celebrations have ended. Hmmm ... I wonder who's next (wink). I'm pretty sure something spectacular is in the works for that person too (2 winks).

Jackson, MS ... You're cute and all ...

... but you need to get some stuff to do.

Seriously.

We arrived in Jackson Saturday a little after noon for Beau's "surprise" birthday weekend.

We were staying downtown, or should I say "the ghost town." No people. None. No cars. Nothing. 

We asked the front desk girl what there was to do downtown or where we could grab some lunch.

She laughed and said, "Nothing to do. And the restaurants are closed."

All the restaurants ... closed. It's a Saturday, Jackson. SAT. UR. DAY. Not Sunday. Saturday.

We drove around for about 30 minutes before we found a barbecue place that was open. Finally ... lunch at 2:30.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a little nap ... perfect start to the weekend. We needed to be well rested for our night with Brian Regan.

Ya'll ... He was hilarious, which I expected because I had heard him several times before. But, Henry Cho was equally funny. We laughed a lot.

We headed over to Bravo! Restaurant. Both our dishes were yummy!

Here's mine ... a tomato-basil penne pasta with goat cheese & shrimp.

The best thing was the vanilla crème brûlée with caramelized bananas. Now ... I don't like bananas a whole lot, but I'm pretty sure anything combined with crème brûlée is delicious. Burnt sugar and cream would probably taste good on pigs' feet.

We slept as late as we could yesterday ... 8:30 a.m. Ridiculous. I remember being able to sleep until noon. Grrr.

Anyway ... we packed up and went to eat even more Jackson-goodness for brunch at Julep.

Beau's shrimp & grits ...

My fried green tomatoes & crabmeat eggs benedict ...

We posed the same question to our waitress about what we could do in Jackson on a Sunday afternoon. Her answer was the same, "Nothing."

So, guess where we went? 

We headed back to Louisiana to go antiquing in Denham Springs. We were on a mission to find some things for our new kitchen. We shopped tons of stores. So fun! We left with a $20 metal farm tub. I'll let you know what we used this gem for when we've completed our project.

After leaving Denham Springs, we stopped in Baton Rouge for you guessed it ... more food. Dessert at La Madeleine's, one of my favorite places. We split 3 desserts. I know. Wrong. But, they were small. Don't judge. See? Small.

Wow. This post has a lot to do with food. Hmm ...

Whatever.

It was a great relaxing weekend! Beau said we should definitely do overnight trips more often. Amen to that!

Happy Birthday to my Beau! 

He continues to hold the title of my favorite person in the world! I love him a lot.

I've gotten sloppy.

That's what Beau said when he ruined found out about his surprise birthday getaway yesterday.

And, I have to admit: I was a little sloppy.

I did things like leaving Brian Regan tickets just hanging out in my purse, mentioned something about needing a babysitter this weekend (to which he responded "why would we need a babysitter?"), and worst of all, didn't clear my internet searches.

I got overconfident. I've done this before and I do a pretty good job of surprising people.

Yep. I got cocky.

Beau is not typically on my computer, but was Wednesday night searching for some type of equipment for work. As you know, when you type a search in the search window, all the other searches pop up.

(Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Why didn't I clear that?)

And, what popped up? Just a bunch of searches I had done concerning our trip.

I non-chalantly asked him for my computer after he'd been on it a while, thinking that he could have possibly seen something. I immediately checked the history and sure enough saw two of my searches right in the middle of his searches.

That sneaky snake.

But, I said not a word.

Maybe he wouldn't have thought anything about it. No big deal for me to search restaurants in other cities or states. Why not?

The next morning as he's telling me how he doesn't want me to spend any money on his birthday, the truth came out. Too late. Money's already spent. Trip's already paid for. Surprise ... fail.

In the end, he was touched at the sentiment.

In the morning, we're headed to Jackson, MS on any overnight trip. We'll relax, see the sights, eat the food, see Brian Regan, relax some more, eat some more food, and come home the next evening.

Happy Weekend!

Lil' 'Ol Pretentious Me

Yep. That's me. Eating the most delicious dairy treat.

No, it's not frozen yogurt, which seems to be all the rage right now. Yes, I do love it, but I have to say this ...

 Gelato pretty much kicks Frozen Yogurt's butt! 

I say this, being fully aware that someone can add fantastic things like, cookie dough, cheesecake bites, Heath bar bites, berries, and Reese's cups to said frozen yogurt. It seems like you can't go wrong with that, but gelato takes ice cream to a whole new level.

This is not my first time having gelato, but realized its greatness this week when I headed over to Carpe Diem, a new gelato/espresso bar in town.

Beau thinks gelato is pretentious, even though he "ooh"ed and "ah"ed over his cup of white chocolate gelato. If his statement is true, then I will take the title of "Queen of Pretention."

Guess why?

Not only is it extra smooth and creamy, it's lower-cal than ice cream because most gelato does not contain cream. I don't know what they do to get it so creamy with no cream; I just want them to keep doing it.

This post is making me want even more gelato.

Remember when Jerry and the whole Seinfeld gang were obsessed with their new-found fat-free frozen? After they had all gained weight, they found out that yogurt wasn't fat-free at all.

Oh, Lord ... please don't let this happen with my beloved gelato.

I think she's a big girl now.

K Belle had such a simple birthday wish ... A mother's dream come true.

She didn't want a party and she made it perfectly clear that she definitely DID NOT want to go to any restaurant where she would be sung to. She just wanted to go to the mall with a few friends, some spending money, and a pair of TOMS. That's it. I could definitely handle this type of birthday.

First off, we headed to the one and only place in town that sold TOMS. She ended up getting two pair and stated that she was quite content and happy with just having that for her birthday. I'm lovin' this girl more and more each day!

I threw her a tiny birthday lunch with her friends and our family's friends. 

(The birthday girl and me at our favorite Mexican restaurant)

Then, we hit the mall. Her with $80 in her pocket and me with $100 in gift cards. Mama's had a little party time too! Her big purchase: getting a second piercing in her ears, which I was against at first and then realized I had the same thing done when I was her age. So Beau and I allowed it.

(Before)

(Laughing about how it wasn't going to hurt)

(Um ... it hurt a bit.)

By the time we had left the mall, I was broke. K Belle seemed to need to "borrow" money from me several times throughout our trip, despite me giving her $50 to start out with. Girls are expensive.

That night she shared the most delicious cake I think we've ever bought with her friends at church.

The cake: Red Velvet Cake with Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream! So good!

Now my little 14-year-old is in Phoenix with some other kids competing in a Fine Arts Competition. I already miss her. She's pretty cool.