Every few months Josh Carlile hops in his car and drives through three states for a pumpkin pancake fix. Yesterday the craving got the best of him, so I was blessed with an impromptu visit with my adopted son. As we poured the syrup, we reminisced about that fateful Thanksgiving many years ago in Alaska when he and his brothers came over to visit my sons and a surprise ice storm locked us in the house together for three days. This recipe was part of my “feed an army of teenage boys without warning” repertoire and thus began Josh’s pumpkin pancake addiction. I wouldn’t share this recipe if it risked Josh mixing his own pancakes and skipping these sweet one hundred seventy-six mile trips (each way), but I think he likes the hugs too. Hugs are more addictive than pumpkin pancakes, and the recipe is even simpler. Just hold as often and as long as you can.
Soul Survivor
This withering swiss chard is the sole survivor of TWO winter gardens planted and drenched in delirious hope. Cheerfully chatting with my children and house mates two months ago as we sowed hundreds of collard, kale, cabbage, broccoli, spinach and cauliflower seeds, we recollected the three failed plantings of the spring and summer and spoke words of life over this new season. We even rain danced down the rows. OK- not really. But I considered it. Within two weeks, thanks to a continuing drought combined with my broken irrigation system and three escapee chickens who determinedly scratched up all the freshly sown soil, we were back to scorched clay and dust. And grasshoppers.
Mom’s Enchilada Casserole
My Mom often made this casserole for company- it’s economical and easy to double or triple for a crowd. Serve with salad, Spanish rice, salsa and chips and it’s a full blown fiesta! Once Mom made the salsa a bit too spicy and our guests were politely chewing while their eyes were tearing up and bugging out. We probably shouldn’t have laughed at them, but we did. For years.
PS- Later in life I improved this menu with Alaskan blueberry margaritas and started a wild craze that has followed us everywhere. If you bring me Alaskan blueberries I will share the recipe:)
The Bumbling Bee Keepers
My bee keeping experience is limited to starting a Top Bar hive in Kona two years ago; I missed out on learning hive management because we moved to West Africa. Scott attended his first bee keeping class this April and I watched as his eye dilated with excitement. He was instantly hooked. Considering the incredible engineering of a hive I am not surprised by my mechanical/civil engineer husband’s enthrallment with bees. Engineers appreciate each other. I guess that’s a good thing, because normal people have a hard time appreciating engineers. They think so….. differently.
The Best Baked Oatmeal
We treasure a mountain of memories of visiting the Silveira clan in their Valdez, Alaska home. Over the years, several of their family recipes have entered our repertoire. Sandy often made this breakfast dish when our large family invaded their peaceful dining room, and it fueled our many adventures of flying over glaciers in Paul’s plane, 4 wheeler rides dodging bears, hikes in the hills, salmon fishing and shrimping, etc. I sure miss these folks! I enjoy making her recipes while recalling the special times we shared.
Forty Two Days A Farmer
I’ve been a full time farmer for forty-two days and I’m ready to quit. Six long-anticipated, thrilling, exhausting, bewildering, discouraging, exhilarating, mind and soul stimulating weeks. It’s not like the magazines; I rarely inhabit the white rocking chair on my beautiful porch. Instead I spend hours hauling heavy buckets of water to parched blueberry bushes, jaundiced raspberry canes, bug munched fruit trees and paltry pomegranate plants. Squash bugs are destroying my zucchini, beetles are busy chomping the fruit trees and the teasing cumulous clouds refuse to share a single of drop rain. Our favorite baby goose died and the pound puppy I optimistically adopted in order to help us herd the kamikaze chickens continuously pees on the floor. I wonder if she has brain damage or if I am just jinxed when it comes to picking puppies. The old dog relishes every chance to create chaos by chasing the barn cat and grasshoppers are taking over the pasture. I stand in wonder at the insect population of South Carolina and have no idea what I am doing. Even more challenging is the extensive variety of viral, bacterial and fungal diseases. We just didn’t have this stuff in the arctic thanks to the insane cold. The thug killer dog next door keeps digging under the fence and terrorizing our layers while hungry hawks continually circle up above, keeping me uptight about the three dozen baby chicks and goslings. There is always a threat of death and I find it wearing.
Wedding Present Brownies
Rosie stuffed this hand written recipe card into a healthy eating cookbook she gifted me as a wedding present twenty four years ago,”For when you’re not counting calories”. Apparently marriage seriously distracted me from calorie counting, cause I bet I’ve baked a bazillion batches of these fudge like brownies! All five of my children can stir these up by heart as well- they enjoyed introducing new friends all around the world to Wedding Present Brownies. This is my favorite brownie recipe because it uses simple ingredients, whips up in under 5 minutes and only uses one pan. You will never need a mix again!!!
Sometimes I’m Just Chicken
This morning I had a couple stimulating conversations with my chickens. Yes, I talk to chickens. I will even admit to finding the interchange interesting at times:)
Community
I have always craved and attempted to create community, beginning with a small band of fourth grade misfits meeting in the coat closet. A nursing school friend and I pioneered a Christian Nurses Association at our college and I led several small groups at church. As young marrieds we worked with youth and always had people in our home- at one point we were leading three small groups. I couldn’t get enough! There was something so very satisfying about engaging heart to heart, yet I could never get it to the depth and maturity I was yearning for. Several years ago I felt the Lord speak to my heart and encourage me to keep pressing in. As I prayed, these words were imprinted on my heart, “Community will be the foundation to any fruit that comes from your life.” Continue reading “Community”
Connecting with the Coles
Tom and Donna Cole spent the last twenty-five years ministering to the broken and emotionally wounded through effective inner healing prayer and Biblical truth. They co-authored the book Pure Heart – Restoration of the Heart through the Beatitudes and traveled around the world leading Pure Heart inner healing seminars. In fact, we first met them in one of those seminars in 2010 at our home church in Fairbanks, Alaska. Serving with International House of Prayer and Youth With a Mission, they have poured out their lives for others while raising four amazing children. Tom and Donna are fun, compassionate, hard working, genuine, sold out for Jesus and incredibly inclusive- we feel so blessed to be living life with them.