answered prayers

A lengthy cold illness hit our household several weeks ago and I was in the drenches with it. It was a wretched day when my kids were recovering and I just wanted to stay in bed all day. Jared has been beyond busy this semester (a post for another day) so he was gone most of the day, into the evening. That morning over breakfast, I broke down crying and prayed with my kids watching me unravel and ask for help today. Any help. Please.

Fast forward several hours. Dinner is approaching and I can barely feed myself, but I had to figure out how to feed us all. I got up from the chair I hadn't left in a long while, and stood in place to contemplate dinner options. Before I even made it to the fridge, my phone rang. It was Rabiza, my warm and friendly neighbor. She and I talk when we see each other outside, the occasional in-home chat, and when we have business to discuss. But not that often. She just called to see how I was doing and to tell me she was bringing dinner over! WHAT?!? 

"How did you know?" I asked. 

"Know what?

I explained our sickness, my absent husband, my prayer that morning and her amazing answer to it! I cried. Again. It was so touching to have such a good woman answer my prayer to a Good Father and especially with such GOOD food!

Rabiza is Afghany, Muslim, and makes incredible food. That evening we enjoyed "rice with ram," noodle and turnip soup, and fresh warm bread. Oh, thank you Lord and thank you Rabiza. 

It struck as miraculous and motivational that a middle aged, actively Muslim woman is so in tune to the Holy Spirit. She was responding to the Lord's prompting to help me. This is the second time, actually, she has been the direct answer to a very specific prayer of mine. This woman is the real deal. She loves God and follows her understanding of him. In fact, as she left my house her phone alarm went off to remind her it was prayer time. Admiration. 

So, if she can be lead to being a quick and reliable instrument in the Lord's hands, why can't I? Me, who has been given the Gift of the Holy Ghost? 

This incident truly touched me and reminded me how involved and watchful our Father is over ALL of His children. 

food, farm, and fixing

Amazing Russian potato salad!! Thank you to Valentina from our previous ward for the recipe.
Equal parts of:

1. potatoes, boiled then peeled 
2. carrots, boiled then peeled 
3. white northern beans, cooked
4. dill pickles
5. canned beets
6. sauerkraut

Combine all ingredients, add a bit of oil and salt and pepper to taste, and devour!

The sauerkraut made for the distinct flavor and finally I found a recipe that the ENTIRE family loves that uses lots of my homemade sauerkraut. I made a giant bowl and it was gone in two days. All four of us just kept coming back for more. I should share my sauerkraut recipe, and I will...... in another post. :)

Picking raspberries down on the farm. We also took home gleaned broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, and sorrel. During our feather hunt we found a beautiful ostrich feather and two duck feathers that decorate our front porch. We LOVE our farm!

And this beast is the bush in front of the house, in the process of being trimmed to 1/4 its size. I finished after this picture was taken. She is a nasty thing, full of spider/cob webs, bird poop, little white pods that look like larva, and coated with an oily black residue. Any geniuses out there know what plant disease this might be? I cleaned it up with a trim and a power wash, but the residue and webs are back a week later! No other neighbors have bushes with this problem!

New kitchen traditions

The other morning our kitchen was covered in a mess. Glass jars filled with restructured pH water, more jars with raw milk, chopped cabbage in a bowl, and yoghurt separating in a dish cloth hanging over a pitcher. Large pots of chicken stock on the stove, more bubbling whole chicken in the crock pot, warming yoghurt in the off-oven, baby food in the blender, and juicer pulp looking for a home.The chaos always makes me feel unbalanced, but I was so proud of myself. I really am trying to develop new food prep skills that combine the principles taught in the cookbook Nourishing Traditions (from the Weston A. Price Foundation) and the GAPS diet (Gut and Psychology Syndrome.) If only I could master the clean-as-you-go skills needed in my kitchen. 

Consequently we now have not only the usual chicken stocks, fresh juices, and sauerkraut that we've had in the past, but I made cream cheese, cortido (Latin American sauerkraut), raw milk yogurt, and whey, pictured left to right. The cream cheese and whey are products of just one process, but I did it so I'd have whey for lacto-fermented sauerkraut and fermented grains. Whey cool, right? I'm really, really enjoying the journey that food, health, and biology have ignited within me. Anyone else interested in these topics? We'll learn together!

