Shredded Beef Enchiladas

 We had shredded beef enchiladas for dinner tonight. I actually made these over the weekend and froze them, so all we had to do was pull them out and bake them tonight, super nice. I used a new recipe, number nineteen,  for the shredded beef, but didn't follow the rest of the enchilada recipe. Instead I sauteed some onions and garlic, mixed them in with the meat and some cheese, heated tortillas in the microwave, rolled my enchiladas, and covered them with green enchilada sauce and more cheese. I ended up with 25 enchiladas and enough meat left to do about 6 more, but I ran out of tortillas. The enchiladas turned out well. I thought the flavor was great and the meat was tender. Plus, it was so nice to have something easy and delicious for a work night dinner.

Mandarin Shrimp Stir Fry

Our dinner tonight was Mandarin Shrimp Stir Fry, recipe number eighteen. I didn't have orange marmalade, so I used grapefruit instead (thanks Joy!) and that worked well. I also added mushrooms and snow peas. We both thought this was good, although I think Joshua liked it more than I did. I'm not a huge marmalade or spicy food fan, so it wasn't my favorite dish. But both were mild enough that I appreciated it and the flavors did work well together. The shrimp in particular tasted great.

Mediterranean Mashed Potatoes

I got my next Taste of Home magazine this week and tried out a recipe from it last night, Mediterranean Mashed Potatoes, recipe seventeen. 

Mediterranean Mashed Potatoes

8 large potatoes (about 6 1/2 lbs), peeled and cubed

3 garlic cloves

1 t plus 3/4 t salt, divided

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

Place potatoes in a stockpot; add water to cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook, uncovered, 10-15 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, mince garlic; sprinkle with 1 t salt. Mash garlic with flat side of the knife blade, forming a smooth paste. In a small bowl, whisk oil, lemon juice, garlic mixture, and remaining salt until blended. Drain potatoes; return to pan. Mash potatoes, gradually adding oil mixture. Transfer to a serving dish; sprinkle with pine nuts.

These were delicious. I have been wanting to eat potatoes lately; I think it is because the weather is changing and potatoes are so warm and creamy and delicious. Anyway, these hit the spot. It was rather strange to use a recipe to make mashed potatoes, but the garlic and lemon juice combo really worked well and it was nice to use olive oil instead of butter, they still turned out plenty creamy. Mmmm.

Reformation Sunday

Some church groups are observing "Reformation Sunday" today, and this is a good practice. As one of the most significant events in the history of Christendom, it should remain a continual occasion for reflection.

In the time just before his passion, Jesus prays at length for his Apostles. Central to this prayer is the petition that they be kept in God's name, "so that they may be one just as we are." It is a prayer for a unity beyond even the highest examples of unity we can conceive, for it aims at the level of unity enjoyed between the First and Second Persons of the Trinity. Jesus then turns to pray directly for you and me, for those who will believe in Him through the words of the Apostles. He prays "that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me."

Although many of us tend to think little about unity these days, it would be difficult to overstate the emphasis Christ places upon it. At those times when we do think about unity, we often think of it in vague, abstract terms, rather than the concrete, visible unity which Christ prays will be displayed before all the world.

It is against this backdrop that we must recall the Reformation. Throughout the history of the Church, God has always raised up great men and women to accuse its shortcomings, call it to repentance and reform, and lead it in the paths of fidelity to Christ. Instead of choosing this path, however, Martin Luther chose a path of dissension and division. Whether from ignorance or pride, whether acting on his own or manipulated by others, he and those who followed him turned altar against altar, tearing in two the Body of Christ.

The Reformation marks one of the saddest moments in all of Christian history.

For me, it is easy to become deeply discouraged by this legacy of division, but to do so is wrong. Even out of great evil, God can bring good. The past five centuries, though rife with many problems, testify many goods that God has produced even in the midst of the disunity Christ prayed so strenuously against. It remains for us not to lose heart but to observe and recall this terrible element of our past, to recognize that it is a part of our heritage, to draw whatever good from it that we can, and most importantly to work toward restoring the unity to which we are called: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Divine Freedom

We tend to model divine agency after our own human agency. Human agency involves a disconnect between essential being and existential being. It is in accordance with my nature to love God, for example, but I do not always do so. Other things intervene -- external influences, the vicissitudes of autobiography, etc. God, however, does not suffer this deficiency. In God, essence entails existence, and the divine activity is always in perfect accord with the divine nature. (This is entailed, among other things, both by divine simplicity and by divine perfection.)

If this is the case, then there is a correct way and an incorrect way to speak of God's freedom. God is free in the sense that God is unconstrained and unlimited by any external force. God is not the effect of any cause; nothing compels or prohibits God's activity.

But God is not "free" in the sense God could have acted otherwise than God has. If you were to "restart" the universe, God's will and word would be identical to what they in fact are. Given that God's activity follows perfectly from God's nature, to suppose a different activity means to suppose a different nature, another God. (And this is absurd, for God is the greatest being.)

