Thankfulness (is good for everyday but especially Thursday...lol)

       I am starting a Thankful Thursday post to showcase the importance of us being thankful and especially thankful to God.
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.  Psalm 28:7
       Feel free to post and add what you are thankful for...or even a link to your blog which says what you are thankful for.
       
       Lord I am thankful for your provision.  I am thankful for your showing me what I need to do to change and be a better mom and wife. Thank you Lord for showing me my issues.  Thank you Lord for showing me your truths in your word.  Thank you for letting us be baptized in the Holy Spirit.  Thank you for giving us your spirit! Thank you for my healthy family.  Thank you for my relationship with you through Christ Jesus.  Thank you for giving me opportunities to help others and to be able to share the truth of God's grace and love and healing with others.  Thank you for giving us peace and letting us be able to reside in the shelter of your wings oh Lord.  Thank you for your loving kindness and long suffering.  Thank you for teaching me all that I need to know Lord.  I am thankful I hear the voice of my God and not the world's god.  I am thankful for being able to share with others.  Thank you God for helping me to open up and be more sharing.  I am thankful for forgiveness from God and for forgiving others.  I am thankful for my friends, even if they live far off.  I am thankful for my life and all of my worldly possessions.  I am thankful for God showing me what His will is for my life. I am thankful for my daughter and my son and my husband.  I am thankful for my mom and my Christian family.  I am thankful for the persecution I received from that pastor.  I am thankful for Andrew Wommack being used by God to share the truth!  I am so thankful for God changing my heart and for changing my husband's heart and making our marriage a Godly marriage and a blessing to our family.  I am thankful for God giving us all the tools we need to be successful and in authority in this world.  I love you God!  Thank you for all you have done for me!  You are so giving and forgiving!

⁶ As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

⁷ Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

⁸ Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Colossians 2:6-8

     

Blessings God Provided

I wanted to blog about some of the material blessings God has given us.  Today He gave me some good deals on bakeware.  

This was only $6.88.  It had been 23 dollars originally.   

I can use it to make small loaves to give to people.  

This was only 11 dollars.  It was originally 37 dollars.

I like that the large pan is deeper than the standard glass dishes I normally bake in.

         He also gave me a good deal on extra ramekins.  I got four for $1.18 each, instead of $3.99 each.  Yay!  I am going to use those for flan, pudding, pot pies, you name it.
      I am a little unsure about the mini loaves pan because it says oven safe to 375 when I usually bake bread at 425.  I am not sure about that.  I may return or regift it.  Can I just bake the bread at a lower temp?  How do you do the Fahrenheit symbol on the computer?  Questions, questions....

    Here is a blessing that we got last year.  It is our new used dining room set.  6 chairs, a table, with two leaves.  It was only $60 dollars!   It even came with the chair cushions which were brand new. Praise God!
    We have also gotten two deep freezers, at different times, each for 75 dollars. One was an upright that needed a little cleaning and a little touch up paint.  And one was commercial chest freezer. Great deals that God provides when you trust on Him!

Hmm

    I am very thankful for the attitude of wanting to provide that my husband has.  He works hard at his job for us.   I am very thankful for that about him.  That being said.  I am praying that he will seek help from God for his anger.   He is not physically abusive or anything like that.  The anger takes a toll on the family nonetheless.  It spreads and is not edifying in any way.
     My dad was very angry. If he did not have his marijuana he was really mean.  If he did not have marijuana he would drink sometimes and he would always be mean when he drank.  He would wake up angry all the time, too.  So, weekends were never something to look forward to.  He would yell at you to start cleaning before you were even out of bed.  My dad was verbally abusive and not nice to my mom either.  So, I do not do well with angry men.  I do not like being, or living with angry people.
    I am very mellow and happy, for the most part.  I do get angry every now and then.  It is usually when I have asked someone to quit doing something that hurts my feelings and they keep doing it to me.  But my husband seems to have anger as his standard emotion to go to.  I let him know tonight how that is not something I enjoy.  I told him if he loved me he would put an end to acting this way, like my dad, so I can have some peace.  30+ years of angry men is enough for me.  If things do not change soon, then I will have to make a change.  I do not want my children growing up with this kind of environment any longer.  I grew up with it and only wanted men that treated me poorly on a certain level.  The ones that were golden I ended up not staying with.  And that is not right.  I want my daughter to be treated like a princess and her husband to be her prince.  I want her to be adored and honored.  I want her to respect and submit to him.  I want it to be Godly.  I want God to pick her husband.
   Well, I have to go put my son to bed.  I would like to write more...maybe later.

Mini Pecan Pies

     


      I made mini pecan pies this year for Jesus' birthday dessert.  They are really easy to make. I used a double pie crust recipe from my 1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook.  I used a recipe for the pie filling from Robb Walsh.  I adapted the filling a tad, too.
      I never use corn syrup in a pecan pie recipe.  I order Steen's Cane Syrup online.  It is inexpensive.  The prices online include shipping.  I bought 4, 25 ounce cans for $26.50!  It is really good on pancakes, biscuits, and ice cream, too!  It is all natural and made the old fashioned way!  Plus it is local and made in America.  Unlike Lyle's golden syrup which is made using a chemical process and is made overseas.

