Egg-Free baking, I will beat you yet!

Missy had an appointment with a new allergist a few weeks ago. It wasn't a new allergist because we were disappointed with her original one. In fact, I thought he was quite fabulous. I'm just not a fan of driving from Central TX to North Dallas for appointments because we moved.

It's, how do you say.... inconvenient.

So boring story short, the new doctor told us Missy's still allergic to eggs. Blah.

Now it's been two years and innumerable disastrous recipes since we found out about her allergy, and I'm finally honing my (limited) skills in the kitchen with regards to egg-free baking.

(By the way, there is a huge market for a GOOD egg-free baking cookbook. Emphasis on GOOD.)

My best egg-substitute tip? Mixing 1 tbsp. cornstarch and 1 tbsp. water = 1 egg

None of the other funky concoctions which require odd measurements of water, oil, and something-else-I-can't-remember have worked. And since unflavored gelatin is not one of my pantry staples, I've spent countless minutes google-ing the mess out of "egg substitutions in baking." The cornstarch trick was the one that finally stuck (lame pun fully intended. Sadly.).

I hope someone benefits from my very scientific research.

The most challenging meal for avoiding eggs is breakfast. And dinner if you count the number of days in a month when I decide breakfast-for-dinner is the easiest option. Pancakes, waffles, french toast, quiche, casseroles...it's all out the window. Thankfully, one of my cursory google searches took me directly to a FABULOUS egg-free pancake recipe!

Egg-Free Pancakes

1 cup Plain Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 cup milk
1.5 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Sift flour and baking soda/powder and salt.

Add sugar and whisk together

Add Vanilla and Oil and half the milk. Whisk together.

Gradually add the rest of the milk until thick pouring consistency.

Heat griddle/skillet - needs to be reasonably hot. Use oil/cooking spray before each pancake - they do stick otherwise. Pour about 1/4 c. of the mixture onto the griddle (the pancakes work best if they are on the small side).

Credit for the recipe goes to Must Follow Recipes. I can SO relate.

This recipe could also be tweaked to make it dairy-free by substituting the milk for soy milk or whatever type of non-dairy milk you prefer (that's how the author of the blog where I found the recipe does it. But no dairy allergies here, so we make sure we drink up our daily recommended allowance of hormones! And sometimes we even add artificial chemicals chocolate syrup to it.)

It's also helpful if you really know your pan and how it heats. And at what temperature you should cook your pancakes. Otherwise they might end up blackened. Which doesn't really equate to authentic cajun breakfast cooking. It just means burnt.

But that isn't the recipe's fault- it's more about operator error, about which I have myriad knowledge.

Just ask my kids.

Prayer of St. Francis

As I continue to think about and pray for Haiti, I can't imagine NOT being moved to action. These are REAL individuals with REAL lives and souls. Please do not be complacent in your thinking and in your heart as if "they" are some nebulous abstract concept.

INDIVIDUALS are injured.

INDIVIDUALS are broken.

INDIVIDUALS are hungry and exposed.

It could be you. It could be your child. Or your mother. Or your friend.

Please, just do something.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

World Wide Web Wednesday 01.13.10: Help Haiti

The devastation in Haiti right now is unfathomable. I don't have any words to express how profoundly grieved I am regarding this tragedy, mostly because my mind cannot comprehend the level of poverty in that country, then to have it ravaged by the a natural disaster... simply unimaginable.

However, while it seems that we are powerless in our warm homes with our full bellies, I think there are plenty of opportunities to offer aid to Haiti. And many of them are simple and take only a few seconds.

Thanks to technology, you can text "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross or you can text "disaster" to 90999 to donate $10 to Compassion's disaster relief program. You can also donate to Compassion's Disaster Relief Fund by clicking the link.

You can also buy a cool Help Haiti T-Shirt and 100% of the profits go directly towards Haiti relief.

The Pioneer Woman is hosting a mixer giveaway and for every comment received on this post, she is donating $0.10 to Haiti recovery efforts. YOU get the chance to win a sweet mixer, and SHE donates to Haiti. How can you NOT comment?

**UPDATES**

Check out Living with Lindsay's blog to find out how to purchase a beautiful necklace from The Rusted Chain and a portion of the proceeds will go to Compassion.

The Pioneer Woman is doing another giveaway- $500 to the charity of your choice (as long as it is geared towards the Haiti efforts) plus $0.10 for every comment on this post.

Hope for Haiti is a website where each dollar you donate enters you into a raffle for some great prizes! Money collected will be donated to Red Cross or Compassion (This site is sponsored by several legitimate well-established businesses, including The SITS girls, so rest assured it isn't a scam.)

DesignHer Momma is donating $1 to Compassion for every comment left on this post.

KellysKorner is asking people who have ALREADY donated to comment on her blog and she is donating $1 for each comment (up to $1000) to Compassion.

Savory Sweet Life is donation $1 (up to $1000) for every comment left on this post.

Finally, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY. This disaster did not take God by surprise. He is still on his throne and he listens to the pleas of his people.

*This list is a work in progress and I'll update as I come across other opportunities. If you know of any other ways to support the relief efforts, please let me know and I'll add a link!

New Year, New Church

A friend of mine called me on Saturday and asked me how J and I spent our New Year's Eve. My initial thought was, "Why is she asking me about something that happened ages ago?" until my brain kicked into gear, joined me in the present time and I realized that it had actually only been about a week since the beginning of 2010!

It makes me feel really cliched about time flying and everything.

Our year has truly gotten off to a great start. As a matter of fact, the biggest news I've overlooked sharing on the ole blawg is that J started pastoring a small church in the area.

The church is not quite as, um...progressive as we have imagined his first pastorate might be, considering that our young family of five lowers the average age of the attending members to approximately 75, but we are falling in love with the people there.

