Steamed Cauliflower for Recipe Friday

Ever since I was a kid my favorite vegetable has been cauliflower (green beans are a close second). I don’t make it as often as I should because it is really good for you, high in fiber and packed with vitamins.

A while back I made cauliflower, and it seems like it was for a special meal, but I can’t remember what occasion it was. I wanted to do something a little different from just plain boiled cauliflower with butter, so I looked online for cauliflower recipes. I found one by Emeril and modified it a bit. (His original called for multi-colored baby cauliflower, and I don’t even know where I would get that).

This recipe has to be steamed for it to work, so you need to have some type of steamer. I happen to have a steamer set where the steamer basket fits down into the lower pan. I was a bit skeptical that this would make any difference in the flavor of the cauliflower, but was amazed how much better this tasted than my usual cauliflower.

Steamed Cauliflower

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower
2 stalks celery
2-3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt
Water
1 tbsp butter (optional)

Directions:

Cut cauliflower into bite-sized pieces, place in steamer basket, and rinse. Fill lower half of steamer pan with water. Rinse celery, cut into short stalks, and add to water. Cut garlic cloves in half and add to water. Add lemon juice and salt to water. Place steamer basket in pan and place over high heat. Steam cauliflower for 7 to 8 minutes, or until fork tender. Remove steamer basket and pour cauliflower into a serving bowl. (Discard vegetables in the water). Salt cauliflower lightly and add 1 tbsp butter, if desired. Serve hot with your favorite entrée and side dish.

The Shepherd – A Poem

The other day I posted a “found poem” that my son wrote for his social studies class. After reading a bit about this form of poetry, I decided I wanted to try writing one. I thought of all the references to sheep and shepherds in the Bible and chose to focus on these references for my found poem. Biblegateway came in handy so that I could easily search and “find” the verses I wanted to include. I thought about including all of the scripture references as footnotes, but decided that would make the post too cluttered.

I’m posting this poem as my Thankful Thursday post because I am thankful that Jesus is our Good Shepherd. I am also thankful for the consistent theme of God as the shepherd of His lost and wandering sheep throughout the Bible.

The Shepherd

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel,
You who lead Joseph like a flock;
You who sit enthroned
between the cherubim.

Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep
without a shepherd,
each will flee to his native land.
Save your people and bless
your inheritance; be their shepherd
and carry them forever.

He had compassion on them,
because they were harassed and helpless,
like sheep without a shepherd.
This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
Woe to the shepherds of Israel
who only take care of themselves!

Should not shepherds take care of the flock?
The LORD is my shepherd,
I shall not be in want.
“I will place shepherds over them
who will tend them, and they will
no longer be afraid or terrified,
nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD.

Then I will give you shepherds
after my own heart, who will lead you
with knowledge and understanding.
They will follow my laws
and be careful to keep my decrees.
And David shepherded them
with integrity of heart;
with skillful hands he led them.

For you were like sheep
going astray, but now
you have returned to the Shepherd
and Overseer of your souls.
And when the Chief Shepherd appears,
you will receive the crown of glory
that will never fade away.

For the Lamb at the center
of the throne will be their shepherd;
He will lead them to springs
of living water. And God
will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
So the LORD’s people will not
be like sheep without a shepherd.

But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
out of you will come a ruler
who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.
“I have other sheep that are
not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also.
They too will listen to my voice,
and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”

He will stand and shepherd
his flock in the strength of the LORD,
in the majesty of the name of the LORD
his God. And they will live securely,
for then his greatness will reach
to the ends of the earth.

“I am the good shepherd
who lays down his life for the sheep.”
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Here I Am – A Poem by Benton

My son asked me to read a poem he wrote for his American Contemporary World class. The assignment was to write a “found poem,” which means each line of the poem is one he found somewhere in the various articles and documents they had read for the class. The subject is the Vietnam War. I was so impressed I told him I wanted to post it here for my Tuesday post so that I could link to it at dVerse Poets Pub for Open Link Night. I told him that by doing so, he would get great feedback from some other real poets, not just his mom. So dVerse poets, don’t make me a liar.

Here I am
by Benton Kruschke

Well here I am
Stalking through jungles
This country is so beautiful
I cannot express myself
No way I’ll forget this country

Here I am
A mother calmly rocks her child
There are a few kids who hang around
I hope that’s one reason why we’re here
To secure a future for them

Here I am
They all talk the same language
You couldn’t understand them
Why does Viet Nam remain silent?
Is to join hands for peace a crime?

