we . . . love . . . cheese . . . cake!

Todd and I both enjoy desserts -- just a little something sweet to cap off a nice dinner! Trouble is, Todd is very, very conscious of his sugar intake. It's really tough to make a tempting dessert without sugar, so I've been looking for new recipes to tempt his palette! This is one I found a couple of months ago which he's really enjoyed . . .

Easy Cheese Cake - No Sugar Added!

Take a softened, 8-ounce block of light cream cheese (neufchâtel)
and add 1/4 cup of granular Splenda and a generous
2 teaspoons or so of vanilla. (Or, for a bit different taste,
trade out the vanilla for almond extract! Amaretto cheesecake!)

Beat well.

Add 1/2 cup of skim milk and beat until smooth.
Scrape sides of bowl and beat again.

Add 1 cup of skim milk (yes, more milk) and beat until well mixed.

Add 1 4-serving box of Jell-O brand instant pudding
(sugar free, fat free), cheesecake flavor, and mix until
well blended. Mixture will quickly begin to thicken.

Pour about a third of the mix into
pre-prepared graham cracker pie shell.

Add 3/4 cup of your favorite sugar-free jam --
I used Smucker's Cherry Preserves.

Top with remaining 2/3 of the pudding/cream cheese mix.
Smooth top.

Cover and chill for at least four hours.
Serve with sugar-free whipped topping!

YUM!

ps. They released me from the hospital yesterday. Four days and three nights!!! I was so super-shocked at the whole week. I came home yesterday and crawled into bed and slept all afternoon -- I was so exhausted from my stay. LOL! I went to work today, just like the last four days never happened. Crazy. All over a stinkin' spider bite!

For tomorrow? REDWORK!!!

:)

flurries . . .

It's still very cold today. Gray and dreary, with the occasional snow flurry. They keep forecasting temps in the upper 60's this weekend; I'll believe it when I see it. Or even better, when I *feel* it!

Last night Todd & I had Turkey & White Bean Chili. It was super-easy, super-healthy, and very tasty. I halved and tweaked the recipe I used, so of course, it's now my own! We had that with grilled cheese tortillas. Yum. Unfortunately we'd finished off the sugar-free cheesecake on Monday, so that was out!

I miss the Olympics. I miss having decent programming on TV to watch in the evening! :)

I need some quilting handwork to work on at night. I don't have enough variety in projects going on right now! I do have a sampler issue of a crocheting magazine and one of a knitting magazine coming . . . and I just got the Nancy's Notions catalog in the mail, too! If all else fails . . . I shop the night away! Haha!

Todd's dad is doing better; they're keeping him at least for one more night. What he wanted more than anything was sleep, and hospitals are the best place for that. A good night's sleep in his own bed, now that he can breathe again, will do him best!

Tonight I'll investigate an applique or red-work project. Any suggestions???

Toodles!

:)

dinner and dashed hopes . . .

Todd & I enjoyed a lovely evening with Jocelyn & Jason. Joc has done such a marvelous job of making their house a beautiful and comfortable home. Plus Joc sets such a pretty table!! I love the red chargers with her china. Nice! It felt festive and special!

Plus she served yummy food -- Ravioli Soup, garden salad, and wheat rolls. *And* homemade lemonade! Deeee-licious!

Cute domestic moments . . .

This is Joc's baby. Princess Leia is her name. She is beautiful as can be, but mean as spit! Well, to me she is. But she's so darling! I can't resist {trying to} petting her!

But she's even a bit of a pickle with her mom . . . no kisses, mom!

Ah well. The cheesecake I brought was a hit . . . so good it stayed with them! Much to my husband's dismay. It's okay; I promised him I'd make a whole new one just for us! :)

Here's the recipe for it:

Sugar Free Cheesecake

12 oz. Light Cream Cheese, softened
1/3 cup granular splenda
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups skim milk
*2 packages sugar free/fat free instant pudding (any flavor)
*3/4 cup sugar fruit spread (to coordinate with pudding flavor) (I prefer Polander's)
**Graham Cracker Pie Crust

Beat cream cheese, vanilla, and splenda until mix is creamy and smooth. Add milk and continue to beat until well blended. Add both packages of pudding and beat some more until mixture is thickened and smooth.

