HOW POUND CAKE GOT ITS NAME

On a lighter note…

I made a cake from scratch over the weekend, a real feat for me. Bob found the recipe on the Internet; anything with raspberries catches his eye. It required cake flour and key limes, so we trotted off to the grocery store to gather the necessary ingredients. We had to purchase a Bundt pan, although I am sure we have one somewhere in the house. I chose the $3.68 pan instead of the $27.00 model. I prayed the cake wouldn’t stick, because then I would have to make the whole thing into a bowl of crumbs with raspberry sauce.

Surprisingly, the key limes were very reasonable. I cut them in half, all 20 of them, and Bob squeezed the juice into a bowl. The prelude to the recipe stated that the key lime juice, as opposed to lime juice, made all the difference in the world.

To me all-purpose flour would have been fine, but we opted to follow the recipe exactly and purchased the required cake flour. When I came home I looked up the difference. Cake flour has less gluten, which affects the “crumb” of the cake – the texture…you learn something every day.

I did screw-up the butter content. It called for 18 tablespoons. My quick conversion had me dump three sticks of butter (no calories there) into the bowl with 8 ounces of cream cheese (no calories there) and three cups of sugar (no calories there). That was six tablespoons of overkill. All ingredients were to be at room temperature and I made sure this was the case.

After I popped the pan in the oven, I made the glaze and then the sauce. Bob ran the sauce through a sieve to eliminate the seeds. Eighty minutes later the cake was golden brown and slipped out of the pan with ease - yeah. I glazed it with a brush and we were set to go.

The dessert was a big hit and I discovered just why it is called pound cake. There are 3,500 calories in a pound and I’ll bet I have added several pounds to my frame from eating that cake. It was worth it. It was delicious! The recipe can be found at the link to follow.

http://www.bake-aholic.com/key-lime-pound-cake-with-raspberry-sauce/

ANGER MANAGEMENT

I came to the realization today that I possessed a great underlying anger. It bubbled to the surface of my consciousness, when I was told of an incident regarding a young man, whom I know, and that he was using heroine. The anger was not at the addicted man and what he had done through the course of his addiction or toward those who excused his actions. After all, I didn’t have all the details and I only heard the account second hand. The anger rose toward the substance, heroine that overpowers and controls people seeking pleasures, hiding pain, unable to face life head-on.

I often wondered why I had no anger when my son passed due to his heroine addiction. I was never angry with my son. Anger just wasn’t there; a deep sadness, yes. The sadness is still there and probably always will be. There was never any anger toward God, either. It wasn’t His fault that my son loved what heroine did to him more than he loved anything else. There was never any anger, until today. I now know that the anger was always there. I just didn’t know how to direct it. I unconsciously suppressed it.

Today, seeing what that substance has done to another life and how it affected everyone around the abuser – I became angry and after thinking long and hard about it, the anger was directed at the substance. Now what do I do with this feeling? How do I need to channel it?

I started thinking about what I allow to control me? I don’t have a problem with substance abuse, I never have, I never will and, unfortunately, I don’t empathize with those who do. But, do I allow the need to be right to cloud logical thinking and control my actions? Do feelings of inadequacy or insecurity ensnare me and hold me back from doing what I should or could do? Do I let fear often paralyze me? I have much to think about here. James Russell Lowell stated, “Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.” I need to be willing to change!

Philippians 4:6-7

HAVE MERCY ON ME

mer·cy  

/ˈmərsē/

Noun

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.    Compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm: "the boy was begging for mercy".

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.    An event to be grateful for, esp. because its occurrence prevents something unpleasant or provides relief from suffering.

Synonyms

pity - compassion - clemency - grace - charity

It is amazing how dependence brings you right to the throne of grace. When you are unable to figure it out, to get out of your own way or find a way, you come to the One who is the way. Grace is undeserved favor. It’s mercy and God grants it freely. How long will it take me to catch on?

grace: Where we get what we really don't deserve. mercy: Where we don't get what we really do deserve.

It is my prayer that some day I will cease to let my circumstances rule me (how well they can control me - oh so effectively) and that I might get in tuned naturally with the God I seek to serve. The benefits would be tremendous – less stress leading to better health, better attitude, improved perspective, peace of mind, confidence, reassurance…think Psalm 23 and that old valley of the shadow of death! If only I could grasp the BIG picture instead starring in my own little melodrama. I’m working on it by the grace of God. I’m working on it.

COULD IT BE ADD?

In my self-reflection, I see that I have always had a deficit, some sort of ADD. I struggle with memory. Long term – I’m unable to recall many of the things my siblings remember about our childhood. Short term – names of places and people elude me and anything involving numbers gets all mixed up in translation. I do not believe that it is dementia, as it has always been this way. But it sure makes me wonder, whenever my mind has such a tendency to wander! Just yesterday, I told a friend that my train often pulls out the station, but I am not on board!

I must work hard at learning anything; memorization is a struggle. As a result, when I am expected to grasp anything immediately, it doesn’t happen. I ask a lot of questions in an attempt to understand (it drives my husband crazy) or I just pretend to get it. As an example: when I was in school, I tried out for cheerleading every year from eighth grade on, always making it to the last cut. The final test of one’s ability was to be taught a routine on the spot and then to be able to perform it. I was always eliminated at this point. I did not possess the ability to catch on without a ton of practice.

