Kettle Corn:
Ingredients:

• 1/4c Popcorn
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 Tbsp Honey

Directions

1. Turn burner on to medium high (don’t preheat pan though)
   
2. Put oil and popcorn into the pan
3. If you have a whirly pop, stir the popcorn. If not, gently shake the pan until the first kernal pops.
4. Add honey quickly and continue to shake or stir until popping stops

*Confession: I LOVE burnt popcorn, so the fact that this is just about the easiest recipe in the world to burn doesn’t bother me. That said, if you don’t like burnt popcorn, this one is going to take some practice.

Max Lucado’s new book, Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make A Difference, is a straight-forward, practical approach to making a difference. “No one can do everything, but every one can do something.” The early church of Acts used this philosophy to spread the news of Jesus throughout all of Asia. We can use this philosophy to show people that Jesus is still real, and still matters.

The problems of our current society are huge: hunger, poverty, wars, famines, civil rights abuses…the list goes on and on. Rather than become paralyzed by the enorminty of it all, each of us just needs to find small actions we can take: sponsor a child, volunteer, PRAY. He doesn’t advocate that we all sell all of our possesions and live in poverty until everyone has everything that they need. But maybe take some of that coffee budget and use it to create good for someone else.

Max’s writing is, as always, conversational and straightforward I don’t feel the hell fire and brimstone raining down from the pulpet, but I do feel the small voice inside of me challenging: what can I do? What will I say to my children and grandchildren when they ask how I helped?

City of Black & White

Photo from here

I love eggplant. My husband and kids though, not so much. So the fact that we’ve gotten 5 eggplants in the last two weeks from our CSA was a bit perplexing, because, while I like me some eggplant parm, I don’t have the time to make or eat 5 eggplants worth of the stuff, and it’s not such a good freeze and reheat meal.

Google to the rescue!

Tonight I made Roasted Eggplant and Feta Dip (click here for full recipe) to eat tomorrow with my homemade bruschetta and french bread (yes, I made that too.) We picked up some goat cheese n on Saturday and I’ve been looking forward to this meal since then.

The best part about all of these recipes is that none of them required more than about 10 minutes of hands on time, and man oh man do they taste good. Plus, all can be eaten for both meals and snacks, and most of the ingredients came either from my garden, my CSA or the Franklin Farmer’s Market. It doesn’t get much better than this for fresh, local food in September.

I don’t usually get into gift books, but The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Mattersis intriguing from the beginning. Beautifully laid out, the book first explains what the The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Mattersis- the idea that a butterfly flapping it’s wings could cause a hurricane on the other side of the world- and then gives examples of how seemingly insignificant decisions changed the course of history. While the premise behind the book is not unique, especially in Christian literature, it is clear, exciting and inspiring.

“The very beating of your heart has meaning and purpose.
Your actions have value far greater than silver or gold.
Your life … And what you do with it today …
MATTERS FOREVER.”

This book would make a great gift for anyone entering a new stage in their life- whether that is graduation or parented, or anyone who needs to be reminded that their actions matter.

3 Stars

The Boy Who Changed the World tells the story of the boy who invented a new type of corn that would grow in arid climates, thereby feeding over 2 million people. Except maybe it wasn’t him who should get credit for feeding those people, maybe it should be the man who hired him. Or the man who taught him, or the man who saved him. You get the idea- no one can truly receive credit, because they all had a hand in it.

For children of the right age, this story is a wonderful conversation starter. In the end, it’s not clear if the credit should be shared, or if the point of the story is that you should never take credit for anything because no idea was yours alone. Obviously, the point is that even though you might not see it today, your actions could have effects in another lifetime. Just be careful if you have cynical (pre)teens around.

The Boy Who Changed the Worldis wonderfully illustrated and paced well, and kept the attention of my 1 & 2 year olds until the end, which is no easy feat.