Beet Burgers

So... I am the opposite of a culinary artist. I'm more like culinary recycling artist. Matt says I should make a Youtube channel with videos of me cooking.


Here's how I made this beauty of a supper:



Thawed some organic hamburger we got from some friends for Matt's working on their basement. When I started, I was thinking: meatloaf maybe.

Well, then I looked in my fridge and saw the leftover chopped up beets and carrots that I had mixed with apples and made into a not-very-appetizing smoothie, I decided to add these to the thawed hamburger. I also saw some leftover spaghetti sauce that I had made in a blender using cheap spaghetti sauce and blending in the green tops of the beets and some onion (also not the best--so I also added some salsa), so I threw that in with the beets and carrots. Just for kicks I threw in an egg and a bunch of uncooked oatmeal. (Keep in mind that Matt is watching with his mouth hanging open). Then I threw in a little olive oil and sea salt.


At this point I decided to make hamburger patties instead of meatloaf because we were hungry and wanted to eat sooner than later. I got out my double burner griddle: and they pretty much burned right away.. I guess the carrots and beets didn't like the high temps.. So then I switched to a pan with a lid and turned down the heat.. I decided I had too many burgers so I mushed them together and got a nice little loaf which I cooked at 350 for a while then froze.

I served them on some awesome whole wheat bread my sister bought for me from Sam's Club (no high fructose corn syrup!) Matt and I used some leftover beet greens as our "lettuce" on the sandwiches. Everyone ate one (kids included) and the verdict was: Edible and sort of Good. I can't say repeatable because it would be way too much work to make this sort of thing.. But I learned some things about how to be a better culinary recycler.

I ended up using the leftover beetburgers to augment my beans and rice and onions and taco seasoning staple: pretty good. And I added crumbled them up in the remaining leftover spaghetti sauce and served with leftover spaghetti.

One post note: I do not do the "culinary recycling" because I am trying to save money.. although it is a fun sport that has a side effect of monetary savings. I simply like to cook this way, and now I have almost gotten to the point where I couldn't go back. Recipes are suggestions, and I seldom if ever follow them without making additions or changes. Sometimes it works out and sometimes not.. most of the time it does--cheese and ketchup work wonders..

Anyway, there you go, Ms. Kaela. You asked for a post and you got one!!!!! :) Love you all!

A Really Dark Night

I had a horrible nightmare last night.. It was all due to my unfortunate viewing a month ago of The Dark Knight, the new Batman movie. It was really horrible... Well, the movie was done well, but the evil in it was truly horrible. If it were not for Christ, I don't know that I could live in a world with the kind of evil that they portrayed in that movie.. There was one theme, though, that has been stirring up my mind and heart so much that I had to sit down and write about it--that is the formation and foundation of character.

The new Attorney General in Gotham, Harvey Dent, was a handsome, virtuous, strong man. Bruce (aka Batman) believed very strongly that this courageous man had the strength of character to really make a difference for Gotham. So when the choice came to save his beloved Rachael (who was engaged to Harvey) or Harvey, he made the unbelievable sacrifice of choosing the attorney general, the man who won the love of his life away from him.

In the midst of the rescue, there was a great explosion and Harvey was burned so terribly that one side of his face was completely burned off. He had wanted to sacrifice his life, but instead he was saved and Rachael's life was sacrificed. Harvey's bitterness and anger was so great that he wanted to kill anyone who had a part in Rachael's death and even Batman.

It was a study in tragedy and in reaction and response. Grief in this case destroyed Harvey Dent, who became the infamous "Two-Face." Although a man of great valor and heroism prior to Rachael's death, his determination to do the right thing could not withstand the apparent victory of evil over good. Harvey allowed the tragedy of Rachael's death to not only destroy whatever good he could have done, but also to turn his own heart to evil.

Bruce, on the other hand, faced the grief of losing Rachael AND Harvey--making his unselfish sacrifice of Rachael even more painful. Yet, he used the tragedies in his life in a markedly different way than Harvey. The pain he suffered, including the tragic murder of his parents in front of his eyes, served to develop his character on a strong foundation (go see Batman Begins). This created a real and lasting heroism that made him capable of sacrificing everything, culminating in The Dark Knight with the humiliation and sacrifice of his own good name when he took the blame for Harvey's vigilante justice so that Harvey could be celebrated as Gotham's hero and martyr.

It seems to me the greatest unspoken lesson of this movie is that we must set our hearts on something higher than ourselves and those that we love if we hope to survive evil times. Tragedy is like an earthquake that tests the foundation of our character. If our motivation and character is laid upon a shifting foundation, even small disappointments will prove too much and the edifice of our personalities will come crashing down.

