Last weekend I finally watched Julie and Julia. I don’t know why I let the DVD sit around my house for three weeks before watching it, because I love it! I think I am a lot like Julie was before she started spending a year preparing Julia Child recipes. I love to cook, but don’t always step outside my comfort zone in terms of what I prepare. Cooking is definitely an escape for me. As Julie mentioned early on in the film…

“Chocolate cream pie! You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That’s such a comfort.” – Julie Powell, Julie & Julia

Anyway, yesterday I made Beef Bourguingon. (Note the photo above was taken by my husband, because he said it just looked “French.”) That statement in itself is huge. First, it’s a French meal. I’ve never made anything French (unless you count french fries, which I don’t think you do). Second, it takes five hours to prepare. Yes,  you read that correctly: five hours.

Why did I embark on this ridiculous venture? I had always thought Julia Child to be a frumpy old women who cooked in a way that was beyond my reach. Learning about her life has taught me that I couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Julia Child was a housewife searching for “something to do” with herself while her husband was at work. She tried various other “tasks” that were common among women of her age and social stature, but just couldn’t bring herself to really enjoy hat-making and the like. But she loved food. She joined a class of stooty men at Le Cordon Bleu (i.e., fancy French culinary school) and worked her tail off.

Then, she spent several years writing a cook book to help housewives in American learn the art of French cooking.

This is evident in the very first recipe I selected to try from her cookbook: Beef Bourguinon. It’s not a recipe that uses an expensive cut of meat. On the contrary, it uses 3lbs of “stewing beef” which I picked up for about $6 (on sale). The rest of the ingredients are likely to be found in most well-stocked pantries (save for the red wine maybe). The three cups of wine, coupled with the lengthy cooking time, turned the cheap meat into a fork-tender, rich and flavorful meal.

I learned a couple of other things along the way…

1) Mushrooms aren’t that bad. You may not believe this, but before yesterday I had never eaten (knowingly) a mushroom before. Never (on purpose). I always told people I didn’t care for them. But really that just meant this: I think they look gross and really don’t want to let one anywhere near my mouth. But I did it – I bought the mushrooms called for in the recipe and actually included them (there’s a first time for everything I guess). And… they weren’t that bad! I’m not dying to put mushrooms in my ice cream or anything, but I certainly won’t pass them up the next time they are offered.

2) American cooking is sweet. I have always heard that before, but never really understood it until now. This meal had absolutely no sweetness to it whatsoever. It was earthy, filling, and rich, in a way totally different than the meals we usually eat. Even when we dine out, our meals usually have some sort of “sweetness” to them. Being so accustomed to that sweetness, this was a bit of a surprise to our systems.

3) You shouldn’t touch a pan that just came out of the oven without some sort of hand protection (i.e., an oven mitt). Enough said.

Finally, I have a new appreciation for this women who dedicated most of her adult life to bringing French cuisine into the lives of typical American women. I look forward to continuing my journey outside of my culinary comfort zone. In fact, this week I plan to try something else I’ve never attempted: poaching an egg. Crazy, I know .

Over the holidays we received a letter from a missionary family in Nicaragua that made us think. Usually, we read support letters (really we do) and then eventually place them in the circular file… but this one is still on my desk after two months (and that’s not because it got lost under a pile of clutter). I figured I should share the letter to see what you think.

Nicaragua is often mentioned in negative tones. A majority of the population lives on less than $2 per day. Education and health needs are always in a critical state of failure. Our current government has aligned itself with Hugo Chavez and others who are opposed to freedom and liberty. Our roads are full of potholes, fuel prices are high, running a simple errand can be exhausting and one’s car takes a beating here. Personal safety and protection is a major concern when you visit some neighborhoods. All of Managua’s trash is dumped into the lake of it’s own namesake. All of these concerns can lead one to ask, is there any hope? What about the things of God? What of the future? Is there something we can’t see in all of this?

Contrasting the obvious woes of this country with the good things of the United States is an easy task. North American roads are wonderful, well planned and clearly marked. You never see an armed guard stationed outside of a pharmacy or grocery store. Even though the U.S. is in a recession, restaurants are full, football games are sold out and the average salary is really good compared to here. Most lawns are manicured, each home has running water and indoor plumbing, lots of food in the pantry, the freezer is full and the electrical grid is stable. The average family has two cars. In general, everything is very organized. Leading one to think, these people have the kingdom of God! But, is there something lacking in all of these good things?