Any reader who thinks this is weird? It's all good. But people used to eat this way daily and it was great back in the day! "Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet. Eating her curds and whey...."

Goldie Locks didn't eat the bears' honey nut cheerios... Nope. She ate their traditional homemade porridge. And I bet mama bear soaked it overnight first. I just want to live like the fairy tale peeps. And why not? I am a princess after all. 

Passover Seder

When I was about 13 my dad took me and some people from church to a Passover Seder led by a local Rabbi. I loved what I learned from the Jewish perspective.

When I was a student at BYU, my older sister took me to a Passover Seder led by one of the religion professors of the school. I loved what I learned from the Latter-day Saint perspective.

Last night I got to expose my little family to the joys of the Seder and we all enjoyed it. L got snuggled by the Jewish ladies who wanted some baby love. The guy got to eat and throw the "plagues" around and then eat some more. Jared and I learned, listened, and learned more. Oh, yes. And the food was good.

I love listening to the songs in Hebrew. I love the symbolism of Passover. I love filling the gaps of explanation where I see them. And I especially loved read Exodus 12 with my little son in preparation of the evening.

As I read Exodus 12 with the guy, I felt so good that we were doing this.

14 And this ^aday shall be unto you for a ^bmemorial; and ye shall keep it a ^cfeast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a ^dfeast by an ordinance ^efor ever.

I laughed out loud as I read verse 15.

15 Seven days shall ye eat ^aunleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be ^bcut off from Israel.

Well, I may not be cut off but I might deserve to be because all morning the guy and I made (leavened) breads for our friends and then went on a walk to deliver them. HAHA!

It was a good day and we had a great experience as a family. Oh, except a few people acted like we weren't there because we're Gentiles. : / I hesitate to mention it at all, but it certainly was part of our evening. That was the only downer. One lady at our table had the gall to ask another woman, "who are all these other people?" as if we were not even there sitting next to her. She literally ignored our presence most of the evening, and talked about us and "Mormons" like we were not present. She did the same to another new lady at the table until she found out she was Jewish and then talked to her abundantly. But not us. That was disappointing but we still had a great evening. Jared said it was a wonderful way to spend an evening as a family. Agreed. Thanks for supporting me in my fascination with religions, honey!

This basket contained all the symbols of the 10 plagues. Our guy was in charge of the basket for the whole table. I was glad there were no other little kids at our table. He got to enjoy the plagues (HA!) but they didn't make a big deal of finding the afikomen or else that would have been all for his enjoyment too.

the frogs. He got the throw them, the blood (or red pom poms), and  hail (white foam  balls).

the locusts and boils (bubble wrap... so clever)

the hail

the darkness

the afikomen

the dessert

Jack-o-lantern pancakes

Yesterday we rang in the first day of Autumn with a special breakfast: pumpkin pancakes shaped like jack-o-lanterns as seen over at Artful Parent. I used sprouted spelt flour and coconut oil as substitutes.

I really like pumpkin treats and this one is especially delectable with the caramelized banana. Check out the recipe. YUM!

 Our little guy helped me make the batter, but was ready to eat the first pancake. So I got to make the silly faces all by myself. It may have been too hard for him anyway. I had fun!

What fall, pumpkin recipes are your favorites? I want them! :) 

Snack Pack Service Project

 My calling at church right now is Relief Society Activities Coordinator. Unlike many other wards, this one does not have a committee. It is just me, the second counselor in the Relief Society, who supervises activities, and a food coordinator. Together with these two outstanding women, we organized a service project just one month after each us were new in our respective callings. My previous ward had done this service for our public school district, so in the interest of time and resources, we did the same thing in my new ward. 

