Tortilla Chips and Butter

          There is something about food that just makes me feel warm and fuzzy. With all the changes going on around our house, eating good food has helped to preserve some normalcy. My mom has a sensitivity to any sweeteners except for honey, so almost all of the food I ate growing up was made from scratch. To this day, nothing tops a peice of her fresh homemade oatmeal bread with a little honey drizzled on it. I have her recipe,  and she says my bread tastes just like her's...but there is no comparison in my mind. Maybe it's the shape. She uses old fashioned round lard tins to bake her bread in. I have the square pans. It's probably also the love that she kneads into every loaf. Instead of thinking about how much I love my family, I find kneading good for taking out my frustrations.
           Can I be honest and say that sometimes the thought of taking five kids grocery shopping is enough to make me want to stay home and make do with the food I have? On one such night, I found the lovely combination listed in the title of this post. Well, what are you going to do without salsa? You should try it. Your arteries will not thank me, but it sure tastes good to me. Want another true confession? Some days when I run out of normal sweets like cookies or ice cream, I drink a tablespoon of maple syrup. I think I might be part elf (since according to the movie "Elf" they have four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup). I stumbled upon this weirdness when the girls were taking some ibuprofen for strep throat this spring. I decided to take a dose of "medicine" too.The reality is that maple syrup also feels like home. Remember how I said that we didn't have a lot of sweets growing up? Well, at least once a year, we'd take a trip to a place that made fresh cheese. While we were there, my dad would let us have some candy made from maple syrup. In the course of our mainly sugar-free diet, that was one of the highlights of my year. Of course, the sugar rush that I had the entire hour ride home wasn't exactly compatible with sitting still. I think I bounced most of the way home.
            One of the most frustrating things for me lately has been when someone shares a recipe or seems to rate it before actually preparing it. I tried a recipe for crock-pot beans that had me singing the  baked bean blues. After following the recipe for 8 hours, I had nothing but a pile of mush to show for it. I wanted to scream at the idiots who rated the recipe five stars. (I guess I should've read the rating first because almost all of them talked about altering the recipe.) This has brought me to the conclusion that you need to consider the source before investing time and money into the food. You know who I trust?  Martha Stewart.  Her recipes are amazing. I hardly ever have them flop, and she uses really simple ingredients (not a bunch of processed junk),  which means my sugar-challenged mom can usually eat the meals when she visits. Other than that I pretty much stick with asking friends for their recipes when I have eaten something they made that I like.
          I love food (and butter and maple syrup); but if I relied on that to do all my comforting, I would weigh three hundred pounds and waddle everywhere. This past week's negotiations have been a bit stressful.  We're going through repair negotiations,  and the reality that we are moving to a new location without as much room (in terms of the home, not land) has been challenging.  God is not silent though.  In the midst of all this, this is what I read this week out of 2 Corinthians 5. Verses 6-8 in the Message translation says, "That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming." I felt like God was speaking right to me, telling me that this is all just temporary here anyhow.
          If your going through a rough time and feel tempted to pick up the butter (or maple syrup), try picking up your Bible and reading some truth. Ask God what He thinks about your situation. Let it fill you up, and give you the warm fuzzies.

What have you read that's encouraged you? What recipe sites do you trust? What is your favorite comfort food? I love reading your comments and getting to know you better (as well as learning from you)! If you recommend a recipe as five stars though, I expect it to that good.