As something of a side note, this sheds considerable light on the famous "Euthyphro dilemma," so called after a platonic dialogue by that name in which Socrates asks, "Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" Is something good because God declares it, or does God declare it because it is good?

Both horns of the dilemma are problematic. If we opt for the first horn, then we get an entirely capricious account of goodness. Could God have decided to have "Torture a Child Tuesdays," on which inflicting as much gratuitous suffering on children is the truly moral thing to do? That is absurd; goodness does not simply depend upon divine whim. If we opt for the second horn, though, we end up asking why the good is good -- if not by virtue of God, then by virtue of what? Is there something apart from and prior to God that determines goodness? But this, too, is absurd.

The dilemma is premised upon a mistaken understanding of divine agency. The first horn recognizes that God is unconstrained and unlimited; there is no "good" apart from God. The second recognizes that God's affirmation of the good is not capricious and could not have been otherwise; "Murder your Mother Mondays" are indeed inconceivable. The two are reconciled in the divine unity of essence and existence. God commands the good because such commands, like all of God's activities, spring from God's nature, which is good, and cannot be otherwise.

Pumpkin Apple Muffins

I made Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins yesterday with a couple of our fresh apples. This was recipe number sixteen. They were good, but nothing exciting. The pumpkin flavor got lost, I wouldn't have guessed there was pumpkin in them, so that was disappointing. But they were freshly baked muffins, so we enjoyed them.

Apple Picking and Pressing

 I went up to camp yesterday with Trevinos and Nickells to join in the annual apple picking and cider making celebration with the Gists and Starbucks (Joshua had to work). It was a beautiful sunny day in the mountains and after lunch we kicked things off with an opening ceremony. Jonah picked the first apple and Joel gave a little talk explaining the significance and then...

...smashed the apple to bits! Pieces flew everywhere and a number of us got splattered. Then we began picking apples. We started with the apple trees in the yard, then headed over to the playground where there were three trees that were completely covered in apples.

It was perfect timing for seeing the fall colors.

We ended up with a lot of apples and hauled with them to the basement of the barn to put them through the cider mill.

First, we washed them in the tub. Then it was time to grind and press the apples and collect the juice.

For all of our labor, we were rewarded with about 15 gallons of cider. And we still had some apples left! Heather and I had gone back out and picked a few more, so we got to add the leftovers to that and we each ended up with 5 grocery bags of apples to take home.

We had planned a potluck for dinner and we were all thankful when we got to dig in because we worked up quite an appetite. Of course, we had freshly pressed apple cider with dinner and apple crisp for dessert.

Fresh Mozzarella Pasta Salad

We tried our fifteenth recipe last night for dinner, Fresh Mozzarella Pasta Salad. My favorite part was using fresh tomatoes and basil from our garden. The salad was pretty good, but I had a hard time with the texture. It was all pretty similar and was difficult for me to eat. But that might have been because I haven't been feeling well this week and have had a hard time eating much of anything for most of it. Joshua really liked the salad.

Supertonic

Since I was sick this week, I thought it would be timely to try making Supertonic, recipe fourteen. I made half the recipe on the blog and ended up with two quarts. This stuff was potent! I put everything in my food processor to chop it up and when I was trying to divide it into the jars, I had to hold it as far away from myself as possible. The tonic is still in progress since it now has to sit for a couple weeks then be strained before we try it, besides that how it tastes isn't the point anyway, but it will be interesting to see if it helps keep us from getting colds as often.

Cinema as Propaganda

In the latest Star Trek film, the villain kills someone the hero loves, so the hero goes after the villain. The desire for revenge is strong, and the hero is tempted to become nothing better than that which he seeks to stop.

In this respect, the story is timely. As Americans, we face a constant stream of rhetoric justifying evil as the only way to combat evil (e.g., terrorism is justified in the name of fighting terrorism, etc.). It would serve us well to reflect on the contradictions of such thinking, and a film which helps us to do so could be applauded.

In the Star Trek film, the critical question is whether the hero will simply kill the villain or bring him to earth to face trial. At first, the hero decides to capture him. Shortly after taking him into custody, the hero succumbs to revenge and beats him in anger. This vacillation continues throughout the film: will the hero ultimately choose the good or himself give in to evil?

At the end of the film, the hero admonishes, "There will always be those men who mean to do us harm. To stop them, we risk awakening the same evil within ourselves. Our first instinct is to seek revenge when those we love are taken from us. But that's not who we are."

So what happened to the villain? He was arrested, returned to earth, given a trial by a jury of his peers, and either justly sentenced or released, right?

Nope. He was beaten, then placed in detention indefinitely, without any trial or due process.

Sound familiar?

