A three step process.

16 Oct

Step one: Steal underpants.
Step two: ?
Step three: Profit.

Wait.  Not that one.  This one –

Step one: Get your hands on a oh-so-lovely and oh-so-in-season butternut squash.
Step two: Peel, cut into french fry-like pieces.  Place on cookie sheet, spray with non-stick spray [or drizzle in evoo if you prefer], season.  [I use pepper and a little garlic salt.]
Step three: Bake at a high temp – oh, around 425 or so.  Turn every so often.  Bake for about 25 minutes.  [That’s a guess.  I bake until they are browned and can be picked up as a solid fry without being all soggy.]

Okay.  Four steps –

Step four: Eat!

I’d forgotten about the joy of butternut squash fries until last night.  I would almost *almost* take them over a regular french fry.  You won’t even realize it’s squash you’re eating … and it’s oh so delicious.  I dip mine in ketchup like I would a regular fry.  Try it – let me know what you think!

A perfect fall day.

15 Oct

Not today.  Today is rainy and gloomy.  I shut my alarm off unknowingly in my slumber and went back to sleep this morning because it was so gray.  [Then I showered and served lutefisk at the Lutheran church in Blooming Prairie for a couple hours.  Uffda.]

But Sunday – Sunday was the perfect fall day.  There was a little chill to the morning but the sun came out to play later and stayed around for most of the day.  It was a fall festival afternoon at Red Oak Grove.  Farmer Tom pulled a crowd of us on hayracks to the woods where we had a bonfire and a nature scavenger hunt.  Fun.

The fun continued at Farmer John’s down the road.  Paige, jD, Lauren and Elliot came over and we went in search of the perfect appa.  [That’s Elliot-speak for pumpkin.]  We explored the fields, the silo slide, and then came back to the parsonage for chili and pumpkin dessert.  The perfect fall day all around.

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Lauren captured this photo and I just think it’s the best. Of his own accord, Elliot grabbed both of our hands and we started walking together. For cute times a million.

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Friday Favorites.

11 Oct

As this post is published, I’m in the Cities.  Friday will be a busy day of preparation and excitement for my friend, Sara’s, wedding!  I’m officiating and so excited and happy for her!

Alas, I’m not leaving you high and dry like I did last week [when I was at the wedding of my seminary friend, Jeanette].  Oh, no, this week I planned ahead and scheduled this post.  All for you.  You’re welcome.

Now how about some favorites –

Brene Brown is offering an ecourse with Oprah.  It’s seriously tempting; I might sign up.  Brene Brown’s books and TED talks are hugely inspirational and helpful in life.  Watch one of her TED talks here.  Plus, there is an art journaling component which is exactly what I studied when I was away on the island this summer!

As you read this, like I mentioned earlier, I’m in the cities.  Chances are I may be sitting down and eating this with the bride-to-be.  We’re having a sleepover and I promised her a pumpkin breakfast the morning of the BIG day.

These two-ingredient cheater cake pops are kind of genius.  Yes, they are.  Yes, indeed, they are.

Want some fun and funky iphone wallpaper options?  Check this out.  I currently employ the bubbles.

Will someone give me a reason to make a crepe cake?

And I think that’s all for now.  Happy weekending!

Obviously.

6 Oct

Sherlock Holmes says that often, usually to the annoyance of his friend, Dr. John Watson.

It’s a phrase I’ve heard a lot lately.  Why?

Because I’ve been watching a lot of Sherlock.

Obviously.

It’s a small sort of obsession.

The latest BBC version of Sherlock is two seasons in and continually gaining popularity.  Two BBC seasons meaning three hour-and-a-half episodes a piece.  [aka not enough]  I’ve watched all six on Hulu … and now am rewatching them.  Season three is finishing production and will likely air in early 2014.

It’s just so witty and smart and Benedict Cumberbatch is just so dashing.  With his popped coat collar, curly hair, and obvious discard for social norms, he’s enchanting.

