Oglesbee Odes

Since music informs a lot of our thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs, I thought we might share with ya'll what we listen to by posting a song every Friday for the next few weeks. We'll see how it goes.

This first song is in honor this season of Lent. It reminds us of our need for God's mercy and calls us to recognize His sovereignty. This particular arrangement is performed by Jars of Clay on their album, "Redemption Songs," and is my favorite, with the version done by our church's worship band at a close second...but you have to come to SBCRC to hear that.

Free as a Bird

Ian's favorite pastime during these cold, snowy days is building a "nest." At least once a day, he grabs all the pillows and blankets he can find, puts them in a circle, then positions his stuffed animals around the nest. He feeds them, puts them to sleep, scolds them for performing various acts of defiance or rudeness, and sometimes lays down on one of the pillows himself....for about two seconds. Then he bounds up and begins his directing and building all over again. It really is cute and keeps him busy for sometimes up to an hour. Imaginative play is the best...and the most freeing!

Roast Chicken, Coq-au-Vin-Style

A couple of months ago, I came across a recipe for Coq au Vin, a meal of chicken stewed with wine, carrots, and mushrooms. I tried it one evening and loved the outcome...but wasn't a big fan of how long it took or how complicated it was. It was a dance of adding and removing ingredients, using both the stovetop and the oven back and forth -- in short, a little more complicated than I typically look for on a weekday evening when I'm cooking with kids underfoot.

Enter this week, when I'm running out of my supply of chicken broth in the freezer, and thus, need to roast a whole chicken soon so I have said chicken broth for a soup I'm planning to make later in the week. I have a nice, but inexpensive, bottle of merlot sitting on my counter, just waiting to be used in some capacity; a bag of carrots and a box of mushrooms in my fridge; and some leftover thyme from a meal last week. Hmm....what delicious meal can incorporate all those ingredients, be made on an early weeknight, while still providing me with a chicken carcass with which to make broth? Meet one of my new creations: Coq au Vin, the easy way.
Ok, so the picture doesn't do it justice, 1) because I didn't set up the plate well, and 2) because my camera stinks. But the idea is that it was delicious. So delicious, Eric was raving about it the next day and none of us minded eating the leftovers for a second night. I served it with steamed wehani (an incredibly fragrant dark brown rice that I got on clearance at Kroger a while back) and roasted broccoli. As an added bonus, the chicken broth that was made from the carcass is probably the best broth I've ever made. I seriously can't wait to cook with it.

So here's a rough estimation of what I did to make this "keeper" dish:

Ingredients:
6 slices bacon, chopped
1 whole chicken, rinsed and patted dry
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 T. olive oil
1 yellow onion, sliced
6-8 carrots, cut diagonally into 2"-pieces
8 oz. baby bella mushrooms, quartered
5-6 fresh thyme sprigs
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 T. brandy or Cognac
1 c. dry red wine
1 T. cornstarch

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400F. In a skillet, fry the bacon until slightly crispy. Drain on paper towels and set aside. Sprinkle the whole chicken with salt and pepper and place a few carrots, onions, mushrooms, and thyme inside the cavity. Heat the oil in a roasting pan or Dutch oven over med-high heat. Add the pressed garlic, followed by the chicken. Brown each side of the chicken for 2-4 minutes, or until slightly brown in spots. Carefully add the brandy/Cognac and the wine to the pan and allow the alcohol to cook off for a minute or two. Add the bacon to the roasting pan, sprinkling it on top of and around the chicken. Add the onions in a layer around the chicken, followed by the carrots, the mushrooms, and then the thyme sprigs. Cover and place in the oven; roast for about an hour, or until the innermost parts register at 165F. Remove from oven, throw away the thyme sprigs and remove the carrots, mushrooms, onions, and bacon to a separate bowl, using a slotted spoon. With a basting bulb, remove all the liquid from around the chicken and put it in a small saucepan. Add the cornstarch (making a paste with a small amount of the broth first), and heat the liquid until it thickens to a gravy. Place the chicken on a large plate and serve with the vegetable and the gravy.