Spread scant half of mix into graham cracker pie and smooth surface. Spread fruit spread on top. Pour and spread the rest of the cheesecake mix on top to form third layer. Cover and allow to set for at least four hours (over night is better). (NOTE: there is usually TOO much filling for the pie shell. When that happens I pour the mix into 1/2 cup containers and we just eat the filling . . . who really needs the crust anyway?!?)

Cut and serve with sugar free cool whip and a dollop of the fruit spread, if you like!

*Good combinations are chocolate pudding and strawberry or cherry fruit spread; cheesecake pudding and apricot or blackberry or raspberry (or really, any kind of fruit) spread; or vanilla pudding and whatever. I throw in a little almond extract with my vanilla extract, especially with chocolate and vanilla pudding.

**The graham cracker pie crusts are NOT sugar free. The low fat crust has the same amount of sugar (6 grams per serving) as the regular. I used chocolate with my chocolate. :) You can also make your own graham cracker crust; this may cut down on your sugar.

I play around with most recipes I try, just because that's how I roll. This one is no different--or rather, it's quite different from how I originally found it!

A NICE giveaway I found today is over at A Little Bit Biased . . . check it out for yourself!!

Another NICE (and purple-ly) giveaway is happening over at Lila Tueller Designs . . . oh my goodness!!!

Oh yeah, and speaking about giveaways, remember yesterday when I talked about the offer of a sponsor for a giveaway? Total spam/hoax. I had a lovely lady, Kim from Sherrod Studio, who read my blog yesterday on Quilter Blogs.com, and said she'd had a similar experience from the same company that went bad. Ah well.

I'll be my own sponsor. How's that? I'll do a, "I'm a GRANDMA!" giveaway next month.

Yay! I'll be a grandma next month (in TWO weeks)!

Sweet!

:)

this is for the birds . . .

Yesterday morning Todd and I sat at the picture window watching the birds eat breakfast. It was so much fun to watch the jays dive into the corn like kamikaze pilots. I'm not kidding. They fly head-first towards the ground at break-neck speeds, only to pull up and land on their feet at the very last second. And just as the jay gets comfortable in the corn, the red-headed woodpecker swoops down and displaces the jay. Not to eat corn, mind you, but simple to chase off the big ol' blue jay. Then the cardinal (Nick) comes in and flits from feeder to feeder, preening himself between dainty bites of black oil sunflowers seeds. He's such an aristocrat! Then there are the little birds; the sparrows, the wrens, the chickadees, the juncos, and the tufted titmouses (or would that be titmice?) who steadily consume their weight in feed. They make me laugh as they chatter and eat and chatter. And eat and eat and eat! Then two of them will fly swirlies together as if they're twitterpated in the dead of winter. But it's so pretty to watch! The nuthatches do their funny little hop-skip-jump upside down on the tree, and the downy woodpecker hangs close to, actually ON, the suet feeder.


Why didn't I share this all in yesterday's post? Because yesterday was a serious, introspective, Pulitzer prize winning post day. You can't write about birds and twittering and be a Pulitzer prize winner unless you're Robert Frost. Whom I'm definitely not. Hahahaha!


Anyway, we sat at the window and watched the birds and ate breakfast. You do remember me sharing that I was going to make my darling man a yummy breakfast of sausage apple pie, right? I'm sorry to report that it didn't happen. In my defense though, it's not for lack of trying. It's for lack of light apple pie filling. So instead, I opted to tweak a recipe I'd tried a couple of months ago at our mini-retreat. It's healthy, hot, and very tasty. It's whole wheat bread, turkey sausage, peppers, onions, mushrooms, assorted herbs & spices, eggs, milk, and cheese. Layered and allowed to sit overnight, it took 30 minutes in a hot oven and it was ready to chow down! Which we did. :)


We were without water again yesterday; did I mention that? We actually lost it Friday afternoon, which, given the temperatures, is no big surprise. I feel so badly for my husband, because I can *see* how it eats at him until it's fixed. It makes me realize how incredibly blessed I am to have him as a husband; my provider and my protector. I need to be more purposeful in my recognition of him. I'm sometimes quick to challenge his way of doing things. An example would be with the heaters and the water sources. I was a little anxious about leaving them (the heaters) on overnight. But instead of saying something (or at least I don't think I did; I hope I didn't) I got to thinking about the fact that my husband wouldn't do anything to endanger me; he's a very smart and resourceful man. Not to mention the fact that he was schooled as an electrician and he's a FIRE FIGHTER! If he is comfortable with his plan, who the heck am I to challenge him? Good gracious; I need to read this paragraph frequently!


