Peach Pie Kind of 4th of July

After almost a month of hectic schedules, out of town guests, weeks of illness and general 'summer-ness', the 4th of July took us by surprise this year. We had made no plans for cook outs, parties or even looked up the best place to watch the fireworks in Baltimore. Taking the rare opportunity for an unscheduled day, my husband and I happily made the most of what we call 'being bums'. We slept in, stayed in pajamas all day, took naps, watched netflix, ate pizza and went to bed not feeling one bit guilty about it. By not running out to find a giant crowd of people stuffed on a dock somewhere watching the fireworks, we also found out that from our own balcony we have one of the best views. We actually got to see 3 different fireworks shows happening at once in different directions across the cityscape.

Though the fireworks were awesome, this was the light show that really took my breath away.
Photo credit goes to Richard Karper.

 The one quintessential part of the 4th of July that we weren't willing to give up though was the PIE! With half a bushel of fresh West Virginia peaches from my mom's visit over the weekend we decided that peach would be the flavor of choice this year. I have to say I think this is one of the best pies I've pulled off to date. It made our relaxing day around the house still have the flavor of independence.   

I combined a few different recipes from Pinterest to make my pies, so to the best of my ability, I will combine them here for anyone who wants to try it themselves. 

Happy Independence Day America!! 

Peach Pie Two Ways:

Yields two deep dish peach pies.

Crust: Yields 2-3 single pie crusts. 

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
• 1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes*
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 6 to 8 Tbsp ice water
• 1 egg beaten

Peach Filling:

• 12-14 cups,sliced,peeled fresh peaches
• 2 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup all purpose flour (Approximately. It may different depending on the how juicy your peaches are.)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (I didn't have brown sugar on hand, so I used 1 full cup as white sugar instead and it still turned out great.)
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 Tablespoons cold butter

   Crumble Top:

• ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup light brown sugar (again, I didn't have brown sugar so I used white and it turned out fine)
• ⅓ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• ⅓ cup maple syrup
• 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Oven Temp: 450 degrees then 350 degrees 

1 Crust - Put flour, sugar, salt, butter and half the water into the bowl of a food processor and blend until butter is in small pieces mixed throughout the dough. Continue to add water in tablespoon portions until you are able to pinch some of the crumbly dough together with your fingers and it holds together. Be cautious with the amount of water you add. Too much water and the crust will be tough.

2 Carefully empty the crumbly dough mixture from the food processor onto a clean, dry, flat surface. Gather the mixture in a mound. At this point, if you want, you can do what the French call fraisage: push down with the palm of your hand on the dough crumbles a few times. This will help flatten the pieces of butter into layers which will help your crust be flaky. Do not over-knead! Kneading develops gluten which will toughen the dough, not something you want in a pastry crust. Put your dough in an airtight container and store in the fridge until you are ready to fill and bake. Make sure the pie dough rests at least one hour but it can stay in the fridge up to 2 days unbaked. 

3 Filling - In a large bowl combine the sliced peaches and lemon juice, gently toss together. Place the sliced peaches in a colander to drain. Don't skip this step, this eliminates some of the juice so your pie won't be soupy after it's cut. Drain peaches about 10 - 15 minutes. Place drained peaches in a large bowl and add flour, sugars, salt, nutmeg and allspice.Stir. Continue to add more flour as needed until most of the juice from your peaches has been absorbed. (It will just get juicier when you bake it!)

4 Divide refrigerated dough into 3 equal size balls and roll them each out until they are large enough circles to cover your pie pans. If you find your dough sticking to the table or your rolling pin, sprinkle a little more flour on the surfaces. Place one homemade pie crust in the bottom of each of your pie pans and brush the pie crust (bottom and sides) with a little of the beaten egg. This keeps the crust from getting soggy. Keep the rest of the beaten egg to brush on the top crust.(One of the pies will be crumb topped so you only need the egg for one pie top). 

5 Divide the peach filling evenly to fill pie crusts. Dot the tops of the pies with a little more chilled butter.

6 Take the 1 remaining circle of pie dough and cover one of the pies. Trim off extra dough and pinch the edges to seal the crusts together. Use a knife to cut slits in the top pie crust and then brush with the remaining egg. 

7 Crumb Topping - To make crumb topping, in a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar (or white), maple syrup and oats; using your hands, work in the butter until well combined. It will be lumpy. Crumble the crumb topping over the un-topped pie and brush any part of the bottom crust that is showing with egg. 

