Year: 2010

The Power of a Praying Wife: Chapter 1 – His Wife

By: Hallee

This chapter was by far the longest chapter in the book, and it was so clear that I had a, “Duh!” moment reading it. Early in the chapter, Stormie says, “When you pray for your husband, especially in the hopes of changing him, you can surely expect some changes. But the first changes won’t be in him. They’ll be in you…God sees things we don’t. He knows where we have room for improvement. He doesn’t have to search long to uncover attitudes and habits that are outside His perfect will for us.”

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A Cup of Coffee with My Daughter

By: Hallee

This is one of my favorite coffee cups.

It’s an ugly orange-brown that doesn’t match any other cup in my kitchen. It was probably purchased at the Dollar Tree or somewhere in bulk.

Wholehearted Service

By: Hallee

Hundreds of pastors, music leaders, choir members, church goers filled the rooms of our church. They came to meet each other, find old friends, meet new ones, get encouragement, revivement, counsel. And the speakers did not disappoint. They were simply astounding. I cannot even describe it. I was disappointed when I had to leave, sad that the two days were over. I would love to have it go on day after day, even though I understand that it simply cannot. We’re not called to stay amongst ourselves, preaching and practicing holiness — we’re called to be out in the world, living it.

Easy Cheesy Chili Empanaditas

By: Hallee

This is an amazing dish. The pastry is so light and buttery that it nearly melts in your mouth. The cheese combined with the chilies is a remarkable flavor. They can be an appetizer for a Cinco de Mayo celebration, or a delicious and savory treat for lunch.

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Wonderful Whole Wheat Sopapillas

By: Hallee

I have a good friend who asked me to make whole wheat sopapillas, so I’ve been researching recipes. I finally came up with one that will please all of us “real food” minded mamas. Sopapilla means “little pillow” and can be used in a savory dish much like a tortilla or a pita bread. For this dish, I used them as a breakfast bread and drizzled them with honey. They were beyond amazing. A wonderful breakfast to kick of a Cinco de Mayo celebration.

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Festive Tres Leches Cake

By: Hallee

A beautiful finish to any festive Cinco de Mayo celebration. Tres leches means three milk – so this translate to “Three Milk Cake.” This actually blends the idea of a three-milk cake from Latin American tradition with a rum cake from Puerto Rican tradition.

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Emergency Substitution: Sweetened Condensed Milk

By: Hallee

Sometimes when you find you didn’t have great planning and took advantage of a relatively well stocked pantry that didn’t end up being as well stocked as you thought, and when you’re baking a cake at 5:00 in the morning and you have two sleeping toddlers upstairs and a husband in Afghanistan, and it’s not really convenient to run to the store to grab that one pantry item you need right now, it’s nice to know that there is a possible emergency substitution. (heh) This happened to me. As I was making Tres Leches Cake for Cinco de Mayo, I went to put together my “three milks” and discovered I didn’t have any sweetened condensed milk. Normally, I would have just set the cake aside to do later, but the milk needs to be added to the cake while it’s still warm, and at 5AM, there was no way I could do it. So, I discovered a good sweetened condensed milk substitution. The cake tasted fantastic, so I’m calling this one a success.

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Wordless Wednesday: Got Some Rambunctious Toddlers?

By: Hallee

What to do with three bored toddlers.

Recipe Inspirations

By: Hallee

When we were in Florida on Spring Break a couple of weeks ago, I was watching television. This is not something I do at home. We don’t have cable or one of those boxes that replaced antenas. I have an HD TiVo that can pick up PBS and CBS, which helps since the boy watch some PBS, but other than that I watch DVD’s. Consequently, it had been quite some time since I’d seen a commercial. So I was watching television and this commercial came on — something about, “Need inspiration for dinner?” That got my attention so I looked at the screen and watched a commercial for this:

Parenting

Big Boy: A Mamarazzi Monday Post

By: Hallee

The only thing he doesn’t seem to like about it is that his head is facing the opposite direction of his crib.

He and Scott share a room. The second night in the new bed, they snuck out of bed and quietly played with their toys. I likely wouldn’t have caught them if they hadn’t have started fighting. I put them back to bed and told them not to get back out again, and five minutes later they were both asleep.