Pie Crust

2 cups sifted all purpose flour
mixed together with 1 tsp. salt
Cut in 2/3 cup room temp or cold butter.  Do 1/3 cup first until the pieces are like a coarse grain.  Then do the last 1/3 until those pieces are like large peas.  This makes the pie flaky and tender.
Sprinkle with 4 tbsp. water.
Gather the dough together and press into a ball. Divide in two and wrap each disc in plastic wrap and put in the fridge until ready to use.


Pecan Pie Filling

1/3 cup butter melted over med. low heat with
1 tsp salt, 1 cup packed light brown sugar, and one 1 cup cane syrup until it is smooth.  Stir while cooking it.
Sit mixture in a bowl that will let it cool off.  Then add 3 eggs, already mixed up, and 1-2 tsp. vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of cognac or vsop brandy.  Mix until blended through. (the original recipe says to mix for ten minutes! That is overkill and not needed at all. Thanksgiving I made two pies, one with the crazy mixing and one without.  No difference in finished product except lost time and a burnt out hand mixer...lol.)  If you are making mini pies then add 2/3 cup chopped pecans.  If making a regular pie, add 1.5 cups of regular pecans.  Then mix again by hand.

To make the mini pies, roll out one disc of the dough.  It will make exactly 12 mini pies using a regular muffin tin.  Do not use non stick, as it is dark and will cause the pies to burn on the crust.  Plus non stick is toxic as heck.  Use a shiny pan.  DO NOT GREASE PANS.  Use a biscuit cutter and take the disc and put into the muffin hole and push down and around the sides.  Squish it up the sides and fix any tears you make.  Reroll dough until you are done with the 12 mini crusts.
Next, ladle the pie filling into each crust.  Leave a small amount of head space.  They will expand a small amount.  Then place a few whole pecans on top of each mini pie.  Push the pecans into the filling.
Put the mini pies into a preheated 425 degree oven.  After 5 minutes, drop the temp to 350 and cook until they are done.  They will be firmer to the touch in the middle, not all wobbly dobbly, and when a knife inserted into the middle it will come out with bits that are more solid and less liquidy.  It will take less than 45 minutes, but more than 25.  The pies will not get black on top.  This is over cooked.  The crust will be light brown...maybe a light medium brown.  But they will not overcook either in the muffin tins.  They are really easy to remove, too. You will notice when they are done, the crust starts to pull away from the sides, too.  Just run a knife around the edge to catch any little bits and pop them out.!  Reminds me of the ones I would buy in the store, but so much better tasting and better for you!

I used my extra pie filling, that was left over, with the second disc of dough and made a small pie with a meatloaf pan I had.  Very tasty.

     

Thank you for your bounty oh Lord

      This weekend we made two kinds of marmalade.  One is a Five Fruit Marmalade.  It has limes (my favorite), lemons, tangerines, oranges, and grapefruit in it.  The second one is Pineapple Lemon Marmalade.  Interesting difference in the recipes.  The 5 Fruit called for cooking the rinds and then removing, thus adding a bitterness to the marmalade.   But the Pineapple Lemon called for discarding the rinds altogether.  So that marmalade is actually very sweet and tastes like a jam!  Which is excellent for those who normally do not like marmalades.  I am going to make a grapefruit marmalade next and probably keep the rinds out so it is not bitter.  I like the zest in...that is tasty!

The 5 Fruit, fruits, about to be finely blended and added to the pot.

The rinds and zest cooking for the 5 Fruit Marmalade.

This is the Pineapple Lemon Marmalade cooking.

All done!  Both batches standing together for a photo.

      I am very thankful for all God has given me.  I am so blessed.  I am a fool every time I complain.

Cross-stitch patterns for free

    I was looking for a website that offers cross-stitch patterns.  I like this one, cross stitch club , and was able to download a couple of free patterns when I signed up.  After the first few you have to decide if you want to recruit your friends and earn more points, like I am with the above link, or you can sign up and pay to access all the patterns for free.  I do not cross stitch enough to need a monthly subscription.  But if you do, I recommend this site. It is very diverse and the pattern I downloaded was very good quality and very detailed.  I am happy with it and am going to use it to make a little something for my neighbor's new born son.

Where did it go?

      Lately I have been making a lot of canned goods.  Jellies, jams, and syrups to be exact.  I made up a bag of these goodies, with explanation of the types and what they are good for and donated them to my daughter's school's fall festival.  They were supposed to be auctioned but ended up not there at all.  Where did my donation go I wonder?  I have emailed the teacher to find out.  That is ridiculous to donate something and have people either eat it themselves or who knows what with it.  My husband thinks they may have put it in the cake walk.  Even though it was not a cake or a dessert.  Hmm.  I had jalapeno jelly, rosemary jelly, muscadine jelly, and mexican chocolate syrup put in the bag.