We asked the ladies at church to volunteer (using SignUp Genius) to supply the non-perishable foods needed to make 100 "snack packs" for the kids in our county. Snack packs are bags filled with foods that could constitute meals for kids between lunch on Friday and breakfast on Monday. These snack packs are offered to kids who qualify for free and reduced lunch and who have no guarantee of meals at home on the weekend. The snack packs are certainly not gourmet. They have to be non-perishable and simple, so that kids can prepare and eat them even if they are home alone, as many are. Our goal of 100 was a lofty one, but the sisters at church really pulled through. We had extras in some categories and so we made the goal and then donated the rest to the school district anyway. Thank you ladies!!

What a beautiful sight!

The other service we provided was help the Youth Conference planner make up bouquets for the dance competition later this summer. We also enjoyed a chicken tortilla soup dinner and desserts together. Delish! With both activities and lovingly prepared foods, I think it was a great success! 

The following day, I received this email update and almost cried thinking of those students we are trying to help. I am going to look into it more and learn what else can be done to help them this summer.

"Hi gals,
[We] dropped off our snack packs at the District Office this morning. They were shocked and grateful about the number of items we collected. [Fiona], the homeless liaison, said that the packs would be very helpful this summer to 55 particular students. 55 students in the district are homeless and these will help feed them over the summer. A few students in this group of 55 homeless students have been accepted to colleges on scholarships where the colleges will provide their meals but through the summer they don't have much access to food.
The pile of packs was stacked on [Fiona]'s desk and different district employees were excitedly taking pictures. They asked for our contact information to followup with a thank you note."

What ideas do you have to help these students who go hungry over the weekend or summer?

Mother's day

Thank you to all the mothers in my life, and especially to my outstanding Mother:

As mothers in Israel, we are the Lord’s secret weapon. Our influence comes from a divine endowment that has been in place from the beginning. In the pre-mortal world, when our Father described our role, I wonder if we didn’t stand in wide-eyed wonder that He would bless us with a sacred trust so central to His plan and that He would endow us with gifts so vital to the loving and leading of His children. I wonder if we shouted for joy at least in part because of the ennobling stature He gave us in His kingdom. The world won’t tell you that, but the Spirit will.

--Sister Sheri Dew

She is a co-partner with God in bringing His spirit children into the world. What a glorious concept! No greater honor could be given. With this honor comes the tremendous responsibility of living and caring for those children so they might learn their duty as citizens and what they must do to return to their Heavenly Father... A mother has far greater influence on her children than anyone else has, and she must realize that every word she speaks, every act, every response, her attitude, even her appearance and manner of dress, affect the lives of her children and the whole family.

--President N. Eldon Tanner

What a glorious mother's day we had!!

 Jared rose early and made us delicious banana wheat muffins from scratch. We made a mess and all ate them together in our bed. Stuart kept eating them, down at the kitchen table. 

Church was delightful. Jared was asked to teach primary and work with the 11 year old scouts, and that always makes me happy. I am so excited for him. The classes were excellent and at the end the young men gave homemade strawberry jam to all the women. We took it home and ate it immediately on some bread. The store-bought bread was seriously lacking, but the jam was amazing!

Jared made us an amazing BBQ chicken for dinner. He worked so hard on this! He cut the meat off the whole chicken before cooking it. He made his own BBQ sauce, and cooked it in the oven with soaked wood chips and it came out outstanding. It went so well with corn on the cob. We ate outside on our deck and the weather could not have been better. Gorgeous. 

Thank you, Jared, for making my day perfect. You made me feel loved and beautiful through words, service, snuggles, food, and worship. Thank you. I wouldn't be a mother without you, Jared. Thank you for giving me Stuart and the lady and for making my day so incredible. I love you!

Pi Day

Yesterday was Pi Day.

3.14

Also known as PIE day. My college roommate (who studied math education) always enjoyed a pie party every March 14th. And I happened to marry the Pi King. After Jared memorized 100 digits of the number Pi for a high school talent show [EDIT (Jared): I memorized approximately 180 digits for Pi Day for Mr. Whitehead's 9th grade Algebra II class which was an excuse to have a holiday more than anything at the time.  Since no one else tried to memorize pi for our class competition, I won!  And the part about them parading me around the school to random English, Biology, and Gym classes is completely accurate.  All 4 years of high school.  Oddly enough, no one ever made fun of me for it, and to this day I get emails/Facebook posts around this time of year about how they remember that.], his peers paraded him from class to class to recite it for the students every March 14th. LOVE Jared and his amazing mind. Just brilliant.