Joshua's Birthday Celebrations

Joshua's birthday was Friday and we had four days of celebrating. Thursday evening we had a nice dinner together at home. We headed up to Modesto Friday and had dinner at an Italian restaurant with his parents. On Saturday, we had birthday dinner with his parents, Joy, Lamar, and Solace. I got rhubarb back in May when it was in season and froze it so we could have rhubarb pie for Joshua's birthday. But I didn't tell him that's what I had planned, so it was quite the surprise. I used a recipe from Pie, the pie cookbook that Isaac and Heather gave me a number of years ago. This was recipe number thirteen.

 All-Rhubarb Pie

1 double pie crust

5 cups fresh rhubarb stalks sliced crosswise 1/2 inch thick

1 1/4 cups plus 2 T sugar

2 T orange juice

Grated zest of 1/2 orange

Big pinch of salt

1/4 t ground nutmeg

3 T cornstarch

2 T cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Milk or light cream

Sugar

On a sheet of lightly floured waxed paper, roll the larger portion of pie crust into a 12-inch circle with a floured rolling pin. Invert the pastry over a 9-inch standard pie pan, center, and peel off the paper. Gently tuck the pastry into the pan, without stretching it, and let the overhang drape over the edge. Place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Combine the rhubarb, 1 1/4 cups of the sugar, orange juice, orange zest, salt, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Mix well, then set aside for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the remaining 2 T sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl, then stir the mixture into the rhubarb. Turn the filling into the chilled pie shell and smooth the top of the fruit with your hands. Dot the filling with butter.

Roll the other half of the pastry into a 10-inch circle on a sheet of lightly floured waxed paper. Moisten the outer edge of the pie shell with a pastry brush. Invert the top pastry over the filling, center, and peel off the paper. Press the top and bottom pastries together along the damped edge. Using a pair of scissors, trim the pastry to an even 1/2-inch overhang all around. Turn the pastry back and under, sculpting the edge into an outstanding ridge. Poke several steam vents in the top of the pie with a fork or paring knife, including a couple along the edge so you can check the juices there later. To glaze the pie, brush the top pastry with a little milk and sprinkle lightly with sugar.

Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and rotate the pie 180 degrees, so that the part that faced the back of the oven now faces forward. Just in case, slide a large aluminum foil lined baking sheet onto the rack below to catch any spills. Continue to bake until pie is golden brown, about 25 minutes. When done, you should notice thick juices bubbling out of the steam vents along the edge.

Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 3 hours, preferably longer, before serving.

 Saturday afternoon, I spent some time in the sunny backyard.

Here is our birthday feast; we had steak, mushrooms, spinach salad, fries, and baked potatoes. The rhubarb pie for dessert turned out great and Joshua was so surprised and excited.

On Sunday we had our fourth and final birthday dinner, this time with my family. It was the Nickells' week to make dinner and they did sushi rolls.

We got to help with making the rolls. We ended up with ten different rolls, plus chicken and rice bowls for those who didn't want much sushi. Heather labeled them all.

Mom made gingerbread and whipped cream for dessert. It was so much fun getting to celebrate all weekend with Joshua.

Family Camping

We got to go on a family camping trip last weekend and enjoyed some time relaxing in the mountains. It was beautiful. The area we camped was a place I had never been to, but it was about 6,000 ft and all the familiar friends were there, White Fir, Ponderosa Pine, Incense Cedar, Giant Sequoia, and Dogwood, so we felt right at home.  We arrived Friday afternoon and set up camp. Evan worked on starting a fire from the embers of the fire Jonah and Michelle had that morning (they went up a day earlier). They ended up not quite being hot enough, but we got out the lighter and soon had a great fire going.

We had divided into two cooking teams and split up the meal/clean up responsibilities. Heather made a menu to keep us all on track, and so we could look forward to all the good food planned for the weekend. It was pretty chilly, so we spent a lot of time around the fire, which was great.

After a leisurely start to Saturday eating breakfast around the fire, Joshua, Mom, and I went on a walk around the lake by our campsite.  

We ended up without a trail and did a little bushwhacking. 

We finally got to set up our hammock! I have been wanting to put it up for months, but there is no where to use it at the apartment. We weren't the only ones glad to have it at our campsite.

The afternoon activity was trying to start a fire by rubbing sticks together. We got some heat and maybe a little smoke, but no fire.

Evan and Micah were working with the embers again and had a little more success. They got it lit a few times, but didn't have enough breath to keep it going. Micah was a little trooper and just kept blowing and blowing on their little pile. I grabbed a frisbee and they added more little twigs and we finally got it going. It was tiring work.

Joshua and I were on a team with the Nickells for meals. Saturday night we had a birthday dinner for Michelle and made stick steaks, rice pilaf, green bean salad, and lavender lemonade. I brought a special plastic flute for the birthday girl.

I had made a cheesecake for dessert and Heather added candles. It was hard to get them all lit at once.

The next morning, the Chandler/Trevino crew made sausage, pumpkin pancakes, and buttermilk pancakes for breakfast.

I finally succeeded in messing up Micah's hair.

After breakfast, we packed everything up, then took a couple group pictures. Isaac wasn't feeling well, so in the second picture we are all pretending to throw up. Nothing like a little sympathy from your family.