Blogging

Some things never change…

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 11 Comments

Some things never change, but then again, sometimes (almost) everything changes. Since my last post over 16 months ago, my life has been touched by nearly every major life-impacting event known to womankind. I thought about listing here all these tragedies, conundrums, and milestones, tempted by the shock value of their individual and accumulated status. But ultimately, that’s not really my style. Or is it? Maybe it should be. Maybe the newly transparent, vibrantly vulnerable woman that is emerging from the wreckage needs to boldly acknowledge my journey. Maybe I need to acknowledge my membership in the various tribes of which I now belong.

No. I just spent half an hour chronicling that tribes list here. At Number 17, it stopped feeling right. So I deleted all of them. But that doesn’t change my desire to put my stories out there – out HERE on my blog – not just in a shocking list, but in meaningful, redeeming ways. Because, despite all that is new, altered, damaged or rejuvenated in my life, my soul is still intact, with many of the same longings, loves and aspirations and convictions. It is truly a near miraculous reality and an evidence of grace beyond my mortal comprehension.

I’m still me, the “woman that never sleeps,” the lover of the quotidian life and the stories that reveal its sacred beauty. I hope you’ll stop by occasionally and join me in my marveling.

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Z as in JaZZ

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 8 Comments

I made it!  Kind of.  I mean I started with A and here I am on Z, so that’s better than not starting or not finishing at all, right?  It’s been fun to connect with other bloggers through this process.  I’m still amaZed that people do actually time have to write their own blogs and read other people’s, too.   That ability probably gets to the heart of being a true blogger, but then I’m still not sure I belong in that category.  I’m not always comfortable with categories, which is why I’m taking a different tack for today.  The way I see it, this being the last day of the challenge, why not find a word that ENDS with Z?  Don’t get me wrong; I have a son named Zach.  And being the cool kid that he is, he would have been very convenient fodder for his craZy mother’s blog.   But, as I said, playing the game that way, is just too predictable, and Zach would probably be disappointed in my lack of creativity.

So, I picked JaZZ.  Why?  Do I know a lot about jazz music?  Did I ever take jazz dance lessons?  “No” and “No, are you kidding?” are the answers to those last two questions.  As for why…well, I do appreciate and enjoy jazz music, and I did discover this cool website where you can listen to “100 Quintessential Jazz Songs,” including one of my favorites, Take the “A” Train (and no, I didn’t pick that because it fits nicely into the A to Z Blogging Challenge theme.)

And I’ll tell you what: as an added bonus I’ll throw in Zach’s favorite cookie recipe.  If you whip these up tonight, while you’re listening to this play list, it will be the Zenith of your day – maybe even your week.

http://www.jazz24.org/jazz100.html

Zach’s Favorite Cookies

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream:

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter

Add:

3 eggs

1/2 tbsp. baking soda

1/2 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tbsp. salt

1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups quick-cooking oats

3 cups flour

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup coconut

Drop by spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 11-14 minutes.  Makes 72 cookies.

Xanadu

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 8 Comments

Xanadu is the first X word that popped into my mind.  I always associate Xanadu (the song, not the movie) with Olivia Newton John, never knowing until today that it is from Coleridge’s Kubla Khan.  Well, maybe I did know that in some hazy literature era of days gone by…At any rate, I’m glad I (re)discovered it today.

http://allpoetry.com/poem/8439799-Kubla_Khan_Or__A_Vision_In_A_Dream._A_Fragment-by-Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge

Wilderness: sandwiches and such

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 4 Comments

For this, my determined attempt at struggling back onto the blog challenge Wagon, I offer a few quotes on today’s subject:

“I don’t like formal gardens. I like wild nature. It’s just the wilderness instinct in me, I guess.” – Walt Disney

“In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia.” – Charles Lindbergh

“It is like living in a wilderness of mirrors. No fact goes unchallenged.” – Bruce Babbitt

“Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.” – Henry David Thoreau

Once you get over thinking, “Wow!  If Walt could only see Disney World these days,” you can begin to appreciate the wide applications of the idea of wilderness, both literally and metaphorically.

One of my personal favorites is the wilderness of the biblical exodus.  Well over 20 years ago, the pastor at my church at the time was preaching through the book of Exodus, and I remember him commenting how God could have easily chosen to shorten the days of Israel’s wanderings.  But there was purpose in those 40 years.  His admonition for our little flock was to remember that God could do the same for us.  In whatever wilderness we might currently have been wandering, he assured us that it was completely within God’s power to remove us from it instantly.  If He didn’t, we could be confident that there was a reason why we were still there.

