Saturday, December 29, 2012

Warm Baked Bread on a Cold Winter's Day


The holidays are almost over and I am ready for the New Year! Today I’ve taken down the decorations and am getting very excited about what this next year will bring!
            The weather here is dreary and grey which makes me long for comfort foods. One of my loves is baking, any kind of sweet or bread. Today, I began thinking about gluten free baking and how being gluten free might change my lifestyle. I’ve really been too busy this holiday season to bake like I usually do, so I decided today to try out the new baking “lifestyle”. I have decided that on a day like today, Banana Nut Bread is just what the doctor ordered! It turned out GREAT!!!!

 Here is my recipe for Gluten Free Banana Nut Bread:

3 or 4 ripe bananas mashed up
1/3 cup melted butter (I use organic unsalted)
½ cup applesauce (I use organic no sugar added)
¾ cup sugar (I use raw turbinado)
1 egg
1-teaspoon gluten free vanilla
1-teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1-½ cups of all-purpose gluten free flour (I used arrowhead but any gluten free all-purpose will do)
Walnuts (I usually use about ½ cup but feel free to add as many or as few as you like!)

Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Stir in the walnuts. Pour into a well-greased bread pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Let the loaf cool on a rack, turn out on plate, slice and enjoy!



This recipe can also be made with wheat flour, but I am amazed at the way the gluten free flour brings out the flavor of the bananas, apples, and walnuts!


Happy New Year, Ya’ll!!!!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Merry Christmas


Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family! I promise that I will try and not ramble along today because we all should be spending time with our families and giving thanks for all of our blessings!

My many blessings are what I plan to talk about today. I spent a wonderful day yesterday with family. The first part of the day was with my India Association of Nashville family cooking and serving lunches to the homeless of Nashville. There were a total of around 30 members who came and pitched in. We had a wonderful time together, however, it is very sobering to see almost 200 people, many of them children stand outside in line in the cold because they are hungry, especially at Christmas!


















After finishing at the shelter, Shank and I drove to Birmingham and had Christmas with the family! Although Tom, Isaac and Emily were missing, we had a wonderful time!  I so love my girls and their husbands and there is nothing like children to get everyone in the Christmas spirit!

 Wyatt was very excited to show me his Christmas chain. This is a tradition that we have been doing since I was a child. My mother would help us make a paper chain with 25 links. Everyday, we would take a link off. When the last link was gone, it was Christmas! I don’t know where Mama got this idea, but it was a great way to teach us patience and also how to count and subtract! Whitney has taken this idea and expanded on it. On every link, there is something written. It could be as simple as 4 days until Christmas, or it might be something like, “remember to be kind to everyone”, or “ Santa is watching to see if you are nice and respectful”.

Reaghan and Maggie made sure that I knew that there were “ONLY 3 more sleeps!” before Santa came. They were very excited about spending the night with Wyatt and making cookies!

And Chloe’…. What else can I say she is growing up so fast! She is as tall as me! I enjoy hearing about her favorite musical group "One Direction" and what she is reading in her spare time.  I always miss my Chloe’ when she is not around!

Well I have taken you away from your family for long enough! Merry Christmas, and may God bless you in the upcoming year!

I am leaving you with pictures of what else? The grandkids!




                                                 Chloe', Reaghan, Maggie, and Wyatt!





                                         These are the crowns that I made for the girls!




Sunday, December 16, 2012

Grateful for friends and family and praying for the families in Connecticut.


Hello everyone! One week closer to Christmas!

I had a wonderful time at my friends Carol and Henry’s house last night! I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends.  I laughed until my sides hurt! And the food was amazing!  In fact I had such a good time I have to include pictures!































        
  Driving home last night, I began thinking about the horrible tragedy in Connecticut and the grieving families when a hymn from my childhood popped into my head. It has always been a favorite of mine not only for the words but also for the story behind it. The hymn is: It Is Well With My Soul by Horatio Spafford.  For those of you unfamiliar with this beautiful song and the story behind it, I am including this link. Please read about this man’s amazing faith. For those of you who know the hymn and it’s history, please sing along with me:

            When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
 When sorrows like sea billows roll;
 Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, 
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
 It is well, it is well, with my soul.
            Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
 Let this blest assurance control,
 That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
 And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
            My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! 
My sin, not in part but the whole, 
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
 Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
            For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
 If Jordan above me shall roll,
 No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
 Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
            But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
 The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
 Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
 Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!
            And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
 The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
 The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
 Even so, it is well with my soul.
           