Here I am
I lie here for seven straight days
You hear stuff nobody should ever hear
It’s practically impossible here
I feel helpless

Here I am
Today, thousands of eyes shine with hope
This country is so beautiful
So, here I am
I can’t wait to come home

Give My Love to Rose

I’ve been listening to old Johnny Cash music in my car this past week. I love all his old stuff, but one song in particular has always been one of my favorites. I decided I wanted to share it for Music Monday. It’s called Give My Love to Rose.

It’s a sad song, but there is a glimmer of hope in the fact that the man was found before he died so that Rose would receive the message of how much he loved her.

The cynic in my always thinks, “What if they guy who finds him just takes off with the money and never gives his love to Rose?” But for some reason, maybe because of the sincerity of Johnny’s baritone voice, I believe that the message – and the money – will be delivered as requested.

As if to reinforce the message, the dying man says, “God bless you for finding me this morning, and don’t forget to give my love to Rose.” He puts what is left of his life in the hands of this man who found him, and puts the life of the man who found him in the hands of God.

My Redeemer Lives and Gives Me Rest

The year 2012 has not started out that great for me the health arena. I’ve been feeling terrible and still don’t know for sure what the problem is, though hopefully will find out later this week.

Yesterday in particular I was feeling exhausted and weary, at my wit’s end. Then today, two things came to my attention that were an encouragement.

First, before church this morning I read the next 3 chapters of Job on my Bible reading schedule, chapters 17 through 19. In chapter 18, Job’s “friend” Bildad essentially tells him to quit talking about his innocence because it is clear that he is among wicked based on what God has done to him. Bildad is sure he knows that Job’s loss of family and wealth, as well as his physical ailments, are God’s punishment for Job’s wickedness.

Job then responds in chapter 19. He admits that God has struck him down, but still maintains that it is not as a punishment for any wrongdoing. Then Job says:

 ²¹ “Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy,
      for the hand of God has struck me.
 ²² Must you also persecute me, like God does?
      Haven’t you chewed me up enough?

 ²³ “Oh, that my words could be recorded.
      Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument,
 ²⁴ carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead,
      engraved forever in the rock.

 ²⁵ “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
      and he will stand upon the earth at last.
 ²⁶ And after my body has decayed,
      yet in my body I will see God!
 ²⁷ I will see him for myself.
      Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.
      I am overwhelmed at the thought!
Job 19:21-27 (NLT).

I was encouraged by this passage for two reasons. One reason is that I realized how blessed I am to not have friends like Bildad. Instead, I have friends who are understanding and encouraging, who do not persecute me and tell me my physical ailments are a result of my sinfulness. The other reason is that it reminded me that my Redeemer lives, that Jesus will stand upon the earth in the end and that I will yet see my God. This current trial is only temporary but life with Christ is eternal.

The second thing that came to my attention was during the sermon at church. We are in week two of our pastor’s sermon series on mixed messages. The topic today was Trials, Tribulations, and Trouble.

There were several points to the sermon message, but the one that resonated with me today was the point about how hard it is to carry our burdens alone, and how that sends the wrong message to those around us. The world says we should suck it up and bear our own burdens. But the Bible tells us to help carry one another’s burdens and to rely on God to help carry our burdens.

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV).

As an illustration of this point, our pastor had a glass of water. He asked what happens if you try to hold up a glass of water. The answer is that the longer you hold it up the more tired your arm gets and the glass feels heavier and heavier. But if you hand the glass to someone else and they carry it for you for a while, and then another friend steps in to help carry it, then the burden is easier to bear.

A prayer for my health was included in our Prayers of the People and I had several people ask what was going on after church. They all agreed to pray for me and encouraged me. I felt the weight of the burden of my health concerns lighten, knowing that others are helping to bear my burden in prayer. I was also encouraged by the reminder that Jesus is there to help bear my burden as well.

My Redeemer lives and He gives me rest when I am weary.

At the Border – A Poem

Today at dVerse Poets Pub, Claudia has challenged us to write a poem about borders – either physical borders between countries or states or intangible borders between cultures or beliefs. As I read her wonderful article about borders, I immediately thought of the border between Christians and atheists. I decided to try my hand at putting my thoughts on this subject into poetic form.

In years past, the border between these groups was largely ignored as they largely ignored each other. But in recent years they have both approached the border and a clash between faith combined with reason and reason without faith has become almost impossible to avoid. I have crossed the border once or twice to engage in conversation with atheists in my life. I find they often refuse to see their own bias in their reasoning, a bias towards the non-existence of God. The conversations seldom seem fruitful or useful, and so I have retreated to my side of the border, choosing to cross the border only in prayer.

