Darkness and Light

"What fellowship has light with darkness?"  1 Corinthians 6:14

John heard me squeal with delightto find so much development in my herbs this morning!  Just look!  My mother is a farmer at heart and has always loved dirt and plants and being in her garden.  I was convinced that I just didn't have it in me.  When I used to think of gardening, I thought of squatting in the burning sun filling my fingernails with dirt to pull up some weeds which were only going to sprout again next week.  But I love the benefits of fresh, homegrown vegetables too much to write it off entirely.  And now, now I am beginning to learn personally about this plant-love.  :-)

My Cilantro is Sprouting!

Can you see the bit of green in the pot on the right?  Well, maybe not, but I can and it is soooo exciting!  Fresh, free cilantro in the winter!

These two herb kits were gifts at our southern shower and I finally planted them about a week ago.  The parsley is supposed to take about twice as long as the cilantro to sprout, so it's biding its time.  And for now, my herblings are soaking up the sunny weather we've been having!  Once it cools, I'll bring them back to the kitchen window and see how they do.  :-)

Monday on Cottage Lane

I thought it might be fun to participate in "A Peek Into Your Day," hosted by a website which I've followed for years.

So, here is what happened on Monday, Oct. 26! It was a pretty typical day. John and I, joyful newlyweds of three months, have been settling into our new home and trying to settle into a good routine. However, with the flexibility of John's job, there are many mornings when it's hard to get up early! This morning, by the time we rose, showered, and were ready for the day, it was about 10.

John had already migrated to his workstation (i.e. couch and laptop!) when I was finished getting ready and was checking last night's game results (The Burchetts are all diehard Yankees fans!) results online, so I decided to try to make the most of the time by stripping the bed and draping the comforter over the chairs in the sunroom to air.

Mondays are for laundry and clean sheets! While I love doing laundry and can happily keep it going all day, I do not love cleaning, so I've tried assigning a room or two to clean to every day of the week, Monday through Saturday. Monday's room is our bathroom, which is usually pretty dirty after a week! But I'll start that later. John's ready to read.

Every morning since we've been married, we've started our mornings like this.  John reads a section from Matthew and J.C. Ryle's comments on it.  We pray together briefly, and then I ask him what he wants for breakfast.  "Waffles!"

I was quite excited to receive a waffle iron as a shower gift!  In fact, waffles and fried ham were the first meal I made for John in our house.  On that sweltering evening, I carried our two plates with pot-covers on them into the sunroom to eat.  That meal wasn't fabulous, but since then, I've settled on a waffle recipe from my mom, who received it from my great-aunt.  You throw everything in the blender and then just pour out one waffle at a time onto the iron!  While the waffles are cooking, I trim the fat off two pieces of bacon, and throw it in the freezer with the stash I've been saving for our suet feeder.  Once the bacon is frying, I set the breakfast table, tossing light, crispy waffles onto our plates as they finish cooking.  Thankfully, I have time to clean up my cooking utensils before it's all ready to go.  "Breakfast is ready, sweetie!"

We pray and eat together, then I kiss John and send him back to "the office." 

Now it's time for me to clean up breakfast!  John has already loaded his own plate and fork into the dishwasher, so it doesn't take me long.  I return to our room to put on some makeup, pull my hair back and sort the laundry.  We have more than usual this week because we had company last week!  But I love doing laundry and quickly throw in a load.

The next part of the day is one of my favorites.  The kitchen is clean but still a little dark and chilly, so I layer on some wool socks and light a candle before settling onto my stool at the breakfast table with my Bible.  A few years ago, I received the 1599 Geneva Bible as a gift.  It's the first Bible I've ever had with study notes in it, and I've been reading slowly through it ever since, alternating books from the Old and New Testaments.  Right now, I'm in Psalms, and today I'm up to Psalm 45.  It's amazing how a song about King Solomon is simulatenously a prophecy about Christ . . .

After some prayer time of my own, I write out a belated birthday card for my Grandma and then start on the day's thank you notes.  I'm still working on thank you notes from our wedding, but my goal is to write five each day!  In the meantime, the washing machine finishes, and I change a load.

After my letter work is done, I head upstairs to check my e-mail, getting called outside in the middle to see John's finished project:  a repaired outdoor faucet! 

Some more laundry later, and it's time for lunch.  We're simple folks when it comes to lunch; John usually requests peanut butter and jelly and I prefer leftovers.  I make his sandwich, heat some beans and rice for me, and cut up an apple for both of us.  We eat together in his "office" and spend some special time together. 

After cleaning up lunch, I make up the bed with fresh sheets and turn the iron on to heat so I can iron the pillowcases.  The comforter can air a bit longer.  Heading back to the kitchen, I set the timer to check the iron in five minutes and set water on to boil to start tonight's supper.  The laundry is still going, too!  The timer goes off, but the iron is still not ready, so I head back to the kitchen and my sister, Heidi calls!  She and my brother, Derek, have rescued a kitten named Kenya, and Heidi is calling to give me an update on his vet visit today!  Meanwhile, I'm putting together "Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese," a recipe I'm trying for the first time, in hopes that it will be done as we get home from choral society rehearsal tonight. 

