French Silk Pie

I spent a long time trying to come up with a good French Silk Pie Recipe. True French Silk Pie has raw eggs in it, about 4, which is a lot. Considering the recent egg recalls, I was hesistant to try using raw eggs. So, I finally found a recipe that heated the eggs in a saucapan over low heat, just until warm enough to cook out any bacteria, but not enough to compromise the pie recipe. This particular recipe had heavy cream in it, so it was pretty creamy and absolutely delicious. I will definitely be making it again.

Look what I made!

Chicken and dumpling soup. Mmmm.

Time with our families in MN

Nathan and I finally went home to Minnesota at the end of August! I can't even describe how wonderful it was to spend time with our families. We spent the first 5 days with my family and another 5 days with Nathan's family. One of my brothers from California and my sister-in-law and niece were also visiting, which was fun. Plus my newest nephew was born 9 days before we got there, so it was great to see him. We were able to connect with a few friends, which was also great. We mostly just hung out with our families, which is exactly what we wanted. However, the time still went by too fast and we're back in Philadelphia now. Being back in MN made us realize how much we've missed it and how different things are from out here.
When we got back Nathan started classes at Westminster, which we are both really excited about. It helps us feel more purposeful in why we're living here and what we're working towards (with the grace of God to help us).
It is scary to be starting a phase in our lives that has so many unknowns. It is also scary to know that there will most likely be some very difficult things to deal with along the way. But we feel secure in that even though we might fail, God is gracious and faithful.

Grocery Shopping at ALDI

So, I have officially decided that I am going to do my grocery shopping at ALDI from now on.
There is an ALDI close by to our new apartment, and I had been meaning to go there for quite some time. So, on my day off from work, I finally had the chance to go. I got everything on my list, quite quickly seeing how ALDI is a pretty small store. When I was finished, I went to check out and the total came to $49. I was psyched. Until I swiped my debit card and it didn't go through. So, I tried again. The lady at the checkout asked me what type of card it was. So, I asked if I could ring it through as credit, seeing how that's what normally has been the case since we moved to Philadelphia. Then she told me, as she sat in her chair eating strawberries while talking to me (kind of weird, I thought), that they only take debit or cash. When I told her my card was in fact a debit card, she saw that it was Wells Fargo, and told me that's an unknown bank......interesting......(welcome to the east coast, huh). However, I knew it wasn't her fault and there was no point in complaining about it. So, I asked her if I could just leave my cart and she nodded, so I left. Then I had to drive over to the oversized, crazy, busy, Shoprite across the street and get my groceries. It took 3 times as long and cost $83 dollars for the same things on my grocery list.
So, after an entire afternoon of grocery shopping, and seeing the obvious difference it makes to our budget to shop at ALDI, that is where I'll be doing my grocery shopping from now on.
Now, if I could only locate and ATM nearby.......

4th of July in Philadelphia

I know these are poor pictures, but they're all we've got.
On the 4th of July this year, Nathan and I went to Penn's landing in downtown Philly to watch the fireworks and listen to the Philadelphia Orchestra play.

Braciole

I love cooking! There is an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" where Debra makes braciole and everyone loves it. So, I looked the recipe up online. It is a pounded out slab of beef, stuffed with seasonings, currants, pine nuts, provolone, and prosciutto, and then simmered in a tomato/red wine sauce. It turned out really well and was very yummy, but it was kind of a complicated and lengthy process.
The bruschetta was amazing too. Nathan said, "I love it when you make this!" And that recipe I made up myself. :)

The Legitimacy of Scholarship and Writing in Christian Ministry

In the past couple of weeks I have been wrestling through whether or not the radical nature of New Testament Christian ministry allows for a Christian academic, or publishing ministry. What sparked this turmoil was the report of a short-term missions team upon their return from Uganda. It forced me to consider whether spending a large portion of my time working at studying and being a scholar was something that could exist simultaneously with all the other needs of Christians around the world.

While there is no necessary dichotomy between Christian scholarship and radical Christ exalting self-denial. I had to (and still need to) work through whether my desire to be a scholar is a self gratifying desire to live the American dream.

I am very grateful for C.E. Hill and E. Randolph Richards for their insights into the apostolic mission as a writing ministry. While many may believe that writing and scholarship has no place in the radical ministry of the New Testament, Paul did not believe so.

In the approximately 14,000 private letters from Greco-Roman antiquity the average length was about 87 words....The letters of the literary masters, like
Cicero and Seneca, were considerably longer. Nonetheless, Paul stands apart from
them all. (Richards, Paul and First-Century Letter Writing, 163 [quoted
in C.E. Hill, God's Speech in These Last Days)

The average length of Cicero's letters is 295 words; the average length of
Seneca's is a whopping 995. But the average length of Paul's letters is
2,495! Even Colossians, short by Paul's standards, is (by my count, according to
the NA27 text) 1416. ( C.E. Hill, "God's Speech in These Last Days" in Resurrection and Eschatology, 226.

E. Randolph Richards estimates that even after the time and effort Paul and Timothy put into writing Colossians (including pre-writing discussion and possible note-taking and production of multiple drafts) each copy of Colossians would have consumed about half a day of a scribe's work and that Paul would have spent, by conservative estimates, the equivalent of $502. Implying that his longer letters would have
cost even more.

Thus, for Paul writing was not a waste of his time and money, when he should have been visiting or planting a church, but a vital part in his role as the apostle to the Gentiles, and so it should not be considered a waste of time for you or I today.