Spaghetti, Pizza and It's all about Leftovers

This post is dedicated to Susan. She is an amazing daughter and one of the least predictable people I know. I hope you like her recipe for pizza from spaghetti and the story of leftovers.

Spaghetti Pizza

Use cold leftover spaghetti (with or without sauce)
Pepperoni
Shredded Mozzarella cheese
Pizza sauce or left over spaghetti sauce if desired

Lightly oil or use non-stick spray on baking dish. Spread the cold spaghetti first. If there is already sauce on it, you don't have to add more but you can if you wish. Top with the cheese then the pepperoni. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until the crust is hot and the cheese is melted. Serve hot or if you are at teenager, have it cold for breakfast.

We all have leftovers in our life that shape who we are. For instance, there were six kids in our home and we walked everywhere we went so we all had to go to the bathroom before we left the house. It became an automatic thing and I still do that today. It is one of my leftover habits from my childhood. My mom also taught me if you are really wanting to hear God's answer, go to His word. The answer is always there. I was extremely frustrated at one time in my life. I was a single mom, working three part time jobs and barely keeping food on the table. I prayed and opened my Bible and my eyes fell on His message to me "Be still and know that I am God". I felt scolded and encouraged at the same time.

Later, I told my pastor I was no longer worried how I would provide for my children. God had told me to shut up He is in charge. When we give our life to Him, He moves to make things work for what is best for us. Within a month I got a promotion with benefits and only had to work one job. Shortly after that, I met the man that I eventually married and have been with for over 25 years.

Some of you who know me will find this hard to believe but sometimes I talk too much. God had to tell me to be quiet so I could hear His voice and let Him do his work in me and for me. He wants you to know you are loved and with Him all things are possible. What habits are leftovers in your life that give you courage and strength? Use them like Susan does the spaghetti that others would throw out. Use them and thank God that He is in charge and will never leave you.

Psalms 46:10 Be still and know that I am God.

Love,
Nana

Coconut Miracle Pie and The Story of New Shoes

This receipe is a favorite of Hazel, my mother-in-law and is dedicated to Paige my grandaughter who is learning about making her own choices. The story is about things I learned from my daughter, Tina.

Coconut Miracle Pie

1 C. Sugar
1 C. coconut
1/4 margarine
4 eggs
2 C. milk
1/2 C. flour
1/4 tsp. salt **
1/2 tsp. baking powder**

** omit if using self-rising flour

Melt the butter in pie pan or square baking dish. In separate bowl, mix dry ingrediants then add rest of ingrediants. Pour into melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees about 60 minutes. It miraculously makes its own crust and the coconut comes to the top!

When my children were small, if one child needed shoes or clothing for school, all of them got it at the same time. To me, that seemed like the simplest solution but Tina took a different approach to her children. If she was shopping for one, the other did not always get the same thing or sometimes anything. The first time she took me along for a shopping trip, I was sure the one who did not get shoes would be disappointed and offered to pay for one or both of the pair of shoes. Her answer was a firm "no". It was not a matter of finances, it was a lesson she was teaching her children to trust her and that things are in life are not always fair. To my amazement, the one who did not get anything did not get upset. Tina understood the needs of her children and gave to them not always equally but as they had a need. She has been an amazing mom. She clipped coupons and taught her girls that homemade games are just as fun as expensive store bought games. Because she did this, it was she who taught them to write their names and tie their shoes instead of daycare and her girls learned at an early age about the value of music, dance and decisiveness. Someday Paige will use the lessons of her mother to be a great mom herself.

Our heavenly Father does not always give to us equally but He does know our needs. Matthew 7:1-11 teaches about judging others, guarding our treasures and how abundantly God blesses us. If He gives more to others than you think is fair, don't be alarmed. He knows your heart and needs and will meet them with His perfect timing.

Love,
Nana

Pumpkin Cookies and lost arts

The recipe that I am sharing comes from my friend Julie and is dedicated to Tina. She is in Colorado where the leaves change to beautiful colors in the fall and she sees the beauty of all seasons. If you ask her, she will tell you that if I come to visit her in the winter, it always snows if it is in the summer, the hail somehow finds me. I am a magnet for the unexpected. I hope you enjoy the cookies and the story of gifts my mother gave me.

Gluten Freen Pumpkin Chocolate Chips Cookies

***(If you do not need your cookies to be gluten free, use regular flour and don't use the xanthan gum)

Ingredients:
½ cup butter
1 cup white sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups white rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca starch


1 ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup chocolate chips

Directions:
In large mixing bowl beat together butter and sugars; add eggs, pumpkin and vanilla. Mix until well blended.

In medium mixing bowl combine dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350F degrees for 12 minutes.

Those cookies smell wonderful cooking. Isn't it funny how you remember smells and little things that made you laugh? My mom grew up on a farm and she knew about working hard in the summer to prepare for winter. I started sewing and making quilts with her when I was five. I was about seven the first year she let me help with canning fruit. She also taught me to make relish and darn socks. I would take a chance and guess that most of you who read this have never done any of those things but for me, it was a special time. We did not live on a farm and the only tree we had was a maple that shed leaves in the fall and shaded our dog in the summmer. What we did have was a fruit market one block away. My mother made a deal with the owner that my brother would help the owner sort the fruit and he would pay Bill a little cash and give us all the bruised fruit that he could not sell. At the end of the season, the vegetables that had not been sold, we could have in return for cleaning up the lot until he returned later to sell Christmas Trees.

