Loosing Beauty

I have been inundated with well spoken words lately. Words on beauty, and tears, and old coming from the new. Words about listening, and words about letting love change things.
There is a purpose rising around me. I see it in the way people create and enjoy... as if they are just now discovering a meaning to their enjoyment. And there is one. Can you imagine how our hearts might relate to God's if people found God in finger painting? Or if they learned to worship through music that wasn't about God, but music that simply soared to Him anyway?
We have lost our sense of Eden, when all that was good and green was filled with God, and it didn't have to be branded by a church, or endorsed with the word "holy."

I think it might be coming back though. I think God wants to teach us how to shine, but how will we do that within a hard casing of "this is the only way" mentality, and promises to not look undignified? If God is THE Creator, then wouldn't he be present in our process of creating as well? And even more importantly, would a creative God set boundaries in how, and where we experience Him? I don't think He would, or does. I can see God loosing His beauty on our hearts so as to open and change them, and I see people responding!
Individuals leaning back on the Beloved in small, mundane ways.
Learning to enjoy Him, because solemn does not mean devoted.
Enjoying when they take a bite.
Enjoying when they get dirt under their fingernails.
Enjoying when they hum.
Returning to the place where they are made holy simply by delighting in Him.

And you had better believe that makes Him happy.

I made you cause I couldn't sleep...

I couldn't sleep... so I got up with the morning. Most times I end up in the kitchen because 1. morning light looks a lot more lovely on apples than any other. And 2. I'm hungry.

I made this.

Chocolate and Hazelnut Porridge with Sauteed 

Apples (Grain,Gluten,Dairy,Egg free.) 

1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

1/4 cup pecan meal

2 Tbs coconut butter, melted

1 tsp lemon zest

Combine these three and press into the bottom of a small tart or pie pan. 

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 Tbs unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup almond milk 

1 Tbs honey

 Combine these and spread over nut mixture in pan. If it's a little too thick you can add more almond milk. 

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile....

2 Apples

1 Tbs cinnamon 

1 tsp arrowroot flour

juice from one half of a lemon

1 Tbs almond milk 

Saute in a small sauce pan until they thicken and pour over finished porridge. 

My camera has cocoa powder all over it...

Doughnuts for the outcasts

For those of us that can't have grain, gluten, or whatever else makes you an outsider... we know the importance of FINALLY getting to take a bite of something "forbidden." Thus, I have concocted a recipe for doughnuts... for us outcasts. And they are sooooooo good.

Chocolate Coconut Cake Doughnuts  (grain, dairy, and refined sugar free.)Adapted from Roost.

11/4 cup almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled

3 eggs

2 Tbs honey

1/4 cup coconut milk

Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, and wet in another. Pour dry ingredients into a blender, add wet, and then blend until smooth. Grease a doughnut pan with coconut oil and fill each about 3/4 of the way full. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. They should spring back when you touch them.



Chocolate Icing (sugar and dairy free!)

3/4 cup pitted Medjool dates
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup sustainable organic palm oil shortening or coconut butter
1/3 – 1/2 cup water 

Add all of the ingredients to a high-speed blender, start with just 1/3 cup of water, you can always add more. Let everything sit for a few minutes, especially if your dates are very firm. Blend everything together at a high speed. Continue blending long enough to get a smooth, velvety consistency, this may take 5 minutes or more.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Doughnuts

same batter recipe, only instead of icing, I fried them for a few minutes on each side in coconut oil and then dusted them with a mixture of coconut sugar, cinnamon, and ancho chili powder. 

Snow (warning: this has nothing to do with food, sorry)

We finally got ourselves some snow... a big fat lot of it... for Kentucky that is. My day was "supposed" to be not so great, but snow has a way of making everything better. My car is deciding to fall apart and I had to drive it out along the winding back roads to the shop, sliding and spinning the whole way. God turned things all white and sparkly so that my terrifying drive could be less so... He thinks of everything. Of course I brought my camera...

"Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

Praise your God, O Zion!...

He gives snow like wool."

"He scatters the frost like ashes.

He casts forth His ice as fragments,"

"Who can stand before His cold?

He sends forth His word and melts them

He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow."

-Psalm 147:12-18-