The defining difference between Harvey's destruction and Bruce Wayne's perseverance was not the magnitude of tragedy, but that Batman's character was built on a foundation that did not rely on circumstances. His foundation was the ideal of Right and Truth. I pray that in difficult times we may learn from this example and build our houses, and our characters, on a foundation that will not fail.

"Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined." Matthew 7:24-27

A Prayer

Searching in my heart's own way,

Humbly I seek--

To find the path, the narrow way,

The loving words to speak.

t

Confused by my own weakness,

I falter, yes, and fall.

The loving person I could be

I'm sometimes not at all.

t

I know, my God, I cannot pay

This debt of sin I owe.

I cast myself into your sea,

Your waves destroy my foe.

t

Now in the secret of my soul,

Grace increase my self control,

Make me blind when others fall,

Grow my charity for all.

t

Now dear Lord, I must confess,

this worry about my holiness,

may lead me to such "holy" pride--

much worse than sins I cast aside...

t

So make me holy, make me free,

But in your mercy, don't let me see,

Or I may on my laurels rest,

And for the good, forsake the best.

t

But if my faults despairing steal,

The joy of serving you, and zeal,

Then Dear Jesus, I request,

That with your consolation blest,
I may serve You evermore.

"The Trouble With X"

So a good friend sent me a link to something C.S. Lewis wrote called "The Trouble with X." Pretty good stuff. After you read that, come back here and I'll tell you what I decided.


I decided after reading this several months ago that I would fix those things in me that were driving other people to drinking. Oh, and this funny thing happened. I couldn't change!!!!! I have struggled to stop several of my most annoying habits, but they keep on habiting. This colossal failure to improve has given me a great deal of appreciation for the struggles other people must be going through. The "Trouble with X" is that I am driving "X" crazy.

In some ways, we find it so hard to change ourselves that we look outside of us and try to change the world (as if that would be easier). Like Father H. said on Sunday, if we can just change ourselves, we can change the world.

Seeking Happiness

Somedays I take a little more time than usual to think about the whys and wherefores of life... The last few days have been like that. Mostly I notice that people seem to equate the meaning of life with happiness. I could go with that. I'd take happiness. But darn it all, how to get there and stay there is a mystery to me.

Being a woman, with woman friends and sisters, I have had a lot of experience with moods. I am now almost 30 and am just starting to figure out that the world isn't really ending once a month, nor it is a realistic barometer of reality when I feel that everything is super fantastic... It's a mood. And as good as I sometimes feel, not only can I not use my mood as an indicator of how truly happy I am, more importantly since I am pretty lousy at controlling my moodiness/crankiness, I can't rely on moods or emotions to make me truly happy.

So how can I be happy? The kind of happiness that hormones and dirty dishes and sleepless nights can't destroy? Basically the problem is this:

1. We want to be happy.
2. We want to do what what gives us pleasure.
3. We think those things that we WANT to do will make us happy.
4. So we indulge in those things.
5. And we aren't happy.

I notice that drinking alcohol makes me happy sometimes. Yet I have not found the perfect serving or combination and usually overdo it and wake up the next morning decidedly UNhappy.
I notice I like to sleep in. Yet there seems to be no perfect amount of "sleeping in" time. If I am not up before my children, I pay for it. If somehow I get to stay in bed until 9 or get to take a 2 hour nap in the afternoon--totally indulging my desires for sleepingness--I usually have a headache and maybe even a sense of opportunity loss that pretty much axes "sleeping in" as the path to happiness. (This would be why laying on the couch all day doesn't make the cut, either).

Oh, I could go on and on.. Chocolate, interesting beverages, any food at all, talking on the phone, reading books, surfing the internet, watching movies--all areas where you can raise those "seratonin" levels that I hear about. But darn it, I want to be happy, and I think that indulging myself in the things I want to do will make it so... But that indulgence seems to be the greatest saboteur of happiness.

So why indulge? If I feel like crap afterward, I definitely did not reach my goal of being happy, unless momentary pleasure (even though repeated 100x over) = happiness for me.

Hmm.

Well, last summer I had about a month where I would get up every morning at 5 am to pray for an hour before getting the girls up to go to Mass. I got a super great feeling from doing that. I had a journal and could see so clearly how God was working in my life--and before long I had filled a journal and God had blessed me with some pretty awesome spiritual growth and joy in my house... But alas, after about a month, I was getting cranky (I don't do all that well with tired), and although for 7 years my husband had lamented marrying such a lazy bones, I did not get the proud approval I expected, instead I got grunts and side complaints about being awakened so early each morning.

