Tasty Spiced Sourdough Bread

Recently I made a sourdough starter (which is really not as scary as you might think!). While I used it a few times, I don't bake very regularly and I was finding that I was wasting a lot of flour just keeping my sourdough alive and well but not using it. So on Sunday I thought, I'll just use it all up now and then maybe I'll restart it another time if I decide to do more baking. Because there was so much starter I was a bit worried it would taste too sour, so I decided to get into the Easter spirit and make a spiced loaf - kind of like hot cross buns, but lazier. The resulting bread was so delicious that I'm kinda regretting using up all my starter!

Here's how I did it (I didn't use any measurements but I'll try to approximate).

1. I used all my white flour starter, about two cups, and added the rest of my white flour, again about two cups. Then I added water to bring it to a nice consistency. 
2. I mixed it all up and left it overnight with a sheet of baking paper over the top.
3. The next day it was pretty pungent! I preheated my oven to 190 degrees Celsius (375 Farenheit). 
4. Then I added approx. a capful of apple cider vinegar, a generous pinch of bicarbonate soda, and about a tablespoon of brown sugar and I mixed it in.
5. Then it was time for the spices! I added lots of allspice (probably a couple of teaspoons), and a little ground cinnamon, ground cloves and ground ginger. I think it would have been nicer if I'd added a little more ginger - I only put in a tiny pinch. Nutmeg would probably be a nice addition as well.
6. I mixed this all in until the dough had a nice stretchy consistency. Then I lined a small crockpot with baking paper (you might want to use grease if you don't want to eat little bits of paper stuck to your bread!) and whacked it all in!
7. As I put it in the oven (this is one of the best breadbaking tips I've ever had, by the way) I tipped about a half cup of water into the tray so that there was steam everywhere. This gives the bread a really good crust.
8. Then I just left it in there for about an hour. Then I had to go somewhere and it wasn't quite done, so I turned the heat up to maximum for ten minutes, then turned the oven off and left the house with the bread still in there. 
9. When I got home it was still a bit warm, so I had some with butter and honey, and it was divine! If you want to keep it vegan, I'd suggest a coconut spread like Nuttelex with maple or agave syrup. Delicious! 

I think the things that really made this recipe amazing were: the rise/texture of the dough, which I attribute mostly to the  apple cider vinegar/baking soda addition; the flavour, which was a combination of the sourdough starter and the spices; and the crust, which was partly because of the steam in step 7 and I suspect partly because of the extra high temperature blast I gave it in step 8.

If you give this a go, please let me know! I'd love to hear all about it :)

P.S. Here are some more cool links about bread I found while googling around!

http://www.compoundchem.com/2016/01/20/bread-aroma/
https://preachthestory.com/out-of-the-house-of-bread/
https://www.woodlakebooks.com/search/results/inventory/All-Products/Inspirational/The-Spirituality-of-Bread

Fantasy world building: Calendars and time.

I'm working on a fantasy type book set in an alternate earth. I thought I'd start documenting the things I have to develop and research with some questions that need to be answered. As I wrote this blog I actually found it clarified my thinking a lot. I hope it helps you too!

Today's topic is developing a system of time for your cultural group.

The first thing to think about is the basic physics and astronomy of the world: How much like Earth is your world? Is it the same, like mine? Or is it on another type of planet? How many suns are there? How many moons are there? How long are the night and day? How strong is the gravity of the world? What about of the sun and moons? How long are the seasons and how strong are they?

• My story is set on Earth, so I am modelling my time system on our reality and how humans have done it which makes it easy for me!
• If your world is substantially different from earth you will probably want to do some research about basic physics so that you can create a realistic system.

The next question is all about natural context: Where do your characters live? What natural phenomena define their lives? What would be important to them to recognise and track about the world?

• My characters are perfectly adapted to living on the seashore and so I am creating a daily pattern of time based on the tides. 
• I have decided to give them a lunisolar calendar with a period of uncounted time at the end of it to make up for the time gap between the lunar year and the solar year (the seasons).
• I'm going to give them a natural ocean phenomenon that marks their new year and ends the uncounted time, but I haven't decided what yet. I know it will be the appearance of some kind of animal - I'm thinking maybe whales, or the mating/beaching of sea lions, or something like this.
• I live in Western Australia, so I am probably going to model the seasons on the traditional seasons here, so they will have six seasons.