8 Placed pies on cookie sheet (to catch any juices that overflow) and baked in pre-heated oven at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 45-60 minutes or until pie is baked through and you have the desired golden color on top. I found that the crumb topped one took a little longer than the dough topped one, so I removed the dough topped pie and put the crumb topped one under the broiler on low for an additional 3-5 minutes. 

9 Wait until pie as cooled then slice and enjoy!

Mud Pit Christianity

Yesterday was Monday. Not only was it Monday, but it was a Monday of Mondays. It was a Monday through and through. If you do not know what that means you may as well stop reading now because we obviously do not understand one another. When I finally collapsed into bed at night, I lay staring at the ceiling in the ever darkening room. It is in this state I usually have my most brilliant thoughts.

To explain what I was thinking, I need to give a short Biblical history lesson.

In the book of Genesis there is a man named Israel. He has 12 sons, one of which was named Joseph. Joseph was Israel's favorite son and because of the father's favoritism, a divide was created between Joseph and his brothers. His brothers took Joseph and sold him into slavery in the land of Egypt. As history tells it, Joseph later became one of the most powerful men in that land and saved everyone from a famine. During the height of his power, Joseph sends for his father, Israel to come to Egypt to avoid the famine. Israel was an old man by this time, and was fearful about making the hard journey. Israel turns to God in his trouble and God says to him that he will be with him when he goes down into Egypt and that God will also be with him and bring him back out of Egypt. (Please  note, that by many biblical scholars, Egypt is considered metaphorically to often represent the world system, or our struggles, enemies, temptations, etc. as well as the literal sense used in this case.).

God does do all that he has promised for the man Israel, but his decedents (which as a nation are also called Israel) suffer much in Egypt.  Israel (now we are referring to the nation) ends up falling into slavery to the Egyptians. Through many miracles at the hand of God they are freed though and lead into the wilderness where they travel for 40 years getting to know God, before they are finally lead into the plentiful land promised to them. While in the wilderness, they were on a sandy, flat plane. They didn't have the overseers whipping them as they had faced in Egypt. They didn't have chariots chasing them as they had when fleeing through the red sea. They had a calm, still place where they could finally worship God.

Here in the wilderness where they could have had such peace is where we see Israel turn away from God. To put it nicely, they turn into complaining, bitter, self-centered children. God had finally answered their prayers and removed them from their hardest battles but in the quietness they became bored and stagnant. They created other gods to worship, complained about food, complained about water and even said that they wish they were back in Egypt as slaves.

God became angry at this and sent poisonous snakes into the midst of the camp. God told the leader Moses to put a brazen serpent up on a staff and whoever looked to the brazen serpent (biblical scholars speak of this as an example of Christ raised up on the cross to save us) would be saved from the venomous bite. Israel looked up to the brazen serpent, and looked to God again and were saved.

We think Egypt was their problem. We think 'Egypt' is our problem. We think our bondage, or our trial is our problem. Our problem isn't the trial, but that we give up turning to God unless we are going through a trial.

How much grief could we save ourselves if we didn't forget God ever time the sun shined? If Israel hadn't complained every step of the way through the desert perhaps God would never have sent the snakes to their camp... and perhaps if I could remember every once in a while that God loves me and wants a relationships with me, I wouldn't have to get to the point of a terrible Monday with a bad attitude to turn to God again in my heart.

People put down the faith of a 'fair weather Christians'. This is someone who loves God only when the sun shines. I hear all the time about 'girding up your loins' and 'be a Christian in the trenches'. I think it would be a great success to be a Christian in the fair weather, and not just when the sea gets rough. I want to put on my rain coat when the storms come, but also pull out my sun hat on those warm balmy days and walk with God though it all.

Let my dry calm desert be a place I turn to God just as quickly as I would in my mud pit in Egypt. Keep a complaining spirit far from me and the bitterness that comes with it.

...such were my thoughts as I lay looking at my ceiling.

Who's Soul Are you Trying to Save?

This morning in my quite time before work I read a verse that has stuck with me throughout the day. It stirred a thought that wasn't my typical 'God is for you and you can make it through today' kind of musing.

Ezekiel 3:18-19 reads, "When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul."

I started to think of some of the very 'in your face' evangelism that I have experienced over the years. Now please don't take this the wrong way, I fully realized that God says in Mark 16:15 to "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.". I am not anti-spreading the gospel. But are our methods really working?

In Ezekiel when God was speaking to the prophet he told him that he was to go and warn the wicked nation of the wickedness they were living in. If Ezekiel did this, then then his conscious could be clear and it would be up to the nation what they did with that information. But if Ezekiel did not tell the wicked nation of their deeds then God would hold Ezekiel accountable.

