Grace in Small Things

It’s Monday morning at 8:30 a.m., and I’ve been baking cookies for hours now – beginning last night, and resuming my baking agenda at 7 this morning.

Know what I’m baking? Christmas cookies.

Sound random? It is.

Why am I doing it? Because my company is going to be doing a cookie photo shoot for a client.

What does this have to do with Grace in Small Things (GiST)? Everything.

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1.  Cookies = Normalcy

This weekend was one of my first weekends of normalcy since moving to Colorado. There were no boxes to be unpacked and no moving-related shopping trips or errands on our to-do list. We rested, we explored a small Colorado town, we took a scenic drive, and we crashed a small town Colorado Oktoberfest celebration.

It was fantastic.

And at the end of the weekend, Nick – donning his Army hoodie – and I stood around the island in our kitchen, baking cookies together. There were 1,001 moments of grace in my weekend, and the grand finale were those moments of grace and togetherness shared in the kitchen late last night.

It was while baking cookies that I realized I needed to make a promise to myself…

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2. No More Fear

There’ll come a time, you’ll see, with no more tears
And love will not break your hear, but release your fears
Get over your hill and see what you find there
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair
-Song lyrics from Mumford & Sons’ “After the Storm”

Man, I like that song. Do you know it? It’s really nice. It makes my soul sigh relief.

I’ve been lost in fear and anxiety over the last few weeks. I could give you the laundry list of explanations, but at the end of the day, what matters is that I’ve not known myself.

That confident, adventurous Small Town Girl was proverbially curled up in a ball in the closet floor cuddling an old teddy bear while this shell of an anxious, scared, edgy, high-strung woman I barely recognized walked around using Small Town Girl’s name.

I’m thankful this week for someone who loves and supports me. I don’t know how to make the fears go away, but I’m going to start by removing “I’m afraid of…”, “I’m scared that…” and other equivalent phrases from my vocabulary this week. It can’t hurt, right?

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 3. No More Worry

Have you ever noticed that worry is contagious? Over the last few weeks of transition in my world, I’ve noticed that my stress and worry is wearing off onto people I care very much about.

I don’t know if you’re a religious person. If you’re not, please stick with me here. I have to remind myself of this Bible verse sometimes:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
-Matthew 6:34

Who would have thought that it would be my fiance, who was not raised in a religious home, who would have inspired me – over Christmas cookies in October, and without realizing it – to do something I’ve been taught since I was a child to do — hand over my worry.

As with my vow to remove “I’m afraid of…” and like phrases from my language this week, I’m also making myself a promise to remove, “I’m worried that…” and “I’m worried about…” from my speak.

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I usually try to list 5 things in my GiST posts, but this week I’m perfectly content with 3. I’m not perfect, but I’m going to try to be graceful enough this week to focus on those small things that bring me joy instead of allowing the big things to overwhelm me, wring my mind with worry, and weigh me down with fear.

My running, I pound my frustrations into the pavement, have long talks with myself and wear myself out so much that there’s not enough energy left to use on worry.

Baking is my creative therapy – it allows me to create new things, turn little batches of ingredients into as single, scrumptious cookie or pastry or pie, and it keeps my mind busy for a few hours at a time.

I’ve been injured now for weeks, rendering me unable to run. My irritation at not being able to run only makes my non-running stresses feel bigger, so what do I do? Naturally, I bake things that are bad for me. That’s just how I roll.

Early week I baked a (moderately healthy) strawberry rhubarb pie, and before that, I had tried by hand at a blueberry pie.

Late the week I tried a new whole wheat dark chocolate chip cookie recipe. Can I say…Nom Nom Nom? Because really, truly…Nom Nom Nom.

Here are the ingredients:

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups Gold Medal whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 package (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (1 cup) (I prefer dark chocolate chips, and usually splurge on Ghiradelli brand chips, since they’re extra-plump and delicious)

Here are the directions:

Heat oven to 375 F.

Mix sugars, butter, vanilla and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff). Stir in
chocolate chips.

Cookie Mix

And then, you:

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft). Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet. Cool on
wire rack.

Makes 2 to 3 dozen cookies depending on how big you like your cookies.