I decided to write this poem in the pantoum form that I learned from one of the contributors at dVerse Poets Pub. This is my third pantoum, and I find I really like this form. I particularly like how it ends where it starts.

At the Border

At the border, leaning on this tree
Seeing blind fools on the other side
They cannot see what I clearly see
The invisible God our great divide

Seeing blind fools on the other side
What an unthinking fool they think I be
The invisible God our great divide
They scoff at faith, my reason and reality

What an unthinking fool they think I be
But I know I understand the truth
They scoff at faith, my reason and reality
God plainly revealed to me since my youth

But I know I understand the truth
All life evolved from nothingness?
God plainly revealed to me since youth
He created all life, I must profess

All life evolved from nothingness?
They cannot see what I clearly see
He created all life, I must profess
At the border, praying beneath this tree

The Dinner Assignment for Recipe Friday

I don’t have a new recipe to share today. Instead I want to share what a blessing my dear son is and what a great cook he is.

He is taking Food and Nutrition in school this semester, and the semester is almost over. Until this week all the cooking for this class was done in class. I would hear every day that he had this class, “Guess what we made in Food and Nutrition today?” when I got home from work. But he never brought any of what they made home for us. (It wasn’t really his fault. It was his first class of four on the days he has it and it would be hard to keep the food fresh and be able to bring it home.)

But thankfully for us the final project for this class was to make us a complete dinner, including dessert. We talked about what he wanted to make, tossing around a few ideas. He finally asked, “What do you want me to make?” I picked some of my favorite recipes that I’ve posted here on my blog in the past, some of our family favorites.

So here was our menu, all made by my son:

• Meatloaf (it wasn’t shaped quite like mine, but tasted moist and yummy)
• Garlic Mashed Potatoes (a little light on the garlic, but still good)
• Corn (okay, not a recipe, just a can of corn heated up)
• Chop Salad (with cucumbers, snap peas, and red pepper)
• Lemon Coconut Cake(awesome, as always; baking is really his specialty)
  

  The Dinner Spread

Part of the assignment was also to set the table, serve the dinner, and clean up afterwards. I would definitely give him an A+! We look pretty happy to be eating this delicious spread, don’t we?

Along This Road – A Poem

As I was thinking about the post I wrote for yesterday about the Road to Emmaus, the first stanza of this poem came to me. I decided to share it as my Thankful Thursday post because I am thankful for all that is written about Jesus throughout the Bible so that we can know Jesus better. I am thankful that when I was lost on this road of life and felt quite alone, God sent people to travel with me and to point me to the truth of the Bible and the truth of Jesus’ love.

Along This Road

Along this road of life I walked
Feelings of despair
Overwhelmed my every thought
My heart had been laid bare

I knew You once upon a time
But now You were not there
I longed to find You on this road
To look I knew not where

By some means I lost You
Of Your leaving I was unaware
It was as if You disappeared
Vanished into thin air

Along this road of life I walked
Then someone came and shared
About where I could find You
He deeply loved and cared

He showed me all that’s written
The ancient words so fair
He assured me I would find You
With a simple heartfelt prayer

Now this road is joyous and light
My faith You did repair
Reminding me I’m a child of God
With You I am an heir

 As a bonus, since I didn’t post a music related post on Music Monday this week, I want to share this video of This Road by Jars of Clay.

On the Road to Emmaus

A number of years ago – I can’t really remember how long ago – I was reading through Luke. It wasn’t the first time I had read Luke, or at least parts of it, but as often happens when I’m reading scripture I saw something I hadn’t before.

There is a passage of scripture at Luke 24:13-35 that is titled “On the Road to Emmaus” in my NIV Study Bible. It recounts the story of some previously unnamed disciples of Jesus who are trudging along the road three days after the crucifixion of the One they had been following, the One they believed was going to save Israel. The resurrection has occurred, but these disciples don’t understand. They think perhaps Jesus’ body was stolen; they can’t quite grasp the reality that He is alive.

I can picture them walking slowly along, heads hung low, in no particular hurry because there no longer seems anywhere worth going. They are dismayed by the events that have taken place and don’t understand that what has happened to Jesus is the greatest event in the history of the world.

As they trudge along, a man appears and begins walking with them and talking to them. It is Jesus, but they don’t realize it. They tell Him all that has happened, as they understand it. Jesus responds by saying that these things had to happen to the Messiah as foretold by the prophets. Then comes the verse that jumped out at me so that I had to reread it several times to take it all in: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Luke 24:27 (NIV).

