Easy Cheesy Grits

I'm a sucker for grits. I guess it's part of being a southern girl, but I just love grits!

Cheesy grits make such a great side dish with pork and beef. Lately I'm been doing a quick and easy version using whatever Artisan cheeses I find out our local farmers' market.

Here's the basic recipe I've been using -- 

Bring 3 cups water and 1/4 tsp. sea salt to a boil. Add 1 cup grits (I like Bob's Red Mill yellow corn grits). Reduce heat to low and stir. Gook slowly for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in 2 Tbs. butter and 1 cup freshly grated cheese and a little coarse ground pepper. Cover and let stand for a couple of minutes. Stir just before serving. Makes 4 generous servings.

Happy eating!

linking up with Made by You Monday

Summer Reading Throwback

So yesterday I dropped off some books at the local used bookstore. It's a large order, so they won't have my credit available for at least a couple of weeks. Bummer! Part of the fun of dropping books off is then spending the store credit.

I checked my wallet and saw that I still had a credit, but it was only $2.22. Used books are cheap, but I wasn't going to get much for that . . . or so I thought.

I went to the general fiction paperback section and just starting perusing. Jackpot. Books I'd read in high school and college and years ago in general were cropping up for 5 and 10 and 15 cents a piece! So I started counting and running through the alphabet by authors. And this is what I came up with --

Four of them I'd read before, but that makes for relaxed reading. Good poolside material.

The other 4 are titles I've wanted to read or by Anne Rivers Siddon that I haven't read.

The other good thing about these is they are cheapy paperbacks (really cheap in this scenario) and if they get ruined at the pool, no biggie.

So in no specific order, here you go:

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb -- I remember when this came out, and I just never got around to it. At a nickel it seemed like a safe bet.

The Far Pavillions by M. M. Kaye -- I read this when it first came out and I was in high school. I had a real thing for British India at the time. It will be interesting to see if I can make it through 1200 pages a second time.

Outer Banks by Anne Rivers Siddons -- This was my first encounter with Siddons. I'm a southerner, so I just relate to her. I remember loving this book when I read it. I was married with one kid and it was probably great escape lit at that point.

Looking for Mr. Goodbar by Judith Rossner -- I read this when it came out in paperback. Not sure how I ran across it, but I still remember a friend in high school being horrified that I was reading it. Murder/sex/bad language, that's all I remember.

Evergreen by Belva Plain -- another high school rerun. I think I found this one when shelving in the library one day. An early foray into historical fiction.

Islands by Anne Rivers Siddons -- I don't think I've read this, but like I said I usually like her work. 

Fox's Earth by Anne Rivers Siddons -- see above. It was .15 so I can't really complain (although that did put it on the high end!)

The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende -- Another one I remember thinking I should read, but never got to it. I haven't read much Latin American fiction. I loved Like Water for Chocolate, so I'm hoping to like this as well.

So there you have it my .70 summer reading list. I don't know if I'll get through all of them. I don't know if I'll want to get through them all, but it's got potential for fun.

Happy reading everyone!

{this moment}

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Imagine

To think or form a mental picture of; conjecture

But that doesn't really capture it. Imagine conjures up so much more. Hope. Options. Possibilities. The future.

I imagined what my marriage would be like. What my children would look like, and who they would grow up to become.

I imagined my life -- the day to day and the exciting, memorable moments -- and on the whole I got them all wrong.

It's not a question of better or worse, it's just that without the experiences, I can't imagine reality.

And maybe that's the way it is with heaven. I try to imagine it -- streets paved with gold, no tears or sorrow, singing praise all the time -- it's not a question of better or worse (can there be a "worse" with heaven?), it's just that I can't imagine something so foreign to what I am experiencing now.

But here's what I know. It will be amazing and beyond anyone's imagination. It will be God's imaginings, and I do have experience with those through His creation and His gift of His son. It will be so much better than I can imagine.


linking up with Five Minute Friday

15 Reasons I'm Awesome

Anyone who really knows me, knows this is a tough assignment for me! But I'm giving it my best shot with a little help from a recent status update my husband put on Facebook.