Well, I made a blackberry pie yesterday. Not because I remembered it was Pi day. But because I wanted this pie my friend shared on her food blog. Thank you Adrienne. It WAS pie nirvana. Not to mention I baked with and learned about vanilla beans for the first time. I love learning. Did you know that the vanilla bean is the second most expensive spice (below saffron) because the vanilla pod takes 10 years to fully mature? Wow.

When a friend came over in the evening she pointed out that it was Pi day. What a delightfulcoincidence! Thanks for reminding me, Lisa.

Come on over if you want a piece. Come quickly. It won't last long. :)

Vision Board, Chick-fil-a, & Stu

You know your life is riveting when you take the time to blog about a stop at Chick-fil-a.....

But first! This week Jared and I created VISION BOARDS. We watched a movie recently that my little sis recommended: The Secret. Interesting movie, for another day. But, one thing that stuck with me from this secretive documentary, was the creation of a vision board to visualize and ultimately realize your goals. Using our 2012 goals, we created a visual manifestation of our priorities this year. Here it is! Mine is on the right, Jared's on the left:

Today, while walking around the mall with my AWESOME friends, Stuart and I met the cow from Chick-fil-a. Poor guy was scared. He definitely likes real animals over costumed ones.

And finally, just a little glimpse into my joy of my day: Stuart.

He likes chatting with himself in this ridiculously over-sized mirror.

And he almost fits into Daddy's slippers. Almost.

Thanks for looking. :)

Candle Light and Cooking Traditions

After enjoying our ambient candle-lit Christmas dinner, I'm wondering why I have never had a candle-lit dinner before now. Man, have I been missing out! This will be a mealtime tradition in the coming years at the Ondricek home.

We enjoyed a slow-cooked chicken (decidedly not my favorite way to eat a whole chicken), parmesan roasted broccoli, and Jared's homemade cornbread using polenta. Thank you, Jared, for your adventurous spirit! He's made cornbread from scratch before, but this one was the best!

For as much as I enjoy eating food, sometimes I think I enjoy making it more. I look forward to making meals and trying new ingredients and methods. Eating the food is like my dessert after all the fun.

I just bought myself a new cookbook, Nourishing Traditions: the cookbook that challenges politically correct nutrition and the diet dictocrats. Getting it was like Christmas morning again. And it's just a cookbook. Did I mention I love cooking?

What is your favorite meal-time tradition?

Deep Down, Underground Root Cellar Soup

I think I found a new favorite soup, and it's made with Celery Root! It reminds me of my family's Butternut Squash soup, but with a creamy celery taste. I LOVE CELERY. I never knew celery was so flavorful until Jared and I discovered plain braised celery (so simple, right?) and have never looked back. We even ate nothing but braised celery for dinner once. This soup is much better, combines a greater variety, and still has a ton of that delicious celery taste. Check it out!

Deep, Down, Underground Root Cellar Soup

(Celery Root and Potato Soup)

Emeril Lagasse

• 3 slices thick-cut apple smoked bacon, diced
• 1 leek, white part only, diced
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup diced parsnip
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• 5 cups peeled, diced celery root (from a root about 1 1/2 pounds in weight)
• 1 large baking potato, peeled and cubed
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
• 2 teaspoons finely minced fresh rosemary leaves
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons snipped fresh chives

DIRECTIONS

Set a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring frequently, until crispy and fat is rendered, about 4 minutes. Remove the bacon using a slotted spoon and transfer to paper towels to drain. Remove 1 tablespoon of the rendered bacon fat and set aside for another purpose. Add the leek, onions, parsnips and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic to the pan and saute until fragrant, 45 to 60 seconds. Add the celery root, potato, stock, salt, pepper, and rosemary to the saucepan and bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the celery root is very tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

When the celery root is tender, remove the saucepan from the heat and puree the soup using an immersion blender (or in batches using a bar blender), until smooth. Stir in the heavy cream and cider vinegar. Finely chop the reserved crispy bacon. Taste, and re-season the soup if necessary and serve, garnished with the crispy bacon and snipped chives.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have never cooked celery root but I loved it. I didn't strictly follow the recipe however, like I often don't. I left out the bacon completely and substituted the following:

• butter instead of bacon drippings
• half & half instead of heavy cream (which is so not necessary for it to be delicious, but it is creamier)
• coconut vinegar, not cider vinegar

Do not over salt, either. It doesn't need more salt than in the recipe.