I return to the bedroom to iron the pillow cases and finish making the bed.  Time is getting short, but I'm able to take the decorative items out of the bathroom, clean the toilet bowl, mirror and sink, and snack on some lemon-meringue pie!  There's not enough time to finish the bathroom cleaning properly, but it can wait for tomorrow.  John is about ready to go to the gym, so I change into gym clothes and pack our music and some snacks. 

By 5:30, we're on our way to the gym, and by six, we're on the machines lifting!  I know my physical therapist-sister that weight-bearing exercise is important for women, and I'm thankful to have John to lift with!  After two rounds of machines, we head back to the car for some carrot sticks and a granola bar for John (I already had pie, remember?!)  Choral society starts at 7:30 and today is the first time that we've been early! 

After about an hour and a half of lilting Christmas carols and too much time on Dvorak's Requiem (which is beautiful but extremely high for me), our director lets us out, late, at 9:45.

John suggests that we stop at Cookout for their famous uber-thick milkshakes on our way home, and he knows that his sweets-loving wife will have no objections, even though we haven't really had dinner yet!  John orders chocolate peanut butter and I order strawberry cheesecake.  Yum!

My worst fear on the way home is that I forgot to turn the crock pot on while I was talking to Heidi, but we enter the door to the delicious smell of onions and cheese, so my fears are laid to rest!  John returns to the living room to check his work e-mail while I make some quick salads of romaine and raisins, dressing mine with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  I pour the water, and we eat together on the couch.  John suggests a Klondike bar, but I know that I've already had more than my share of sugar for the day, so he alone eats while we watch an episode of The Office before bed.

Tomorrow I can finish cleaning the bathroom and folding the clean clothes, but for tonight, there is nothing quite like falling asleep next to a good man after a full and happy day.  :-) 

Muffin-Love

On Sunday, John and I celebrated our one-fourth anniversary. (It does bug me a little to hear expressions like "three-month anniversary" since the word's roots are "year" and "turn." It only makes sense if the context uses years. But that's a post for another day. :-)) We celebrated with lemon meringue pie, which I haven't made in married life until now! One thing I've had to humbly realize in my few months of adventurous housewifery is how much I still have to learn about cooking and baking. I thought I had a pretty good handle on it, but then I've never had the privilege of cooking at this volume before!

I am confident with muffins. I love muffins! John loves blueberry muffins and chocolate muffins, but I love muffins in general, and since we were having our first overnight company last week (two batches back to back!), it seemed like a perfect opportunity to make some.

Our second batch of company was coming on Friday night, so I baked these on Friday for Saturday morning. Unfortunately, the only one left I have promised to John, but I thought I'd share the recipe and tips I've learned anyway.

This "Sweet Muffins" recipe I used throughout college, and it comes from the Fortsville United Methodist Cookbook. Mom has this book, and my Aunt Sue thrilled me by giving me a copy at our Smith-family bridal shower!


"Sweet Muffins

1 egg
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. salad oil
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin pans. Beat egg; stir in milk and oil. Mix in remaining ingredients just until flour is moistened; batter should be lumpy. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown; sprinkle with sugar."



That's the recipe word-for-word, barring any typos, but here is what my great aunt taught my mom who taught me to do differently.

First of all, when possible, the wet ingredients should all be room temperature. I usually measure the milk into a liquid measuring cup and set it and the egg out on the counter a couple of hours ahead of time, when possible. I find that 375 is sufficiently hot for the oven. I think Mom only uses 350, but my muffins come out wonderfully golden at 375 for 20 minutes. Pam makes greasing muffins pans a breeze, though of course papers are ok, too. When it's time to start the wet ingredients, I measure the oil and crack the egg right into the measuring cup with the milk and beat them all with a fork. I combine all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. These muffins had apples and pecans (which were on sale, yay!) in them, but I use the same recipe with blueberries, banana, etc. Banana I would whisk into the wet ingredients, but pretty much everything else I stir into the dry at this point in the recipe, then dump the wet into the dry and truly stir only a little bit. Sometimes there are even still lumps of flour in places when I'm scooping the batter into the muffin cups, but it still comes out wonderful! Oh, and it's ok to fill the the muffin cups all the way! That's how we get our beautiful (imho) cobbly muffin tops. It does, however, mean that instead of getting a dozen muffins per batch I only get 6 or 7, depending on how much extra fruit I've added. Since these were company muffins, I also added a cinnamon/sugar/flour/butter streusel topping that I read about in my Southern Living cookbook.

Verdict? They were good. :-) And now, courtesy of Proverbs 16:18, my next batch will probably fall.

Gretchen enters John's world!

Hello, world. This is John's new wife speaking.

Less than a month after his last post in January, 2008, our relationship became official. For the next several months, it became clear that God was leading us to one another, and we became engaged on 10/09/08, an exciting number for two math-lovers in addition to being John's 30th birthday. And nearly three months ago now, we were married in the little church where we both grew up by our dear, dear Pastor. As a new, joyful member of married life, I have now "hacked" into John's blog and purpose to take up blogging myself . . . you can expect some very feminine-minded posts in the days ahead. But I'll ask my husband's permission before I officially start. [I don't think he'll mind. He's just that kind of guy. :-)]

Baked beans and spam, O signal of bachelorhood, I salute you . . . I salute you goodbye!