Number of Servings: 36

Cookies!

When I served these cookies to friends, they said they’d never have guessed they were made using all whole wheat flour unless I’d told them. The cookies are still soft two days later, and it’s pretty satisfying to know that they’re as healthy as a chocolate chip cookie is likely to be. Of course, now that I’ve eaten pie and cookies all week, I really wish I could run…

For the full recipe, go to SparkRecipes.com.

Once I decided on strawberries, I used my Spark Recipes iPhone app to search for recipes for strawberry rhubarb pie. The ingredients were simple enough:

3 cups sliced strawberries
3 sups sliced rhubarb
3/4 cup Splenda
2 T. cornstarch
1 Pillsbury pie crust

I grabbed what I needed and headed home to bake.  After cleaning and slicing the strawberries and rhubarb, I made the bottom crust and poured the ingredients into the pan:

Prepping the Pie

I followed the last of the directions…

“Cook until heated through. Pour into 9″ pie plate sprayed with Pam. Top with crust. Cut slits in top. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes.”

Did I wait for the pie to cool? What do you think?

The Finished Pie

According to Spark Recipes, this pie made six servings, and each serving was approximately 70 calories and 2 grams of fat. The recipe called for a single top crust, but I did a double crust (top and bottom), which I’m sure added some additional calories and fat. Still though, for a pie, this was a relatively healthy one.

Click here for the recipe.

Although I love to bake, I only started baking pies recently, and my attempt at a homemade blueberry pie was only my second-ever attempt at a  baking a pie at all. It was such a success that I can’t wait to try it again.

I pulled a recipe from my favorite recipe site, Spark Recipes, and picked up ingredients from the store. I was impressed at how basic the ingredients list was for the pie. Here’s what it called for:

3/4 cup white sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
1 tablespoon butter
1 tsp fat free milk
1 tsp raw sugar

I had most of the ingredients at home already, so I snagged fresh blueberries and headed home to experiment with my very first blueberry pie!

I cheated a little bit this time, using a crust mix instead of making my crust from scratch. I assure you I’ll learn to make my own crusts soon, too, but a girl’s gotta start somewhere, and this time the box mix seemed to be the way to go.

The directions were simple enough to start…

Wash and pick through fresh blueberries.

In a small bowl mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour over cleaned blueberries.

Use refrigerated pie crust and line pie plate. Pour blueberry mixture into crust. Divide butter into small pieces and scatter over berries.

Blueberry Pie in the Making, photo by MilliGFunk

The directions from here were to:

Add second pie crust to top pie. Be sure to crimp and seal two crusts together. Cut several small slits in top crust. Brush top crust lightly with milk and sprinkle with a teaspoon of raw sugar.

I found that I could have used a bit more than two crusts to make the dough spread far enough to use as a bottom and top crust. I made it work though,  placing my (fingers crossed) masterpiece in the oven as directed.

Bake 40-50 minutes on lowest rack.

I use Pampered Chef stoneware when I bake, and I can’t recommend it (or another brand of stoneware) enough for baking. Stoneware bakes your food much more evenly than metal or glass containers do, and it keeps the food warmer longer, as well.

45 mintes later, my entire cabin smelled like cinnamon and blueberries, and my mouth watered as I pulled my first blueberry pie out of the oven.

Blueberry Pie, photo by MilliGFunk

The directions said to Chill for 2 hours before serving. Yeah right.

Call me gluttonous, but there was no way I could wait two hours to taste my pie. It’s possible that I waited two minutes before sampling the steaming hot, delectable goodness that was my first blueberry pie, but it’s not likely. My guess is that it was less than a minute before I broke the crust with my fork and discovered that my first blueberry pie was just as great as it smelled.

It’s blueberry season in Missouri, so if you’re looking for a place to snag some fresh blueberries for your summer baking, check out Liberty Farms between Farmington and Fredericktown, Missouri on Highway OO.

The last email newsletter I received from them said that opening day is today for blueberry picking, so what are you waiting for? Pick some blueberries and get to baking! Still not convinced? Check out this post I wrote in 2010 about how much fun I had on my first time picking blueberries.

