My "Special" Brownies

I have a practice of sneaking healthier options into my family’s meals without their knowing it. I purée carrots, celery and mild bell peppers into tomato based sauces, such as marinara, pomodoro and even in chili. It’s delicious. When the children were little I put broccoli and cauliflower in their macaroni and cheese so that they would eat more veggies. I find that they are less likely to complain about whole wheat pasta when it’s smothered in a good tomato-based sauce, and sprinkled generously with some Parmesan cheese. Now that the healthful benefits of cinnamon are touted, I sprinkle cinnamon generously on their yogurt, applesauce and cereal. I’m into little things like that to add some healthiness to their food.

Big Daddy is as picky an eater as you’d find, and he is usually not easily persuaded into trying anything new, let alone healthy. But even he has budged and will eat some things that he might not of before. But he will also dig his heals in a bit and be a real hard sell on these kinds of things, too! So I often have to be stealthy in my goal of cooking healthful meals.

So along those lines, I found a tip for getting them to eat some healthy legumes, in brownies of all places. I know what you’re thinking. Ugh, gross. How can beans and chocolate brownies go together, um, tastefully? I was a skeptic myself. Several years ago, someone posted on the now defunct, or unavailable Hippie Christian Board this simple tip:

Mix one regular can of black beans with one regular package of brownie mix. Mash up the beans really well before you add the mix, and then don’t add anything else - no water, oil or eggs necessary. Cook, cool, refrigerate and eat. The woman who posted it suggested you NOT eat them warm from the oven, they are best at room temperature or slightly cool. I tested this an she is correct! I also think they take slightly longer to cook than the box directions, so you have to watch them. Oh yeah, and DO NOT eat them warm.

The thing is, they are pretty good. Mind you they aren’t warm decadent brownies you serve with ice cream on your birthday or other special occasions. But when you want a little treat that you don’t have to feel super-guilty about, and that gives you some added healthy food on the down low, try this recipe. My family has been eating them this way for a couple of years and haven't noticed. Which brings me to my most recent batch of special brownies.

This past Memorial Day we were planning and packing for our picnic at the beach. We did it the night before, since we wanted to get an early start. My Mom was here visiting, and helping by making the sandwiches. She asked if I wanted her to start the brownies we bought for the picnic. “Oh no,” I said, “I have a special recipe for them, to make them a bit healthier. I’ll take care of them, but I have to do it while the Big Daddy and the children are not around because I don’t want them to see what I’m doing.” When they were otherwise occupied I made my special brownies under the very doubtful and critical eye of my Mom. I tried to convince her. “Trust me,” I said, “They are really pretty good. You’ll see. You’ll be surprised, Mom.” She was not convinced, but I swore her to secrecy and knew she’d give them a try at our picnic.

We had a beautiful morning at the beach on Memorial Day: Swimming, snorkeling, walking and relaxing, the ocean was fairly calm, the weather was great. We all worked up an appetite playing. The picnic food was good - egg salad or bologna sandwiches, pickles, chips and ripe watermelon. Simple, yummy and satisfying. That is until we got to the brownies. Which I made with spicy, seasoned black beans. I didn’t read the label.

Now my family is on to me. And I will never hear the end of this one.

Some thoughts on Love and Fear

One of the Bible passages that rocked my world, so to speak, when I first came across it is this:
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
It’s found a couple of times in the Psalms and Proverbs. It is something that seemed simple and complex at the same time, yet made perfect sense for me when I was beginning my walk with God. Right off the bat this notion of “fear” did not disturb me. This verse made me realize there was a basic reality: Good and Evil, God and the devil, heaven and hell. I understood it as this: awesome reverence for The Being who had ultimate power over the earth, and men and women.

Along with the Lord’s power over all people and things, there is also His Love. And early on I sensed and knew that, so that while the notion of fear was sobering and humbling, it was not some kind of hopeless terror. I know many people nowadays don’t want to associate God and fear together. It’s hurtful and confusing for them to do that, and they can’t fathom a compatibility in it. Maybe they have had genuine grounds to “fear” fear. Perhaps somewhere in their background they had cause to fear an authority figure or parental figure and they can’t bring themselves to associate that notion with a loving God. I can understand that, but it can only go so far, and I’ll attempt to explain why. There is a good kind of fear, and it’s a fear that keeps us alive. Fear causes us to be cautious when faced with real danger, and to avoid harm and preserve our health.

