Pick Up Your Socks

I've been contemplating a lot of things lately. How life throws us curveballs when we aren't looking. How things are constantly changing. How problems can become all-consuming, interrupting our lives and making the important suddenly seem trivial.

Last week, on Friday, Jim and I were talking about the things we need to get done around the house and yard before we can head south for the winter. We have quite a list. And then the phone rang. And life, and priorities changed in an instant. Our son-in-law, Gary, learned that he had a tumor in his bladder and a non-invasive surgical procedure was scheduled for Monday. Monday, we spent the morning praying and texting to follow Gary's progress. He went in to surgery around noon. At 2:17 pm we got the text from our granddaughter. Cancer. We knew we needed to be there, so we threw a change of clothes in a bag and were on the road in a half hour. Several texts came in as we drove the 375 miles to be with our family. The tumor was large and blocking one kidney. A second procedure the next day put a stent into the kidney and bladder. Gary is a trooper. We walked with him, pushing along his wheeled stand with IV and carrying other paraphernalia ten loops of the halls, twice a day. On Wednesday, we took him home. On Thursday he talked to the doctor. The news wasn't good. The cancer was deeper than they'd hoped and there were numerous small tumors. They would have to remove his bladder and prostate and lymph nodes. Then probably chemotherapy and possibly radiation treatments.

Gary is healthy, and he'll get the best of care in Seattle through UW. With God's help, and a million prayers from family and friends and friends of friends, he will beat this thing.

A devotion shared by a friend at a writers retreat this summer made an impact on me. I was reminded of it again today. She was talking about grief. The grief of losing her husband. But this fits any tough situation that we face. *See Sandy's entire post here: http://graceforagrievingheart.com/pick-up-your-socks/

Years ago, Sandy heard Gloria Gaither tell this story.

“When I was a little girl,” Gloria said, “I used to ask my mom, ‘what is God’s will for my life?’” She wanted a lofty answer, full of wisdom.

Her mother would invari­ably reply, “Pick up your socks.” Not expecting such a mundane answer, she would restate the question. “No, mom, what is God’s will for my future?”

“If you don’t know His will for your future, you need to find His will for your life a day at a time. Pick up your socks.”

That's great advice. Jesus told us not to worry about the future. Take care of the present. Put one foot in front of the other and do what needs doing. Pick up your socks.

Adventurous? Maybe so.

I've never thought of myself as adventurous. I'd never have the nerve to descend into the Grand Canyon or climb a pyramid. I hate swinging bridges. Have found excuses not to go parasailing every summer. Refuse to watch horror movies or read horror stories. I'm just not adventurous. Or am I?

I have hunted rattlesnakes in Montana, gone white-water river rafting in Colorado, and traveled over the Top of the World Highway, the Dempster Highway, and the Dalton Highway in Alaska and The Yukon. I'm sure those all qualify as adventures. But most of my adventures are more sedentary. In the kitchen, I'm willing to try anything - well, almost anything. Pickled pigs feet are fine, but I'm not interested in eating bugs or chicken heads.

This year I've had great fun finding recipes for a bounty of vegetables from my friend's garden. Thanks, Merry Ann! After canning pickled beets and dining on roast beets with orange butter and tarragon this week, I had left-over roasted beets. I wanted something different. Something gluten free, as I've discovered gluten makes the aches of my aging joints worse these days. I found a Chocolate Beet Coconut Cake online at The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen. Sounded interesting. I used the leftover roasted beets and pureed them in my Magic Mill.

Just in case it flopped, I balanced it with a fresh Peaches and Cream Pie - a favorite at our house.

The cake turned out rich and moist. I expected it to be more red, like a red velvet cake, but it's the color of dark fudge. Best served with a dab of hot fudge sauce, a handful of raspberries and a generous dollop of whipped cream. It was such a hit, we had it for breakfast this morning.

Here is a link to the recipe. I made the gluten free option, but left out the coconut. My hubby can't stand coconut. Silly man. http://www.levanacooks.com/chocolate-beet-coconut-cake/ I will definitely make it again. The peaches and cream pie is my dessert choice for my birthday, in place of cake. The original recipe came from a Colorado Cache cookbook, but we've tweaked it a bit.

Peaches and Cream Deep Dish Pie           

(Laura Merrill and Sunni Jeffers, adapted from Colorado Cache Cookbook) 

¾ cup sugar plus 2 tsp sugar (I use half sugar, half xylitol for low sugar recipe)

¼ cup flour (or 1 TBSP arrowroot powder or corn starch for Gluten Free)

1 cup heavy cream (I use half and half)

¼ tsp. salt

2 TBSP tapioca (increase to 3 TBSP for Gluten Free)

2 quarts peaches, peeled and sliced (fresh, 6-7 peaches and 2 tsp lemon juice, or home canned are best. If canned in heavy syrup, decrease sugar to ½ cup) 

2 TBSP butter 

2 tsp. cinnamon

Pastry for a 9” two crust pie

Reserve small amount of peach juice from fruit drippings. Add 2 tsp milk to the drippings and brush over top crust. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar before baking.

Prepare pie crust and form bottom of crust in a 9 inch deep dish pie pan. Sprinkle 2 tsp sugar evenly over bottom crust. This prevents it from getting soggy.

Mix together sugar, flour, cream, tapioca and salt. 

Slice peaches and place in unbaked (or *slightly prebaked) pie shell.  Pour other ingredients over peaches, dot with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon.  Cover and seal with top crust. 

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower oven to 300 degrees and bake 40-45 minutes longer. Cover edges of crust with pie shield or foil last 15-20 minutes to keep from getting too browned.

For Gluten Free crust, I used Mama’s Pie Crust mix. It makes a two crust pie. I altered the recipe, using 1 whole egg, instead of 1 egg white and increased the water by 1-2 TBSP. I roll out the dough between large square pieces cut from a kitchen trash bag. It’s large enough to do the whole crust. I lightly greased the pie pan, then put my crust in, trimming the edges. Then I *sprinkled about a tsp of sugar on the bottom crust and prebaked for 10 minutes, then let cool and added the peaches, filling and top crust. That way the bottom crust doesn’t get soggy. It was much more manageable and came out beautiful.

*For any unbaked pie crust, before filling, sprinkle 1-2 tsp sugar on bottom crust before filling to keep crust from getting soggy.

Bon Appetite!
~Sunni