I’ve thought of that lesson many times over the years as I’ve either strayed into a wilderness by my own neglect or a providential plunging which can only be ascribed to God’s good purposes.  Often in such wanderings my eyes are either darting around so furiously in panic, or fixed so determinedly on my outward bound path, that I am oblivious to intersecting the wilderness routes of others.  Sometimes I get frustrated with my fellow pilgrims because I assume they’re just being foolish and annoying as they zip along their merry highway, when it is likely they may be panicked or determined, too.  I think most of us are usually in some kind of wilderness at least part of the time.  I need to be more thoughtful and compassionate.

John the Baptist was a man of the wilderness.  He ate locust and honey.  When I was growing up and my family went on outdoor excursions, we ate Wilderness Sandwiches.  They weren’t crunchy with locusts, but they were sweet like honey – and filled with carbs and protein for energy.   To make Wilderness Sandwiches, you must either start with a pancake dinner or a pancake breakfast and intentionally make extra pancakes to use in the sandwiches.   You take the pancakes, spread a thin layer of brown sugar on each, place a piece of crisp bacon in the center, and roll it up.  I guess today, we’d call these Wilderness Wraps, but back then wraps were what we used to keep us warm on the trail.  No matter what you call them, they’re good for sustaining you through a day of wandering in the wilderness – the real OR the metaphorical.

P: My PAT answer

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 6 Comments

P at, my friend,

R eminded me when I was yet on N, that

E ven when our dreams fall flat or

S end us

S earching for some class or

      O nly serve to scare us

      N ight will pass away and Hope will

                    P ull me into dawn’s new day

                    R ays will shine and

                    E nd my fears

                    S he didn’t say it exactly like that

                    S he said two words, then

                          O ver again, and I am

                          N ow repeating them…in my own way

Oooooo!

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 4 Comments

When my stepfather sold part of the property he owned near the beautiful Niobrara River in Nebraska, the new owners were curious about some of the plants my mother had left growing in the garden.  They wondered if they might be “some kind of Oklahoma pepper.”  My mom is an Okie, but the plants were not peppers, they were OKRA.

Here, once again directly from the pages of my Secrets from the Southern Living Test Kitchens book, is the definition of OKRA: “Slender green, fuzzy, fingerlike pods containing numerous small, edible seeds.  Brought to the South by African slaves, okra is still popular in Southern cuisine: it’s an ingredient in many dishes, such as gumbo, but it can also be fried, steamed, or grilled as a vegetable.  Okra has a mild flavor, but when cooked in liquid, it give off a viscous substance that thickens the liquid.  Okra is at its peak during summer months, but it’s also available canned and frozen.”

Thankfully, even though I strayed a little from my own Oklahoma roots, God let me find an Okie to marry so we could engage in lively debates over the best way to prepare OKRA.  We both agree that steamed or boiled is just too slimy, but he prefers it dredged in cornmeal and fried in bacon drippings.  I do agree it’s pretty hard to beat anything dredged in cornmeal and fried in bacon drippings, but I also love OKRA pickled.  He won’t allow pickled OKRA within a country mile of his mouth.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2012

N is for NOT giving up!

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 9 Comments

It was tempting to post about N being for NOTHING, or NIHIL, or NADA or NONE.  It would be easy to note that and be done.  But I signed up for this challenge, so I’m NOT giving up or giving so little so easily.

“NOT giving up” isn’t really a very original idea, though, is it?  Who needs another blog about perseverance?  Let’s go with something a little more edgy…like NIGHTMARE.  To keep on theme, we could even call it a “Recipe for a Nightmare,” but that’s not really what it is.  You could toss all the ingredients it took for my nightmare into your brain bowl, and you wouldn’t come up with the same result.

My nightmare was me being in college – some college, somewhere – none that I ever attended – and realizing that I had forgotten my schedule and missed all my classes.  I’ve had this nightmare before – several times.  It’s always either high school or college and I’m like a mouse in a maze trying to find my way to some classroom when I realize that I’m already too late.  I will have missed the class. I will have failed to be where I was supposed to be and will have no good explanation for it.

I don’t know why I consistently have this nightmare.  This never happened to me in real life.

But dreaming about college last night actually does make sense in way.  I went to see a movie that was about a guy’s experience in college.  I couldn’t stop thinking about the movie, so I guess it makes sense that I would find myself on a college campus in my dreams.  The movie was based on one my favorite books, and even though I knew going into it that the movie had to be different to make the best possible movie, I couldn’t help but keep making comparisons as I was watching the movie.  This was a lot of work for my little brain.  The movie provides plenty for one to think about, so in this case, it might have been better if I hadn’t read the book.  I could have just watched it for what it was.  Still, I appreciated so much about it.  It made me think about some hard things, but it also let me think about them in ways that allowed me to draw my own conclusions and see the beauty and the truth of a situation just through the imagery and dialogue (or lack of it.)  It didn’t tell me what I was supposed to think, as if I couldn’t figure it out for myself.  And in the end, the breath-taking end that it is, there is an element of “NOT giving up” on something.