The peaches were very easily bruised by handling so we got more of them than anything else. Sometimes the bruise would be no bigger than my thumb (which on a seven year old is small) and sometimes the fruit would have started to rot. I wanted to throw those in the waste bucket but my mom would show me where there was still good spots and as a lesson, she did all the ones I did not want and I did the ones I thought were perfect. In the end, her bowl was much fuller than mine and when you looked at the two, you could not tell which was perfect and which was flawed. I learned something more than sorting fruit but I did not understand that then. We go to God and we see ourselves as not worth very much. We are flawed. Who would want us but God takes that part of us that is good and puts it with others who also have good in them and together, we make something valuable and sweet. I know I am spoiled. I have been accustomed to giving love and getting it back. That is not something we should take for granted because it does not always turn out that way. If we are loved and the good in us is accepted, that is something wonderful. We are all flawed and sometimes I have felt like there was more flaws that good. That left a hollow place in my heart which I am grateful that God is willing to fill up with His love and Grace; especially when I feel unworthy of either. He never turns me away.

Even when I, and sometimes others, only see the flaws, He sees something that is useful. I should be in the waste pile. I know that. I am glad He has a plan just as my mom did to use the part that has some good for His purpose. Philippians 1:6 He who began a good work in you will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Love,
Nana

The Money Tree and Hot Cocoa

Today is Scott's birthday. In honor of his day, I will share with you my dad's recipe for hot cocoa and the story of the money tree. Happy birthday, Scott. You are loved.







Long ago in the days when there were no VCRs, DVDs and PS3s there was also no instant hot cocoa and it was in fact a special treat for us to have it. My dad made it over a wood stove in our living room. It was part of our holiday celebration but this story is about faith, a money tree and a year that Christmas almost wasn't.

Hot Cocoa

3 T. sugar
3 to 4 T. Cocoa
1/8 t. salt
1/2 c. hot water
4 cups milk

Mix together sugar, cocoa and salt in top of double boiler.
Add milk to cocoa mixture; boil for 3 minutes stirring
Add milk to cocoa mixture; place over hot water, cover.
Heat to serving temperature. Do not boil.
(We usually doubled the mixture and sometimes made two batches for visitors.)

The Money Tree

Most of you who read this will have no idea what I am talking about when I tell you this story is about how we won a six foot aluminium tree with a revolving light. It was the coolest of the cool that year. We shopped at a place called J and M Wholesale which sold everything from luggage to lumber and, in the holidays, it sold toys. Like today's Costco you had to be a member. It was one of those expenses I was not sure we should have but thankfully, my dad was very good in math and found that the membership saved him money over the years. We all walked to the store every year the Saturday after Thanksgiving and gave our wish list to our dad. Somehow, it was never a wish list but his shopping list.

It happened a little over a year after my mom died. Money was very scarce because my dad had already spent some time in the hospital and there were five children still living with him. My oldest brother had gotten married two months before so it actually meant we had one more, not one less to consider. J and M wholesale put one of these amazing trees on display and covered it with $1 bills as a publicity stunt. There was a large jar near it where you could write a one time guess as to what was on the tree. It was made even more difficult because people surrounded the display chattering and the light was on the revolving tree at all times as a fan blew the dollars like leaves. People would walk away and say "impossible". Dad told all of us to go shop and pick out what we wanted. For $5 you could put anything you wanted on lay-a-way (that may also be a foreign word to some of you... it was what we did before there were five or six credit cards in our wallets). I chose a record player which had a cloth cover that was pink, yellow and orange. They had marked it down for several weeks because nobody wanted this unusual colored record player/AM FM radio. (Oh... I might explain, records were in different sizes and flat like a CD but played with a diamond needle. Never mind... it may be an "antique" item to you but it was beautiful to me.)

He never told us that what was put on the list was really possible for us to have. We were just to have fun. He was very secretive. The drawing for the winner was Christmas Eve during the day and my dad and my brother Bill went alone to the store. They did not even tell us where they were going because if he did not win, they were not sure what me, my two sisters and my other brother would have besides the ham his company gave all employees for Christmas Day and hot cocoa for Christmas Eve. My oldest brother came over and helped me and my younger siblings write a play about the birth of Christ that we could perform for his new bride and my dad that night. I had just finished the last angel costume when my dad came in the front door. He won! We already had a tree up so it stayed in it's box until the next year.

This story would not be complete without snow and there was a white covering on the ground but the roads were passable for my brother and his wife to return to their apartment a few miles away. I knew he won the tree but I did not know he won all the money on the tree. The elves were busy while I slept and the next morning, under that tree was my record player and the doll that was bigger than my baby sister. The floor was completely covered with brightly wrapped gifts. I don't think there was a single present under that tree for dad but he was the biggest kid there playing with every child and acting just as surprised as we were that we got our wishes.

From that Christmas I learned that parents teach their children not so much from what they say they believe but how they live. My dad was great with math and very patient so he walked to that store several days (we had no car) and made his calculation at the time he felt most sure of himself. If you are struggling with something that needs faith, even if you see it as impossible at first, give it some time; pray about it, look things over and then take action with the faith of a tiny mustard seed

Matthew 17:20 "If you have faith of a mustard seed... nothing will be impossible for you".

Love,
Nana