Contentment

Today is my sons 4 month birthday.  Time sure does fly!  People have begun asking me if he is a good baby and I say he is wonderful, easy, happy, but I often say he is content.  He rarely is fussy and if he is, it is a mild and respectful notice that something isn't quite right and it is easily fixed by a soother and some snuggling.  This got me thinking about contentment and my lack of it.  I have everything I need and most of what I want and I still find myself easily angered, critical of others and lacking joy.  So what is the root of discontentment?  Scripture tells us to be content because God will never leave us (Heb 13:5) and that godliness with contentment is great gain (1Tim 6:6).  Both of these verses in their respective contexts talk about trusting and believing in Christ as a direct connection to contentment.  God has promised he will not leave us and also promised to care for us as his creation and therefore we have nothing to worry about.  Jesus makes the connection for us in John 14:1 when he says, Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.  So contentment or the fix for a troubled heart is found in belief in God and also in Jesus.  To answer the original question, the root of discontentment is disbelief in God for his provision for us and  in Jesus and his finished work on the cross.  I think of Thomas hearing of Jesus rising from the dead and his own struggle with believing.  Jesus graciously says to him, look at me!  Here, touch my hands, see the wounds in my side, it's me Thomas, it's me! (John 20:24-28).  
So as my own son cries and trusts that his own father will hear him and respond, I am being reminded to seek God in my trouble and discontentment, tell him my needs and faithfully wait for his response.   In the act of seeking God and believing that he will answer, we find true contentment for our troubled hearts.
Here is a beautiful hymn we sing at church that is based on John 14:1
Calmer of my troubled heart

Lazy days

I love fall.  This fall has been a little different though as I'm missing the crisp sunny days.  I find myself inside more looking out to cloudy skies each day.  Today, I grabbed my favourite mug that I got as a small souvenir from our honeymoon and I made myself a homemade chai latte. That mug got me dreaming about Newport, RI.  John and I went to Newport for our honeymoon and stayed at the Cliffside Inn.  If you want a luxury summer getaway, head to Newport.  Cliffside Inn is an old mansion on the ocean that has been renovated into a beautiful B&B.  When we phoned to book our stay, John had asked which room the host would recommend as we were on our honeymoon.  He told us to pick any suite we wanted and he would give it to us for the cheapest rooms price! We chose the Garden suite.  It still was a total splurge but so worth it.  We took a road trip and drove ourselves to Newport and brought our bikes.  We parked the car and pretty much went everywhere on our bikes, exporing the island.  Each day we would wake up and head out to the porch for breakfast.  We'd have homemade granola with fruit and yogurt, some sort of hot delicious dish and tea.  Each afternoon we would come back "home" for an afternoon wine and cheese gathering which left dinner as the only meal we really needed to buy out.  We took a 3 hour sailing trip around the bay seeing famous landmarks and the amazing mansions, we explored the cliff walk and spend countless hours at the gorgeous beaches.  One of the most memorable trips was a ferry ride to Block Island. This gorgeous island had beautiful white sand beaches, tropical blue water and amazing waves!  I'd highly recommend a trip to the island if you are in newport.  We have said a few times that we would love to go again with the kiddos (If and when more arrive!) and stay on block island for a few days.
So while it was, and still is, cloudy outside, it's beautiful Newport summer sunshine in my mind!

Chai Latte

I use Tazo chai tea bags since that's what was in my tea drawer but I'm confident any type would do.
Heat 1/2 a mug of milk (I use 3.25% for everything!) in the microwave on on the stove until warm.  Meanwhile, boil water.  Add 1 teabag to the mug with heated milk and top with boiling water.  Let steep until desired strength but not too long or it'll get tannic-y and bitter.
The secret is the sweetener.  Stay away from white sugar as its far too sharp.  You can use honey, brown sugar, cane sugar/raw sugar, coconut sugar or even maple syrup.
Ta da! Yummy chai latte far cheaper than the Seattle coffee shop down the street

5 years later

I took a little hiatus...ya think?
This blog started from an interest in bread making and to tell you the truth, I made those buns and not much else.  The buns have been a winner at most holiday dinners and super easy to make so it's not like I completely failed in my bread making adventures right?
Well, 5 years later, a diabetic husband and an unbelievably content and happy almost 4 month old, I'm starting again.  There's a little bit of a dilemma though...
What's the best way to control blood sugar and reduce weight when you've got diabetes?  Eat carb free.  Hmmm, well that puts a wrench in my bread blog doesn't it!  Over the past 2 years, I've been trying to reduce carbs in the meals I make so that my husband stays healthy, and able to maintain an active and busy life.  It really has helped him and also helped me to reduce the amount of sugar in my diet.  That being said,  we are almost 100% on a low to no carb diet for meals and I'm learning to embrace the absence of bread at dinner and breakfast time.  I'll confess that if you came into my house, you'd likely find a small storehouse of candy and sweets but we won't talk about that.  I'm not diabetic after all :)
All this to say that my gluten blog is transforming to a general blog filled with recipes, rants from a housewife and maybe a few diabetic friendly eats.

