Banana Cake

Baking muffins is not a skill I possess. Well, I can bake them, just not so they turn out! This recipe is just right for me; it can be mixed a lot and it still turns out soft and moist.

This is from one of my top three recipe books: the Valley Mennonite Academy recipe book that I got as a wedding shower gift in 1999 from my Aunt Anne and cousins Joanne and Laura. The recipe contributer is my Aunt Kathy.

1 cup banana pulp

1/2 cup shortening

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

Icing:

1/4 cup margarine

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups icing sugar

1/3 cup banana pulp

Yellow food colouring, optional

Beat first five ingredients together; add dry ingredients. Mix well. Add milk. 

Bake in 9x13 pan or as cupcakes. 

Icing: beat well.

Notes:

I baked these at 350 for 20 minutes.

I used coconut oil instead of shortening.

I added 1/4 cup flax (it was 1/4 cup before I ground it which became nearly 1/2 cup) and reduced flour... BUT I just turned the pan in the oven and they look flat, so I'm realizing I should not have decreased flour. Silly mistake! 

January 13, 2015: swapped apples for banana and added 1 tsp cinnamon. I reduced sugar by 1/4 cup. Good!

Apple Oatmeal Muffins

This is based on Apple Breakfast Bread on allrecipes.com.

1 cup boiling water

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar*

2 eggs

2 apples, peeled and cored

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Boil the water, mix in baking soda and oatmeal. Let sit.

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten eggs.

Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl as you wait for the oatmeal to soak and cool slightly.

Peel, core, and chop apples. Add to wet mixture.

Put dry ingredients into wet, stir to combine using the fewest strokes possible.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Notes:

I should have used either 3/4 cup brown sugar, or added 1/4 white sugar, or made a brown sugar crumble for the tops of the muffins.

The apple bread recipe calls for cloves but I didn't have any on hand today.

Macaroni Salad

This is a summer staple! Nothing like a cold pasta salad on a hot day. This is in both the white recipe book and the VMA recipe book (from the 1995 printing). This was submitted to VMA by Mrs. Sarah Elias. 

4 cups macaroni, uncooked

2 cups celery, finely cut

1 cucumber, peeled and diced

1 1/2 cups cubed ham

Dressing:

Blend these ingredients:

1 1/2 cups salad dressing (I use mayo)

1/2 cup cream

1/2 cup Fench dressing

6 Tbsp sugar (or less)

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook macaroni until slightly underdone. Drain well. Rinse with cold water. Drain and rinse again until pasta is cooled. Drain well. 

Combine well with dressing.

One whole recipe makes about 3/4 of an ice cream pail full.

This salad keeps well for a long time.

Notes:

If it is needing to be stored for several days, I'm not sure I would include cucumber. I would wonder if it might get soggy or slimy.

Also, it's best to let it sit for a few hours so the dressing can soak into the macaroni.

I added a small amount of grated onion, maybe about 1 tsp, but I can't taste it. Easily could have used more!

It's fun to use other shapes of pasta as well, like tubetti.

Tastes great with cheese and/or finely chopped red peppers.

Rhubarb Meringue Squares

I had rhubarb and I wanted to make a dessert. I'm not sure I've done this before, but I pulled out the tiny binder my Mom started for her recipe collection and I thought just maybe she would have included the instructions I wanted. Now, I've had very few opportunities to be annoyed with my mother (an absent parent can't make many mistakes!) but seriously? Could the recipe be any less thorough? 

I particularly enjoy the instructions on the next page for "Speedy Marble Cake" that end with "The rest you'll know." No baking time or temperature is given.

I vaguely recall her sitting at the typewriter with these small sheets of paper, five inches tall, pecking out her recipes. There are only 40 recipes included. All desserts, muffins, or loaves. Three are peanut butter based, so I suspect it must have been a favourite ingredient. Fewer than half the pages in this book are filled, which is sad. I'm sure she intended to include more, but raising three little kids aged seven and under, and helping at my parents' grocery store, she will have been busy. And then she became ill and quickly her strength and health were gone.

I don't know how long I've had this recipe book, and it hasn't often been part of my conscious thought, but I do know that when I purchased a binder to start my own collection of favourites, there was only one colour I wanted: red.

