Aaron and Jessica

What a happy surprise! --a late phone call Monday evening from Aaron, to say he and Jessica were coming down for a nice long visit! Four days of sitting over meals, sharing pics and plans from computers to hear all the details of their next years wedding. That's a joy! So much anticipation...

Zinnias

I have always been envious of Mr. Wicks bright beds of zinnias next door, and so when I saw a pack of zinnia seeds for $1.69 at Target, I decided to see what would come up across the fence in our yard. Planted in August, we picked the first blooms about the time school started and have had a steady crop every since. It's my new fall luxury!! (up there with apple cake and pots of soup). I've gotten many times $1.69 worth of joy out of these bright sturdy flowers--vases all over the house! Thanks to God for the gladness he gives us in the creation!! Beautilicious!!

Butternut Squash Lasagne

This recipe is part William Sonoma, part Tyler Florence and part my own-- kind of mix and match lasagne, but Larry liked it just fine!

BUTTERNUT SQUASH LASAGNE

8 slices of bacon

2 chopped yellow onions

12 oz. package butternut squash chunks

4 cloves of garlic, minced

ground pepper, fresh ground

4 tab. butter

1/4 cup flour

3 cups milk

1 cup parmesan-reggiano cheese

1/4 cup chopped marjoram

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

a large hand-full of spinach, shredded (optional)

10 -12 Barilla no cook lasagne noodle

Chop the bacon into bits and brown it in a pan--adding the chopped onion at the end to brown as well. Stir in the garlic. Cook the squash in the microwave until tender and then smash it into the bacon-onion mixture to make a paste. In another pan, melt the butter, stir in the flour and slowly stir in the milk over low heat until it makes a thick sauce. Stir in the parmesan. Season with pepper, marjoram and oregano. Then in a smallish 9x13 pan layer the sauce, noodles, bacon mixture and spinach, starting and ending with sauce. Cover with foil and bake 50 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove the foil and cook 5 minutes more to brown. Garnish with a sprig of marjoram (or any green herb).

It's a lighter lasagne with less cheese and meat, delicious and full flavored. Pretty on the plate with a big antipasto salad. Hearty and warm as nights get cooler.

Black Notebook

Propped up beside my nightstand is my tattered black notebook. In it I keep things I want to remember-- the combination for a padlock we no longer use on the shed, paint chips of colors I have spread on walls in our house, copies of hymns with wonderful words, and measurements & bits of fabric from quilts I have made.

I also keep lists-- Several lists of house projects that I've worked on over the years, a log of every book I've read since April 2002, lists of trips I've taken and/or would like to take ahead. Leafing through yesterday I found an old list I had forgotten. It's not dated, but I'm guessing about 2001. It's a list "50 goals to do before I turn 50." Nine years later, I was oddly pleased to see how many of the goals actually came about:

Go to NY City with Larry -check!

Visit the MacDonalds, Tuckers, Wrobbels and Newmans in Illinos-check!

Finish a masters degree -check!

Celebrate my 50th birthdday -check! (thanks to Jenni)

Sew up quilts for each of my kids -double check!

And a quilt for each grandchild -check!

Get down to 130 pounds -almost check! :)

"learn the internet" (what does that mean?!) -check? (thanks to my kids for the bit I know)

Get my ears pierced -check (thanks to Ani & Laurel)

Take a family portrait -check (done twice as we've grown!)

But I have to admit there are plenty of worthwhile goals left to complete:

Travel to Seattle and North Carolina

Go overseas to fill/teach in at a mission school for a year

Take an oil painting class

Write 3 handwritten letters/notes each week

Sing in a production of the Messiah...

There's more. It's time to rework my list, add some new goals for a new decade. How about celebrate Mom's 80th birthday in style?! or go back to teach English in China with Larry this time? Retire so I can do all these things! I'm thank for life and energy for goals and projects ahead of me, for a life that's full.

Thai Noodles

Visiting kids in the Bay Area guarantees some good eating. Pakistani,Venezuelan & Turkish food in Berkeley, dim sum and Thai in Oakland, Spanish tapas, Vietnamese and salted caramel Bi-Rite ice cream in SF.

So here's my happily satisfactory attempt at Thai noodles with chicken-peanut sauce . In my book, anything with peanuts AND cilantro has to be delish! (sorry Brian)

THAI NOODLES

1 skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup peanut butter (I like chunky)

1/2 cup water

1/6 cup soy sauce

juice of 1 lime

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 tab oil

2 good shakes of red pepper

1/2 cup chopped peanuts

1/4 cup chopped cilantro (or more!)

3 green onions, chopped

6 oz. cooked rice noodles

Cut the chicken breasts in to small bits and saute until brown and cooked through. To make the sauce blend the peanut butter, water, soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, ginger, oil and red pepper in the food processor. Mix in with the warm chicken. If it seems a bit thick, add more water.

Just before serving it up, stir in the peanuts, cilantro and green onion. Serve it all over warm rice noodles. This is the one dish that will make me reach for a second helping!

This night we served it up with a salad of oranges, cucumbers and salted pistachios over red leaf lettuce with a tarragon vinagerette. (Thanks Laurel for the photo!!)

Monday Nights

On Monday night by ones and twos, twenty women drifted into our family room. Pour a cup of tea, greet a friend back from vacation, listen to someone's hard week, catch up on the news of someone's family. Then we settle in to read through a part of 2nd John, talk though the ideas of the verses and encourage each other in our faith. We share stories and pray. Some nights we laugh a lot, others are painful.

There are reasons I anticipate Monday nights-- This women remind me of what is true and eternal. My heart is encouraged by the faith of their day by day stories. It's heartening to know these friend truly understand my life and are walking through it with me. God is good.