Find this recipe on Spark Recipes

The Dough, all photos taken with my iPhone4

Upon unpacking the gingerbread house-making supplies, I promptly got to work mixing dough and preparing cookie sheets. I tripled the recipe, which claimed to make 2.5 dozen cookies, and still only made enough dough for a simple, small gingerbread cottage. So much for my grand plans of the Frank Lloyd Wright “Falling Water” replica. *sigh*

Clean Countertop, photo taken with my iPhone4

While the dough chilled on the back porch (the fridge was filled to overflowing with ingredients for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners), I prepped the counter top so that I could roll and shape the chilled cookie dough.

Who Killed the Gingerbread Man?

Burying the gingerbread man in dough...Ooof!

When I was ready to roll the cookie dough, I discovered that my parents do not, unfortunately, own a rolling pin. Forced to improvise, I found one of my college drum sticks, cleaned it well, and began rolling the very crumbly dough:

Thank You, Vic Firth

Dough!

Holding the dough together proved challenging. I’d never baked gingerbread before, and I found myself struggling to keep the dough from falling apart as I tried to shape it into walls and a roof for my dream gingerbread home.

Luckily, despite its crumbliness when raw, the cookie dough baked firmly into four neat and tidy gingerbread cottage walls.

Four Walls, photo taken with my iPhone4

With walls complete, the roof went into the oven, and it was time to begin assembly!

Icing, Gingerbread and Cardboard Box Ballast (thanks Dad!)

This was the phase in the project when construction specialists were needed. I called in back-up, a.k.a. my Dad, the engineer. He taught me about ballast, using pieces of cardboard boxes and cans of Diet Sprite to help support the quaintly-crooked walls of the house.

Lessons in Ballast

A few canned goods, a little bit of icing, some coaching from my engineer dad, and several other items of “ballast” later, I had four standing walls. When the time came to assemble the roof, all hands were on deck (dad, mom, brother and me) to make sure everything held together.

While the roof ended up being a little bit too small, it was nothing a slew of Great Value pretzels sticks couldn’t solve.

Preztels and canned goods to the rescue!

Pretzel Roof

Completed Roof

Quite possibly the greatest part about this entire process was the point at which I accidentally made the first snowperson out of three marshmallows and a toothpick. Thanks to some accessories created by MommaGFunk, we ended up with a happy family of snow people living in the cozy gingerbread cottage.

Mom and Dad Snow People

Happy Snow People Family

Gingerbread house and Snow People Tenants (Jack & the Beanstalk live next door)

Arial View

So the gingerbread house didn’t turn out perfectly, but constructing it kept me busy on an otherwise stolid and snowy day in small town Missouri.  It feels good to cross things off of my bucket list, even when they’re things as simple as making a home made gingerbread house. The next time you have a slow day at home, why don’t you cross something off of yours?

]]> http://smalltowngirlsguide.com/2010/crossing-it-off-the-bucket-list-the-gingerbread-house-part-2/feed/ 3 http://smalltowngirlsguide.com/2010/crossing-it-off-the-bucket-list-the-gingerbread-house-part-1/ http://smalltowngirlsguide.com/2010/crossing-it-off-the-bucket-list-the-gingerbread-house-part-1/#comments Sat, 25 Dec 2010 20:48:05 +0000 MilliGFunk http://smalltowngirlsguide.com/?p=2947

The Good Stuff, photo taken with my iPhone4

I’ve always wanted to build a gingerbread house, and this year I finally did it.

Buying a gingerbread house kit would be the small town equivalent of saying “I want to build my own home” and then heading down the highway to buy your own prefab modular estate. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but it just doesn’t qualify as crossing that dream off of your bucket list.

Old-Fashioned Christmas Candy, photo taken with my iPhone4

In order to cross the gingerbread house off of my bucket list, I needed to build the house from scratch. I needed to shop for the ingredients, make the dough, assemble its walls, and decorate it by hand.

The urge to create said gingerbread dream house hit me while at the grocery store with my mom. The family had hit day three or four of sitting in pajamas, reading books and watching movies.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not good at sitting still for that long, and I was getting antsy. As previous posts (see homemade bread post) make evident,  baking is often my way of avoid stir-craziness.