Let's get to the recipe. I've borrowed additional information from the VMA recipe book (printed in 1995) and page 108 has almost the identical recipe, submitted by Nettie Wiebe. I've combined the two:

Base:

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp sugar

Rhubarb mixture:

5 cups rhubarb

4 Tbsp flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup cream

6 egg yolks

Meringue:

6 egg whites

12 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Base:

Blend butter, sugar, and flour. Press into cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. (I wonder if a 9x13 would have been better? The rhubarb layer is very thin on such a large baking pan.)

Rhubarb mixture:

Mix it, pour it over baked crust. Bake for 45 minutes.

Meringue:

Beat to form peaks; slowly adding sugar. Add vanilla at the end.

Spread meringue over baked squares, continue baking until it has browned. This takes about 15 minutes.

You may have noticed my Mom has coconut included on top. I didn't add it.

This is not a very sweet dessert! The VMA recipe says to use 2 cups of sugar in the rhubarb mixture, but I thought it might be too much. I might go for 1 cup next time.

Vanilla Cream Pie

This is the base I use for banana cream pie. It's based on "Banana Cream Pie I" from allrecipes.com.  

1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt

2 cups 3% milk (not skim!)

2 eggs, beaten

2 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1x9" deep dish pie crust, baked

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, flour, and salt. Add milk in gradually while stirring gently. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is bubbly. Keep stirring and cook for about 2 more minutes, and then remove from the burner.

Stir a small quantity of the hot mixture into the beaten eggs, and immediately add egg mixture to the rest of the hot mixture. Cook for 2 more minutes; remember to keep stirring.

Remove the mixture from the stove, and add butter and vanilla. Stir until the whole thing has a smooth consistency.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill for several hours.

If you want this to be a banana pie, simply add sliced bananas on top when you serve it. 

Hands Raised to God in Surrender

Two years ago I started following a prayer-requesting Facebook group called "Please Pray For Rosalie". This beautiful little girl was in a coma after a near-drowning incident. We all see many causes online, but this one caught my attention because it could be any one of us in that situation, and the mother was writing about faith and prayers and Scripture in what must have been the worst days of her life. It has always been clear that this family wants Jesus name to be shared through every circumstance they faced; life or death, health and healing or not.

It's no secret that we've had an extended season of difficulty in our household. To be very clear, I am not comparing my situation to the loss of a child. But I can relate to a situation that feels huge and heavy and impossible, both in my Mom's 16 years of hospitalization and her death as well as our marriage and family issues. 

In my head I knew I "should" surrender my circumstances to God, and now that I think about it, it was probably the Spirit whispering it to me as well. But I would argue, but God won't take this weight off my shoulders, my situation won't change anyway...

And then I read this post on Rosalie's page. (Shared with permission by her mother Tiffany.)



About 9 months into Rosalie’s accident I was on a run when I became completely overwhelmed with sadness and I remember asking God if this pain was ever going to go away. I started to believe that there was no way out of the pain and that it was just going to be a new part of my everyday life. I remember tears just falling down my face, I felt out of breath as if I was having an anxiety attack. I remember falling to my knees in the middle of the road with my arms stretched towards God. I told him that I didn’t know how I was going to make it through this. At this point Rosalie was still in a coma and we had no idea what the future held for her. As I cried and cried I remember the feeling of peace overwhelming me. I remember laughing my tears away because it felt like a huge bag of bricks had been instantly removed from my chest. I was knelt there thinking am I dreaming?? Is this feeling for real? I continued to talk with God about this new found feeling that I was having. What I heard from the Lord will forever change my life. This is what the Lord spoke to my heart “This feeling is what it feels like to let go and let me have your fear and worry of the future. I want all of you not just part.” WOW!

When we let go and let God, that’s when we truly experience the peace that surpasses all understanding no matter the circumstances we may be facing. God doesn’t want us to just give him “some” things he wants us to give him everything all the time completely surrendering control to him. I can’t thank God enough for that day, he gave me clarity and wisdom that continues to spill into my everyday life. When we surrender our whole self to God giving him all control, does that mean that I won’t be fearful or worried again?? No way!! There are things that I face every day that bring fear to my heart but I have a choice! A choice to allow myself to worry or I can fall on my knees time and time again and ask God to take it from me. Every time my knees hit the floor and I beg God to take this from me, he doesn’t just do it sometime… HE DOES IT EVERYTIME!