If you haven’t seen the movie, Blue Like Jazz, based on the book by Donald Miller, I hope you’ll go see it.  It’s NOT your average “Christian movie.”

L is for Life

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 7 Comments

KKKKick me back to F for Failure to blog yesterday, but I got a little taste of L – an appetizer of sorts – a day early.  L is for LIFE, which in gloriously, challenging, bewildering and miraculous ways does go on in spite of blog challenges.  Life’s recipe changes moment by moment sometimes – sometimes bitter, often sweet.

I’m off to cooler climes with special people…

J is for: JUST The Best Recipe Ever

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 6 Comments

JUST in case you didn’t happen to get a copy of the 1993-94 MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) recipe book with my friend, Lee’s, recipe for chocolate cake, I’m re-printing it here and including a few of my little changes.  If I could eat only one thing for the rest of my life this would be it.  FYI, I usually only use about half the frosting that the recipe makes.  I use the rest on vegetables or whatever…JUST kidding!  Maybe.  Seriously, though, the key to this recipe is not getting the frosting too thick (I usually don’t use the full pound of powdered sugar) and putting it on the cake while it’s still hot, so it sinks in and makes more of a nice glossy icing.  JOY!  JOY!  JOY!

JUST the Best Chocolate Cake Ever

(That’s what I call it; my friend is more humble than that.)

Cake:

2 sticks margarine (I always use butter instead.)

1 cup water

1/4 cup cocoa (I use dark cocoa.)

2 cups sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs, well-beaten

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk (I usually sour 1 % milk with vinegar, but prefer buttermilk if I have it on hand.)

Frosting:

1/2 cup margarine (Again, I use butter.)

3 Tbsp cocoa (Again, dark.)

5 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 lb. powdered sugar

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Cake:  Preheat oven to 400.  In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat bring margarine, water and cocoa to a boil.  Set aside.  In mixer bowl, mix together sugar, flour, soda and salt.   Add cocoa mixture to sugar mixture.  Add beaten eggs and buttermilk mixed with vanilla.  Beat well, pausing to scrape sides and bottom of bowl.  Pour into a greased and lightly floured 9 x 13* cake pan.  Bake for 25-27 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.   Prepare frosting while cake bakes.  Frost while still warm.

Frosting:  Bring margarine, cocoa, and milk to a boil.  Add powdered sugar and vanilla and blend until smooth.  Top with nuts (if your husband and kids will let you get by with it.)

*Again, I switched things up a little.  You’re supposed to use a 9 x 14 “sheet cake” pan, but I JUST prefer a thicker cake.

(J Day: A to Z Blogging Challenge April 2012)

I, eye, aye, Italian insects

~ Bri Sperry-Renfrew ~ 8 Comments

Thanks to the interest and ingenuity of my youngest daughter, I actually have something to blog about for today’s entry in the A to Z Blogging Challenge.   Moments ago, this was our conversation:

Me:  Ugh!  I still have to figure out something to blog about today.

Daughter:  I – Italian food!  You can blog about that great lasagna you made the other night!

This is probably a much better idea than what I was considering: insects.  It was going to kind of be a justification for my son’s attempt to convince his teacher that he should be allowed to use Insects as the I food on his CHRISTMAS acronym food art activity.   He was inspired by a television show he’d seen and we’d discussed just days before – Animal Planet or Discovery Channel – one of those shows.  But the teacher was not impressed, so he had to use boring old ice cream.  If you’re feeling curious, adventuresome, and iron-stomached, check out this website: Girl Meets Bug.  I haven’t added any to the lasagna, but feel free to experiment!

Classic Lasagna With Italian Turkey Sausage

1 lb. sweet Italian turkey sausage

1 1/2 cups chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped carrot

2 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 28 oz. cans whole tomatoes (puree in blender, undrained)

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp pepper, divided

1/2 tsp salt

30 oz. fat-free ricotta cheese

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

1 egg

1/3 cup minced fresh parsley

15 lasagna noodles (or enough for 3 layers in a 9×13 lasagna pan)

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook, rinse and drain noodles.  Set aside.    In a large saucepan cook sausage, onion, carrot, garlic and pepper flakes over medium heat until meat is no longer pink and vegetables are tender.  Add tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, oregano, basil and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and salt.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer (uncovered) for 40-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.  In a separate bowl combine ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, egg, parsley, and remaining pepper.  Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish.  Layer one-third of the noodles, one-fourth of the meat sauce and 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese.  Repeat layers twice.  Top with remaining sauce and Parmesan.  Cover and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella.  Return to oven and bake uncovered 10 minutes or until cheese is lightly golden. (12 servings)