With no new episodes, in addition to rewatching the existing six episodes, I’ve been soaking up anything else I can find.  Season three previews, interviews at Comic Con, stalking researching the men of the show on IMDB.   I think I might attempt to read the original literary works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

To conclude, I like Sherlock and think you should too.  [If you do like Sherlock, too, we should talk about it.  I want to talk to you about it.]  This afternoon I watched season one episodes again and drank tea and ate biscuits.  Proper British drink for watching a proper British consulting detective.

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life lately in photos.

3 Oct

I mentioned in a post yesterday that I’ve been gone on the blog.  Maybe you noticed; maybe you didn’t.  Either way I’m going to tell you where I’ve been.  You’re trapped.  No turning back.

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Being all woodworky.  I think I’m getting the hang of it – and I like it.  The dresser will be ready for the guest room as soon as I can figure out how to get the remaining veneer stripped off of it …

Practicing hexagon and handquilting stitches.  I even bought a thimble!  First-time thimble owner!

My mom came to visit!  Mom and her beau, Jeff, came to spend last weekend with me and help me out around the house.  Closet doors readjusted, gutters cleaned, lightbulbs changed, windows cleaned.  Check, check, check, check.

Watching Sherlock of BBC via Hulu.  It enchants me.  He enchants me.  [But sometimes it’s too scary to watch alone at night.  I had to turn one of the episodes off and finish it during the day.]

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Hanging out with firefighters.  In an embarrassing turn of events, the elevator at the church broke and left a man in a wheelchair stranded on the second floor.  We called the great guys of the volunteer BP fire department to help us out after other options proved futile.  Luckily, one of the firemen was an electrician and he was able to fix the problem before they had to actually lift the gentleman down the stairs.

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Trying on children’s banana Halloween costumes.

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Lots and lots of pastor meetings.  Those meetings included an all day meeting with fellow first call pastors at the synod office which is housed in this beautiful place in Rochester.  I took a walk at lunch in the beautiful day.

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Laughing lots with my beloved confirmation students.  We had a great night again last night.  It’s our Lutheran year and we’re learning/reviewing lots using our sticky wall.  It’s two yards of nylon-like fabric with repositionable adhesive sprayed all over it.  Squint and see what’s written on the paper at the top?  Justin Bieber.  Naturally.  [It was from a famous-person name game we played.  We also looked up what our names meant.  So funny.  We found out one of us is furious, another is from Ireland, and one is of the sea.]

One year ago –

3 Oct

One year ago today was a Wednesday.  I remember because it was a confirmation night and we were painting the to-be youth room lime green.  A couple youth and parents stuck around after class to help paint.  It’s then my iphone dinged with a new email.

Wouldn’t I consider auditioning for the reality show Master Chef?  They’d seen my cooking videos [check out the youtube link in the right hand column if you must] and were recruiting people to come to Minneapolis to try out.  And so began my crazy October of cakepops from scratch, VIP auditions, and everything Master Chef.  I look back fondly; as I think of turning 30 in just a few short months, auditioning for a reality television show goes in that look-at-the-fun-things-I’ve-done-in-these-first-30-years column.  It was crazy in a really fun way.  [Until I quit the process, of course.]

One year ago today also marked the eight year anniversary of my dad’s death.  Which makes today year nine.  The tradition is to watch Back to the Future [a mutual love for Marty McFly and the space/time continuum was one of the strong bonds my dad and I held] and drink a coke; today the plan might have to be falling asleep on the couch to Back to the Future as Paige and I have theater tickets to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show in Austin at the community college tonight.  I may not be able to stay awake to see Marty return from November 1955 but I’ll at least watch him go there at 88 mph to end up in Old Man Peabody’s barn after being chased by Libyan nationalists who shoot Doc for giving them a shotty bomb made of used pinball machine parts while stealing their plutonium.  And hopefully long enough to watch his own mother call him Calvin because it’s written all over his purple underwear when she puts his pants on her hope chest.

*clears throat*  So let us raise our cokes.  To John.  To Spanky.  To the best dad who would help us make the most elaborate snow forts, chase bats from my bedroom in the middle of the night using a broom, and help me decorate sugar cookies for all my friends with their names on them in his perfect printing.

Visiting neighbors.

2 Oct

Week and a half blog hiatus?  Check.

I’m back.  With a story.

