Scraps and Snippets ~ Vegan Spanish Rice

Spanish Rice

2 Cups Brown Rice
2 cans (14 oz) diced tomatoes with liquid (or equivalent fresh tomatoes and a bit more veggie broth)
1 and 1/2 cups veggie broth or bouillon
Heat of your choice, red pepper flakes, small can of diced green chiles, 1 TBSP of hot pepper paste (I went with the last choice and I wanted a little more bite)
1 TBSP lime juice
1 tsp garlic powder or 2 clove of minced garlic
1 tsp onion powder, 1 TBSP dehydrated onions or 1/4 of a small diced onion.

Toss all into a large pan and cook according to directions until rice absorbs all the liquid. (I used quick cooking rice from Trader Joe's so it took about 20 minutes. Great flavor.

Serials and Scenarios ~ The Soul Saver...

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Soul Saver • Barbour Books (May 1, 2012) by Dineen Miller

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dineen Miller readily admits that one of the greatest lessons she’s learning about life is that there’s purpose in our trials. It’s all about trusting God and putting our hope in Him. Her favorite stories are of the miracles God has wrought in the lives of her family.

Through this lens she also believes her years as a youth counselor, a Stephen Minister, a women’s ministry leader, and a small group leader fuel her desire to ignite the souls of others through words of truth.

In addition to writing for Spiritually Unequal Marriage, Dineen has won several prestigious awards for her fiction, and her devotional writing has been featured in Our Journey and Christian Women Online Magazine. She’s also a C.L.A.S.S. Communicator and has been featured on the Moody Radio Network, Family Life and Focus on the Family Radio.

Married for 24 years to a guy who keeps her young, she lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two adult daughters, who surprise her daily with their own creativity.

She is the co-author of Winning Him Without Words: 10 Keys to Thriving in Your Spiritually Mismatched Marriage and the author of The Soul Saver.



ABOUT THE BOOK

When Trusting God Is the Only Way Out

On an average day, God started her missions in her sculpting studio, revealing the face of the person she would meet at the grocery store, bank, or playground. The goal was always the same. Reach the lost, bring someone back to God, restore hope. But then came the tough missions—the ones that sent Lexie Baltimore into real battle. And she had a few battle scars to show for it.

Tormented that she can’t reach the one person she loves the most—staunch atheist and husband Hugh—Lexie finds her own hope waning when the battle comes to her doorstep in the shape of a pastor who represents everything she wants and everything her husband is not—a godly man.

Then false accusations and rumors spin her husband and family into a precarious position, and the only way out is to trust God. But how can she convince her husband when she’s struggling to trust God herself?

This time Lexie is the mission.

ENDORSEMENTS:

“Never before have I felt as if I were seeing someone’s life play out across a page until I read Soul Saver. Dineen Miller's prose had me sighing at the beauty of her word pictures. This is not a book to be missed – Life changing!”
— Robin Caroll, author of the Evil series and Injustice For All

“When you combine stellar writing, intriguing characters, and a fascinating plot the result is a story like Soul Saver. It’s the kind of novel I wish I had written.”
— James L. Rubart, bestselling author of ROOMS, Book of Days, and The Chair

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Soul Saver, go HERE.

MY THOUGHTS: I'm halfway through The Soul Saver. It is the first of Dineen Miller's work I've read. I must say I'll likely pick up any other offerings down the road, too. I can't do a full review because I don't know how it's going to end. But even though my reading time is pinched and hit and miss, this is a book I keep thinking about when I'm not reading it. 

The premise is intriguing with a strong supernatural bent that means the story could go all sorts of places. The writing is strong and visual. I feel for each of the characters, except one, I detest one of them. Shudder. 

If you like supernatural suspense, heavy duty relationship pieces, and emotion engaging reads check out the first chapter at the provided link above.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Law Lessons ~ Go Ahead Make My Day, Punk

I'm just going to put this out there. Suffer the consequences, take responsibility for my actions. 

