Insecurity

Insecurity. Man, do I ever struggle with it. It overwhelms me, and overcomes me sometimes. It's like drowning, or choking, or being strangled. There are times when the wounds of my past coupled with the regret of my sin knocks the wind right out of me. I've memorized a lot of scripture. I know God's word. I have hidden it in my heart. It helps. I pray. It helps. But it's still a struggle. I'm not struggling today. Today, my prayer was about how to overcome my insecurity. I prayed for a battle plan. For something, anything, that could help me have victory over it before it began. The Lord answered my prayer with this:

There is no room for insecurity in one whose soul is eternally secure.

Do you ever get an answer from God that is so perfect, comforting, and reassuring, while also being utterly convicting? Jesus died for me. Jesus is holding me. He's got me in the palm of His hand. I rest in the shadow of His wing. He is a strong tower. A rock. A refuge. A mighty fortress. Completely trustworthy. I cling to verses that say things like at what time I am afraid, I will trust in You. And yet I struggle. I'm sick of it. I'm over it. And frankly, so is God. It's time for me to stop whining and realize that Jesus already fought this battle for me, and won. End of discussion. 

THERE IS NO ROOM FOR INSECURITY IN ONE WHOSE SOUL IS ETERNALLY SECURE.

21

My first baby, Amber Rose, turned 21 yesterday. She is such a beautiful young woman. She loves Jesus more than anything, and nothing could make me prouder. She's smart, funny, responsible, trust-worthy, and silly. She is a mentor and friend to her sisters and brother. She's a competent and hard-working employee. She's a diligent student, and she's a fair and loving RA. she has my daddy's eyes, her daddy's chin, and my smile. When I'm 80 and she's 61, I will still introduce her as my baby. Here's the video I made for her birthday, and since I know you'll ask, the song is "Oh My Darlin'" by Katie Herzig. Ta ta for now!

The Easiest Biscuits Ever

Is there anything better than a light, fluffy biscuit straight from the oven, slathered in butter, and drizzled with honey? Excuse me a minute while I wipe the drool off my face. Biscuits are seriously the easiest things in the world to make. The only reason anyone messes them up is that they make them too complicated. 

All you need for really great biscuits are three ingredients. Yep, three. Buttermilk, self-rising flour, and butter. That's it! 

Buttermilk Biscuits (makes 6 biscuits. I usually double this recipe. Obviously)

2 cups self-rising flour

1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter

3/4 cup buttermilk

The technique is the important part. Preheat your oven to 425. You want a hot oven to brown up the outside quickly while leaving the inside melt-in-your-mouth tender. Measure your flour into a bowl. Make sure your butter is super cold. I take a stick of butter and cut it in half length-wise, turn it on its side and cut it length-wise again. The I slice it into cubes. Toss the cubes in with the flour. Then stir it around a little to coat each cube of butter with flour. Next take your pastry cutter and cut through all the butter again. Stir it up a little to coat the smaller chunks of butter with flour. Keep doing this until the cubes of butter are about the size of peas and are coated with flour. You want chunks of butter. 

Chunks are beautiful. Chunks are good. Not everybody does it, but everybody should... Sorry, I can't remember the name of my last child, but I can't forget music from the 80s. I may need help. Anyway, once those beautiful chunks of butter are small and coated with flour, add the buttermilk. Do not stir. At all. Like ever. Use your pastry cutter to scrape up the flour from the bottom of the bowl and dump it into the puddle of buttermilk. Turn your bowl a little, and do it again. Keep doing it until the puddle disappears. Use your fingers to scrape off the pastry cutter whenever it gets to gloppy. 

You will reach a point where you have a bunch of wet dough and a bunch of unmixed flour. Cut through the dough a couple of times with your pastry cutter and continue to toss it with flour until the flour is mostly mixed in. Now you need to get in there with your hands. Scrape all the dough from your pastry cutter and toss it in the sink. Now, press the dough together with your hands. You are not kneading bread here. No kneading. At all. Like ever. Just scoop it up and press all the loose bits into the rest of the dough. Press 3 or 4 times. 5 at the most. You don't want to handle biscuit dough too much. It should be lumpy. 