This naturally bleeds into cultural questions: How significant is the passage of time for your characters? Is day and night important to them? How precise do they need/want to be regarding time? What is the smallest unit of their time? Is it a second? Minute? Day? Do they have weeks? What is the most important for them - days, months, seasons, or something else? What special celebrations do they have? Do they have holy periods of time? (human examples are Ramadan, Easter, Diwali etc.). How long are these periods of time and how do they mark them? How will their basic beliefs about where they came from etc. (e.g. their religion) influence the way time is viewed?

• My characters worship the Moon Mother and so their basic units are the tides, the phases of the moon (months), as well as the seasons (the year).
• They have regular lunar based celebrations. At the moment I'm thinking every new moon they will stay up all night and keep a vigil - so basically a once a month all night party.
• The above mentioned uncounted time before the annual (insert mass marine phenomenon here) will be another holy time for them.
• My characters also have a well defined political system with an annual large gathering of representatives. This will feature in their calendar as well.

Next you will need to think about the character's level of technological advancement: On a spectrum from characters who haven't even got around to inventing fire yet, to characters who can harness dark energy and have space ships that go faster than light - where are yours? Given that, how will they measure time? You may need to rework some of your earlier decisions at this point. For example, have you decided that your characters measure time in seconds, but now you're thinking they might not have any clocks? Or maybe you decided on a very rough scale of time, but now you think they have technology that might require a keener sense of time?

• My characters have a low level of technology. They measure time by what is happening in the natural world, not by time keeping devices. So their general sense of time will be very broad. That means they won't be able to say things like "I'll just be five minutes." I'll have to come up with some other expression to get that across.
• Different seasons will be time for them to eat different food, migrate up or down the coast, or get things ready for a later time - maybe like ensuring they have warm clothes for a colder season.

 Lastly, you might want to think about names: If your characters basically have the same time system as you do, you can just stick with regular names if you want. This might make it easier for your readers to understand. If you want things to be substantially different, you might have to make up new terms. Then you will need to think about how you will explain those terms to your reader - will there be an appendix, or will you insert it into the text somehow? This can interfere with good story flow so it can be tricky! What about the names of the special or holy days? Month names? Season names?

• I'm still deciding on this stuff. I will eventually come up with a full calendar for them to help me keep track of the timeline, but for now I am adding detail as I need to.

Book Review - Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb

I've just finished book one of the Soldier Son trilogy - coming a bit late to the party, I know - and I thought I'd share a few thoughts as I've read several negative reviews from people who have read other Hobb books before. I never have, so I came to this book without any expectations. And I really liked it! Here are some thoughts:

• Admittedly I found this book a little slow in parts, but there were enough exciting scenes scattered throughout to well and truly hold my interest. I was reading it on the bus on the way home at one point, and when my stop came I didn't want to stop reading even long enough for the walk home, so I sat in a tree and finished the chapter. At the climax of the book I couldn't stop reading, it was so gripping.  
• Many reviewers have pointed out that the setting of this book feels like 19th century America. As an Australian some of the scenery - the dusty arid plains and the small-leaved plants - feel quite familiar to me as well. It's definitely a refreshing setting when most magical fantasies are set in a medieval European type of world.
• However, the class struggles felt very English to me. The systemetised school bullying reminded me of JK Rowling's  Harry Potter series, Roald Dahl's Boy, and even William Golding's Lord of the Flies. The class system Hobb set up for her world was fascinating and realistic - that the injustice of it infuriated me at times is a mark in favour of her fantastic writing.
• The point of view character, Nevare, was well characterised and easy to root for. He has a drastically different worldview from me (apart from the monotheism, I suppose!), and many of his views are quite offensive - although entirely proper from the perspective of his society. He also makes some infuriatingly bad decisions. But for all that, you can see he has a great heart, and even in his bad decisions, he is mostly trying to follow his honour and do what is right. He allows himself to be wrong and doesn't hold any false illusions about himself, whether good or bad. He was very realistically drawn for someone in his world, with his background, and of his age.
• Lovely long denouement which felt like a sigh of relief after the tension of the climax. I really enjoyed that all the loose ends were tied up and we got plenty of time to savour the victory of justice.
• Some interesting themes around interaction between original inhabitants and invading forces - again, a struggle ingrained in the history of both the US and Australia. We see it mostly from the invaders perspective but we also catch glimpses of the other side, and hints that Nevare's opinion on things might slowly change. It was nicely ambiguous, as well - up until nearly the end, I didn't know whether Nevare's native friend, who part of his soul lives with in a spirit world, was meant to be someone I was rooting for or not. 
• I felt a bit bashed over the head with some of the environmental and also feminist messages, but I think they're important so I can see why Hobb wanted to put them in there.
• All in all, a fantastic book! Looking forward to the next one. 4/5 stars. :D