I did get my applique leaves on my swap project. I'm didn't want to get the sewing machine out until the water was on and the heaters were put up. The down side to our living arrangement is that there's only so many machines that can be plugged in and working at a time! No matter. Water was back by late afternoon and Monday is an off day. I'll get her done.


Friday is the third annual board meeting for Restoring the Church Ministries. Three years already!! What an incredible ride it's been so far. We've come a long way since our original vision. I mean, we're actually living in our fifth-wheel RV!!!!! I cannot wait to experience what God has for us this year!


Two weeks from yesterday we'll have another wedding in the family. It's with gratitude that I note I'm just a guest at this one! :) My nephew, Michael Jr. is getting married in HOTlanta! It will be so awesome to see my whole family again after only six months! Yippee!!!


Today is Sunday, so I'm off to ready myself for church! Pictures will have to wait until I can upload them on Tuesday. :(


Selah!


:)

busy, busy, busy!

I did mention that I was clowning around at last night's guild meeting, didn't I? Isn't it a darling costume? This won the first place ribbon at our quilt show last month, in the "wearables" category. Kari Hawkins was the designer/creator. It was really cute, and incredibly WARM! But I honored to be able to wear it and show it off for her!

The other wearable that was shown off last night (it won President's choice, best of show) was a beautiful vest that I'd love to have! I can't decide if I'm up to making one, or if I want to commission the woman who made it to make *me* one! :)

The Stitcher's Group met at McAlister's Deli for dinner before the guild meeting last night. It was a lot of fun! It's nice to get to know a smaller group of women within the guild. The Huntsville guild is so large -- 350+ members -- it's easy to feel lost! Having a "group" makes it a lot more fun!

You know what else makes a guild meeting more fun?? How about WINNING! I got my nametag raffle ticket (which you get for wearing, well, your nametag) and I purchased $2 in tickets. Can you believe -- I didn't win one doorprize, I won TWO!!!!! Isn't that just FUN?!?!! The first thing I won was four lovely blue fat quarters, and a $15 gift certificate from Quilter's Refuge. The first guild meeting I ever attended, I won a gift certificate from them. It's where I purchased all the neutral fabric in the Grand Hands quilt, and Matt's block in that same quilt. I know I'll have fun shopping there! The second one I won was a darling Moda cupcake package from Patches & Stitches! I've looked at that for a while; what a happy to be able to bring it home!

I also signed up for my first quilter's retreat last night. I'm not doing the Sewanee trip, with the guild, because that's in January (and I'm traveling to Atlanta for my nephew's wedding). But the Stitcher's Group is going to Grand Oak Retreat in Scottsboro in February for a four-day quilt-in! This is so cool -- I've known about Grand Oak since it was just blueprints! We did the iron work for it and I know it's impressive! So I'm very much looking forward to it. Plus the owner, Cindy Hildebrand, is a lovely lady and a quilter herself. It will be a wonderful time!

I finally got a photo of the rooster wall hanging . . . took me long enough, I know! I'll stitch around the applique this weekend . . .

I still haven't decided for sure & for certain, what to do in the corners. Input, please?!?

Are you wondering what, exactly, is the green thing across the bottom? It's a pool float tube (noodle-thingie). They make GREAT tools to roll hand work around, to carry it to-and-fro, so it doesn't get wrinkled. I have several cut into different sizes -- I use them a lot when I'm working on a quilt-as-you-go project. You just poke a pin through the fabric into the noodle to hold it in place. Nifty idea, non?

Speaking of kitchen tools (I know, I wasn't, but I think like spaghetti, remember?), here's a gander at one of my all-time-favorite-how-did-I-live-without-it tools:

It's a hand-held electric shredder.

It's light, fast, dishwasher-safe, and I don't ever have to worry about grating my fingers.

It's got three blade options -- slice, shred, and grate -- all of which work perfectly nicely. The shredding is perfect for fresh Parmesan cheese. I got this two years ago (thanks, Mom) from William & Sonoma. At the time, Todd laughed, because he figured this would be another one of those 'gadgets' that are short-lived. But no, this one has proved itself over and over and over. It will definitely make the RV short list!

I was in the kitchen this morning, taking pictures of birthday brownie bites! My friend, Jennifer, who gifted me with the flowering tea and tea pot last week, celebrates her birthday this weekend! She loves chocolate, so I definitely wanted to oblige!