The case study gets interesting when I look at how I responded: did I cut back to going to Mass once a week? Getting up at 6:30 or 7 and pray for a half hour? Nope, I had a severe case of pendulus swingus and began to drag myself out of bed shortly after my husband went to work at 8. WHAT?! a 3 hour swing?! Shouldn't 7 be a piece of cake after the pre-dawn madness?

Well it wasn't, and why? Because 7 in the morning is not glamorous. It is not early enough to be impressive. It is not indulging in anything. For me, getting up at 7 everday is simply discipline. It is moderation and discipline. Two of the key ingredients for being happy that I decidedly lack.

My husband has graciously (and not so graciously) offered at times to supplement my lack of discipline with some of his, and as much as he tries we have discovered that this also is NOT the key to marital bliss. While sometimes his high standards are helpful, what I really need is self-motivation and self-discipline.

So, what have I discovered through this lengthy search into the meaning of life and the true path to happiness? Happiness is HARD. It's not automatic, swinging from one whim to another and indulging passions. It is the result of knowing when to go for it and when to stop. It is exercising, but not too much. Praying daily, but not so much that other duties get left in the dust. It is playing like a kid with my kids, for a little while each day. Posting short, readable posts every few days instead of a book once a month. It is balance.

The best candidate for a pendulum is heavy, dead weight. But to achieve balance when being pushed and pulled takes muscle, discipline, and maturity. It takes a certain strength to do the right thing at the right time for the right reason. I've heard it said, "The saints are happier in their sufferings than all the heathens in their sinful pleasures." I have figured out for myself that going wherever my passions take me only leads me back to where I started: searching for happiness. But really, the happiness is only elusive because I have refused to work for it, to suffer for it. To find that happy, lasting equlibrium, I am going to have to really try. And with His grace, I just may get there.

Late Last Night While We Were All In Bed

Matt was hogging the computer. Tonight it is my turn. After successfully increasing my tax return by over $1000 this week, I am feeling understandably perky. Nothing underhanded at all, just working with the new tax laws (50% bonus depreciation, YEAH!) and calculating ALL of the interest paid on this monster house. Yikes! I did increase our tax liability slightly when I remembered the whopping $30 I was paid last year for jury duty. Matt says I am a tax nerd.

Our first official showing tomorrow was cancelled due to a death in the appointment holder's family. SO, we get to put my dad's advice into practice right away: don't let house traffic (or lack of) control your emotions. Right-o, Dad.. I let tax returns do that.

Funny kid story of the day: After having so many children, we realized that we need to be specific in discipline. Saying Stop or No or Put That Down is not near as effective as singling out the particular offending child. While it has worked brilliantly at squelching undesired behavior, we have discovered the flaw in this method. Our littlest one was getting quite possessive and whenever we would try to take something (like not-for-baby objects) she would yell: "WE-UH!" I figured this was her way of saying mine, however this week we figured out that she says "We-uh" instead of "no." Our poor little Leah has been trained to think her name means "NO!"

So if anyone hasn't checked out my sister's blog, here it is: http://www.redheadedrampage3.blogspot.com/. I am feeling seriously inferior to her blog, since she's hilarious. Plus I think Tim gives her more fodder.

Goo Gone

Ok, so after about 7 months of looking at window stickers, I finally decided that today was the day for them to be gone. Now this is not the easiest of jobs because window manufacturers really want you to know who made your windows, at least I am guessing that is why they use so many stickers on each window and use superglue to adhere them. All of this just means that I spent a lot of time this morning looking at my windows which I decided are filthy. Work makes work.

Now that I am a full-service real estate agent, I have been keeping quite busy. We listed the house today here: www.HomesByOwner.com/31549, put an ad in the DSM Register online, and we are also paying for a listing on the MLS. I am confident (for some reason) that if people could just see our house, they'd want to buy it. To that end, I have trained my little mini-agents to regard toys and clothes on the floor, unmade beds, and open closet doors as Mortal Enemy #1. No wonder Matt is so happy.

Speaking of my darling husband, Matt is officially a busy man. I got a call from a friend today who saw the classified ad I placed on our homeschooling group's website (more free home advertising!), and she has lots of work for Matt to do before her daughter's wedding, if he has time! I guess having 4 different construction/remodeling jobs lined up in the next 2-3 weeks is a good sign. He's concerned about having time to look for work, but I say as long as the work is looking for you, go with it!

On a family note, we're enjoying watching the series "5 Mile Creek" that we are borrowing through the Netflix gift Matt's parents gave us for Christmas. I have fond memories from my childhood of waiting pensively for the next one to come out on video and the whole family would sit and watch it. The girls love it, and if I could have found my camera in time I'd have posted a picture of Bethany driving the horses (Madeleine and Emma) this morning, complete with "Hi-ya!" and robe ties as reigns.

It's time to get to work. Windows don't clean themselves.