I believe that some people are using this as a principle to satiate their souls today. As long as they can get through their entire spiel and you are standing there, (regardless of if your dinner is burning on the stove, or you are late for an appointment, or if you have had a rough day and just can't handle having to listen to anything else) then they have done their duty before God. They have informed you as to what a sinner you are, so they are safe.

In their soul winning they have saved their own soul by informing you how rotten and disgusting yours is in the sight of God.

It maters little to them after that point what happens. You can accept God or reject God, but their hands are washed of it! You have been 'soul-winned'!

Maybe... just maybe... this grieves God's heart as much as it does yours.

I'm know there are many verses in the Bible that we can use to club someone over the head with. Do you think that is what would win someone's heart and loyalty to a loving God though? Wouldn't it be better to hear the voice of God calling out, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation]" as it says in Matt 11:28 (AMP)?

God not only loves you to the point of death on the cross in which all of your sins are wiped away and so on and so forth blah blah blah... but maybe God actually just likes you. He probably thinks the things you fill your day and have passion and love for are pretty cool too. He did create everything after all!

Maybe next time, rather than trying to drag someone kicking and screaming down yet another Romans road.... you can just stop and look for the thing in them that God already cherishes. And remember, God already loves you too. You don't have to get a giant soul-winning gold sticker from Him in order to be steeped in the all encompassing love of God.

You already are.

God likes you.

Simply my musings though and I am no great scholar. Take the meat if you find any and spit out the bones. Throw some spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks if you like. But give other people the freedom to do the same.

Little Big Steps

Someone once told me that you don't need to be so concerned about where God is going to have you in 5, 10 or even 15 year from now. Just be where you are suppose to be, doing what God wants you to do today and when tomorrow becomes today do it again. Then in 5, 10 or 15 years of you having continued to do this you will be right where God wants you to be.

This weekend my husband and I took a little big step. We bought a car. It was a little step to sign on the dotted line, but a big step to commit to paying off this car for the next six years. When I step back and try to look at the timeline of 6 years and imagine where we will be, or what we will be doing then I am immediately overwhelmed. But, when I look at just the step ahead of me as I place one foot in front of the other I know my footing is secure.

Perhaps one of the most frightening things in life can be time. It is the only true currency we own. Money comes and goes and you gain some and lose some, but when you give your time to something or someone, it is one of the few things that was only and entirely yours and when you give it up, is gone forever.

Now in my early twenties I an starting to feel the treadmill of time slowly growing swifter and swifter. I would like to be able to just stop running and try to make things slow down. I know this will only send me flying off the end of the treadmill and crashing into the wall behind me. Perhaps this is even something that happens occasional on my more rough days. But with that knowledge, every moment that I can run I want to make sure my feet are landing securely.

I want to take sure steps not only in my finances for this car though. I want every relationship I'm in and every goal I set for myself to be something that I can see to be steps down the right path even when I can't see all the way to the end of the road. This may mean waking up early and going for a run in the morning before work. It may mean making sure the phone bill is always paid on time. It may mean finding an extra hour to spend over a cup of tea with an old friend, or taking the time to make a nice dinner to sit down to with my husband each night.

Little big steps can be scary. Sometimes you just need to commit to your decisions and enjoy the walk as you make steps into your future.

The Measuring Stick of Money

The Measuring Stick of Money

Some 5+ years ago while still living in West Virginia I made it a side job to teach violin/fiddle. I started learning myself about 14 years ago, so even at the time, and at the young age that I was, I had some experience and knowledge under my belt. Since moving to Maryland, the pace of life has  picked up and music is something that seems to be left on the wayside more times than not.

Last week something happened that may change all of this though. I was approached by a woman in my church who teaches a 'volunteer strings school' of sorts. She, as a classically trained musician felt it on her heart to make it possible for some of the young students in our school and church to have the opportunity to develop themselves in a love for string music. For a few years now she has been teaching a group lesson for a few hours every week and has accrued somewhere around 5-10 students who all have an interest and desire to learn to play. Some violin, some viola and some cello. Teaching a group class and having her experience, she is well equipped to give a great overview/group lesson even with multiple instruments at the same time. In speaking with me, she expressed how she has seen a great deal of talent in some of the violin students and would like to be able to see them progress further than she is able to take them. She wanted to see if I would be willing to take them on as privet lesson students.