A Haiku

Samurai raises

many-folded steel. A pause...

paper ribbons drift

Good News!

So I've just recently come to a deeper understanding of the gospel after reading Farewell to Mars by Brian Zahnd, and after reading Mark 1:1-14 at church this morning. 
We all had questions and comments about it, and the one that struck me was in verse 15, Jesus says "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and the believe in the good news." (btw, the bolding is mine in all the bible quotes in this post - I think that's the done thing to say it, even though it seems obvious).
Why did I bold those bits? Well, 1.) Note the present tense; and 2.) Jesus was bringing good news.

This might not strike you as odd, after all Christians are always banging on about the good news. But what do we usually say the good news is? Well, it's that Jesus died and rose again for our sins. But the thing that struck me today is that Jesus is already talking about the good news and saying that Kingdom is already here at the start of His ministry.

Think about that. He hadn't actually done any of that stuff yet. He hadn't even really started preaching. He hadn't done any miracles, let alone dying and rising.

So what's the good news?

Obviously, Jesus death and resurrection is a huge part of the good news. But there must be more! Otherwise Jesus couldn't have been preaching it yet. And I think a clue is in this passage from Luke:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus later admitted (rather obliquely, it's true) to being the Messiah of God. The Emmanuel - the God-With-Us.
So perhaps THAT was His good news from the start. The Messiah is here - God is finally right here with you, and I'm instituting my reign among you. The Kingdom of God is at hand.

What does that mean? That's where the Isaiah passage comes in. The Kingdom of God means liberty for those who are oppressed, sight for the blind (or full inclusion into the community, which is really what it's about, I suspect), the favour of the Lord, the releif of the poor. Mary's song upon her conception Jesus fleshes this out more as well - the hungry receive food, the naked are clothed, and wicked despots are deposed.

In other words, the Kingdom of God is here now and it's AWESOME. This is a Kingdom totally opposite to the world's power structures. It's a kingdom of peace, justice, inclusion, love and righteousness.

If this really is the good news, then the death and resurrection of Jesus is kind of the logical extension. Since Jesus, rather than joining with the world's power structures, opposed them, His death is not a huge surprise. In His death, he did two remarkable things (most likely more, but these are what I'm thinking about today):
1.) He defied the world's power structures, hierarchies and social constructs that lead to suffering (i.e. sin); and
2.) He joined with us fully in our humanity by experiencing the fullness of a human life.

When He rose again, He was vindicated as the Messiah, and He also:
1.) Defeated the world's structures and overcame them with his more powerful way of self-sacrifical love; and
2.) Brought us into His divinity so that we might share in the mutually loving relationship between the members of the Godhead (indwelling).

And then He left the church on earth to be His body. That means that God's Kingdom is still here because it's working through His church, via the Holy Spirit. We are God's temple (we also talked about how the temple in Revelation is actually the church, and it's a revelation about the spiritual reality of what is happening right now on earth). Since God's Kingdom is here now, when we preach the good news, we are telling people that God's justice, righteousness, peace, inclusion is available right now. Further more, this is now the new reality.