Goody Goody Gum Drops! photo taken with my iPhone4

A quick Google search from my phone lead me to the following recipe for homemade gingerbread:

Ingredients

• 1 (3.5 ounce) package cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the dry butterscotch pudding mix, butter, and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the egg. Combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon; stir into the pudding mixture. Cover, and chill dough until firm, about 1 hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease baking sheets. On a floured board, roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness, and cut into man shapes using a cookie cutter. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are golden at the edges. Cool on wire racks.

(RECIPE SOURCE)

MommaGFunk and I acquired all necessary ingredients for the gingerbread house, so we checked out at the small town supermarket and  headed home to begin our gingerbread-house-making adventure…

]]> http://smalltowngirlsguide.com/2010/crossing-it-off-the-bucket-list-the-gingerbread-house-part-1/feed/ 1 http://smalltowngirlsguide.com/2010/back-in-the-day-cafe/ http://smalltowngirlsguide.com/2010/back-in-the-day-cafe/#comments Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:01:57 +0000 MilliGFunk http://smalltowngirlsguide.com/?p=2151

After the March Race to the Rocker 4-mile run, my mom and I enjoyed lunch at the Back in the Day Cafe with a Cuba native named Jane. Jane had offered to give us a tour of Cuba’s fantastic murals, but first, we needed lunch. Back the Day Cafe sits in one of the Cuba Historic Preservation Commission’s official historic buildings.

Immediately inside the restaurant door sits a long, pink buffet used for Sunday brunch. Behind it is one of Cuba’s unofficial murals depicting a young girl, an adult farmer, and rolling Missouri farmland.

On the opposite side of the cafe is another large mural depicting women making bread and cake:

The cafe serves soups, sandwiches, bakery items, sodas, coffee and teas. I’m not sure exactly what the Sunday brunch or lunch options are, but if the sandwich and fruit bowl I ordered are any indication, the other meals at the Cafe probably taste good and are reasonably priced.

The Back in the Day Cafe is located at 615 East Main Street in Cuba, Missouri and can be reached by phone at 573-885-0122.

Cranberry Walnut Thumbprints, photo by smalltowngirl

Let it be state for the record that I am NOT vegan, and that I love cookies. These cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar blew every pre-conceived notion of what a vegan cookie should taste like out of the water.

For those of you who don’t already know this, vegans don’t eat any products derived from animals. There is no egg, no milk and no butter in these cookies, but you’d never known it.  These cookies were moist and rich and absolutely lovely. If you like jelly on warm toast, you’ll like this recipe. These cookies taste like fall feels.

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Also check out Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: Peanut Apple Pretzel Drops

photo by smalltowngirl

Christmas is four days away, and I’m curled up in my pajamas with several inches of show outside. My best friend and I are spending this snowy December day experimenting with vegan cookie recipes at her parent’s home in the Chicago suburbs.

"Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar" Cookbook, photo by smalltowngirl

Our cookbook of choice today is “Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar,” and the first recipe we’re trying is for Peanut Apple Pretzel Drops. Peanut Apple Pretzel Drops include, among other things, dehydrated apple slices, crushed pretzels, crushed peanuts, flaxseed, and cinnamon.

Apples and Pretzels, photo by smalltowngirl

Neither of us are accustomed to cooking in her mom’s oven, so our first batch turned out a little bit crispy on the bottom.

Oops.

Crispy, photo by smalltowngirl

We were able to salvage the top half of each cookie in the first batch, and the second batch turned out well.

Road trips to Chicago to see friends is one of the many things that I’m beginning to see as an advantage to life in the Midwest. Our day together involved Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies and Cranberry Walnut Thumbprints, too. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to hear about those though. Happy Holidays!

I don’t even like candy corn, but I liked this candy corn. I took these cupcakes to work with me, and they were gone almost immediately.

Behold, the tastiest corny creation this side of the Mississippi so far in November:

Candy Corn Cupcakes, baked and photographed by smalltowngirl

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More Corniness from MilliGFunkyCorn:

My Corn on the Cob Makes the News

Me, Contemplating Corn

Corn at the Apple Butter Festival