1. I'm a survivor. I lived through some pretty tough stuff as a kid without anyone knowing about it. 

2. I can prepare a simple, yet tasty dinner for guests with only 30 minutes notice. It won't be Martha Stewart, but it will be nutritious, yummy, and frequently attractive.

3. I can make lists like you wouldn't believe. Grocery lists, menu lists, cleaning lists, organizing lists, book lists, craft lists. It's the implementing I get stuck on.

4. I can sing. I did theater in high school and college, and even a little opera. My father-in-law was horrified when he found out my own plans for using this talent would be singing lullabies to my kids. 

5. I love learning. You know how some people spend hours on Pinterest? For me it's Wikipedia.

6. I have an awesome vocabulary evidenced by the recent use of detritus in casual conversation.

7. I can replace an empty toilet paper roll while using the restroom (this skill alludes my entire family).

8. I taught myself to crochet maybe 4 years ago, and can't stop doing it now.

9. I make prayer beads even though I was raised in a conservative Protestant home, and I use them as well. So far I have not spontaneously combusted.

10. I am a fount of random, generally useless knowledge. Hitler drove a red Mercedes to one of his first political rallies. See?

11. Even though I love to read, I avoided actually reading most of the classics by reading the summaries in my dad's copy of Masterplots (this gels with #5).

12. I have 30 + varieties of tea in my cabinet right now.

13. I sleep with a stuffed bunny named Yolie every night. (This may or may not be a reflection of how awesome my husband is, since he puts up with it!)

14. I am able to remember that dirty dishes go to the left of the sink, while clean dishes go on the right.

15. Rumor has it that I am brave, intuitive, sincere, generous, perceptive, wise, self aware, funny, compassionate, and warm (but I'm not sure I buy into all of those).

What are super-awesome skills?


linking up with Writer's Workshop

Love and Redemption

Choose to be happy. That's what the article on my refrigerator says. It's a list of 9 Habits of Super Positive People. I've posted it to help me remember to take the high road -- the positive approach to life. I read it this morning, along with a prayer, and the Four Agreements that also hang on my refrigerator. Later I'll do my reading and prayer from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. All of this in an effort to keep my spirits from flagging.

Don't misunderstand. I believe these are all good things. I believe that choosing to be happy and approach life with a positive attitude are good things. 

But . . . but, if all I have to do is choose to be happy the logical conclusion is if I'm not happy, then it's my fault. Another failure to add to the list that impedes my happiness.

See there is a certain amount of circular reasoning that happens with these kind of issues, and I don't think it's just me (but I could be wrong). 

The problem for me is how to look at the good and positive that I accomplish and am (because I am a child of God) and not have it all negated by what I don't accomplish and what I am not. 

In my heart I am a black and white, right and wrong kind of person, and yes, that's probably to a large degree the result of the abuse I experienced. Accepting the love of God is hard for me, because I'm still caught up in being 5 years old and believing if I just get it right this time, I won't be abused again. So here I am at 51 deep down believing that if I just get it right (the house is clean, the laundry is done, the meals are cooked, I've exercised, I'm thin enough but not too thin, and I've attended every worship service available) then everything will be okay. 

So I'm still in need of redemption. That's not really news. But it's not because it hasn't been provided. It's because I keep letting go of it, thinking I have to do it all on my own.

And then I see this -- "When heaven is really your motherland, then prayer is really your mother tongue, and you can’t help but yearn to speak in the language of your Father now . . ."  and I stop and breathe. I realize that I'm not alone. Yes God is with me, but so are all these others. Women and men who are struggling right along beside me. And the real issue is that I'm not made for this world. And that's why it's so hard.

So I re-read Micah 6:8 -- 

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

    and to walk humbly with your God.

and I breathe in the love and redemption of my Father.

linking up with imperfect prose on thursdays

Two Peas in Pod Go Climbing

linking up with Wordless Wednesday