The Jewett Cooks: Sausage & Sweet Potato Stew

On a cold winter evening, what could be better than a savory kick of heat and sweet. We have made this recipe twice and it is one for the cookbook. The ingredients are a delicious and filling combination, and even great the next day! 

Italian Sausage and Sweet Potato Stew


1 cup hot Italian sausage, diced
½ cup sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
¼ cup wild rice
¼ cup carrot, diced
¼ cup onions, diced
¼ cup celery, diced
1 ½ g chicken stock
tt salt
tt pepper
oil

Directions:

In a large pot heat oil. When the oil is hot add the sausage to the pot and allow it to cook until the outside has seared. Add stock, carrots, onions, celery, sweet potatoes, rice and bring to a boil.

Cook for 25 minutes or until vegetables and rice are thoroughly cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with cornbread and friends.

The Haynes Black Bean Soup Recipe

This recipe is a classic. One night a few years ago I was visiting with some awesome friends and they made it for dinner. I was blown away and of course, got the recipe. It is both cheap and delicious, and can basically feed an army, as I am proving tonight as I make it for the Jewett family.

Enjoy:

Black Bean Soup


Ingredients:
3 Tbsp olive oil
½ c. chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. ground cumin
¾ c. chopped celery
¾ c. chopped carrot
4 c. chicken or vegetable stock
3 (15.5 oz. each) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
juice from 1 lime
1 T. tomato paste

In large stockpot heat oil, onion, and garlic.  Cook until tender.  Stir in cumin and cook 1 minute.  Add celery, carrots, stock, and beans.  Heat to boiling.  Cook on low, covered for 15-20 minutes.  Stir in lime juice and tomato paste.  To thicken, puree beans and return to pot. (I used a potato masher and just mashed the beans in the soup while still in the stockpot).

Variations on how you can enjoy this dish:

• with cheese and sour cream on top
• with smooth guacamole, sour cream, and cheese mixed in
• over a bed of rice
• next to or mixed with seasoned diced tomatoes 
• add diced tomatoes and create a dip for tortilla chips   
• add chick peas for a more robust taste
• all of the above? haha 

Note: At first I had no idea what Cumin was, and didnt even have any. But I found it at my local market and as soon as I smelled it I knew exactly what it was! I recommend buying this spice for future dishes. Its very popular in many ethnic cuisines and makes beans, rice, and meat stand out. Dont be afraid of picking some up!

I already had all of the ingredients, but per serving I would say about $1.50. 

Enjoy! 

Yours, Mine, and Ours

"Colleen North: Larry says he'll never speak to me again unless I grow up. He says that I'm being ridiculous and I don't love him, but I do love him. Am I being ridiculous?

Frank Beardsley: You're not being ridiculous. 

Frank Beardsley: I've got a message for Larry. You tell him this is what it's all about. This is the real happening. If you want to know what love really is, take a look around you.

Helen North: What are you two talking about?


Frank Beardsley: Take a good look at your mother. (mother is about to give birth to her 9th child.)


Helen North: Not now!


Frank Beardsley: Yes, now.

Frank Beardsley: It's giving life that counts. Until you're ready for it, all the rest is just a big fraud. All the crazy haircuts in the world won't keep it turning. Life isn't a love in, it's the dishes and the orthodontist and the shoe repairman and... ground round instead of roast beef. And I'll tell you something else: it isn't going to a bed with a man that proves you're in love with him; it's getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable, wonderful everyday world with him that counts."

From the 1968 version of "Yours, Mine, and Ours," with Lucille Ball. I just thought this was a helpful little quote :)

Home Made Holiday Punch Deliciousness

So tonight I stopped at the corner market and picked up a can of ginger ale to accompany the fruits and berries waiting patiently in my fridge to be juiced.

Ingredients: 

Cranberries, raspberries, apples, and ginger ale. 

(measurements to taste and size of need)

Instructions:

Break out that juicer you have in your cupboard and go nuts with the fruit. I found the apples really helped mellow out the tart cranberries, and the raspberries gave it a lip smacking sweetness. After stirring together the juice, add in the ginger ale, and shabam!

 Delicious home made punch that tops the artificial taste of any super market juice. I love the tart ginger fizz that begs the holidays to be celebrated with cheer.

Mini Expeditions: Art and Travel

I absolutely love that travel asks art and design to the dance and it can either be a Napoleon Dynamite situation or a Julia Styles in Save the Last Dance kind of situation. Seeing artistic endeavors to promote travel really catch me, and remind me why I love my industry.

