Trains

About an hour outside of Rome, New York, I am sitting on this slow moving train heading from Buffalo to New York City. We pass through nothing dramatic or exceptionally scenic. Melting snow covers the muddy woods, aged out factories, and small towns covered in rust. The bouncing click clack of the rails almost rocks me to sleep if I'm not careful.

For the mundane passing by, I do have some curiousities.

The other day riding the bus to work I saw a man walking down the sidewalk picking his nose. He looked right at the bus, but only saw a bus- not a tin can full of people staring back at him.

People must only see railroad tracks and trains, and don't remember the people who like to look out windows. Maybe that's why they built their houses right to the edge of the tracks. Some sort of perceived security or safety. There is nothing protected about taking a shower in your back yard when train creates the back fence. I saw that spectacle when I was on an electric train going from Zavolzh'ye to Niznhy Novgorod.

Trains get to wander through the woods in places labelled "Posted: No Trespassing: Violator's will be shot," without a single bullet heading it's way. They are lucky.

As we traverse through the forests in the middle of nowhere, I see stone walls that only man could have built. It seems that this was not always the middle of nowhere.

Orange juice and books on the seat tray to my left, there is still plenty of time for contemplation. "Miles and miles to go before we sleep," if you will. I wonder what everyone else is doing back home, where ever that is. I wonder where everyone else is going, here on this train.

In What Ways Have I Seen God's Grace to Me Lately?

As I was provoking my mind to list the many ways God has shown me grace lately, a poem that I had written in 2003 came to mind. It is quite simplistic (and strangely philosophical), but does the job of reminding me of the many, often forgotten graces God has extended. I can imagine as a seventh grader just coming home from a long walk down by the canal, or maybe coming inside after a long day of reading on the swing in the back yard and reflecting on God's goodness to me.

God is Great
By Alissa Graham (2003)


Blades of grass and every tree, 
shows how good God is to me.
He pours down rain to wash away fears,
He has guided me well through the years.
The sky above proves God's presence,
Flowers remind me of his essence.
All the rocks and the deepest sea,
Shows how great God is to me.



Today, as I reflect on the ways that God has shown his care, love, forgiveness, and grace to me, I am overwhelmed to know that He has welcomed me as a beloved daughter in His family. He does not condemn me or hold me guilty, but "he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant," and brought provision and wholeness. He is my almighty Father who is ultimately worthy to be praised.

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"