These are similar to the ones I made last weekend and never got a picture of. I use store-bought brownie bites and store-bought frosting that I doctor. The canned frosting is so soft, and doesn't hold a piped shape nicely. So I add about a cup of sifted confectioner's sugar to a cup of frosting. Then I added butter flavoring to the white frosting, and chocolate flavoring to the chocolate icing. It makes it much thicker and easier to manipulate through the decorating tube. I put the royal icing pumpkins on the chocolate-topped morsels, and opalescent sprinkles on the white!

Of course, tasty birthday treats are lonely without a gift, so I had to do something a little more (and special). I'm all about memory-making gifts, so here's what I made for Jen . . .

I hope she's as excited about this as I am! I won't tell you what I've got planned for us on that day, but it *will* be fun!

Tomorrow, my darling husband's secret plan will be revealed . . . I'm so excited! I don't know anything but that we'll have a blast!!!! He did tell me I could bring my hand work, so we must be doing a little driving. I can't wait to take pictures and share our fun weekend!!! For now, though, I need to be off to work and about today's business!

Happy Friday, ya'll!

:)

SEW FREE MONDAY!

As in, "So free to SEW on Monday!" Catchy, non? I think so. I also think this is the first of many such wonderful Mondays! Know why? Because as of this week, I no longer work on Mondays! Hurrah! So (sew) I shall dedicate Mondays to days of quilting and the like! Isn't this absolutely wonderful??? It makes me SMILE!
What a super weekend I've had! It started Saturday morning. Todd chose not to work overtime, but to spend the day with me! Yay! We headed to Madison and the Cracker Barrel there for breakfast. From there we were going to go to Decatur to a quilt shop (don't I have the most wonderful husband?!?), but when I called them, they didn't have what I'd hoped they would have. Seemed a shame to drive all the way out there for something I could get in town, so we headed back to Huntsville and Hancock Fabrics.

It was my lucky day. Hancocks had solid flannel quilt backing - 108" wide. Yay again! When the clerk cut it for me, he commented that it was a new item -- they'd only just put it out within the hour. Wow! While I was there I found some really pretty autumnal fabrics that will make GORGEOUS applique leaves! I'm finally finding my fabric fetish, I think. There were lots of fun Christmas fabrics, too, but I held off! There's time . . . sorta! Are they pretty? They all have sparkle! Here's also the fabrics I got in the mail this week. I love mail ordering!!!



Anyway, from Hancocks we headed home. From there it was a domestic day. We picked the rest of the apples from our trees and then I picked tomatoes and the last of the cucumbers and a couple of cantaloupes, while Todd picked tomatoes and raspberries! He stayed out in the yard, tending to the garden and watering plants and trimming bushes and putting out birdseed. He also re-hung the bird feeder tray outside my yellow room window! I love to watch the birds while I sew! Plus Todd informs me that the squirrels are back -- perhaps they'll find their way to it too!

I high-tailed it into the kitchen and put up stewed tomatoes and green peppers, baked a pan of brownies, baked a raspberry cobbler, and got dinner ready; home made meatball subs, potato wedges, and a recipe from Eating Well magazine that my daughter had recommended to me -- Corn & Tomato Saute. It was really good! We had cobber & vanilla ice cream for dessert. Bliss!

After dinner, we camped out in the living room. Todd was going through his RV helpful hints book, and I was scanning. So many years ago, I got the bright idea to clip articles, ideas, recipes, etc. from magazines and filing them -- so I didn't end up saving a whole magazine for a couple of pages of interest. Great idea, right? Not so much, when you're moving into an RV that has a limited weight capacity, and my 'saved' clippings were already close to 50 pounds! Egads! So *then* I got the bright idea to SCAN all of my clippings, and store them appropriately on my laptop! They'd be a LOT lighter, and a lot easier to access, to boot! So, that's what I did.

And we watched the game. The GAME. The season opener for the Alabama Crimson Tide. Whew! They sure didn't want anyone to get comfortable, did they? What a four quarters! They played Virginia Tech, which is rather funny; my nephew Ben (the B in BBS quilt) is a freshman there. We texted back and forth throughout the game. Happy ending. For our home, anyway!

We topped off Saturday night by retiring to the RV. Yep, we slept out there! It was a good night's sleep. :)

Sunday we headed to church at Lighthouse, came home to eat dinner, headed to WalMart and Tractor & Supply, and spend a quiet evening with Todd playing xbox, and me scanning. And once again, we retired to the RV for the night. I could get used to it! (Ha ha, I know!)

