Time Passes Far too Quickly

I've just been thinking - last year at this time we were back home from our first ever big family vacation to San Antonio, Texas on Thanksgiving weekend. It was my husband's dream for most of his life to go there and see the Alamo - in fact the first night when we drove by it on the bus and it was all lit up, a tear or two made their appearance in his eyes.

In the 22 years that we have been together we had never been on a big trip. Even our honeymoon was a weekend away in Banff. I am so glad he got to realize his dream and we so want to be able to go back as soon as we are able. It was a short year ago, and yet it seems so, so long ago. There has been a lot happen in the past year. Some really high highs and some really low lows and it is almost a wonder that I have even survived some of it.

Just shortly after our return from the big trip a huge tragedy struck our family and we lost such a dear, precious and generous lady. My mother-in-law was amazing to me and she left us on November 2, 2009. How we have gotten through this last year without her I don't know, but time seems to march on. I miss her so much.

I have gotten through the funeral, helping my husband navigate being the executor of the will and the scattering of the ashes being strong and steady. When I was canning tomatoes this summer though, I lost it. I turned into a complete blubbering mess while I was standing over a sink of ice water stripping 25 pounds of tomatoes of their skins. She loved my canned tomatoes, actually she loved everything I made for her. I would never be able to make them for her again. The wave of emotion that took me over was incredible and overwhelming and I grieved for her probably more deeply than I had all year.

This beautfiul lady taught me so much and I have so many wonderful memories of her . She has taught me so much about affection and caring and generosity. She loved her boys so much and as her first daughter-in-law, she welcomed me with such open arms and was so willing to accept me as her son's choice for a bride.  She was there for me - no matter what!

My life is different than it would have been because she was a part of it and I am so grateful for the years that I had with her. She was so beautiful inside and out. 

Beautiful Freedom

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Make me a deliverer of your love in this broken land. Make me a vessel of praise and a conduit of your prophesy. Heal my woundedness so that I can bring your healing to the hurting. Remove the scar tissue and calouses from my heart so that it can pump with new life for you, because of you.

You have bought me for the highest imaginable price. You have valued me so much that you gladly paid the price for me and yet it is because you paid the price that I have value. I have no value on my own to anyone. I am significant because you died for me. Because you bought me I am free.

How's that for a mind twister, when you really think about it. Historically, when a person is purchased, they are owned by the purchaser. If they are owned, they are slaves required to do the master's bidding. How incredible that we were bought lock, stock and barrel and yet it is through the purchase that we are made free.  How like God to do the complete reverse of how the world does things. How tremendous to have such a redeemer that purchases his own to set them free. We have been bought to be His lover and friend and beautiful bride, not to be enslaved. 

God you are so good!

Further Adventures from my Kitchen - Krautrunzels

My wonderful mother-in-law made this dish where she stuffed buns with hamburger and cabbage. She always called them Groutrunzels but they being a German dish involving cabbage, I’m thinking the correct term is actually Krautrunzels because Kraut is cabbage in German and when you say it they actually sound very similar and if the person who gave her the recipe spoke with an accent, even more. My husband loves them.

This past week I had planned to make these treats for my hunny as a surprise. I had asked him if he wanted me to make something else on the weekend and gave him 2 choices. While he was outside tending the Bar B Q I pulled out my mother-in-law’s recipe box to try to find the recipe. My husband came back in the house and said “you know if you want to make me something you could make me Groutrunzels”. Way to spoil the surprise my love! ;) I guess that meant it was time for me to do this for him because it was on his mind too.

I couldn’t find a recipe for them though in her treasured recipe box so I phoned her best friend who used to make them with her all the time. She didn’t have a recipe but she knew which bun recipe in the box to use and told me how to make the filling. The phone call sent her on a lovely trip down memory lane. She misses her dearest friend as much as I miss my beautiful, wonderful, loving, generous mother-in-love. Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of her passing to a better place. The void that she left is incredible.

Back to my adventure… I have helped my mother make buns numerous times, but always with the punching down of the dough and the shaping of the buns, never with the actual making with proofing the yeast and kneading the dough. It was with much trepidation that I tackled this project. The recipe that she used is called Air Buns. I did a little dance when after 10 minutes of soaking in the warm sugar water my yeast was the way it should be. I kneaded the dough like a pro warmed up my oven and let it sit for 2 hours and clapped joyfully when I opened the oven to see that it had risen just the way it was supposed to. I let my son tackle the punching down of the dough. Let it rise for another hour. In the meantime I made the filling, which is so simple. Hamburger chopped cabbage and diced onion with salt & pepper and I added some steak spice (because I add steak spice to almost everything). I stuck it in the freezer for a couple of minutes to cool it a bit and you want to drain the fat/liquid so that the inside of the bun doesn’t get greasy.

Finally, hours after beginning, the process comes together. You grab a handful of the risen dough and pinch it off. You roll it flat and then spoon in some of the hamburger mixture. Then you pull in the edges and pinch them together and put the newly formed bun, pinched end down on the cookie sheet.

Set the cookie sheet aside covered with a tea towel for another hour or three. Then bake according to the bun recipe.

My husband’s family dips them in ketchup when they eat them.

It was a lot of work and so time consuming, but it was worth every minute to see how happy it made my wonderful husband. We figured it has been at least 5 years since the last time he had one. It won’t be 5 years before he has them again.