I sat there mesmerized by that verse. “Moses and all the Prophets” – that’s the Old Testament. With the exception of a few obvious verses, like Isaiah foretelling of the virgin birth, I had never before thought of “all the Scriptures” as being about Jesus.

But they are all about Him. The entirety of the Bible, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, is about Jesus. He was there in the beginning and He will be there in the end. The Law is there to show our need for Him as Redeemer and Savior. The Prophets are there to foretell both His first coming as a baby in a manger and His second coming at the end of time. The Prophets were also there to show the Israelites how much they needed the change of heart that only Jesus can bring about and the great mercy of God that only He reveals.

As I pondered this verse that day years ago, right then and there I closed my eyes, bowed my head, and prayed this prayer: “Lord Jesus, just as You revealed to the disciples on the road to Emmaus what was written about You in the Old Testament, please show me wherever You are whenever I open my Bible and read these ancients words.”

And you know what? God is faithful! He has answered this prayer more times than I can count. He opened my eyes to see the big picture of the Scriptures – both Old and New Testaments – and to see the place of Jesus throughout. Jesus is central to it all! Everything that is exists by Him, for Him, through Him, and reveals His glory and grace.

I know I have written other posts about specific places in which I have found Jesus revealed in the Old Testament, but the purpose of this post is not to recount all the places in the Law and Prophets that I have found Him. Rather, today I want to encourage you who are reading to humbly pray the prayer I shared above. Then open up your Bible to an Old Testament book or chapter that you have avoided because you think you can’t possibly find Jesus there. When you find Him there, come back and tell me about it in a comment. I’d love to hear about how our faithful God opens your eyes, too.

In Need of a Mediator

I’ve just gotten to Job on my Bible reading schedule. The schedule I’m using places Job between Genesis 22 and 23, which is apparently where it is believed it occurred chronologically.

I still remember the first time I tried to read Job. I was 23, in my first year of law school, and had just been baptized in the Lutheran church. My husband gave me an NIV Study Bible as a baptismal gift. I don’t remember why I decided to start with Job as the first book I would read, but it wasn’t a good idea. Maybe I thought I knew enough about the Bible because I had attended two years of Sunday school in sixth and seventh grade and didn’t need to read the basics. At any rate, I would not recommend Job as a place to start for a new Christian.

Don’t get me wrong – I think Job is a great book. But for a new Christian, I think John, Romans, or Hebrews are all much better places to start. In terms of Old Testament, Genesis and Psalms are good places to start.

Job is one of those books of the Bible from which one must be careful not to pull verses out of context. The dialog between Job and his friends reveals how they saw the world and how they understood God. They didn’t necessarily have as much wisdom in this area as they thought they did.

But then again, we are often much like Job and his friends. We think we understand what God is up to, why He has done something or not done something. When things don’t go right we speculate that God is meting out punishment or teaching a lesson (especially if it is someone else’s trouble we are speculating about). And maybe He is, but maybe He’s just trying to show Satan that He knows us better than Satan does and that in spite of hardships we will maintain our attitude of worship towards God. (See Job 1-2). We really don’t know why a particular incident of suffering and hardship has befallen a good person.

What we do know is that God does what is just and right, and that His goal is the greatest good and the furtherance of His kingdom. He is faithful and trustworthy. His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts. But we are His children and He loves us. (He loved Job, too, only Job didn’t know it).

I had a nice block of quiet time to myself yesterday morning, and so I made it through chapter 16 of Job. I know I just said you have to be careful about taking verses out of context, but there were four verses that really jumped out at me. I don’t know if I’d ever really noticed them before. Chapter 9 is titled “Job’s Third Speech: A Response to Bildad.” At the end of this speech Job says:

³² “God is not a mortal like me,
      so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial.
 ³³ If only there were a mediator between us,
      someone who could bring us together.
 ³⁴ The mediator could make God stop beating me,
      and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment.
 ³⁵ Then I could speak to him without fear,
      but I cannot do that in my own strength.”

Did you catch that? Job thought he needed a mediator between him and God. Of all of Job’s prayers, God eventually answered this one.

We now do have a mediator between us and God, and that is Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus we no longer need to live in terror of God’s punishment – Jesus took the punishment for us. We can now approach the throne of God without fear because we can do so in the strength of Jesus and do not have to rely on our own strength. Because of Jesus we have a hope that Job lacked when he was in the midst of his greatest trials. When our hope is shattered by suffering and loss, Jesus gives us new hope and peace.

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:1-5 (NLT).