Today finds Todd back on shift and me in the yellow room. Guess what?? I FINISHED IT! I need to square it up, and then it's off to the long-arm quilter!! Whooo whooo!

Now I'm going to finish piecing the gift quilted wall hanging. And some more scanning. Oooh--and probably some more reading. I finished the last of the Mitford series this morning; I'll start the Father Tim series (of which there's only one book right now) next. Lemme see; I think that's it. There's a pot of Constant Comment on the warmer, and a brownie for an afternoon pick-me-up. Life is good.

Sew Free Monday. Amen & amen!

:)

GUATEMALA CUTIE

This little beauty is my adopted prayer concern from Guatemala. Isn't she simply precious?! I don't know her name yet, but I should soon. Oh my; what a privilege and honor it is to lift this cherished baby up to the Father!

I got her photo/name through Mission Firefly, a local, non-profit organization that is headed by a group of local men and women who have a passion for being about God's business and have chosen to "get out of the pew" and into the world! There's a link to their website on my page. Check it out!

Speaking of links, there are lots of links to explain on my page! I'm a huge fan of things "tea" like tea parties, and afternoon tea, and tea rooms. One of my favorite tea rooms is Emma's, a darling little shop nestled on the edge of Five Points. Rebekah is the owner, and the shop is named for her daughter, Emma. Their menu is absolutely *wonderful* -- I believe Rebekah's sister is the head cook. I have not had a soup or quiche there that wasn't remarkable. And, the veggie sandwich is quite yummy! My favorite part is the pages of teas to choose from! Heaven! There's also a little gift shop that has all kinds of fun tea things. If you really want to feel like a girlie-girl, this is definitely the place to have lunch! :) I just got a September e-letter from them; in it was a coupon for a large pot of tea -- on Emma's -- if you bring a girlfriend for lunch! I'll be there!

Tomorrow will be a day of serious quilting. And, evidently, some serious quilt shopping. One of my quilt links is to "Hooked On Quilting" which is in Fayetteville. It really is a fun shop because the owner, Cindy, carries LOTS of novelty fabrics! She has a whole room of baby/children prints! It's *so* much fun to browse for fabric there! Cindy offers quarterly (only now it's bi-monthly) birthday parties where she gives her birthday girls and their guest a HUGE 25% discount on their purchases!!! My sweet friend Tina's birthday was in July, so the birthday fete is tomorrow for July/August. Tina can't go, because her mom's birthday happens to be tomorrow. But she called Cindy and asked if she could send her guest without her. Cindy said, "Sure!" Yay!!! With Christmas and a grandbaby on the way, I have LOTS of reasons to shop!!

I also want to get tomatoes put up tomorrow. I'm going to stew them with peppers from the garden and garlic. I think I'll just freeze them. Sunday, I'm going to bake Lew Boyd's chocolate cake. I started Light From Heaven last night; once I finish it, I'll only have the Father Tim book and the little books to go before I put Mitford up until this time next year (and in anticipation of the release of the next book)! It's probably time--I need to focus on quilting!

I sent Tate Farms (another of my links) an e-mail yesterday; I will be able to work Saturdays for the Farm during Cotton Pickin' Pumpkins time! YAY!! It's such a fun place to be in the fall! Just think -- in a couple of years, I'll be bringing my GRANDBABY to visit the farm! What an exciting thought that is!

Tonight Todd and I are having friends over for dessert and to play Rook. It's been so long since I played, I hope I remember how! Should be a lovely evening -- a nice way to cap off the work week.

Funny story: one of my Spanish-speaking co-workers asked me if I knew what "dormir" was. I took a guess and said sleep -- because sleep in French is dormir. He said yes and said he slept 'muy bien' and asked how I slept last night. I don't know 'so-so' in Spanish, but I knew that in French my response would be, "comme-ci, comme-ca". He looked at me puzzled for a minute (because he wasn't sure if I'd tried to say something in Spanish or if I'd said something in English he didn't know) until I told him that it meant 'so-so' in French. He walked away repeating it in French, pleased to have learned a new French word. I have to laugh -- we'll have the craziest speaking group of tri-linguals here that ever was!

Tenga un buen fin de semana!

:)

Oh. My. Goodness.

