The Master Baker

...or the One Who can bring beauty from brokenness, life from ashes, healing from frailty, strength from weakness. We received the following in an email today, and it reminded me of a similar post I wrote last year: Theology and Cake.

Sometimes we wonder, "What did I do to deserve this?" or "Why did God have to do this to me?" Here is a wonderful explanation!

A daughter is telling her mother how everything is going wrong: she's failing algebra; her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away. Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, "Absolutely, Mom, I love your cake."

"Here, have some cooking oil," her Mother offers.

"Yuck," says her daughter.

"How about a couple raw eggs?"

"Gross, Mom!"

"Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?"

"Mom, those are all yucky!"

To which the mother replies: "Yes, all those things seem bad by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!"

Let us continue learning to trust Him!

Fair Snapshots, Part 2

Women's Farm Bureau Stand: the only place at the Fair (I think) that you can get fresh-baked pie!

Me busy at the register (one of my near-full-time jobs)


A braid I did on Mrs. S, which she christened "The Sarah". :) I've taken to carrying my hair supplies with me wherever I go, since there's almost always an opportunity to make a young or near-young lady happy. ;)


Another view


She's real, all right... we think :)



Veronica making a cone... making them was her favorite part, and she kept telling the rest of us that we "needed some ice cream" (made by her, of course)



Adding chocolate



No one leaves the stand thirsty if we can help it!



Sarah and Mrs. S diving into some pie


Mrs. S's son, a "sleeping pink turtle" across some chairs in the dining room at 7 in the morning :o)

Turkey Soup Recipe

Well, no one expressly asked for it, but I thought I'd post it anyway...and maybe a few of you who've never had turkey soup will enjoy trying something new!

HOMEMADE TURKEY SOUP

From: The Halbur Kitchen

Directions for homemade broth:
Cook 1 large turkey in your roaster or pan with water in the bottom covering half the turkey. After the turkey is cooked, pour off the broth. To make extra broth, save all the turkey bones, skin, etc. Place turkey waste in a large pot, cover with water and slow cook for 6 to 8 hours. (We usually cook ours overnight and wake up to turn it off). Pour off broth and discard waste. If you desire low-fat broth, let all broth chill in your refrigerator until set. The fat will float to the top and harden. It can then be easily discarded.

Ingredients:
Add the following measurements of ingredients to about 8 cups of broth. If you have more than 8 cups, you can just add more of each ingredient. Some people may like to add more or less of each ingredient anyway, depending whether they want more broth in their soup or more stock. Therefore, the following is a guideline.

- 2 cups brown rice or noodles (If rice, add as soon as you start cooking soup. If using noodles, add 10 minutes before soup is done.)
- 1 large chopped onion
- 6 or more cloves of fresh garlic
- 2 cups cut-up turkey meat
- 3 cups largely cut carrots
- 2 cups chopped celery
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste
- "Mrs. Dash" seasoning OR "Pleasoning"
- Other favorite soup seasonings if desired
Note: No MSG or boullion is needed for a good turkey flavor if you make your own broth.

Variations:
1 to 2 cups of the following ingredients can be added to your soup. We have tried them all, and have found that any or all of them are very tasty.

- Green peas (add at the end otherwise they’ll get mushy)
- Grated zucchini
- Chopped broccoli
- Chopped cauliflower
- Chopped green beans
- Any of your other favorite vegetables

Cooking Directions:
Add all ingredients and simmer soup until carrots are soft. If you used rice, is should be soft as well as broccoli, cauliflower, etc. We usually serve the soup with cheese and crackers. Note: We often freeze our leftover soup in labeled plastic containers...a great "instant" meal and a much healthier alternative to TV dinners. :)

Makes 8 to 12 servings.

Poll for Fun: Sopa de Pavo!

In addition to my sister's cake last night, I was kept busy for several hours cooking up a gigantic batch of turkey soup. That's right, turkey soup (sopa de pavo, as we had fun referring to it with our Spanish friends).

You can laugh, but for me, turkey soup has been a part of my growing up. So has turkey-eating all year round, for that matter! So it wasn't until recently that I realized most folks...haven't. Don't ask me why. Neither the visiting friend, the piano student who came for a lesson, nor the person I spoke with on the phone last night had ever heard of, much less tasted, turkey soup.

So, it being Thanksgiving week and all, I thought we should have a little fun here. How many of you lovely blog readers have heard of turkey soup before...or tried it? Leave a comment! Or maybe we're not isolated, and it's a long-standing family dinner for you, too. Let us know. :-)

And just maybe, if you ask, I'll post our special recipe so you can have a scrumptious way to use up all your leftovers on Thursday!

Theology and Cake

Last night, as my sister mixed a big double-batch of our favorite Chocolate Zucchini Cake, a friend who happened to be visiting looked at the bowl's flour-and-cocoa-and-oil-mountain and jestingly quipped, "That doesn't look like much!".

But we all know, of course, that somehow -- almost magically! -- all those various ingredients poured together, mixed up, and baked, will come out all right. Even wonderful.

It's a little like us. We don't look like much sometimes, but the Master Maker keeps smiling and adding, mixing and fixing, stirring and sweetening. And we have to trust at the end, we'll come out all right.

Even wonderful.