Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Of Tomorrow's What-We-Had (Today)

Happy Birthday, Leap Year 'babies'!!


The other morning dawn drew back night's shutters with a spectacular, balmy 'hello'...



...but there was something sort of ominous in its unseasonably warm temperatures 
and billowy thunderheads.

And small wonder! A thunder-hailstorm was brewing!!






Yesterday we woke to still-mild temps but by
the afternoon the mercury plummeted and frigid gales meant business!



And so, winter is back...



but not for long!


But whatever the weather, let's celebrate Today because
it will never be again!

Time offers no rerun
Today's burgeoning sphere
Of 'nothing new under the sun'
Is temporary, dear
 
Whatever today grants
Where dawn kicks up its heels
Is but a one-time song-and-dance 
That twilight always seals/steals 

Then rejoice and be glad
Whatever fills today
Will be tomorrow's 'what-we-had'
Before it slipped away

© Janet Martin

So far 'what -I-had' consists of sweet morning with grandsonny...
(it never gets old; bird-watching or watching tots watch birds😘)



...and lunch with daughter, providing the perfect excuse for a sumptuous salad!
I dubbed it Leap-Day Celebration Salad!



Leap Day Celebration Salad

3 cups oven-roasted or air-fried butternut squash cubes 
tossed with olive oil salt and pepper, and pinch of parsley flakes 

Rinse one cup quinoa
Strain in sieve.
Bring to boil in 2 cups water.
Reduce heat enough to keep it simmering.
Cook uncovered till water is gone
then turn off and cover for 5-7 min.
Fluff with fork.
Add a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper
a few cloves of fresh-pressed garlic.

cool quinoa and squash 
then place desired amounts on a bed of
your choice of greens.
Top with 1/2 pomegranate seeds,
(thinly sliced/diced apple or pear can be sub.)
1/3 cup feta cheese
1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
I small red onion finely chopped and 
mixed with 2 stalks celery finely chopped

Toss and serve with a dressing of
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. veg oil
2 tbsp. honey or maple syrup
11/2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
(or 1 tsp. white vinegar and 1 balsamic)
bit of crushed dried parsley (optional) 


Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Homemaker's Prayer



Last night I started reading this book.
 (lent to me by a friend who knew I would love it, and I do!)
I fell in love with it from the first paragraph (pictured below)! 
reflections on the value of home, 
timeless good advice for homemakers,
 prayers, stories and recipes
connected to the stories!


In the first chapter, (written in the '60's) she is contemplating the 
increasing breakdown of homes,  the foundation of strong nations!
Even more relevant now! 



Lord, help me to make home a haven of kindness and grace
For nothing else in all the world can take home-sweet-home’s place
Then fit me with Thy joy and strength, fill every task I do
With thankfulness and love, so above all, I honour You

Lord, help me guard the heart of home with fierce, yet tender care
Lest some ruinous habit leaves it in sad disrepair
Keep me aware of what may harm or wreck its shielding wing
For the heart of the home is like a living, breathing Thing

… And never let the barb of discontentment tear a hole
Into the fabric that ought to protect, cheer and console
Lord, when my home begins to feel like a fragile, chipped cup
Still, let no failure foster the temptation to give up

Lord, teach me with humility to tend with mother’s pride
To details that kindle a glow that reaches far and wide
So that, no matter how far from its happy hearth we roam
The flicker of love’s Candlelight instills a sense of home

…and always draws us gladly back to where we long to be
To nourish us with home-sweet-home’s familiarity
Where welcomes are never worn thin, where love attends life’s woes
In, pray what grants a glimpse of Home beyond time’s curtain-close

© Janet Martin


I love how the beginning of the second chapter
 is in sync with the season I am in;
slowly tucking Christmas away, bit by bit


Books like this kindle in me 
a sweet contentment for the domestic 'mundane'  bliss
For things like 
mending...

ironing...

folding laundry...


tidying clutter...



making cabbage rolls...


(enough to freeze some for convenient suppers-for-one))


Cabbage Rolls...



Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.



Monday, January 8, 2024

Living Life To The Full or What a Way To Live!!


No matter how successfully
We gain grandiose boast
If we fail on the scale of love
We fail what matters most

Nothing can take the place of it
No matter who/where we are
In every goal that we pursue
Love sets the highest bar

***

If we ask ourselves if we are loving people I am sure we all
would like to think we would say Yes! Of Course I am loving...
1 Cor.13 puts our quick replies to the test, doesn't it?!!


1 Cor.13:3-5
If I give all I possess to the poor 
and exult in the surrender of my body,a
 but have not love, I gain nothing...

Love is patient, 
love is kind. 
It does not envy, 
it does not boast, 
it is not proud. 
It is not rude, 
it is not self-seeking, 
it is not easily angered, 
it keeps no account of wrongs...


Every day is a test...a love-test, isn't it?!!
It's not hard to love the people and things 
nearest and dearest to our hearts💝💖💕

Hockey-lovin' brothers...






...but what about the vast rest of it?!!
This is my personal challenge today,
 and only for today
because what's the use of straining toward yesterday, 
or tomorrow?!
Life always happens, to all of us
Today!