            Please pray that these grieving families will find some sort of peace and comfort for their broken hearts!
  Until next time….

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Tis the Season of Giving!


            Today I woke up thinking how thankful and grateful I am for my life!  I have a husband who loves me, a beautiful family and friends, and of course Dante’ who never leaves my side when I am at home!

            We had a wonderful night last night. Shank’s staff came over for a Christmas get together. I spent most of the day cooking and everything was gluten and cow dairy free! There was very little food left and everyone seemed to like it! They were very impressed with my gluten free pecan pie! The thing that really stays in my mind though is how much better I feel with my new lifestyle! I would not have been physically able to do all of this before Vanessa and Q helped me make the lifestyle change in August!

            Christmas is almost here! Can you believe it? I still have so much to do.  The good news though is that the gifts that I had a deadline in finishing are here and ready to be wrapped. The storybooks are back from the publisher! The Year in Pictures Album should be here on Monday. Now I only have the handmade gifts to finish!
            I have always loved handmade gifts and making things for other people. It makes me sad to think of all of the people who don’t know that joy. While I enjoy walking through the mall during the Christmas season, I have never understood the need to equate money with giving.  As a child, my mother would help us make gifts for others. One year we made key holders for the men out of paint stirrers that we spray painted and attached cup hooks. We made sewing kits for the women out of (and I am dating myself here) Bayer aspirin tins.  For those of you too young to remember these, they were about the size of a small matchbook, and made of metal. To open them, you pressed on the back corners. We spray painted them gold, took the little piece of cardboard that separated the rows of aspirin, wrapped different colors of thread around them, added needles, straight pins, safety pins, and a couple of buttons.
            I have since inherited these back. I have two. My great grandmother who I called Ma had used hers until the paint was worn off. She just kept refilling the thread. My Granny, who died at the age of 51(I was 12 and heart broken) had hers saved with her jewelry! Needless to say, I keep these inherited items with my good jewelry also; they are more precious than all of the other jewelry pieces combined!
            In high school, I made a counted cross work pillow and cook book cover with a blank cookbook inside for my other grandmother. When my grandmother died, my aunt sent them back to me. Grandmother had handwritten recipes in the book. So I got a priceless present in return!
            I think what I am trying to say in all of this rambling is that as humans we need to remember the saying “It is better to give than to receive”. Give from the heart! You always end up the winner. And remember, we all make our own Karma!

I told you last week that I would show you pictures of what I am doing for Christmas. I am not as far along as I thought I would be, but here are pictures of my finished books! Also, a picture of Dante’ who loves me even when I am not at my best.


Until next week!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Learning to Give Thanks!


What a hectic time of year! I am frantically working on my Christmas presents. Today I finished writing two storybooks for the younger grandchildren and sent them to be published!

I am so blessed to have my family. There are so many people in the world who are alone and lonely. I have been working on my attitude and trying to remember to be thankful for what I have. I also am trying to learn not to worry. There is a bible verse that I have taped to my computer screen that I have been trying to follow.  Matthew 6:34 says:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I read this every time I sit down at work and try to live this verse.  Every time that I read it, I realize that the things in my life that I worry about are not really even the things that I find important. The reality is that I need to find a way to transcend all of the stress and chaos of my daily life and find something that I can do that truly fulfills me instead of uselessly trying to appease unhappy individuals. Every day that I wake up and go to work, I become more aware of how unfulfilling my workdays have become.  Nursing is supposed to be about helping and serving others, not about chaos. 
There are several quotes that I also find inspiring:
You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.  -Woodrow T. Wilson.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. -Mahatma Gandhi.

As Christmas and the New Year grow closer, I think that it is time to reevaluate my life and my need to help others. I feel that it is time to start giving back and to show God how truly thankful I am for all of the blessings in my life!
As always any thoughts, suggestions, or comments are greatly appreciated! I will talk to you next week and will update you on the Christmas present project and maybe even show you some pictures of my handmade gifts (if you promise not to tell anyone what their gift is)!
But now, I want to leave you with a picture of one of my favorite Thanksgiving Day memories:



My Dad cooking deer steak for me! I love you Daddy!