Cooking

I am one of those people who tends to get noticeably down and depressed in the winter. And oddly enough, I LOVE winter. I just love to curl up by the fire with a good book and a big mug of hot cocoa, tea, soup, etc. Or sit by the window wrapped in a blanket during a snow storm. I just love getting snowed in. One thing I have found helps me a lot with my depression is cooking and baking. When I'm in the kitchen, I feel so much better. There are very few things that can get me down in the kitchen. Invading my kitchen while I'm cooking, however, is usually one of them. :-P I love cooking and trying new recipes but when recipes don't have pictures, I'm usually not very inclined to try them. Just reading a recipe will make it sound good, but I would much rather have a picture to look at. That is why two of my favorite cooking sites are The Pioneer Woman and FoodGawker, Tastespotting is another good one, too. While browsing on Pioneer Woman today, I came across her recipe for Pico de Gallo. You must try this now. When I make PW's Pico de Gallo I used gloves when handling the jalapenos and chop them into really tiny pieces. I remove most of the membrane and seeds because as much as I like the heat, it gives me cartoon-like hiccups that can be quite embarrassing, and slice it into very thin slices, rotate and slice again to make very small pieces. I usually use whatever tomatoes look the best at the supermarket and I never seed them. I think seeding tomatoes, unless absolutely necessary, is a waste. I also use the juice of a whole lime instead of half, it brings out a better flavor in my opinion.
Today, my dad came home with a big tub of fruit cake fruits. I just about gagged and demanded an explanation. He and my oldest brother both admitted that they like a nice, well done fruit cake. I personally have never eaten fruit cake. All I know about it is what I have heard from your typical fruit cake haters claiming fruit cake is nasty crap(watch to the end and enjoy :]) and that all they are good for are doorstops. So willing to try something that I have actually made and have gotten the recipe from somewhere I trust, I promptly hopped on FG and TS and hopped around. The best looking recipe I found that actually called for the stuff in the fruitcake tub was a link from TS to this blog. The recipe didn't look to bad so I have decided to give it a whirl. I will go out later today to pick up the brandy before work then set the fruit to soakin'! In the meantime, I will continue to browse foodgawker and other good blogs. :-)

In The Light

Just about anytime I feel distant from God or anything, somehow, I end up hearing In The Light by DC Talk. That song is one that just speaks to me. I feel like I am the one singing it. The two different "voices" singing, the part singing about about how he's the king of excuses and then the other singing wondering what's going inside of him, I can relate to that. I feel like I start to do something, maybe get into the habit and then suddenly something inside me wakes up and then there's the other voice wondering what I'm doing and how I got to be like this, so far away from Him. I always found this song rather creepy and convicting when I was younger. I enjoyed the feel of the music but the line: "it's a cancer fatal to my soul." Scared the living daylights out of me. One of my biggest fears is getting cancer and the thought of a cancer that I already have, that everyone has that I cannot get rid of, understandably, freaked me out.

I keep trying to find a life
On my own, apart from You
I am the king of excuses
I've got one for every selfish thing I do

What's going on inside of me?
I despise my own behavior
This only serves to confirm my suspicions
That I'm still a man in need of a Savior

(chorus)
I wanna be in the Light
As You are in the Light
I wanna shine like the stars in the heavens
Oh, Lord be my Light and be my salvation
Cause all I want is to be in the Light
All I want is to be in the Light

The disease of self runs through my blood
It's a cancer fatal to my soul
Every attempt on my behalf has failed
To bring this sickness under control

Tell me, what's going on inside of me?
I despise my own behavior
This only serves to confirm my suspicions
That I'm still a man in need of a Savior

(repeat chorus)

Honesty becomes me
[There's nothing left to lose]
The secrets that did run me
[In Your presence are defused]
Pride has no position
[And riches have no worth]
The fame that once did cover me
[Has been sentenced to this Earth]
Has been sentenced to this Earth