Unload my soul.

Thursday, I killed a man.

It wasn't pretty. It was a slow, likely painful death. First shot right in the chest...but as I aimed and kept shooting the gun dropped on each following shot. After the chest shot he was still standing and he still had his gun pointed right at me. So I shot him through one of his wife-beater encased love handles then smack dab in the middle of his thigh. He must have been on meth because he kept staring unbelievingly at me, and aiming his blasted gun at my face. Like he was shocked I could actually do it. Finally, I hit him with a few gut shots. 

It was him or me. 

When it was all over my hands shook a bit as I handed in the Glock. I hurried back to safety so quickly I forgot some important paperwork. On the other hand, & was fist-bumped into the good ole boys club. She nailed every shot in a nice tight, controlled manner. Her guy didn't linger. Oh, no. Of course, she would've been in big trouble for the nice shooting had he really been flesh and blood since she stopped him in his tracks with one well-aimed squeeze of the trigger. Her trainer said she was the best shot of the night (well, at the time she was and there were only a few after her, had to throw in that disclaimer). She even went back for a few more rounds with the police assault rifle. Nailed it. AGAIN.

This coming week we get to put into play some of the sweet information we received during the past ten weeks of Citizen's Police Academy. We will get a call into a tense and unknown situation and will get to involve ourselves in a domestic disturbance reenactment. Information of great importance as stressed last week. Secure the location, assess the need for medical assistance and make that call, and separate domestic partners from each other. 

Other helpful information. Never become a close talker even if someone is whispering their little heart out. Close talkers can lose their gun and their life. Never let someone sit where they may have stashed something that could be used as a weapon. And always make sure your back is not exposed to someone who may have access to a baseball bat.

I'm sure I'll do just great. What could go wrong? Besides, I've got a sharp-shooter as a partner.

Scraps and Snippets ~ What? Vegan BBQ Weenies???

This is a crazy easy recipe. 

A few weeks ago I found a recipe for using a carrot as a Vegan hot dog. As crazy as that sounds I realized that the texture of a cooked carrot is somewhat similar to a hot dog, and well, the shape is kind of a new brainer. The "dog" in this recipe would be hidden in the bun and covered with toppings. Dang, not that I really loved hot dogs, and frankly, I have only had one Vegan hot dog, and don't feel the need to do that again. It just wasn't the best. Check out the carrot dog link.

While pondering this wonder,

my mind made a connection. One of our favorite pre-vegan treats, served almost every New Year's Eve with much guilt and heartburn was Beanie Weenies...or Little Smokies. I'd buy those little packages at the grocery store, slather them in various concoctions until we found the perfect brew...grape jelly and mustard and onion soup mix ended up being the wiener...I mean winner. I'd dump it all in a crockpot and simmer it for hours. The little dogs would puff up and brown. And we'd eat em up. 

So if a carrot could fool the mind into believing I was eating a hot dog, could small carrot lengths, drenched in sauce fool me into thinking I was eating Beanie Weenies? Worth a shot. 

I had recently made a big batch of BBQ sauce from the Blissful Bites cookbook  and had purchased ten pounds of organic carrots at Costco two weeks ago. Voila. Good time to experiment. 

I chopped the carrots into mini-carrot size. (Seriously, mini organic carrots would be a breeze.) I dumped them into my small crockpot, drenched them and stirred til all were covered in the homemade BBQ sauce and turned it on low for four hours. I added a bit more BBQ sauce right before serving so they were nice and saucy.

That's it. They are delicious. And unless someone loves the snap of gristle and would miss it, I'm pretty sure no one would really care that these are substitutes for Beanie Weenies. Ya know?

Any BBQ sauce or favorite sauce would work. The Blissful Bites BBQ sauce is tasty. I think I will try to get something going with the mustard/sweet/oniony blend for the next batch. And there will be a next one. Crazy easy. And crazy good.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Cinnamon Roll! Oh! Bundt Cake

I'm not going to say these are easy. I've never met a real deal cinnamon roll that was. 

