Reflections

Hello, world.

The snow falls so lightly this morning that it almost appears as a shimmering mist outside my bedroom window. In moments when the sunlight escapes through the clouds and reflects off of the falling snow just right I could swear that the world is being covered in swirling sparkles of glitter.

The morning I slipped and fell on my driveway, the concrete sparkled. I didn't notice this until after I had fallen and was laying there in the gutter in front of my home with my injury, unable to move. Maybe it was the angle from which I could now see the driveway, maybe it was because I had experienced firsthand the ice rink that my street had become. Perhaps the glimmering I saw was simply a result of the shock I was experiencing due to the pain in my leg. Either way, I remember thinking that if I had to lay there for a long time before someone discovered me, that driveway sure was a pretty sight. I started to wonder if maybe there was actually glitter mixed in with the concrete when my neighbor Mr. C., out walking his dog, came to my rescue.

Probably the one thing I have thought about most as I lie here in my bed day after day is the timing of my accident. Because it was 9:00 in the morning during Christmas break, my neighborhood was still asleep. I wonder if Mr. C. took regular walks at this hour or if something may have held him back or pushed him forward so that he left a bit sooner or later than usual. Just as when Coolister broke his ankle last March, I have learned that there are no such thing as coincidences in situations like these.

It was no coincidence that Mr. C. came by when he did and crossed the street to where I lay in order to offer assistance. I have never even met this man before that day, yet he did not hesitate to come to my aid. I have honestly thought in retrospect that we could have named our son after Mr. C because that is how grateful I am for his help that morning. I'm not sure I could ever really express the depth of my gratitude.

It was not a coincidence that this happened during Christmas break, when my older kids could be home tending to the younger ones so that Allen could stay in the hospital with me. When the paramedics showed up, All-a-Boy was downstairs playing a game with the littlest kids so that they would not see me in pain, surrounded by strangers in our front room, carted on a gurney to the ambulance.

It was not a coincidence that our nurse in the emergency room was the daughter of a neighbor who we knew well. It helped me feel at ease to talk about something familiar as I waited to hear what course of action would be taken to repair the dislocation and breaks in my ankle and leg.

It was no coincidence that the on-call surgeon was the same one who operated on Coolister's leg last march. We found him to be a bit arrogant and rude throughout Coolister's ordeal but we saw firsthand how Coolister's ankle healed beyond what we were told was possible and had confidence in the doctor's skills as a surgeon. I also do not think it was a coincidence that the aforementioned surgeon was actually kind and considerate toward me (well, minus the waiting time before surgery) despite his typical reputation.

It was not a coincidence that, when our little boy was born 3 weeks early, he weighed in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces and was perfectly healthy and ready to be here.

When I went for my surgery the day after I had given birth, it was no coincidence that I saw my OB twice (there to perform surgery on others under his care) while waiting for my surgeon to show up. He offered me words of encouragement and support when I was ready to explode with some mixture of anger, fear, frustration and tears. He helped me feel a sense of calm when I needed it.

As Allen waited on me in the hospital, it was no coincidence that our neighbors showed up at our home to provide our family with pizzas for lunch, meals for dinner and treats for whenever they wanted one before anything was coordinated to make this happen. It helped me to know that my family was being watched over while I selfishly kept Allen by my side to help tend to the needs of our newborn baby as the nurses tended to the needs of my post-surgical healing.

There are many more instances of non-coincidences over the past 2 weeks which I'll keep tucked away to be remembered personally by myself and my family, just as they should be.

In all instances, I know this for sure: coincidences did not exist in my world over the last couple of weeks. Tender mercies? Gifts from a loving Heavenly Father? Blessings? Even miracles? Yes to all of them... but no coincidences.