Terrible structures that keep minority groups down are now vestiges of a past that must crumble. I heard on the radio that 40 percent of disabled people in Australia live in poverty. The systems that cause this and other systemic oppression (like racism or sexism) are not a part of God's Kingdom. Since God's Kingdom is here now, they cannot last forever. The King has come and He will put them to rest.

Dictatorships, murder, war and systemic oppression are an outdated mode of living and governing. God's Kingdom is here now. The King has come, and His way will prevail.

Good News, everyone!

Art Journalling

I've recently gotten into art journalling, and I've found it to be really fun, relaxing and cathartic. I've been using these prompts from Daisy Yellow to get me started. I've also done a few of her ideas for improving line work, which I can't find the link for right now but it's on that site somewhere. There are heaps of other sites that give prompts and ideas as well.

My thought is that I might post some of the art journal pages up. This is not because I think they're good, but to show that you can have a tonne of fun being creative even when you are not good at art! It is my hope that I will gradually improve but I'm not being too worried about it, I just want to have fun and let my creativity out.

Up to now I've considered myself a writer - which I still do - but I'm really enjoying keeping a journal that is not JUST words, but all mediums of creativity. There's so much more scope to express myself, or just mess around and doodle when I'm feeling too brain dead to think of coherent words. I've also just got some cheap materials to start off with - I think I will gradually start to invest in better art stuff (mainly I just want the excuse to buy them :D ) but you can use any and every material that you have in your house. No need to go out and spend a fortune.

So without further ado, here is my response to prompt number 9: games

Both of these are inspired by chess and chrononauts (a game I recommend highly). I did two because I didn't like the way the swirl worked out on the top one (the first one I did). You can see on the second one I didn't try for such an intense swirl, which made it so the checkboard pattern was preserved through the warp. However in the end I like the first one better because of the colours. I think I will keep trying to get a chessboard swirl that looks realistic and good... it might take a long time though!

In conclusion, try art journalling - it's awesome! And as you can see, you don't have to have it all together as an artist to have fun with it.

Shoe-related anxiety syndrome

This is partly a review of my Gipsy Dharma boots, which arrived yesterday, and partly an exposition of what I have just realised is a major issue of mine relating to buying new shoes. You see, most other clothes I'm good with - I buy nice clothes and feel good in them without feeling like I'm doing something wrong by buying them (unless they might have been made in a sweatshop, in which case my ethical discomfort is related not to the clothes themselves, but the conditions which my money is helping to create, and is therefore justified). But with shoes, I have this weird thing where if I buy a pair of shoes that I really love, but are not actually useful in any way, I feel really guilty - even if there's nothing to feel guilty about. I've decided to call it Shoe-Related Anxiety Syndrome, or SRAS.


I'm pretty sure I can track it down to this story by Hans Christian Anderson. I'm not sure quite what he was trying to teach little girls when he penned this one, but to my young and impressionable mind it meant one thing: if you like shoes (especially red ones) you must be a pretty bad person, and you'll probably get your feet chopped off. In fact, I do have a pair of red high heels, with bows on them, which I got from the op shop - and every time I wear them, this story comes to my mind especially strongly.

Anyhow, I had been coveting these amazing specimens ever since a friend of mine tipped me off to the Gipsy Dharma label.

Now, these boots have a lot of things going for them: for a start, they aren't red; they are also handmade from sustainably sourced leather; and the woman who started the company is the same woman who makes the shoes (as far as I am aware) - so no sweatshop! But, unfortunately, they are fairly expensive (because of the fact that they're hand made), and so not only my shoe-guilt but my innate stinginess stopped me from buying them straight away.

After my husband spent a fairly large amount of money on squash racquets and shoes, I finally decided, after much angst, that I was justified in buying them. To make room for them in my wardrobe (and to stave off the feeling of being horribly vain), I pared down my shoe collection by giving most of my boots and the heels I no longer wear to goodwill. Yesterday the precious boots arrived, prompting first a gleeful dance followed by an Ecclesiastes-style bout of existential guilt:

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
    I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
    and this was the reward for all my toil.               Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
    nothing was gained under the sun.     (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11)

 However, I must report that these boots are definitely worth the money. They are incredibly comfortable as well as being beautiful. The leather is sheer, flexible, and warm-but-not-too-warm. They really do feel like a second skin - and I anticipate that this feeling will only grow as the leather wears in and moulds more to my leg. My SRAS will be somewhat mitigated by the fact that they are fairly practical shoes - sure, you can't go bush walking in them, but they are comfortable and pretty sturdy, so they can be used as regular everyday footwear.