However, I can tell you that these have decreased fat and sugar, have whole grain, and are Vegan....and delicious. If you like cinnamon rolls. 

My first attempt was a keeper, however, as a family we decided to add more frosting, a bit more sugar, and more filling. Those additions will take these into Oh My! land. And they are good warm from the oven, and at room temperature the following morning. Yeasty, chewy sweet. Sigh.

Add caption

Step one. Cinnamon chips for the dough. 

Cinnamon chips.

Soften 1/4 cup coconut oil
add 2 TBSP cinnamon
2 tsp sugar (plus additional tsp of mix of cinnamon and sugar to sprinkle on top.)
 

Stir.

Spread out on parchment paper. cover with a sprinkling of a mix of 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp sugar.

Slice the "chips" with a sharp knife in a grid pattern. So you'll have lots of little squares...about the size of a crossword puzzle.

Place the batch into the fridge until needed.

Next: The dough.

7 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or flour of choice)

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons quick acting yeast

1 and 1/3 cup non-dairy milk

1/2 cup coconut oil

2 teaspoon vanilla
1 TBSP lemon juice

4 flax eggs (1/4 cup ground flax and 3/4 cup water, set aside a few minutes until it gels)

Mix 4 cups of the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in mixing bowl and set aside.

Heat milk and coconut oil in microwave, in a warm oven or over double boiler until mixture is warm and the coconut oil is melted. Add vanilla and lemon juice.

Pour wet mixture over the dry ingredients and mix until moistened.

Add flax eggs and stir.

Add the rest of the flour about a 1/2 cup at a time, kneading dough until well mixed. This takes only a few minutes, the dough will still be slightly sticky. If you find it too sticky just add a bit more flour, a tablespoon at a time until you can handle the dough easily. When dough is ready to rise, scrape the cinnamon chips into it, and knead into it, until the cinnamon permeates the bread. They will break up, don't worry. It'll become more like flecks of cinnamon when you are done.

Cover and let rise until double, approx 1 hour.

While this is rising make the filling and the icing.

Filling.

3 TBSP cinnamon
3 TBSP room temperature coconut oil
1 1/2 Cup room temperature applesauce (you can heat these up, just know that if you use cold applesauce with coconut oil it'll congeal.)
3 TBSP sugar
3 TBSP Maple Syrup


Icing

1  teaspoon cinnamon
4 TBSP Vegan cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 Cup powdered sugar

Set these aside.

When dough is doubled split it in half. Roll into a flat rectangle approximately 8x14. I rolled mine twice. Once and then folded the ends in so it was folded in thirds, turned it and rolled it again. Take 1/3 of the applesauce cinnamon mixture and spread it onto the dough and roll it into a long pinwheel snake. Start at the long side 14" side closest to you and head toward the other long side so the filling spirals.  

Slice into approx 10-12 slices. Place these side by side in a greased bundt pan. (cinnamon spiral next to cinnamon spiral) Use 1/3 of the cinnamon applesauce mixture and spread over top. Do the same with the other half of the dough. Slightly off center the rolls, example, put the new chunk overlapping the slits on the bottom row. Let the dough rest for 25 minutes or so. It will rise again. Not quite double.

Put into a 325 degree oven for 40 minutes. If your top begins to look too browned, cover with foil. Cool approx 10 minutes. Place 1/3 of the frosting on the rolls in the bundt pan so the frosting melts into the bottom. Cool an additional ten minutes and then turn out onto a platter and frost the top and partially down the sides. If you need to, add some non-dairy milk to make it thinner. Slice this into thin slices so every gets a layered cinnamon roll cake slice, or use it as pull apart and every one can grab their own cinnamon roll of choice.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Lessons from the Law ~ Woof, Doggie ~Dog

Drug dogs are a fascinating topic.