Being out of the music teaching world for the last 5 years, I feel both apprehensive and very honored that she would see me as still skilled enough to take a student even farther than she can herself. My second thought - what a great way to make a little money on the side as well.

Then came the catch.

Because the location she uses for her music school is part of a non-profit organization, their policy is that they can't officially charge anything for the lessons. She told me if I really wanted to, I may be able to speak with the parents directly and just be paid under the table. I really struggled with this for a few days, trying to decide what to do... should I try to find a loophole around this policy and burden my conscious with this? Should I try to find some other location (nothing promising in that department)? Should I just refuse to teach? I have long thought that if someone doesn't have to pay for something, they are never really going to see the value in a thing, or be willing to work for it. I spent a lot of time rolling this idea over in my head before coming to a conclusion.

Why do I think value is measured by money?

We live in a society where money is the ruler by which everything we value is measured. Food, electricity, phones, houses, the amount of work you are willing to do for a person and even knowledge... everything is portioned out in increments relative to the amount of money we are willing to pay, or be paid.

Perhaps partly because deep in my nature I want to cause a little ripple and go against the flow, and partly because I want to be able to step back and see value as something more than a price tag, I have decided to take this challenge. I'm not going to ask for any money. I'm not going to ask for anything in exchange for the knowledge, instruction or time I give these students. 

"I want to teach these students how to play the violin, but I want to teach them more than that. I want to teach them to treasure something and see the value in it without seeing a price tag attached."

There was a time in our country when the butcher traded meat to the farmer for grains and the seamstress would sew an outfit for the gardener in exchange for tomatoes and corn. Somehow this changed. Now the only way we see value in something is by knowing it's exchange for something that has the least value of all - simple paper with ink.

I want to take up this challenge and challenge anyone reading this to do the same. Look for something and realize it's value completely outside of what could be paid for it. See something's value purely and simple as valuable because it is itself.

 

Do More Than Show Up... Be there.

Do More Than Show Up... Be There.

I have heard it said that 'half the battle is just showing up'. If this is true, then it seems that most people give up half way through the battle.


I find myself drowning in a society where people look at their phones rather than make eye contact, and where being 'at your job' between the time you clock in and the time you clock out is consider work.

One of my favorite quotes by Jim Elliot is:


"Wherever you are, be all there."


I find myself every day encountering for myself and also hearing stories of people that are living only 1/3rd of their life.


There are 168 hrs in a week and the average person spends 40 of these hours working and 56 of them sleeping. With 96 hours of your week spent, most people only have aprx. 72 hrs left. This isn't even counting people's mundane commute back and forth to work, eating food, exercising, taking classes etc. But those few hours seem to be the only time that people really consider to be 'theirs' to enjoy and live in.


Why not live in every moment of your day?


Instead of trying to work with a foggy brain, only to find yourself too exhausted at the end of the day to 'enjoy your time' after work, why not enjoy it from the start? So, maybe you don't enjoy your occupation... is that going to rule your attitude about everything? Does the person in the cubical next to you really have the control over you to ruin your entire day?

Wake up. Take a cold shower. Live.

Everyone has a choice on how they are going to spend their life. They can either fully engage in the meat of the day, or they can keep floating... floating... floating... always waiting for their day to start.


I'm sure no famous character in history ever became who they were by punching in and out on a time card. Whatever they set their hand to, they gripped and held on to.


Be someone great. Care about everything you touch no mater how insignificant it may seem.


Don't just show up. Be there.

Simple as a Loaf of Bread

Simple as a Loaf of Bread

Yesterday I was kneading some bread dough to leave to rise in the fridge over night. I started thinking about the process of kneading the dough. Once you have added almost all the flour to your dough within about 30 seconds it can 'look' like kneaded bread dough, but if you just leave it like that then your bread won't come out as good and I find it tends to go stale faster. If you take the time to continue kneading it though it becomes more elastic and not only looks, but 'feels' like bread dough. My mother, who taught me to make bread, always had to feel a dough to tell if it was 'just right' or not. As you continue to knead, what had seemed to be enough flour you find suddenly isn't, and you are able to work in even more of the flour that really gives your bread body.

Today I found this to be the perfect analogy for my life. Almost every morning I have some time to get in the Bible and read a chapter or two before starting my day. Sometimes this is very brief and can only go as deep as those 30 seconds into the bread making. Today I was lucky enough to be able to attend a prayer meeting at work and while I was there what I had read this morning started to knead itself into my soul. We can get through life on stale bread, but I much prefer the moments of biting into that chewy, but crispy side of life that has real substance to it.