One warning: if you purchase a pair which are, like mine, knee-high or taller, prepare to spend at least half a day figuring out the laces, which must be loosened all the way down and then re-tightened so that they fit your leg perfectly. My husband did most of the work on mine, and although I can now wear them, we still want to "fine-tune" the laces so that they are just right and as beautiful as they can be. I imagine the ankle boots are probably a bit easier to handle.

I will definitely be wearing these puppies A LOT (in fact, I'm wearing them right now, with my pajamas).

Now I just have to shake the subconscious fear that I won't be able to take them off again...

Oh and PS did I mention she does giveaways?

Promises

This evening I was sitting in my car in the parking lot listening to this amazing song by Jon Hopkins. It was raining and I looked at the water droplets on my windscreen. Then I looked at the street lamp. Then I let my mind focus on the rain drops, while my eyes remained focused on the lamp. That's when I noticed something amazing.

Each rain drop had been transformed into a jewel, a circle of blue fractals, surrounded by a tiny, perfect rainbow and a halo of gold. The rainbows made me think of God's promise to Noah in Genesis. Each drop was like a tiny promise that He would never abandon the world. That the future would, somehow and against all odds, be a good one.

Whenever I let the focus of my eyes drift back toward the rain drops, they became ordinary, dull. I could look at them without really seeing them. When I looked at the light beyond, I could see them in all their glorious beauty.

And then my metaphor-loving brain kicked into action. I thought, what if the light is like God, and the rain drops are people? When I let my focus rest on God, I can see the people around me for what they really are - glorious reflections of the light that pervades and illuminates all of humanity, all of the cosmos. Each person becomes a prism for God's glory; their goodness, their truth, their love suddenly come into clear view. Maybe I normally don't notice these things, not because they aren't there, but because I'm not seeing people in their proper context - as beautiful creations of a wonder God.

When I focus on God's golden light echoing through the universe, each person becomes a rainbow, a promise from God. Billions of promises that the future can, somehow and against all odds, be a good one.

Why I'm now obsessed with Beethoven

So Beethoven was a pretty brilliant composer. He was also a man of deep Christian faith. His music was always pretty good, until something huge happened. He started going deaf. Then his music got really, really good.

Many of his works were written whilst going deaf, or after he had completely lost his hearing. As a musician, this was incredibly hard for him, however with the help of the amazing community that surrounded him, he transformed his suffering into works of incredible depth and joy.

I love the way his music has this sombre feel and speaks to the dark parts of life, and yet always has hidden in it the seeds of joy, which burst out into incredibly uplifting passages.

So, not only is it amazing that Beethoven could write at all while deaf, let alone the complex works that he did compose, but I love the way he held on to joy. His faith was so deep that he had a source of joy that was totally independent on the events of his life, and he desired above all to bring that joy to others. Pretty inspiring.

Here is a symphony (number 9) he wrote near the end of his life. I think it shows how he put the honesty of his struggles and the fulness of his joy into his music (it includes the famous "ode to joy").

Lady bugs versus aphids

Every year I get the privilege of witnessing an exciting bug showdown right in my front yard. First the aphids come to suck all the juices out of our lovely rose bushes. But I know it will be OK, because shortly after that, the lady bugs arrive. The lady bugs themselves will eat up to 60 aphids in a day. They also lay eggs, which hatch out into weird looking, fast growing, ravenously hungry larvae. The larvae can eat their weight in aphids each day.

Pretty soon, my rose bushes are absolutely crawling with lady bugs and their babies. (The photo above is from the start of the season - I found no larvae that day, and only about 20 adult bugs). It's fantastic to watch it all happening each year, and it's satisfying to know I don't have to worry about getting rid of the aphids myself.