Our little guy, I’ll call him Buddy, to protect the innocent, :  ) came strolling into class Thursday night looking nothing like a vicious dog. He basically fixated on his toy during the officer’s Q and A with the class. And often jumped up for some quality time with his policeman. 

Buddy is trained in three areas. Two of those include biting. Shudder. Let’s just say, whatever you are packing, whether it’s a pocket full of dog treats or 3 grams of cocaine, the last thing you want to do is run. Not only is Buddy fast, he’s smart. 

The officer pointed out something else I had never considered. Buddy’s jaw is uber powerful. Police dogs work out their jaw muscles, and Buddy’s are ripped, or will rip a few pounds of flesh if you get on his wrong side.

Buddy didn’t just stare and army crawl creep toward his toy, he shed. A lot. The officer’s right side was covered in dog hair, as was the floor where Buddy hung out.

A dog’s sense of smell is crazy good. Buddy can smell the tiniest residue of drugs and is rewarded for finds with play time. Buddy is also multilingual. His commands are in a couple different languages. Makes sense. One of my classmates is a lawyer who thought she’d stump our dog-management officer with some recent legal issues that popped up for a dog handler in another state. She ended up asking a condescending question and then blushed when the officer not only answered her question, he did so in her legal language and subtly put her in her place. Ha. Ha.

The second speaker of the night was “the” traffic cop. Close to retiring, this was his last class, and he reminded me of the movie/television stereotype of the wiry, rugged cop with the glint in his eye and the generous sense of humor. He walked us through a drunk driving arrest. And the tests. Magic drunk goggles (not to be confused with beer goggles) were produced which a few crazy individuals donned while attempting to complete the physical tests With the simulated legal limit and double legal limit goggles, there were some hilarious results. Of course, the reality of someone driving under the same conditions is horrifying. The highest blood alcohol he has personally seen is 4.8. Only a true alcoholic could boast that number, it's a deadly blood alcohol cocktail.

I also was reminded that traffic stops can be one of the most tense and deadly type of police work. An officer never knows what he/she will find when dealing with a stop. If you are pulled over, one of the more threatening things you can do is go for your glove compartment. They prefer that you keep your hands on the wheel at 10 and 2 and wait to be instructed to hand over your license and registration. Tinted windows are an unknown and dangerous thing that puts a police officer on high alert. If they can't see what's going on in the car they have to be prepared to react to the worst case scenario.

Give police officers a break, if they seem stressed or a bit intense when they pull you over, be kind and respectful, their jobs are stressful and intense, even over something as minor as catching you doing something stupid.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Let Them Eat Veggies

Cue moving music. We flipped open the flap on the high tunnel and entered into this scene. Amazing.

Yesterday was the first CSA pack of the season. Slim pickings we thought. Even though the spring warmth and sun started weeks ago, how much could possibly be ready to go?

Teeny tiny baby broccoli....cuchie coo!!!!

teeny tiny baby cabbage. awwwww isn't it cute?

For those who are skeptical that the temperature in a high tunnel/ green house gets up there. Yeah. There is serious sweat involved in gardening.

fields of greens - lettuce eat.

HA.HA.HA. Well, a full box. Lettuce, we harvested pounds of lettuce. That's a lot of lettuce. Trust me. We washed and packed Kale, Swiss Chard, there was asparagus, just a bit, since the season started so early. And the garlic. Oh, the garlic. Green garlic that you can use like green onions. The smell was heavenly. I'm going to saute some of the greens with Swiss Chard and toss in some sunflower seeds. I'm pretty sure that's going to be amazing. We even got nice sized radishes. And dill. Oh my.  I've missed my garden box of deliciousness. And, don't forget to hug your favorite organic farmer. This veggie tending is hard work. 

We also met a horticulture student doing an internship. It was her first day in the fields. She is currently taking a class on insects. We asked her if she'd ever encountered a tomato worm. She has not. We have sufficiently terrified her methinks. And I didn't even tell her about the ritualistic tomato worm dance. 

kale...nuff said.