My thought this morning came from 1 Samuel 25. As a brief recap of the story that takes place, David, still fleeing from Saul, is staying in the same land of a wealthy man named Nabal. Nabal has many sheep and land and possession. Some of David's men are dwelling in the land where his shepherds were, and this is what the shepherds said in vs 16 "They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep." Though his men never mistreated anything that belonged to Nabal, and in fact were a protection to him, when David sends a messenger to Nabal asking him for provisions to be shared with his men, Nabal answers arrogantly that he knows no man named David, so why should he give away any of his bread or his sheep to him!

David becomes angry at this man's arrogance and gathers some of his men together to go and utterly destroy Nabal and all of his people. On the way though, Abigail who is Nabal's wife hears of what Nabal did and that David is coming to attack. She gathers together many gifts and supplies and goes out to meet David. She falls on her face in humility and begs for the lives of those people behind her. She asks that all the inequity be upon herself and that forgiveness would be given.

It is quite possible that you, like I myself, have heard of the humility Abigail and how though her humility David spares the people. I have often heard and been told of how that should be our ideal for ourselves. That we should be so humble when going before others. When I was 30 seconds into my kneading I was happy with this thought and ready to go about my day. As it continued to churn though I started to wonder if Abigail is really the one that I am meant to be, or if this story tells me of someone else.

There is a God of the universe that sometimes we don't like to see so we shut out eyes. He asks us to give us our hearts and our lives, but we say, "Who is this God? I don't know someone named 'God' so why should I give him my bread (heart) or my sheep (my life)." In arrogance we push off our creator. We are a people like Nabal who have inequity in our hearts, and God who is like David has it fully in His power to execute judgement on us.

We can rejoice to know that the God who is our David, is also the Abigail that is our advocate. 

When God sent us Himself in the form of His Son Jesus Christ, He sent the one out that went before Nabal and asked the the people be spared though Nabal had no repentance in his heart. When God sent His son, He sent Him to a people that had no want for Him. Even we when God is presented to us, we have probably all at some point in our lives turned in arrogance from him. But Christ, pleading the case with God the Father took all of our iniquity upon Himself.

I am not Abigail, God is. Though He could cast judgement righteously on me, He gave it to His Son (Himself) and gave mercy to me and all the people instead.

This is my mental bread as it continues to knead.

And for those wondering about my recipe or the physical bread, I am happy to share that below. This recipe is one passed down and taught by my mother. I remember well her kneading the bread on the wooden table that my father built. I can't promise that the bread will come out quite the same from just reading a recipe. After all, as my mom would say, "You have to just be able to feel the dough".

Mom's French/Italian Bread

This recipe makes 3 loaves of french bread.

• 2 cups warm water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 table spoons suger/honey
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (or canola if that's what you have)
• 5 cups all purpose flour

In a large bowl combine water, salt and sugar/honey. Sprinkle yeast over the top and let it sit to proof for 10 minutes. Once the mixture has proofed, you can chose to add oil or not. If you add oil, it will be 'Italian Bread', while traditional 'French Bread' has no oil added. 

d

Begin adding flour in one cup increments. In the beginning you will be able to mix with a wooden spoon, but as more flour is added you will have to switch to kneading it with your hands. Once you have all the flour in continue to knead by hand for at least 10 min.Once you are to the point of kneading, you can either continue to knead the dough in the bowl, or sprinkle some flour on a surface like your counter or table and knead it there. Add flour as needed to keep dough from becoming sticky, but still maintaining elasticity. By the time the dough is almost ready, it will be fighting back. 

Dough is kneaded, form into a bowl and place in a large bowl and cover with a light towel or bag to rise. Again, depending on if you want italian or french bread, you can choose to add a little oil to the bottom of the bowl and flip the dough so there is some oil on each part or not.)

Let dough rise 1-2 hours until dough has doubled in size. Dough can also be put in the fridge to rise slowly overnight, but remember to leave extra time for the dough to warm the next day before you try to roll it out.

Divide dough into 3 sections. Using a rolling pin, spread each section of dough out into a large rectangular sharp, and then roll in the same way that you would if making cinnamon rolls. Place formed loaves on a pan and using a knife put 3 slashes on the top of each loaf, then cover again with a light down or bag. 

Let loaves rise for half the amount of time as you did the first rising (30min-1hr). 

Preheat to 450. 

Put loaves in the over and spritz the walls of the oven with a spritzer bottle filled with water. After 3-5 minutes spritz again. After 5 minutes spritz once more and turn down 375 and let it bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Remove bread from oven and let cool. Enjoy!