And I've not even tasted of it yet! But it sure is beautiful to behold, if I do say so myself. Of course, I didn't come up with the recipe, I just followed it very, very carefully!! The true test comes after dinner tomorrow, when Todd and I slice into it for dessert! Shoot, if it didn't need to refrigerate for at least two hours before serving (and Esther notes that it's better when refrigerated overnight), I'd load it up in the car and take it to Station 6, and we'd get into the darn thing right now! :) Ha! At least that way I wouldn't have to worry about eating more than one piece!!!

I was very impressed with the whipped cream/sour cream frosting. It was superb. Very light, and not overly sweet. It will probably be the perfect compliment to the marmalade and the very dense cake. Man, with five eggs, four egg yolks, a cup of butter, a cup of oil, and a cup of buttermilk -- talk about rich! It needed a light frosting!

There are some things I would do differently next time, if there were to be a next time (which there probably won't be, since I'm not taking the Kitchen Aid mixer on the RV).

For instance, I would definitely only purchase name brands. I didn't purchase name brands for the heavy whipping cream or the marmalade. I don't know that it'll make any difference, but something niggled at the back of my brain that if you want to bake the finest product, use the finest ingredients. File that.

I don't think I did a good enough job tapping the air bubbles out of the cake batter pans, before I put them into the oven. It didn't seem to pose a problem, I just think I could have done better.

I would use a little more marmalade next time. Twelve ounces didn't seem to be quite enough to nicely cover both of the inner layers and to lay a nice showing on the top.

Other than those things, I believe it was GREAT! I can certainly now understand Esther's reluctance to make the darn thing, though. Good gravy, what a time consumer!! I remember in one of the books, Esther (Bollick) fumes that no one eats cake any more, much less bakes them from scratch. I don't wonder why!!!

Still . . . it did look awfully grand and impressive, sitting there on the counter. I will try to remember to take a picture of it before we slice it tomorrow night!

I think I'll try Lew Boyd's chocolate cake next.

Bon nuit!

:)

So, for some odd reason, I find that I cannot sign into my blog from the firefox browser. Ugh. I hate it when technology tries to get the better of me! :)

I can blog. I have thoughts! But would I really want to spend a year cooking every recipe in a cookbook? Maybe. But which cookbook would I pick? Therein lies the dilemma!

Perhaps, instead, I just stay focused on my daily quiet time in God's Word, and working on quilts. One thing at a time, right?

I had planned to be so faithful to journal my way through my quilt-making projects. You'd think it would be easy, as much as I really do enjoy writing. But for some reason, I just can't keep at it consistently. I guess, with only so many hours of the day, I choose other things. I also suppose that if I *really* want to be faithful, I'll set aside a pre-determined amount of time every day and JUST DO IT!

Well, then. I'm currently behind on every quilt project I have on the burner. My Patches & Stitches BOM are now two months behind (and I'll have to pay $5 to pick up this month's installment)! Joc's wedding quilt squares are just sitting there looking like they want me to get busy. Although, to be fair to myself, I am waiting on the next installment of the Round Robin to send out additional squares for relatives to sign. Ben's Boy Scout quilt is waiting on me to cut and sew borders. And there are at least two baby quilts I need to be working on! Hahahaha (psychotic laughter) . . . no wonder I'm not journaling my quilt making processes!!! OH! One positive; I did fill out the entry form for The Grand Hand's quilt to be in Huntsville's quilt show!

The thing is, I don't wanna just talk about quilts. Not when there's all of life out there too!! There's our ministry, and our church activities, and our new RV, and our empty nest, and our soon-to-be grandbaby . . . I mean, WOW! Why limit it to just quilting (or cooking, or whatever)????

My current quiet time is in the book of Isaiah. I just got to the section that really starts focusing in on Christ. I'm reading through it in the NASB version, but I think I'll go back and re-read it in The Message (for the sake of readability). I'm amazed at the levels of prophecy in Isaiah, as well as the message of freedom it contains (and the One who frees). But I still sometimes feel like I'm reading the words, but not understanding the meaning. Hence the reread in a different version. Who knows of a really good commentary or study of Isaiah?

Back to food. We're having chicken packets tonight. I let Todd pick. Why not? I've already done the prep work; it really doesn't matter what he picks! Isn't that FUN?! That's why I love monthly cooks!

Perhaps the Mitford Cookbook. Maybe I'll cook my way through that one. On the RV.

Or perhaps I'll just write wide open.

Arrivederci!

:)