The Wonders of Vinegar

In my post on homemade laundry detergent, I alluded to the fact that I love vinegar.....Or maybe I said it outright. I think my actual words were "love affair," and that's not far off. I use the stuff daily for a myriad of tasks around the house.

Why? Well, for you penny-pinchers out there, it saves you from buying all sorts of fancy (read: expensive) cleaning products for your house. At about 2 bucks for a 32-ounce bottle, you can't beat its price. For the tree-huggers, it's a completely safe, non-toxic product that can be bought in bulk at most grocery stores, and is even edible, so you don't have to worry about your kids accidentally ingesting small amounts of it. It's the best of both worlds!

And the sheer number of tasks it can perform are staggering: From drawing venum out of jellyfish stings to soothing a sore throat, or from cleaning out your teapot to getting that kitty pee smell out of your carpet, this product is a serious workhorse. It may smell funny (and that's what warded me off for quite awhile), but the beautiful thing about it is that it dries odorless, which is actually the perfect type of clean. Score!

So, a brief rundown of ways my friend Vinegar is commonly used in our house:

• in place of rinse aid in the dishwasher
  
• to clean my coffee maker and carafe (run 1 c. water and 1/4 c. vinegar through the brewer, then run 1 c. fresh water through again)
• to inhibit the growth of mold in the seals on my fridge (rub a sponge dampened with vinegar on the seals and let dry)
• in a solution as a multipurpose cleaner (fill a spray bottle with 1 tsp. borax, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 2 tsp. vinegar, 1/4 tsp. dish soap, and 2 c. hot water). This can be used on pretty much any surface.
  
• as a window cleaner (fill a spray bottle 1/2 full with vinegar, then fill with water). For an added "green" bonus, use an old cloth diaper to wipe dry rather than paper towels!
  
• as a fruit fly catcher (put 1 cup vinegar in a bowl with a small piece of fruit, cover with plastic wrap, poke a bunch of small holes in the wrap, and let sit on your counter. The bugs will get in to drink up the fruity vinegar, but won't know how to get out!)
  
• to eliminate odors from clothes in the laundry (in place of fabric softener, I sprinkle some baking soda in the wash and put vinegar in the fabric softener well -- my clothes come out fresh and soft). For you cloth diaper users out there, this was my standard practice for washing them. The vinegar and baking soda work together to remove soap residue, odors, and stains without breaking down the fabric like bleach does.
  
• as a pre-treating stain remover from clothes (either spray the offending spot with vinegar or soak the garment for 10-15 minutes in a bucket with a vinegar-water solution)
  
• as a substitute for buttermilk (stir vinegar into milk at a ratio of 1:16, or 1 tablespoon per cup, and let stand a few minutes)
• in homemade vinaigrette dressings (at a ratio of 3:1 oil to vinegar, mix the two together with salt, pepper, and herbs and spices of your choice)
  

There are a ton of ways to use vinegar that I've yet to try. Some that pique my interest include using it on your oven to prevent grease buildup, cleaning the toilet with vinegar and baking soda, removing sticker residue from surfaces, removing rust from old nails, using it as a skin cleanser, killing weeds outdoors, and brushing it on baking bread for a crispier crust. Clearly, my relationship with this wonder product is not over and will only continue to grow.

Are you now ready to go out and spend a mere two Washingtons on a big jug of environmentally-friendly vinegar? Have you found any interesting ways to use vinegar in your house that I haven't mentioned?

Both my life and this post were made easier by Heinz's book Over 10o Helpful Household Hints for Vinegar by Christine Halvorson, published by Publications International, Ltd in 2008. It was a very thoughtful gift from my Grandma DJ at Christmas a couple of years ago. Thanks, Grandma!

Outside Looking In

This kid loves his play time in the snow. Almost every afternoon, he goes out with a toy or two and putzes around the backyard (thank goodness for fences!) and plays in the snow. Sometimes he's out there an entire hour while I'm making dinner, but usually he gets cold after 20 minutes or so and comes in for some hot chocolate. With cinnamon, of course.