No matter who or where we are
How fast or slow we climb
To all alike, life sets love's bar
At ‘one day at a time’

No matter how we fret and fuss
Or trust in God, or balk
He doles life’s toll to each of us
In measures of tick-tock

No matter what, we cannot haste
Or slow the steadfast surge
That runs us through with touch and taste
Where past and future merge

Whether the gale is soft or gruff
Whether we push or pull
God fills each day with quite enough
To live love to the full

So, no matter what Today's spree
May scatter in its wake
It will be worth it all if we
Make love its highest stake 

© Janet Martin

'What's that word?' asked Granddaughter.
'What does it mean?' after I told her the word.
It means 'to treasure' I told her, like right now,
 I cherish time with you💖


Cherish the easy loves, for sure, but don't ignore the rest!
Maybe a resolution to refresh at this New Year??

sharing this cherished moment from yesterday...

I baked these rolls; 30 min. Dinner Rolls in the afternoon for
sloppy joes for supper.
While prepping supper my oldest grandson 
was SO hungry so I buttered 1/2 a roll for him
and off he hasted downstairs to where his siblings were playing
smacking his lips 😂💖
no surprise, his sister appeared and I gave her the same and off she went1
Chuckling, I grabbed my camera and waited...not very long!


...around the corner came youngest tot, not for a moment
 questioning whether he would get one too




Saturday, December 9, 2023

Sweet Saturday-morning Skirmish (between Poet and Prudence)



This daily/weekly Saturday morning tango is blissfully
unfamiliar to some, yet, I wouldn't trade it for a world of shiny
'ballroom' floors, as much as I dearly admire and strive to acquire
  brief glossy-floor bliss once in a while!
I try to balance ballads, oops I mean battles
with a bit of both poem and prudence. 😂😅💖

This beautiful battleground is composed of longing to linger on pages 
of past poets/artists



or tackling present responsibilities like prepping for Christmas!
Today's task; homemade chocolate bars



In the above recipe to clarify amounts;
 approx. 8-9 cups rice krispies, 2 cups peanuts and 11/2 cups coconut.)

Sometimes the battle is a toss-up between
pausing without pressure to percolate in the pure pleasure
of God's poetry in every season...

Whether gray...


...or gold!



...or vacuuming and fussing over delightful details
because Victoria is having friends 
over for a Christmas party this weekend!


Sweet Saturday Skirmish💓💓💓

Coffee pot beams with Columbian brew; ready/drained with of extra refills



Coffee pot beams with Columbian brew; ready with extra refills
Duty and Dream dance, a skippety-do; Poet and Prudence clash wills
Wonder is waiting with gifts still unfurled, often where we least suppose
Dawn is deflating night’s slumbering world with a sky full of hellos

Tuning spent ages with notes rearranged in compositions brand new
Learning’s lent pages divinely exchanged by He who loves me and you
Fueling reason with thankful reply for mercy’s replenished fount
Every season chock-full of surprises, too prolific to count

…thus, in the matter of work-to-do lists versus perhaps-poetry
Always a Saturday morning untwists two worlds that cannot agree
One (but a guess) a shining specimen of domestic excellence
One, happiness, pressed like wine from a pen never drained of Imminence

….coffee-pot beams with Columbian prose; ready with refills galore
Poet and Prudence tango, nose to nose ‘cross Saturday’s ballroom-floor
Weathering whispers that spar between ink and plain practicality
Untethering silver rivers that wink into….oh, which will it be

© Janet Martin


And hopefully this is my/our daily prayer;
'So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,
do it all for the glory of God.
1 Cor.10;31

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Now's Love Song or Masterpiece in the Making


Wherever we are at in life, what ever part of the song,
may we learn to trust the Maestro
till the Masterpiece is complete...

My music sheet is a bit messy and paint-splattered  these days...

...hoping to get it a bit more organized today
before a belated birthday supper for Matt tonight!


(finishing this post while waiting for the cocoa-mixture to cool before
I can finish mixing the cake)

Matt's fav; Cocoa Chiffon Cake


This poem niggled beneath my ribs
from drifts of music from noisier
days gone by...


It seeps through heart-shaped holes, through walls weathered and whisper thin
A little like a gong that tolls when dusk is closing in
It gathers missing faces from Bygone’s lost places near
A love song of awareness to embrace the now and here

This is the life. Unfolding not upon yon fairer clime
That morrow is withholding; now is all we have of time
To touch and taste, to hug and kiss, to revel in the thrill
Of a love song we dare not miss as its melodies spill

...while penning lyrics to a tune not fully composed yet
A crescendo of crescent moon, a petal pirouette
A rush of sound and color, a rippling arpeggio
A test of will and valor as we hold, but to let go

A smile-tear-prayer glistened yes-no, a courage-christened leap
Now high, now low, now fast, now slow Now's ballads lilt and weep
To seep through heart-shaped holes, through walls weathered and wonder-worn
Where every gifted half-note tolls with love songs being born

© Janet Martin

Eph.5:15-20

See then that ye walk circumspectly, 
not as fools, but as wise,
16 Redeeming the time, 
because the days are evil.
17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, 
but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; 
but be filled with the Spirit;
19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms 
and hymns 
and spiritual songs, 
singing 
and making melody
 in your heart to the Lord;
20 Giving thanks always for all things 
unto God and the Father 
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;