I also used homemade broth from our baked chicken this week and chives from my dying garden. It tastes SO WONDERFUL!

Japanese Treat

On Sunday night we invited a man over for dinner who we met at church. He was visiting from Japan and we thought he might enjoy a home-cooked meal and some friendly company on his visit. He is American, but works in Japan. He was here on business.

To thank us for the invitation, he brought us his favorite Japanese treat:

What's more, he even even pointed out that they spelled it wrong and it should be "Cream Colon." We had a good laugh. After dinner when our new friend had left, Jared pointed out that our guest and I share a similar sense of humor. :)

They were very tasty, by the way!

One Year Older....

.... and wiser too? Happy birthday to you!

Thank you so very much to the many people who remembered, called, e-mailed, or snail mailed their warm wishes. What a surprise it was to hear from so many people.

I enjoyed a day with my husband and baby. The morning started with smiley Jared and Stu at my bedside. Jared made me breakfast and took care of Stuart while I helped a family from church move.

It wasn't the top of my birthday activities list, but helping this family made my birthday so much better. Weeks ago they moved into a roach-infested apartment right before their long-awaited vacation. After leaving town and still not being able to move or get their belongings out of the unit, they finally got a new apartment but needed help going through everything they owned to make sure they didn't take more roaches hidden in their boxes. It was such a nightmare for them for weeks, so the least I could do is give a few hours to sort through boxes. Like I said, not the first thing you'd want to do on your birthday, but it made my day great. I got to see and get to know people from church better, as well as feel the joy of service. It was a wonderful birthday morning.

In the afternoon Jared and I made pineapple upside down cake, the cake I've been enjoying on my birthday for as long as I can remember. It has always been my favorite and my mom always made it for my special day. Here is what was left over:

Then in the evening, we left Stuart with the wonderful babysitters and went to dinner at Kinkead's downtown. It was delicious (and expensive) seafood, which I love. Good thing we got a discount on LivingSocial.

For dinner we started with the lobster bisque with brioche croutons and scallions, which we shared. Jared's dinner is shown below: grilled maya prawns with house made chitarra pasta, manilla clams, sweet and sour peppers, green olives, lemon and garlic. Mmmm.

I made the BEST choice: north atlantic cod with crab imperial, sweet potato butternut puree, country ham spoon bread, garlic spinach and three mustard sauce. Oh my, I could eat that for dinner every night for a week!

Awkwardly hunched over and still in love.

Thanks for all the birthday love and calls. It was a superb day!

Teeth

Stuart's getting so big! He has two visible teeth, although they are still budding. He eats more and more food and a wide variety. He seems to love zucchini now that he has had it a few times. He eats lots of fruits, veggies, and grains: apple, pear, banana, orange, raspberry, prune, mango, squash, red potato, yam, green bean, pinto bean, carrot, pea, bell pepper, tomato, broccoli, onion, avocado, oatmeal, rice, and quinoa. I'm just surprised he's not bigger for his age.

He also tries to talk to us everyday. He regularly says dad, mama, up, and at. He tries other sounds that end in "at" like bat. He says "hi" when waving to people, which he does A LOT. He often waves with both hands. Uncle Matt says he heard Stuart say Matt. Aunt Jenn says she heard him say "Hi Laina" and sometimes Jared and I hear him trying to make sense of and copy what we say. He also claps his hands regularly in excitement.

He scoots around on his butt, rolls everywhere, lifts his upper body on his hands, and we're working on lifting his butt more when on his tummy. He lost interest in that hard work quickly when he started a few months ago. :( The path of least resistance appeals to many people, and Stuart appears to be one of them.