Mow you have a choice to make. Do you want to cut these biscuits, or drop these biscuits? Cut biscuits are prettier, and have layers. Dropped biscuits are quicker. I usually drop them, unless I need the biscuits for breakfast sandwiches or something. 

For cut biscuits (I don't call them rolled because I do not use a rolling pin on my biscuits. Like ever.), dust your counter with some flour. Lay your dough on top of it and press it into a square-ish shape that's about 1 inch thick. Dust it very, very lightly with flour and fold the dough in half. Press it into a square-ish shape that's about 1 inch thick. Do it 2 more times and you're done. You can cut the biscuits with a biscuit cutter, or you can just cut them into squares. 

To drop the biscuits, I cut the dough in half with a knife. Then I scoop off 1/3 of the dough from one of the halves and shape it into a disk that's about 1 inch thick. Repeat until you have 6 biscuits. 

I like to bake my biscuits in a buttered cast iron skillet, but any baking sheet works fine. Bake them at 425 degrees for about 15-18 minutes until they are lightly browned. Remove them from the oven, and brush the tops with butter. Then split them open and slather the insides with butter. And honey. Or jam. Ooooh, or sausage gravy.... I may never be skinny again... Enjoy your biscuits! Ta ta for now!

National Fried Chicken Day

Today was National Fried Chicken Day - a day that doesn't get nearly enough recognition. Forget Columbus Day, this Oklahoma girl would much rather celebrate an entire day devoted to fried chicken! In honor of National Fried Chicken Day (it just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?) I made a meal fit for an oil baron. Take a look!

Doesn't that look delish?! Want the recipes? No problem!

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Boneless skinless chicken tenderloins. 

2 cups of buttermilk

Peanut oil for frying (or your favorite oil)

1 cup of flour

1 teaspoon of Miss Paula's seasoning (you can find the recipe here)

1 Tablespoon of Mrs. Dash for chicken

I used the chicken that comes frozen in the bag. Take half the bag and defrost it. Place it in a bowl and pour the buttermilk over the chicken, cover it, and refrigerate at least 1 hour, but no more than 12 hours. 

Preheat peanut oil to 350 degrees.

For the breading mix the flour and seasonings in a shallow dish. For extra crispy, crunchy chicken, drizzle a small amount of the buttermilk in with the flour and mix it together so it forms coarse crumbs. Take the chicken dripping with buttermilk and dredge it in the flour mixture. Warning: I always end up with clubbed, batter fingers when I do this, but it's worth it, I promise. Once the chicken is coated in the yummy, yummy flour mixture, lower it slowly into the hot oil and fry until it looks like fried chicken. Fry it in small batches and drain it on paper towels. 

Knock-off Chik Fil A Sauce

1/2 cup ofmayonnaise 

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

2 teaspoons of brown mustard

2 tablespoons of barbecue sauce

Whisk it together until smooth, and then dip to your heart's content. You can store any leftover sauce (yeah right) in a jar in the fridge for up to a week. I live in Michigan where there is no Chik Fil A. This sauce saves my sanity.

Mashed Potatoes

3 lbs of any potatoes you like. I like Yukon Gold for this, but they all taste yummy

1 stick of butter

1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper

1 rounded teaspoon of minced garlic (2-3 cloves if using fresh)

1/2 cup of sour cream

Optional add-ins: chives, bacon, cheddar cheese

Cut potatoes into 1 1/2 inch cubes. I leave the skins on, but you can peel them if you want. Put potatoes into a dry pot and fill with water until potatoes are covered by about an inch. Boil for about 20 minutes or until tender. Drain in a colander. While potatoes are draining, put the pot they came from back on the stove. Melt the butter over low heat. Add in garlic, salt, and pepper and give it a good stir. Dump the potatoes in the hot pan and turn off the heat. Stir the potatoes to coat with the butter. Plop the sour cream on top and mash it all up with a masher or a mixer until there are no more lumps. 