Simple Recipe Collection

About seven years ago, my recipes were kept in a file folder which was jammed-packed with recipes I'd both tried and not tried, all mixed together in a messy pile of barely-tapped potential. When I would go to look for a recipe I had in mind, I spent most of my time shuffling through the debris, muttering to myself, "I know it's here somewhere...." For those of you who know me, it's shocking, I know. But that was my cooking life for the first two years of our marriage. Until.....one day, I had an epiphany that literally changed my life: Why not type out any recipe I know I'll use again on a 4x6" note card and keep them in a photo album, organized by category? And thus was born the document that my husband puts on his list of things for which he'd run into a burning building to save: my recipe book.

Meet one of my best friends: This baby makes my life infinitely easier and is really not that hard to keep up. Not only can I quickly and easily find any recipe I'm looking for, but it also makes menu planning much more simple because I can just flip through the categories to get some ideas of things I'm already confident I can make well.

As you can see, I used file folder tabs to delineate the categories, plain white 4x6" notecards to print the recipes out on, and a refillable 3-ring photo album to put them all in. Easy peasy.
And this week marked an important event in the life of my recipe book. Because my collection is growing so large, I was running out of room to put new pages in the book. Hence, Book #2 came into being. And now my recipes have breathing room. Ahhhhhh......

So, how do you organize your recipes? Do you have a box that you keep them all in? A binder? A computer file? Nothing at all? Where do you go when you want to access a tried-and-true recipe that you've made before?

The Long-Awaited Granola Recipe

Because my family is attempting to eat healthfully, have some variety, and stay on a budget, breakfast is sometimes the hardest meal of the day for me to shop for. I make our own bread, but I really try to limit our consumption to one loaf per week, so toast is ideally only an option on two or three days out of seven. On Saturdays, I often make pancakes, but I don't have time for that the other six days of the week. Oatmeal, while cheap, gets kind of old and boring after a while. Sure, there are your inexpensive, processed cereals, but what kind of nutrition are we really getting from those? And what about all those wasted cardboard boxes and plastic linings to deal with? Enter homemade granola: a thrifty, health- and earth-conscious homemaker's best friend. I started making granola about six months ago, and I've gotta tell ya, there aren't many things that I make that are more filling, more nutritious, more economical, and more tasty than this homemade cereal, inspired by Mother Nature.

So, for my first post of the year, in honor of finishing things I started last year but never got to, I'm going to make good on a promise that I made to several of you months ago. Behold, The Granola Recipe:

Ingredients (amounts are approximates):

3 1/2 c. rolled oats

1/2 c. coconut flakes, unsweetened

3 T. ground flaxseeds

3 T. sesame seeds

1/4 c. sunflower or pumpkin seeds

1/2 c. mixed nuts, chopped

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. sea salt (or less if your nuts are already salted)

1/3 c. honey*

1 T. pure maple syrup*

1/4 c. canola oil

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 c. dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, raisins, or chopped apricots, etc.)

*For a cereal with a lower glycemic index, use agave syrup instead of honey and maple syrup
Directions:

Preheat oven to 350^oF. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the dried fruit. Stir well to incorporate. Spread out the mixture on the baking sheet into an even layer. Bake for 20-23 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Remove the granola from the oven and cool completely, in its pan, on a wire rack. Once cool, put in a bowl or cereal container and mix in the dried fruit. Keeps for up to two weeks in a cool, dry place.

This cereal is so versatile. Don't have sesame seeds? Skip 'em. Don't like coconut? Cut it out. Like lots of nuts in your cereal? Pile 'em in! Want some hot cereal on a cold morning? Pour one cup of granola in a bowl with about half a cup of milk, microwave on high for 30 seconds or so, and you've got yourself a warm, hearty breakfast.

If you end up really liking this granola, try out some of these other recipes (all of which influenced my current recipe):

Homemade Granola from The Kitchen Sink Recipes
Tropical Granola from Annie's Eats
Granola Bars from Alton Brown on the Food Network
Homemade Granola from Joy of Baking

Beta Day: 2009

It’s been two years. We still think about Beta almost every day, wondering what our life would have been like if he was here. Like we’ve done the last two years, we’ve spent today spending time as a family, and tonight we’ll make a special dinner to celebrate his short life.