The afternoon as I waited to leave the hospital I was holding my baby boy. His eyes were curious and seemed to be searching mine with that innocence that comes with being new. I reveled in this moment, basking in his newness and the overwhelming happiness of being able to do this again, to mother another sweet newborn babe. As I sat there gazing at him, I noticed my own face reflected in the eyes of my beautiful baby boy - and then he smiled.

Coincidence? I think not.

Oh, Heaven!

Hello, friends! It's time for another episode of Gerb Uses A Million Pictures To Show Us How She Cooks Something Tasty.

Today's recipe?

Warm Chocolate Cakes from Communal Restaurant. Except that I prefer to call them Warm Molten Lava Chocolate Cakes From Heaven. And can I add: how awesome is a restaurant that shares their recipes? I haven't had the chance to eat here yet, mostly because every time I've tried to go (the gap between lunch and dinner and Monday evening) they're closed.

But, hey, Communal! I love you forever for letting me make these cakes at home. You seriously rock!

Here we go...

First off it says to melt the butter and chocolate together until smooth. I don't know about you, but I'm a specifics kind of gal. When I went to buy a pound (yeah, baby!) of chocolate I was worried I'd pick the wrong kind. Like, should I get Dove chocolates or Lindt chocolates? Or just go with the stuff in the baking aisle? I decided to just go with what I was used to and purchased two boxes of semi-sweet baking chocolate.

Since the directions didn't specify doing the double-boiler method (and I'm a short-cut kind of gal) I just threw all of the butter and chocolate into a large bowl and microwaved them for 2 minutes. It wasn't all melted, but I let it sit on the counter and continue melting as I stirred the mixture together.

Here it is almost melted...
And all done:
Next it calls for 6 eggs and 6 egg yolks. In case you've never seen 6 eggs in a bowl before, here you go:
I don't have any fancy kitchen tools (you'll learn more about this later) so I just separated my eggs with the back-and-forth into each half of the shell method until all that remained was a yolk, like so:
Save the whites for scrambled egg whites or whatever. Then add the yolks to the other 6 eggs and dump in the sugar.
Then beat...
I wasn't sure if these were beaten enough:
So I read the recipe again. It said to 'beat into a ribbon like consistency'. Honestly? I had no idea what in the world that meant. So I googled it and found this helpful little video: CLICK HERE. I beat them on a high speed for almost 5 minutes before they started to look right:
It sort of ends up looking like cake batter. And then I added the chocolate/butter mixture...
...and beat some more:
Here's what it looked like when it was done:
(In case you're wondering, those are air bubbles in that picture up there, not chunks of whoknowswhat.)

Next comes the flour and cocoa. I hadn't read the recipe closely enough to realize that I needed to actually weigh these two ingredients. What's a girl to do?! I asked for help with equivalents on Facebook and got all sorts of various answers. What I ultimately figured out was that I would have to actually weigh them or it might not turn out right. Lucky for me, a friend saw the whole discussion on Facebook and brought over her kitchen scale for my borrowing pleasure. (Thanks, Rachel!)

May I present for your viewing pleasure... five ounces of flour!
And one and a half ounces of cocoa!

The recipe said to stir these in, so here goes the flour:

And here comes the cocoa...

Once that's all mixed in you scoop the goodness into buttered ramekins. If you're like me, you're saying to yourself, I love the sound of that funky word, but what the heck are ramekins? I'll tell you all about how I came to own some of these sweet little bowlies RIGHT HERE in my post at 4Perspectives today. (Click on over! I'd love to have you!)

Anyhow... butter those ramekins up nice and slick so the cakes will fall out in a perfect little circle when they're done. I let a stick of butter get a little soft and then swished that butter stick around each one until they were good and coated...
Chocolate batter from heaven, meet your new BFFs, my ramekins:
The recipe says it makes 24 and I only used 12 ramekins so I tried to estimate how much to put into each one. I decided that 1/2 cup would be as good a guess as any. Hello, ramekins! I'm chocolatey goodness. Nice to meet you!
Once they were all filled I had to let the batter 'cool at least 2 hours'. I wasn't sure if that meant sit on the counter or put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours so I played it safe and stuck these babies in the fridge.