Maybe its sickness, marriage problems, single mom or dad trying to make it, maybe money struggle, drugs, alcohol, abuse, job struggles, your past or death like we have faced. Whatever you are facing right now God is able and ready to be your prince of peace. He is ready to show you a freedom that you never thought possible. He is able! He is ready! He Loves you no matter where you are or have been. Fall on your knees today before the Lord. He is ready to fight for you, beside you and with you as you face the struggles of this life.

One place that the enemy really tries to bring me down is the day at the pool. Even though it’s been almost 2 years he still tries. Just the other day I was driving and thoughts just began to flood my mind. My heart began to break as haunting visions filled my thoughts. I had to pull the car over because I felt as if I was going to have an anxiety attack. My breaths started to get shorter and shorter and tears started running down my face. I stopped the car and on the side of the road I asked God to come to me and protect my heart and my mind from the enemies attempt to destroy my peace and joy. I spoke out loud to the enemy that my God was bigger than him and he needed to flee from me in the name of Jesus! I prayed and prayed until I could no longer even think a thought of the day at the pool. The Lord completely took over my thoughts and filled them with thoughts that were close to his.

Time and time again I surrender control of my life to Christ and time and time again he is faithful to me. I know who holds my future so as I walk this life I want to walk as close to him and his plan for my future as possible. We need to be people who trust the Lord in everything, not just the easy things but the things that are hard as well. The things that we still don’t understand put our trust in him. There is no joy in fearing or worrying but through prayer and the word of God, there is joy and peace in giving up control to the one who holds our future.

No matter what we face here there is HOPE in Jesus! He can bring us out of darkness and into light and as we continue to seek.

“The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.” Exodus 14:14

“We fall down we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus.

The greatness of mercy and love, at the feet of Jesus”

This image, a woman so burdened and broken that she is on her knees on the road with her hands raised to God, stayed in my mind. She raised her hands and God actually lifted her burden. (I know; shouldn't be a surprise because the Word says He will do it.) It spoke to me and I knew this was a lesson I needed to learn.

I grabbed a video at church today. I sometimes get a sense that I am directed by God to choose a certain movie, and while I was not in the mood for a teaching DVD, I felt compelled to grab one by Louie Giglio. He's got some neat stuff, I figured. Entertaining and teaching. The second half of the video grabbed my attention. He spoke on raising our hands, how it's not a denomination or personality "thing". It's a basic human instinct. When we celebrate, when we connect with something or someone, or in times of crisis, human instinct is often to raise our hands. He shared a struggle he had had and how the Holy Spirit put a phrase of praise in his mind during this dark time. At night when he couldn't sleep, he could only lift his hands to God in desperation and repeat the phrase. In a song writing session with Chris Tomlin, the phrases came together and sounded like this:

Be still, there is a Healer

His love is deeper than the sea

His mercy is unfailing

His arms, a fortress for the weak

Let faith arise

Let faith arise

I lift my hands to believe again

You are my refuge,

You are my strength

As I pour out my heart, these things I remember

You are faithful, God, forever.

Obviously by this point, I'm tuned in that God wants me to hear this, learn it, and do it. Got it. Loud and clear. 

Then I open my Facebook and my "buddy" (I almost feel like I know him personally after the 40 Days In The Word study!) Rick Warren has posted this:

Tiffany ended her message to me with these words: Sometimes our situations don't always change the way we hope but God can bring us joy no matter what we face.

June 9, 2014:

God is driving this point home! He pointed me to this video about praise this weekend, from LifeChurch.tv and the speaker is Carl Lentz from Hillsong Church New York. Starting at 14 minutes he specifically talks about raising hands:

http://youtu.be/r5M1wIL5C44

Breakfast pizza

I used my standard thick crust pizza recipe. Unless you have loads of time to let it rise and bake in the morning, I suggest making the crust in advance.

Bake crust for 10 minutes so toppings don't soak the crust.

Fry 1 pkg bacon (I cut it into small pieces with a scissor before I fry it)

Drain on paper towels.

In a mixing bowl, add:

1 small can pizza sauce (garlic and basil is good!)

Equal portion of cream

1-2 cups shredded cheese

6 cooked scrambled eggs, seasoned with salt and pepper

1 Tbsp chopped onion

Mix all of the topping ingredients. Spread onto crust. Bake for five minutes to heat through and broil for a few minutes until it's bubbly.

Notes:

This would be incredible as a ham and pineapple pizza (again with eggs) or whatever version of pizza or breakfast you enjoy!