We also have an announcement that we’ve been saving for today. Over the last couple months, we have been starting to seriously consider international adoption, for various reasons. This last week we started the application process with an organization called Loving Shepherd Ministries that helps to match families with adoption agencies. This doesn’t mean that we are definitely going to adopt, but it is a big step in that direction.

--The Oglesbee Family

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It's Grading Time!

We're in that time of the semester when Eric has a lot (really, really, a LOT) of grading to do. Something like 100 homework assignments, 21 projects, 51 papers, 25 portfolios, and 57 tests have come and gone across his desk in the past two weeks, in addition to writing three exams from scratch. Because of this, he really hasn't had much of a chance to spend time with Ian. One solution? Grade together!
(Ok, so this picture was actually taken back in September, but it's especially applicable this week!)

Thankfully, today is the last day of the semester, and Eric hopes to have all this grading finished by tonight so we can enjoy a weekend together before trekking to Louisiana next week. I'm certainly ready for it to be over!
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the Advent Conspiracy

Three years ago, during Ian's first Christmas, Eric and I started rethinking how we wanted to celebrate Christmas as a family and how we wanted Ian to understand the whole holiday. At eight months old, he had piles of presents so large we literally had to rearrange his bedroom to make room for all the toys, clothes, and books he received from loving and generous family members. While we were thankful for the displays of affection, we couldn't escape the lurking feeling that something was just not complete about the Christmas process we were experiencing and had experienced up to that point. Our parents (who are all very wonderful people) did make attempts to "keep Christ in Christmas" by doing things like reading the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke before our gift-giving extravaganzas and attending Christmas Eve services at our churches, but the reality for both of us was that, as kids, Christmas was more about getting what we wanted than it was about worshiping Christ and loving others. Maybe that was partly due to our lack of maturity, but a big part of it was also that we really didn't know how else to go about it. Even as newly-married adults, we slipped right in to trying to meet the expectations set for us by our culture: buying an abundance of gifts for pretty much everyone we knew. While the attention shifted away from "me me me" (at least on the surface), it was still a rather emotionally and economically stressful experience every year, with very little focus on the miracle of Christ's birth and our opportunity to share His love with the world, except for four or five Sunday mornings at church. This really started to bother us. We asked ourselves things like: "How much do we really need to give or receive? How can we teach Ian to be truly generous rather than succumbing to societal pressures of feigned generosity? How can we teach him to be content with what he has? How can we teach ourselves these things?"

So the past three Christmases have been a gradual alteration of our Christmas practices. We're not exactly sure what we're aiming at, but we do want Ian not only to see us being generous, but also to get to experience it himself. And we want the focus of Christmas to truly be on the incredible miracle of Christ's incarnation and the profound effect that has on our lives. So we're doing things like having nightly Advent devotions, talking about our waiting for Christ's coming, both the first time and the upcoming second time. We're limiting the number of our gifts to each other to one meaningful gift and giving our loved ones gifts that are relational in nature, so as to foster peace and goodwill among one another. We're spending less on ourselves and more on people who are really hurting or without basic needs. All in all, we're trying to find more ways to love others around us as an outpouring of the outrageous love we've received from Christ.

And, of course, we're still working out what that all looks like. Thankfully, about three years ago, a small group of pastors around the country started thinking the same things and asking the same questions, unbeknownst to us. They formed this movement called "the Advent Conspiracy," and encouraged their congregations to focus on four ideas during the Christmas season: worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all. With the money leftover from what they didn't spend on extra gifts, they pooled their resources to dig wells for people who didn't have fresh water. Over the course of four Christmas seasons (and the time in-between), people have been hopping on board and the movement has been growing. So much so, in fact, that even our little church in South Bend, Indiana is discussing ways to implement these ideas, and our pastor is teaching them from the pulpit. Both CNN and Time Magazine did pieces on what's going on. Through hundreds of churches, millions of dollars have been given to help the poor, and ideas are flowing about ways to be intentional and generous with our gift-giving. What I love about them is that they're not taking a single penny for themselves. They're a movement, not an organization. They exist merely to facilitate the implementation of true generosity and the exhibition of Christ's love for us.

Anyone else out there interested in joining the conspiracy?
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