I took them out about 20 minutes before baking so the batter wouldn't be TOO cool, but I'm not sure if that was necessary. While these morsels were cooking I whipped up some cream. Vanilla ice cream would be the perfect complement, too - but I love me some freshly whipped cream.
Here they are! All done.
I'm pretty sure that my ramekins must be larger than the suggested 4 to 6 ounce ramekins because I could have used all of the batter in my 12 ramekins (I love saying that word!) and the cakes would have filled each one. But I'm not complaining. I have enough batter in my fridge to make about 5 more of these decadent treats and you better believe I'll be baking up a little smackerel for my man and myself after the kids are in bed later this week. (In the comments on the link for the recipe it states that the batter can be refrigerated for up to 3 weeks.)

These little cakes are seriously amazing. The outside is cakey, the inside is molten chocolate and the whipped cream or ice cream balances out the richness just perfectly.

Coolister loved having them for his seventeenth birthday treat on Monday night...
And there were just enough for everyone. (Meaning: one for everyone else and two for me.)

What are you waiting for? Go make your own little melt-in-your-mouth treats. But keep your windows shut or the neighbors will all want some, too. You'll likely gain weight just by inhaling the rich aroma of these as you pull them out of the oven.



Warm Chocolate Cakes (from Communal Restaurant)

1 lb. butter
1 lb. chocolate
6 egg yolks
6 eggs
1 cup sugar
5 oz. flour
1.5 oz. cocoa

Melt butter and chocolate together and stir until smooth. Beat yolks, eggs and sugar into a ribbon like consistency. Slowly beat chocolate into egg and sugar mixture until smooth. Then slowly stir in flour and cocoa. Do not over mix. Divide into 4 to 6 ounce buttered ramekins and cool at least 2 hours. Bake at 425 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Serve immediately with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Makes 24 cakes.

Heartstrings

Photo from amisimms.net

I am often overwhelmed at the continuous string of terrible, tragic stories of things that are going on in the world. Yet, when I look for the good that can come about as a result of these, I am buoyed up with hope.

Like a quilt is tied together with bits of string or yarn, I believe that our lives are tied together with heartstrings.

When we hear of a tragedy in the community, our heartstrings call us to action.

When we find that a friend has suffered a death in the family, our heartstrings bring to mind the ways we can offer comfort.

When someone we know tells us of their child's successes or failures, our heartstrings make us want to cheer them on.

When we learn of a stranger's struggle over a personal loss, our heartstrings evoke sympathy.

When we read about the homesickness and heartache (but also happiness and hope) of a young neighbor who is serving the people of a foreign country, our heartstrings bring emotions close to the surface.

When we learn of unrealized dreams, lost hope or broken faith, our heartstrings can cause an incurable aching which prompts us to help where we can.

My personal definition for heartstrings would be: the love for humanity that binds the deepest love and emotion in our hearts to each other.

Much like twin siblings seem to forge an unbreakable bond in utero, I believe that all of us, as human beings who share this planet with each other, as imperfect individuals who were all created by the same loving Father, have an inherent connection which defies definition.

And I think that if we could learn to recognize those pulls on our heartstrings - and to act upon them - it would be a beautiful thing.

Little Bites of Happiness

(photo stolen from Jason's blog)

Have you ever had a treat that was like putting a little piece of heaven in your mouth? One that could transform a lousy day into a day worth smiling over? I have. They are called Chunk-a-Poo cookies.

Don't let the name fool you. As deceivingly disgusting as they may sound, they are pure cookie bliss surrounding a chocolatey-caramel surprise center.

Did you click on that picture up there and take a look at all the goodness up close?

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

It's always a great day when I have myself a nice, warm Chunk-a-Poo with a glass of cold milk.

What? You want some too?

Good luck.