I don’t want to use this inability in my life as an excuse. It is just a fact. I know it is necessary for me to try harder in order to succeed. In college they called me “Avis Davis” – because I tried harder (at the time Avis Car Rental used the byline “We Try Harder”). I had to try harder. Now, I don’t always have the energy or will to do so.

I guess I will play games with myself to try and remember things – reciting lists I’ve made in my head, playing the family alphabet game with license plates, when I am driving. I’ve been told if you walk into a room and forget the reason you came to the room – that’s normal. If you can’t find your car keys – that’s normal. It is when you walk into a room and have no idea where you are or when you have your keys in your hand and have no idea what to do with them, then you need to be concerned, very concerned!

I'M A LUCKY GIRL

I’m a lucky girl, though I’ll never win the Powerball or the HGTV Dream Home. I have lucky bamboo on my desk at work and it’s lucky to be alive, since I only water it once a month or so. There’s a lucky three-legged brass frog with gold coins in its mouth staring at my front door. Feng Shui says it brings wealth, yeah right, just like the Chinese coins hanging on the knob of my front door. The only thing I can ever remember winning was a griddle at a pan demonstration at the school where I taught in 1974 – on my birthday, no less. I also won a basket of garden goodies at a Chinese auction last fall, but that’s about it. I’m not very lucky by the world’s standards.

Maybe lucky is not the correct word. I’m more than fortunate and truly I’m blessed. I couldn’t ask for a better husband. I’ll bet he would be surprised to hear me say that, as much as I nag him about stupid things. My lunch is wonderfully packed each day, including an ice pack to keep my yogurt with fresh berries cool and a cup of hot tea always awaits my departure for work. I joke about the only reason I have a cell phone – to let him know I am on my way home, so that my dinner is on the table when I arrive. It always is. I am truly blessed. He also runs the sweeper and does dishes and laundry, not as well as I do, of course. But then, I can’t fix all the many things he can or chop wood for the wood stove or light the darn stove, for that matter! He’s creative and very amazingly ingenious. It’s all right that he can’t spell. Little does he know that I don’t spell very well, either. I can’t get him to scrub a toilet, but that’s ok, too. He is trained to put the lid down, most of the time!

It is during prayer time in church, when I know how really blessed I am in my marriage. My husband reaches for my hand and holds it tight. I really miss that on Sundays when he goes away to Camp. I pray that we can grow together spiritually, and that our Lord and Savior will strengthen our faith, as we walk through the good times and the trials of life for there are many of both.

GAS PAINS

We really thought we had this Peoples Natural Gas (PNG) thing licked. It still lies looming in front of us with a new wrinkle. I won’t go into too much detail, but our gas was shut off a few weeks back, because of a leak. It tuned out not to be on our property and PNG would have to rectify the problem. Yeah! Not so fast. It appears that our land has shifted and is encroaching on the PNG easement below our property. We are in the middle of trying to find some solutions. Having recently found a solution to our increase in health care costs by refinancing the house, the current dilemma might put a damper on that. Never the less, Bob and I are confident that when God closes doors he opens windows and we will emerge victorious…eventually.

Please pray that we remain steadfast in our belief that “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28. I contend that it will be exciting to see how God helps us handle this.

Since August of 2008, I have asked God for a word (words, a phrase) each month. This has served two purposes. One is an encouragement and the other, by trying to memorize the word for each month, I am to exercising my gray matter (54 to date minus one that I just can’t remember). The word for January 2013 is BELIEVE. We're excited to see just how our Lord is going to help us through this. We believe He truly will.

HELPFUL HINTS

Yesterday, as I was dusting behind our computer in a cluster of wires extending from its USB ports, I noticed a few cords were neatly bound with clips from bread bags. I remembered doing this, ages ago, after I read an e-mail loaded with helpful hits using everyday stuff. I decided I needed to label a few more cords since our home houses multiple electronic gadgets from smart phones, an iPad, a Kindle, three digital cameras and who knows what else. I found one clip in a junk drawer and it reminded me how my mom saved things, because “you never know how it might come in handy some day.”

Bless her soul, Mom saved the black plastic bottoms off of the old style two liter bottles and the plastic containers in which strawberries came – lots of them. When we cleared-out her house in 2000, we found dozens and dozens of the flip-top caps from ketchup bottles. I suppose someone could find a use for such things, but I try not to save items that don’t have an immediate use.

Once that last sentence was typed, I thought I better ponder it before moving on. What do I save…ribbon, drawers full. Every color you can imagine. I buy it at yard sales for $.25 or less a spool, can’t pass it up. And then, there are wallpaper remnants to be used as wrapping paper. I have to have at least a dozen rolls. I also have over a drawer full of cloth napkins – picked up at yard sales for use to line baskets or set a pretty table for company. I almost forgot about the scrapbooking stuff that I have collected – cards, old calendars, things that can be used as embellishments that only embellish drawers and boxes in our storage room.

Ok Mom, I guess I have inherited some of your hoarding skills. But, you never know when it might come in handy – someday!

My original intent today was to supply several handy ideas, but I was side tracked. Only one more helpful hint…take an empty toilet paper roll or better yet one from paper towels and make a cut from one end to the other. You can secure it around an open roll of wrapping paper, or wallpaper in my case, to store it neatly until the next use. No, I do not save such rolls. I just use them as they come available.


"We are not cisterns made for hoarding, we are channels made for sharing." Billy Graham