Baked Corn on the Cob

As many ears of corn as you want to cook.

That's the only ingredient.

Seriously.

Guys, I may never boil corn again. This is SO easy! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Take your ears of corn, husks and all, and put them directly on the rack of your oven. Bake for 30 minutes. When cooked the husks and silk come right off, clean as a whistle. Add butter, salt, and pepper to taste right before eating.

Tomato-cucumber Caprese salad

1 seedless cucumber

1 container of cherry tomatoes

1 tub of the tiny balls of fresh mozzarella 

1/4 cup Olive oil

1/8 cup Balsamic vinegar

6 or so leaves of fresh basil

Dice the cucumbers and the tomatoes. Slice the basil into thin ribbons. Drain the mozzarella. Mix them all together in a bowl. Put the olive oil and balsamic in a jar and shake the dickens out of it. Pour over the veggies and stir it up to coat everything. Refrigerate until serving, up to 4 hours in advance.

Coleslaw

1 bag of pre-cut coleslaw (or chop your own cabbage and carrots if ya want)

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup sour cream

1/2 tablespoon brown mustard

1/4 cup sugar

Put the cabbage in a bowl. Whisk everything else together until smooth and creamy. Pour enough dressing over the slaw until well coated. Store whatever's left in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Tomorrow we'll be eating leftover fried chicken and all the fixins plus some yummy buttermilk biscuits. Cuz it's Sunday, and those biscuits are heavenly. I'll post that recipe soon. Until then, invite some friends over for some of Miss Paula's fried chicken. Ta ta for now! 

Yummy, Yummy All-Purpose Seasoning

Just a quick recipe for Miss Paula's Yummy Seasoning. I use it as the base for seasoning most everything. Sometimes I add more to it, but most times I use it as is.

Miss Paula's Yummy Seasoning

1 cup of fine sea salt

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup garlic powder (not garlic salt)

1/4 cup onion powder (again, not onion salt)

Put everything in a pint mason jar and shake it like a Polaroid picture. Heeeey ay ya. (Go ahead, sing along. You know you wanna.) I love to use this seasoning on steak and chicken the most. Add a little paprika for a little sweet pepper taste. Or a little cayenne for some kick. It gives everything a little flavor boost that goes beyond plain ol' salt and peppa. (If you have "push it" I. Your head right now, consider yourself cyber fist bumped.  My people.) Ta ta for now!

Cousin Confusion

I come from a large family, and I have about a zillion cousins - first cousins, second cousins, removed cousins... Those removed cousins are the tricky ones. They get called all kinds of things! I've decided to attempt to clear things up for you all.

Here's the run-down. The terms first cousin, second cousin, etc., follow generational lines. First cousins are easy. Siblings grow up and have their own children. Those children are first cousins. Easy peaty lemon squeezy. Now let's say all the first cousins grow up and have children of their own. Those children are second cousins. Not too hard to follow, right? Good.

Now what if your first cousin has a child? Is that child your second cousin? Nope. That child is your first cousin once removed. the term "once removed" means one generation removed. What if your first cousin has a grandchild? How are you related to that child? I'll wait a sec for you to think about it.....

If you said first cousin twice removed, go straight to the head of the class and give yourself a gold star! Your cousin's grandchild is your cousin two generations removed. Get it? This concept confuses the dickens out of people! Does it really matter all that much? Nah. But knowing this little nugget of information can come in very handy at your next family reunion. You know the scene. a bunch of adults standing around introducing/reintroducing themselves scratching their heads trying to figure out how they're related. Then you come along and save the day because you know exactly how they're related! Hero status! You're welcome. 

Oh, and here's a chart for all you visual learners and charty/listy types. Ta ta for now! (Name that Disney character)