Here are some that caught my eye recently, click the header links for more!


Landmark Building Logos from Around the World:

http://creativeroots.org/2011/11/landmark-building-logos-from-around-the-world/

Amtrak Signals it Still has Wi-fi

http://www.atissuejournal.com/2011/11/21/amtrak-signals-it-now-has-wi-fi/

Enjoy, and I'll be keeping my eye out for more awesome travel inspired design!

Advent Again, Advent Always

Advent is a season before Christmas where we prepare and remember the incarnation of Jesus and all that it means. (for more info, here is my post from 2010 all about Advent)

Last year I was so blessed by the focus and the introspection that the Advent readings brought, and will be embarking on the journey again. This year, my Advent guide is from the Village Church, and can be linked HERE. It is a weekly reading along with some personal questions to think through and answer. There is also a family devotional section. It is a great resource for anyone, and would be a great tool to do with a roommate, spouse, or friend.

This year, my heart is battling restlessness and unsettled yearning. As I expectantly enter into this Christmas season, this quote from an article by Sally Breedlove really resonates with me:

I need the reminder that for the rest of this life I have a choice: try to make this world enough, or receive the unsettledness of my heart as a gift. If I don’t yearn for more, I will miss the One who both entered time and lives beyond it. It is hard to learn patience. But good waiting clears the air; it helps me find out what I really, really desire. When I learn to wait for the truest things, endurance moves past a grit-my-teeth trial to hope and strength. Year by year I have the opportunity to live into Advent. If I listen, I will hear the truth: I’m part of the exile, a woman heading home. Advent coaches me to wish for, to long, and finally to expect and even glimpse what lies ahead.  (Advent: Putting the Brakes on Christmas Insanity)

 Resources:
What is Advent? by Noel Piper
A Season to Look Back and Look Ahead by Noel Piper

An Advent Guide from The Village Church

A Day in the Hudson Valley

Last week my friend Hannah and I took a day trip to the beautiful Hudson Valley in New York. She had done an internship there last year and wanted to revisit some of the sights. Of course I obliged as a partner in adventure!

Having never been to the Hudson Valley area (made up of (but not limited to) Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park, and New Paltz), I had no idea what to expect, but was delightfully surprised.



Our first stop was the Hawthorne Valley Farm Store. This is a 400 acre biodynamic farm, market, and school all in one, located in Ghent, NY. This basically means that they are super organic and all natural. It was a cool little market, and this is where Hannah did her baking internship for JWU.

Our next stop was the Culinary Institute of America, a world renowned culinary college and competitor with Johnson & Wales. Located in Hyde Park, NY, their campus is along the Hudson River and has restaurants and bakeries open to the public. We had a delicious lunch at the Apple Pie Bakery. My turkey sandwich and roasted cauliflower soup was exceptional, as expected. If you are ever in the area, it would be a worth while stop for JUST the book store and cafe. Some culinary students were sitting behind us during lunch and they were passionately discussing the ingredients of the lunch special. It was perfect.

We didn't really have exact plans for the day, and just kind of flew by the seat of our pants.

We decided to check out FDR's Home and Library. While a tour cost money, we gave ourselves a mini tour, FREE of charge. The property was beautiful, and it was really neat to see some history. There were enough plaques to guide us around and tell us what was what. I can imagine the tour inside the house and library would be well worth it though.

Our next stop was the Walkway Over the Hudson, a pedestrian bridge from Poughkeepsie to Highland, salvaged from an old railway bridge and turned into a beautiful pedestrian area. Holy WOW. You could see for so miles, and I just cant get over how amazing this was.

After walking across that amazing bridge, which was just breathtaking, we headed into the artsy downtown New Paltz area. SUNY New Paltz is definitely known for being a little left of center artsy, creative type of school, and I think it carries over into the town. Many of the shops are full of cool and unusual things. We had coffee at a little cafe called the Cafeteria that was full of fun furniture and strange art. It was 9 times hipster.



Heading back through Poughkeepsie, Hannah INSISTED that we stop at Rossi's Deli, and wow, I am glad. They have the BEST paninis in all the land. I had the proscuitto, olive paste, spinach sandwich, and it was the most glorious, giant thing I have ever had. The home made focaccia bread was filled to the brim with the most savory Italian ingredients my mouth has ever been privy to.