The day was Monday.  I was in Austin at the library checking out baby name books [Concerned?  Don’t be.  They were for naming my baby confirmation tonight.] and running a couple errands.  I got home with just about 45 minutes left of daylight and Mabel & I needed to go for a walk pronto.

I ran upstairs, changed my clothes, and came downstairs to a knock at the front door.  I answered the door to find my neighbor there.  He’s in upper elementary school and he learned how to ride a bike this summer.  He rode his bike over as his older sister often does too.

L: Hi Alex!  How are you?
A: Hi.  Good.
L: What’s up?
A: Well, Rachel [the older sister] is at dance right now … so … I thought I would come over and visit.

How cute is that?  He thought he would come over for a visit!  I love it.  And so I ended up going for a walk with Mabel and a neighbor on a bike.  We did the cemetery loop, all the while Alex telling me about the types of vines that were on the trees.  Grape vines, wood vines, and one with red leaves he wasn’t quite sure about.  I learned a lot about vines that night.

On a related note, tonight one of the confirmation students was late joining the group.  Sorry, she said.  I was outside talking to Rachel.  She rode her bike here to visit you but I told here you were busy.

I love it.  I love visitors.

A Monday funny.

23 Sep

Happy Monday.  Want to hear a funny?

Yesterday in worship we had a dear, sweet, awesome, intelligent elementary schooler as our reader.  She is so smart and confident to go in front of church and read hard words and oddly-structured sentences.  She did wonderful.  Absolutely wonderful.  I can’t emphasize that enough because now I want to tell you about one mistake she did make.  It’s too funny not to share and even her mom and I laughed about it afterwards.  She, however, had no idea what she said …

This was the verse from 1 Timothy: For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

She struggled with the word Gentiles.

I’ll let you guess what she said instead.

Friday Favorites!

20 Sep

I’m back in the southeast corner of Minnesota after Mabel and I had a sleepover last night in the cities.  I played with my friend, Sara, and Mabel played with her friend, Kimber.  A good time was had by all, canine and human alike.  Onward –

I made this.  I had a metal piece from my high school days that was used for this exact purpose – magnets and photos and reminders and quotes and all sorts of stuff.  This week I added fabric [polka dots, of course] and some spray adhesive.  I also used spray adhesive to do this to my auction lampshades.  I’ll show you the final product sometime soon.

Here are six apps for iphone and ipad for the home cook.  Why, yes, I would love to save my favorite wines to my phone … now if only I could get iOS7 to download …

Here is one of my favorite pairs [zucchini and lemon] mixed with ricotta and fettucini.  How delicious does that sound?

Did you watch New Girl and The Mindy Project this week?  They are both back with new seasons.  I’m so happy regular television is returning.  It’s like going back to school after summer vacation and seeing your friends again.  [Except my friends are fictional and on my very small television.  They are doctors and teachers and pirates and geeks and Phil Dunphy.]

When I was in education courses in college, we would talk about – when teaching – giving both examples and non-examples to help students grasp a concept.  Want a non-example of Friday favorites?  I was watering flowers this afternoon and was stung by a bee.  A bee!  A bee just came up and flew into my slipper and stung me.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been stung and I’m not sure how to feel.  Should I be angry that my ankle now throbs with the pain of a bee sting or should I feel guilty that the world has one less bee in a world that already has a struggling bee population because this bee felt compelled to inject me with its venom?  Either way, it was not my favorite.

I think that’s all I have for you today.  How are you spending your Friday night?  Doing something exciting?  I hope so.

Do you want to know what I’m doing?  Ready?

I’m writing a sermon and doing laundry.  That’s right.  It’s about to get crazy in this parsonage; I just brewed coffee – the non-decaf kind.  Look out!  I must work tonight because tomorrow is reserved for the kitchen at the Blooming Prairie Serviceman’s Club.  Hand me an ice pick and I’m going to make me some aebelskiver.  [I’m helping out jD’s church at their annual aebelskiver dinner.  I’ll be an expert at pancake balls by the end of the day.]

Happy weekending.  Please don’t kill any bees.

 

Shhh –

18 Sep

It’s a wordless Wednesday.

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