I know it’s not fashionable or popular in our current cultural climate, even in the church, to have sermons and teachings refer to hell and punishment. You know, the fire and brimstone stuff. I suspect that many in today’s culture would hold in disdain the conversion of a soul who clung to God’s salvation for fear of eternal damnation in hell. As if somehow such a conversion is not as legitimate as one who came to the foot of Christ’s cross in gratitude and recognition of His sacrificial love. I say both are saved, saved, saved and that’s what counts! After all, our faith in the Lord is not to remain some static notion. It is to be a growing relationship. So that when we initially turn to God, whether through fear of hell or realization of His Unconditional Love, we grow in our grace and knowledge of Him and begin to understand all the facets of His character, which encompass both of those notions and many others.

John explains this concept in his first epistle, chapter 4, it‘s a pretty amazing passage. God has wanted this kind of reciprocal love from mankind all along: a love relationship, not one of mere fear or robotic obedience. In love there has got to be some respect. To put it into our human relationships, in those we love the most - our spouses, children and parents - we’d like some mutual respect and appreciation. We ought not to enjoy walking all over each other! If we have a tender heart, we fear intentionally hurting our loved one. We fear it might cause a rift in our relationship and we don’t want to hurt the one we love. It’s the same way with the Lord, we ought to have a tender heart that fears a separation from Him. Reverential fear causes us to respect and preserve.

Elsewhere in the New Testament we are told by Jesus not to fear someone on earth who can cause us bodily harm, but to fear only God who has authority to cast both body and soul into hell. Then He immediately goes on to say that the Lord knows whenever a little sparrow falls to the ground, and the number of hairs on each person’s head and that each person is more valuable to Him than a flock of sparrows. And He says it just like that, in that particular sequence and order, which I think is interesting in itself. So, where there is a warning of hell, there is a reinforcement of love and grace to reassure that there is safety and rest in the Lord. But we must cling to Him, and keep our end of the bargain by believing in Him and being faithful to Him. A little fear of hell is good, if it keeps you on the straight and narrow! As long as you realize you have a Heavenly Father that knows and loves you intimately, and has provided you with a means of escaping that horrible place that was never intended for you in the first place!

In ending this post, I leave you with a quote I heard this week that got me thinking. I’ll paraphrase to the best of my recollection:
“For the Christian this earth is the only hell they will ever experience; for the unbeliever this earth is the only heaven they will ever see.”

Funny Blogs

I find myself checking on these blogs every other week or so. I'd like to tell you they are spiritually uplifting or intellectually challenging, but actually they are simply for fun. I think I have laughed until I cried a time or two over at Cake Wrecks. Cake Wrecks is a site that posts pictures of actual bakery cakes that are, well, wrecks. Check it out and you'll see what I mean. "The Cake That Started It All" will give you a feel for the site.

I recently came across Awkward Family Photos, and now I'm hooked. I actually have my own awkward photo of Flora and I on the Atlantis ride at Sea World, similar to this joyride. When I locate it I just might send it in.

Fail can also be funny. It also has a nifty G-rated feature. (I hope you don't mind me using the word nifty two days in a row. I'm bringin' nifty back. Use the word nifty today as a sign of solidarity with me!)

Anyway, back to subject of G-Ratings in regards to the sites. Allow me to make a disclaimer that I'm not sure if you will find racy or inappropriate content on those sites, so far I haven't seen anything bad, but you never know, and I wouldn't want to offend or lead astray.

I'm not ashamed to admit it, I haven't yet grown tired of the Lolcats over at "I can haz cheezburger."

Hot

Hot, Hot, Hot and Hot Fun In the Summertime - take your pick, I am humming them both today.

Just about an hour ago I was hanging my laundry out on my nifty clothes dryer. I was roasting. Even for this relatively quick chore I had on sunglasses, hat and sunscreen. I got curious. Just how hot is it? According to my thermometer it read 125 degrees F in the sun and 120 in the shade on my back porch. You might be saying to yourself, as I did, "That can't be right!" Well, same thermometer is reading my bedroom as 79, my living room as 81. Therefore, I concede to it's general accuracy. "We're talking Hot, Hot, Hot!" Still, I wouldn't trade my hot lot in life with any of you who weather four distinct seasons. I love to visit such places but I wouldn't want to live there! And you, dear reader, probably wouldn't want to live here - but you'd enjoy a visit, more than likely.