This leads to a concluding question, which country is more spiritually free? Nicaragua has voted consistently to keep abortion illegal – it is considered murder here. Each September, the Day of the Bible is celebrated. There are many parades and public readings of the Holy Scriptures – Genesis through Revelation. Easter is our most cherished holiday! Businesses and schools are prayed over for God’s blessings. If you took a poll on the street asking the question, “Who is Lord?” The overwhelming reply would be Jesus Christ.

In North America the Bible has been taken out of schools and special permits are needed to even talk about God in schools and in the workplace. Abortion is America’s holocaust and is the slaughter of the innocents. Christians have been forced to keep their religion private. If you went to a local mall and asked the question, “Who is Lord?” I would imagine for every ten questions you would get ten different answers.

Maybe part of the answer to this dichotomy could be that even though North America seems to have the physical aspects of the kingdom of God, they have forgotten their King! Nicaragua, a nation battered, bruised and classified as a third-world country, but she still remembers her King. In this there is much hope for this nation. The future belongs to the people of God.

- The Buzbee Family

Another foster parent suggested I check out a new show airing on Monday nights on the CW. I missed it live, but was able to catch the pilot on cw.com. It’s a show called Life Unexpected, about a 15-year-old girl named Lux who has floated through seven different foster homes without ever achieving the holy grail of the foster care system: permanency.

The show picks up a few days before Lux’s 16th birthday, as she meets her birth parents for the first time in an attempt to seek emancipation from the foster care system. (Somehow they never actually signed away their rights permanently some 15 years ago, but let’s suspend belief on that part for a few minutes.)

The judge at the emancipation hearing essentially tells her to try to make things work with her birth parents now that they are back in her life, given that she has no source of income or permanent housing. It’s all a bit far-fetched, but yet somehow I found myself sucked into the story pretty quickly. In fact… I might even admit to shedding a few tears over the whole thing. (Anyone who knows me, knows how much foster kids can pull at my heart-strings.)

Although the whole “get-back-with-your-birth-parents-15-years-later” story is out there, the fact is there are tons of teenage kids caught in the foster care system without any real sense of permanency. Aside from being entertaining, I hope this show can help shed some light on the need for families for these kids. In the meantime, I will be tuning in each Monday night to see how things turn out for Lux.

Today I’m borrowing a note from Anita Renfroe (who I’ve commented on previously) that particularly resonated with me this week. I hope it encourages you as well…

The woman to be admired and praised is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God. Give her everything she deserves! Festoon her life with praises! – Proverbs 31:30-31

If you have spent your adult life trying to live up to the mothering standard set in the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs (and I know some women do), you might as well just go ahead and take up permanent residence in the I-Can’t-Quite-Measure-Up Lane. We are left with the impression that this sort of mother in the Approved Standard Version – family centered, good business women, great cook, generous, prepared, discreet, praiseworthy, wise, and beautiful.

This is precisely why I am glad the Bible gives us pictures of other kinds of mothers as well – like Eve, who made the monumental, mind-blowing, affects-everybody-forever mistake or Rebekah, who schemed and connived to push her ‘favorite’ son ahead of his brother. She reminds us that it is a dangerous thing to use maternal power for manipulation.

These moms reveal to us that mother-love is fierce and stubborn to a fault – even wrong-headed sometimes. We do right things for wrong reasons and wrong things because we think everyone needs our help. When you look at the moms in the Bible, say a silent prayer of thanks that these women are included alongside the Oracle of Lemuel in Proverbs 31 to bring snapshots of reality and spiritual caution cones to our journey.

- Anita Renfroe (If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Your Mother)

Well if that’s not inspiring, I don’t know what is! I mean come on… we may think we’re terrible mothers, but have any of us made a mistake so terrible it affected ALL OF MANKIND?! I think not .

I am frequently asked how to achieve certain stylized effects with photographs. When I respond with my typical “I use Photoshop,” most people aren’t impressed. It’s not that they dislike Photoshop, but that they don’t have access to it (i.e., it’s expensive) and/or don’t know how to use it.

So when I came across Rollip, I figured it was worth sharing. Rollip is a tool that offers cool photo effects online, so you don’t have to purchase or learn how to use Photoshop. Instead, you simply select the desired effect and upload your photo. You are then given the option to download a web-quality version, or purchase a high-quality version ($2.99 for 15 photos).

I tried a couple of effects – vintage, line drawing, and so on – to see how it worked. For the average mom playing around with pictures of her kids, I think it would work quite well. Check it out at www.rollip.com. Happy filtering!