CHICAVOBAC
This recipe has been a staple in my house since I introduced it to my husband a while back.  Its completely carb free and delicious.  It combines Chicken, Avocado and Bacon which makes up the Chicavobac name! I have no idea where it originally came from except that my mother gave it to me in a binder of recipes as a wedding shower gift.

2 Chicken Breasts
2 stalks of celery thinly sliced
crispy bacon crumbled(I usually use close to a full package)
avocado diced into small bite sized chunks
juice of one lemon
mayonaise
salt and pepper to taste

1.  Season chicken with salt and pepper and grill/bake/roast/pan fry until its nicely browned on both sides and chicken is completely cooked. Set aside to rest and cool.  Once cooled, chop into bite sized chunks
2. combine lemon juice and mayonnaise in a medium sized bowl to make a dressing.  I just eyeball the mayo amount but it usually ends up being 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup depending on how much dressing I need and the consistency I want.  I usually go for a coleslaw dressing consistency.
3. Combine celery, chopped chicken, crumbled bacon and avocado into the dressing, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve!

This recipe is great the next day or a few days in the fridge.  The avocado may get a bit brown but no worries, it still tastes great.  I send this on its own in a container for my husbands lunch but you could also put it in a wrap as a glorified chicken salad wrap

Dinner Roll Success

After a days work and two batches of dough, I finally had 12 beautiful dinner rolls that were equally delicious.  Thanks to Cooks Country, Thanksgiving dinner was complete!  The process was surprisingly easy however, I did learn a few lessons.  My first batch of rolls started out just fine and I was expecting nothing but perfection until my dough failed to rise.  I pondered what I could have done wrong and decided in the mean time to make another batch just in case.  Good thing I did because as it turns out, water temperature really does matter.  The first time, I neglected to realize that my temperatures would be in fahrenheit rather than celsius and made my water far too hot, shocking and killing the yeast.  Obviously this was a problem hence the failure to rise.  Once I repeated the recipe, making sure the water was the correct temperature, the rolls turned out just fine.  Here are a few photos of the process.

the unofficial start

As everyone knows, Thanksgiving is coming quickly and the dinner rolls that I have been planning on making are going to begin tomorrow for saturdays dinner.  The 2 day process will be mostly spent waiting for dough to rise then rise again but never the less, I am excited for this first trial.  This wasn't the plan for the official bread baking start as I have yet to get my bread book but I am hoping that the dinner rolls will be a pleasant foretaste of what is to come.  If that foretaste is not so pleasant, I suppose this blog will end.  Here's to delicious dinner rolls
Cheers!
On a completely unrelated side note, are all bloggers decent writers?  Is that a prerequisite to blogging? Because if it is, I fail.  I'm pretty sure I violate at least 10 grammatical rules in each blog never mind spelling mistakes.

the making of this blog...

I have recently been thinking about learning how to make bread.  With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I came upon an easy recipe from cooks country for dinner rolls.  Although this sounds like a great project for thanksgiving, I wanted to really learn what making bread is all about.  Through a friends blog, I came across a blog that was working through making all the breads from Bread Bakers Apprentice, a book by Peter Reinhart and Ron Manville.  It looked promising and very educational but I didn't want to just go out and buy the first thing I saw so I began to read the reviews...
After an hour or so, I ended up at Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread: A Bakers Book of Techniques and Recipes.  The first book by Reinhart had great illustrations and quite a few recipes but also gave the option of using margarine or shortening in all of the recipes.  I love butter and feel strongly about using butter in baking and I am sure that the french are not using margarine or shortening in their croissants so even giving the option of something other than butter was enough to turn me off the book.  I consequently decided that Hamelman would be the choice for me.  Now, back to Bread Bakers Apprentice or BBA as it is commonly called...
BBA has quite a following and can be found around as a sort of book club thing.  Initially, I thought the concept of baking through all the bread recipes in BBA would be exciting and rewarding but after having the margarine and shortening problem, the BBA group was quickly out for me.  Long story short, I will be baking through Hamelman's book and blogging about each bread I make.  I hope this works!