My Mom graced us with her presence from a few days before Mother's Day until today. We will miss her and I am sure she will enjoy a bit of peace and quiet. The Chaos and Mayhem of our home can be quite loud!


Adam and Flora were delighted to see a 2 foot nurse shark near the mangroves that border the little dock area at the end of our street. I will be happy to spot one myself one of these days.





One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky


"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever."
-1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NLT

Speaking of summer songs:
The classic song "Summertime" by George Gershwin is one of my all time favorite songs. Since becoming a Christian the lyrics of it take on a biblical meaning for me. I highlighted that above in posting a verse of the song lyrics and the coordinating Bible verse. I have never been especially fond of calling the Lord Daddy or Papa as many do nowadays, but that's a personal thing. Many people find it comforting, and He is after all, Our [Heavenly] Father. But in this song, it has always been a picture of God's Fatherhood to His children for me. Let that blow through the jasmine in your mind for awhile.

I am exhausted. Yesterday, Big Daddy and I did a 13 hour (round trip) drive to Tampa and back. While I enjoy driving and riding (and Drivin' n Cryin' 80's babies) it was too much for my 40 year old lower back. We didn't have enough time to break it up with and take some time to stretch our legs. Mama's on Advil today. There's a lesson in that.

It was the first time I have ever been across Alligator Alley, and I enjoyed the vast view of the Everglades. Out to the horizon on either side: saw-grass, cypress and the big Florida sky! I find the clouds in Florida as expressive and changeable as human faces. I wish I brought our camera. I did not find it the Alley as lonesome and ominous as many have described it to me. Anyway we came up with a few blog ideas, so hopefully they will turn up here soon.

Of course we saw many alligators. And tourists.

My Fellow Bloggers...

You may or may not have noticed that I changed some of the links on my blog roll over there on the right hand side. Please don't take it personally if I removed your blog link, I was just doing a little spring cleaning. I really enjoy all the blogs I link(ed) too, but I noticed that a few of them were not active for 6 or more months. So in the interest of being interesting and current, albeit in my own limited way, I was just doing a little tidying. I have you all saved in my favorite bookmarks and will continue to check on them. And when there is some more blogging afoot, then I will link away (again)! I miss you guys! I have also come across some new blogs lately and I am enjoying them. What are your favorite blogs? Share a link if you like.

Big Daddy took this beautiful sunset picture the other evening. He really has a good eye, and it runs in the family because one of his sisters is a very gifted, self-taught professional photographer. (I also like to think that spending a couple of decades with an artistic wife has rubbed off on him a bit, too.) I think he is inspired by her talent because he is taking many good pictures of the children and their teammates at games. That is how his sister got started with becoming passionate about photography. I love it when we can inspire, learn and encourage each other to good works. It is a blessing that he now has a bit more time to do these types of things he loves, ministry included (and actually imbued in all he does), instead of working himself to exhaustion just to support us. I do believe he's enjoying this season of life, but I can't presume to speak for him. It's just a nice little thing I've noticed.

Movie Review: Okie Noodling

I can't exactly remember how I got interested in this movie. I think that years ago, during the short time we lived in wild, wonderful West Virginia Big Daddy told me a fish tail. He said that some men he worked with were talking about how some catfish lurked at the bottom of the Bluestone Lake and Dam and grew quite possibly the size of a VW Beetle! (Or at least the size of a man.) I was skeptical, but after watching the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet I now concede to the possibility. Kind of. I concede that there are some mighty, big catfish around.


Anyway, I somehow came across this documentary called Okie Noodling. The movie follows some brave and somewhat crazy men who fish for catfish with their bare hands. And they catch some big ones, not as big as a VW or themselves, but big nonetheless. When I saw that The Flaming Lips did the soundtrack for the documentary, I was hooked, or rather I should say this movie grabbed me. Sorry couldn't resist that.

As for my review, it is an interesting movie, an entertaining way to spend 45 minutes or so. There is just a tiny little bit of profanity once or twice. It's fascinating to see how some people go about following their passions and off-beat hobbies.