The last stop of the day was the Millbrook Winery and Vineyard in Millbrook, NY, an award winning winery, also called the "flagship winery of the Hudson Valley." They offer wine tastings, and if you get there in time, tours of the facility.  The vineyard was a beautiful sight, and the shop had all sorts of wines available for purchase. I wish I had bought some to bring home!

Our trip to the Hudson Valley proved to be quite the ideal little trip. It took about three and a half hours to drive from Rhode Island, taking the Taconic Parkway from the Mass Pike. It would make a great day trip, even a weekend trip for a family, or couple, of any age or interest!

If there was more time, I would have loved to explore more of the Hudson Valley Wine Trail, Wing's Castle, The Catskill Mountains, and all the history the area has to offer! I recommend  Travel Hudson Valley for more information about any of these sites.


Have you ever been to this area? Any other hidden sites you want to share?

Humble Pie and Thanksgiving Feast

Interesting thoughts on Thanksgiving:

"Being thankful is not telling God you appreciate the fact that your life is not in shambles. If that is the basis of your gratitude, you are on slippery ground. Every day of your life you face the possibility that a blessing in your life may be taken away. But blessings are only signs of God's love. The real blessing, of course, is the love itself. Whenever we get too attached to the sign, we lose our grasp on the God who gave it to us. Churches are filled with widows who can explain this to you. We are not ultimately grateful that we are still holding our blessings. We are grateful that we are held by God even when the blessings are slipping through our fingers."-Rev Craig Barnes




From, "Stop Turning Thanksgiving into a Facebook Like"

Shooting the Wounded

I was reading this Boundless article when I came across this quote that really impacted me.

One of the lessons I have learned in six and half decades of life is that very few dreams should go on hold while you improve the shortcomings of your life.... To be sure, there are times when you need to stop what you are doing and focus on conquering a flaw. But if you wait till all your shortcomings are remedied, your dreams will die. All our advances are with a limp. 

If you wait till you are beyond criticism to pursue your dream, you will never do it. You won't marry or stay married. You won't decide to have children or raise them. You won't take your first job or keep it. You won't go into missions or stay there.... Few things paralyze people more than their own imperfections. And there are always people around to remind you of your flaws and suggest you can't move forward until you're better. -John Piper, Bloodlines

Hmm. How many times do I think I need to be nearly perfect before I can accomplish a goal. I think this way about marriage, having kids, jobs, writing, friendships. The list goes on.

What kind of things are you holding back on because you don't think you are perfect enough?

Community and the Truth

"You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you.." (Deut  15:15)

I have heard it said that every time we sin, we are forgetting our identity as a son in the house of the Lord and running back to the slave master of judgement and shackles. This rings true in my life. When I sin, I often forget that I am a liberated daughter of the most high king, and revert to a cowering little dog chained to a fence.

One of the awesome things about being deeply involved in a local church is the biblical duty to one another to constantly be reminding each other of truth. Much of this truth we are to remind each other of is the fact that we are no longer slaves to sin, but alive in Christ.

Colossians 3:9 Tells us to stop lying to one another, as we have put off the "old self"

Colossians 3:11 tells us to bear with one another and forgive each other, because that is how God has treated us

Hebrews 3:13 Tells us to daily point each other to christ so that we are not caught in the hardness of sin

Hebrews 10:24 Reminds us to encourage each other in love, as we have been loved

1 Peter 4:8  Tells us to love each other earnestly

1 Peter 4:9 Tells us to show hospitality to one another without complaining, as that is what God offered us

(the list goes on...)

How many times do we see other brothers and sisters stumbling (stumbling or struggling) and only respond self righteously, judgmentally, or without concern. What an anti-gospel attitude (that I am not proud to admit having at times).  

But when we show each other love, exhort one another to pursue the truth, and encourage one another gently and tenderly, we are essentially preaching to one another: "Listen brother, Christ has set me free from my own sin! I am now free to serve Christ and not my own desires. Let me love him by loving you! Remember!You do not have to be a slave to yourself either! Put off your old ways! Follow Christ!" 

I am so thankful for a church family that often responds to me in grace, truth, and love. When I forget my identity and act sinfully which causes hurt, friction, or pain- they preach to me, through words and actions: "Sister, God has forgiven and loved me, and I forgive and love you. God forgives and loves you, turn from your sin and follow Christ. Remember the Lord your God has redeemed you."

Next time someone hurts you or is acting sinfully, remember that this is a time to lovingly point that person to the gospel, through word, actions, and your response to them. Help them remember their identity as a ransomed sinner who can find freedom, rest, and hope in the Christ who has saved them.

"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:35