Anti-Microwaves: How to Reheat Pizza

I hate microwaves. I hate microwaving food in general.  Its one of the reasons I rarely eat leftovers and we have the constant struggle of whether to take or buy lunch.  Microwaves leave food gross.  So when I find a suggestion of how to reheat food, not in the microwave.... I take it!

I found this on (take a guess, yup!) Pinterest!  I would add, that when he says "on Medium heat" he means it. I put mine on high because it was taking several minutes and i was HUNGRY.. and I got a little burned.

But I also got deliciously melty crunchy pizza.  Delightful!

So go here to the foodwishes blog for great instructions on reheating pizza.

Southwest Chicken Recipe

I saw this recipe on FrugalFlambe, which I *highly* recommend.  (click "FrugalFlambe" to go to the recipe) It's one of the food blogs I read regularly and the recipes are easy and tasty!  I have a few modifications and notes.

Firstly, this recipe really wasn't expensive.  We even used fresh pineapple and fresh cilantro but you could easily sub canned pineapple (which the original recipe actually calls for) and dry cilantro.

• Pineapple substitutes: Either 1 (15 oz) can of pineapple or one cup of fresh diced pineapple.
• Cilantro substitutes: 2 TBSP of fresh cilantro or 2 tsp of dry cilantro

Secondly, it was really tasty!  A really amazing combination of sweet salty and spicy.  Jacob rates my dinners on a scale of "once a week", "once a month", "occasionally" and "wasn't that a nice experiment".  This recipe got a "once a month" because he felt that the novelty of the combination would wear off if we ate it more often.

Thirdly, and this is very important in my house... no leftovers! Well, technically I had like one chicken tender left over but I ate very light tonight. Normally this would have been just perfect for us.  I will note, I would either half the chicken or double the salsa.  The full chicken recipe would yield 4 servings. Even with it halfed, I was still wishing I had just a LIIIIITLE more salsa. Yum!

Recommended Read: The best kind of cross-cultural blog

I have a friend, Erin, (I think I've mentioned her before) who is teaching in Honduras currently.  Her blog is excellent, but I especially love her posts about the little things. The food they made for dinner. That scorpion they killed in their apartment. The little shop they visited.  How seeing the poverty makes her feel.

Anyways, if anyone ever goes to a foreign country, please blog more like Erin.
http://erinwitheverything.blogspot.com/2011/09/scorpion-files.html

Bragging on Hubby!

I don't know if anyone here follows Dr. David Allen Black's blog, (who is one of Jacob's former professors from Southeastern Baptist Seminary, where Jake just received his Masters of Divinity) but Jacob got bragging rights today by winning a contest. (See June 7th, 2011 at 4:18pm) He also got one of Dr. Black's books and a shout out for his own blog, including a recent piece he did about religious education entitled "Has Christian Education Failed Us?"

Husband, you have grown so much as a teacher, a preacher, and a blogger in the last few years, and I am *so* proud of you. :)

Another Recommended Read: The Jesus Question

I recommend this blog, not just because of an interesting topic, but because of the author, the delightful Mrs. Victoria Jones. Her husband, Eric, was a good friend in high school and college, and is probably one of the smartest people I know. His wife, Victoria, is delightful, intelligent and witty, and I highly recommend her new blog project.

The Jesus Project, as she describes in her first post, is her attempt to answer the two questions Jesus raises in Mark 8: Who do men say I am, and who do you say I am?

Her wit becomes apparent in posts like this one: Does Jesus Have Your Sole? - and she shows off some Jesus shoes.

Do yourself a favor and subscribe to The Jesus Project!

How to be a great Pastor's wife

Normally, I try to blog because I have some clever (at least I think it's clever) thought or funny story. I don't want my blog to just be a collection of links. However, this post was too great not to share.

It's a great article by Carl Trueman about the importance of being a down to earth wife and keeping our husband grounded titled Our Own Propoganda: Wives must not believe it.

It's a short and interesting read, and mostly, I'm just so thankful for someone to tell me I'm doing a good job encouraging my pastor husband, instead of telling me I really ought to smile more, produce more offspring, and learn to play piano. ;)

Molly Piper

I started reading Molly Piper's blog right after her Father in Law (Pastor John Piper) announced on twitter that she was pregnant with the twins. Let me just say, I love this blog.

One thing that I get so frustrated by is women's bible study literature. Yeah, we've got big life issues to work through in a godly way - we want to learn to be submissive wives without being doormats. We want to learn how to raise our kids in godly ways (at least, so my mom-friends tell me). We want to figure out how we fit our emotional, imperfect selves into the Christian walk and glorify God while we do it.

This does NOT. mean we all want books written by beauty queens and soft spoken old ladies talking about nothing more than how this particular bible verse makes us *feel* right now. We're smart ladies! We have real people thoughts.

And where are we supposed to turn? They think I'm crazy at work because my husband ultimately is the decision maker in my home. And then there's sometimes this attitude in the church that God made me for baby-making only, so what am I doing outside my home in the first place? Now before I get carried away about all the woes and trials of being a Christian woman, let me just stop and say,

Molly Piper, thank you for being so awesome. Thank you for not having perfect hair and for admitting that this Christian thing can be tricky. Thank you for loving your husband and your kids and God, and still having a brain in there. Thank you for being so encouraging and real.

Now, go read her blog. http://mollypiper.com/