The interview process for J was quite rigorous and consisted of the church's "assistant director" asking J if he'd like to come preach on a permanent basis on Sunday mornings, and if he would, then did he think he could also throw in Wednesday nights as well?

You betcha! And so it was.

January 11 was our second official Sunday to be Pastor and Wife (Or third if you count the first real Sunday, but I don't because services were cancelled due to the church's heater running out of butane. In winter. In record-setting cold temps. It was much too brutal for the elderly.).

But this past Sunday will forever go down in the books as the day Jason made his Rookie Pastor Mistake #1.

(Hey, I'm only trying to edify the body here and help anyone from making a similar mistake in the future.)

(And I love you, Jason! Even though I'm blogging about you! I blog because I love! I think you're doing a fabulous job at this pastor thing!)

So keep this in mind:

If you're new to leading a congregation and someone tells you that one of your shut-in/homebound members is turning 90 that week, BEFORE you encourage your people to send cards and notes of encouragement to said member, you might want to check to make sure that member is not comatose.

Bless J's heart. He meant well. J just wanted this sheep in his flock to feel loved on a monumental day. It just never crossed his radar to think to ask if the guy was conscious and responsive.

They informed him after the service (Once again, information that could have been brought to my attention YESTERDAY! (name that movie)). After J had made a huge deal out of sending the guy notes, including that J HIMSELF was going to go straight home and pen a few uplifting words.

Turns out, that's not going to be necessary.

I'm sure we'll make a million more faux--... (I don't know the plural of faux pas- faux pass?) Whatever. Mistakes. WE'LL MAKE THEM.

It's going to be a hilarious year.

What I won't say

What I'd really like to complain about is how this morning completely fell apart. I was rocking along until about 7:15 and then everything went downhill. FAST.

Much like Chevy Chase around the 2:00 mark:


I'd like to complain that I poured the last cup of liquid energy (AKA coffee) into my cup and ruined it with Splenda-sweetened creamer. I drank it anyway, nasty aftertaste and all, because I don't know how to use Jason's newfangled coffee-/espresso-/cappuccino-making Machine of the Future.

I'd like to complain that when it was time to get Missy dressed this morning, I could find ZERO shoes for her. ZERO. Not even a mismatched pair. Because Missy plays with them and rarely puts them back in her shoe basket. So I sent her to the sitter's house in slippers.

I'd really like to complain that Micah's school snack bucket was broken and on his way to our van today, the entire bucket fell apart and a dozen apples went rolling down our driveway. It took all 4 of us to round them up while Micah fretted about bruised and dirty fruit.

And finally, I'd like to complain that one of my tires was low and when I went to air it up, Jason had left the hose and the filler-upper attachment unattached. Since I couldn't figure out how to get it back together myself, I had to call him at work and then freeze my tail off while airing up my tire.

But I won't complain about any of that because complaining is generally fruitless. Complaining isn't going to change the events of my morning even a smidgen.

What I would NOT like to tell you is how I handled minor adversities, slight hiccups in an otherwise normal morning routine. But it was like a child who throws tantrums, that's how. I got angry. I lashed out. It was ugly.

When I had the chance to cool down, I felt guilty and ashamed.

So instead of complaining, I'll tell you that it's days like these that I'm thankful.

Thankful that my children forgive, quickly and unconditonally.

Thankful that the Lord's mercies aren't just new every morning. They are new every hour, every minute, every second.

Thankful for another heartbeat, another breath, another passing moment of life that affords me the opportunity to change, by His grace alone.

Thankful, without complaint.

Amen.

****************************

Don't forget to check out my other blog how my reading is coming along. If you haven't heard, I'm reading through the ENTIRE Bible in 90 Days! It's like running a marathon but without the feeling of dying. And I don't have to go outside. Or move my legs. Anyway, stop by here and leave me some encouragement. Be sure to subscribe if you want to follow along with my progress and read some of my unscholarly opinions about the daily readings.

This is a test this is only a test.

My technological capabilities are really being put to the test this
week.

I started another blog in Wordpress (which I LOVE, but it's taking
some time to get used to), I participated in a "tweet-up" last night
(for which I downloaded and decipher TweetDeck), and now I'm blogging
from my iPhone (thanks to Connie (I'll add hyperlink later- still
navigating uncharted techy territory)).

Not too shabby for a girl who didn't get her first email address until
she went to college mumblemumble years ago!

And the interwebs hasn't even imploded yet!

I don't want to get a big head or anything, but I'm pretty sure I'll
be working for Steve Jobs developing the next state of the art
technological advancements before too long.

Once I figure out that email post/hyperlink thing.

A Big Announcement!

Nope, I'm not pregnant. At least, not by the gracious graciousness of God's grace I'm not pregnant.

Instead, I'm taking up a challenge to read the Bible in 90 days! By March, I'll have a deeper understanding and appreciation for God's word, rather than 20 extra pounds, mad heartburn, swollen ankles, and an aching back.

Although I could totally have those, too. But not because I'm growing a fourth person inside of me.

Let's be clear: There will be NO fourth person.

I'd like to have a place to journal some thoughts I just might have about my reading experience, so rather than use this space, I'm also learning about Wordpress through the new blog I've created over there. Because I can never give myself too many random things to do.

If I stopped imposing haphazard ambitions upon myself, I might actually have to clean house. Or cook. And we all know you do NOT want me cooking.

It's haphazard ambitions for the win!

So while I definitely have plans to continue this blog documenting the fascinating comings and goings of a working mom, a pastoring/student husband and 3 precious little darlings, I'm also going to be over here pretty frequently as I read. And read. And read.

Come join me!