The only spanner in the works is the ants. I didn't get a good photo of the ants this time, but they do seem to try to protect the aphids. They aren't really a match for the overwhelming numbers of lady bugs though, and it's kinda cool to have this extra bit of complexity in the ecosystem. If the ants are invested in the aphids, it's most likely because they harvest and eat the aphids poo! I haven't caught my ants doing this yet, but I found this great video on youtube showing it happening.

Time to go out to my garden and try to get my own video of it!

The Problem with Puritanism (and why sin matters, but not how they thought it did)

The problem with legalism and puritanism is not that it takes sin too seriously, but that it takes sin too lightly. (I mean by sin, behaviours and attitudes that destroy lives when they come to full fruition, or as my great friend Jess describes it, simply dysfunction).

Legalism spreads out broad, gets greedy, condemns more and more activities as sinful - first premarital sex, then all sex (it has to be done, but it's much better if you don't if you can help it), then dancing because it leads to sex, too much facial hair, too much jewellery, listening to the wrong music...
The problem is that, though it is so broad and all encompassing, it never goes deeper than surface level.

As a recovering self-righteous prig, I know all too well the dangers of only thinking about the surface level. It's a focus on the symptoms, not the cause.

We need to think about sin more seriously. To do that, we need to stop focussing on the outside. Not that many things are really sinful in and of themselves. You don't need to regulate everything you do, or force yourself to give up everything fun.

No, to take sin more seriously, we have to go deeper. We have to go right to the deepest part of our hearts, our minds. When we are selfish, when we are afraid, when we hate, when we get angry and don't resolve it, but let it fester there, when have desires and try to bury them, where they grow in the dark and secret places. Those are the real sins. Those are the attitudes that become the actions, like murder, lying, cheating on our partner, stealing, gossiping...

Jesus said it in his sermon on the mount. He said things like 

You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

The secret attitudes of our hearts can destroy us, even if we never act on them. Hatred, bitterness and resentment can eat you up inside, stopping you enjoying life. Fear (as I know too well) can hamstring you, prevent you from doing the things that really matter and forcing you to focus on yourself instead of reaching out in love to other people. That's the tragedy of sin. That is hell on earth.

Can any of us really get rid of those things, deep in our heart? I don't think we can, totally. I can't, and people much older and wiser than me say the same. But I think once we have become aware of this and admitted that we are helpless, that's when we can begin to heal. That's when Jesus can enter in and start His work in our broken lives and souls. And that's when we can begin to experience true freedom. Not just freedom from the legalistic system of outer rules and regulations, but freedom from the tyranny of our own darkness.

Light drives out darkness.
Love drives out fear.
Truth drives out deception.
Those with ears, let us hear.

(Image by Daina Kahu at http://www.dainakahu.com)

Grace, rules and the bible.

Is the bible a rule book divinely dictated down by God? I used to think so, but now I think I'm starting to change my mind. I'm starting to think of it as something flexible; something that is "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness" precisely because it is so flexible. It is an inspired response to God's intrusions into our reality; to those times that in some way God meets us where we are. It was inspired by God at the time of writing - but just as importantly, it is inspired by God at the time of reading. God changes us through our reading by His Spirit. He breathes into and through the text, into us the readers.

Now why am I thinking about this. Well the other day I was reading a passage by Paul and it was about dealing with sin in the church. It was very graceful. "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness."
That got me thinking about another famous passage of Paul's about dealing with sin in the church - the one in Corinthians, where it says "hand him over to satan."

Talk about polar opposites! And as I thought about that, I realised that this happens all the time in the bible; sometimes in two passages that are right next to each other.

Something I do sometimes with the bible (that I've recently been trying to avoid), is I try and find out what decision I am meant to make by looking in there for similar situations, and just copying whatever it is they did in the bible. If the bible is inspired and infallible, then clearly, that would be the best way to go right? Well, actually, no. Because the bible isn't a rule book. It's a grace book. Ever since Jesus came, the rules have been out the window. Not because we aren't meant to try and be good people, make good decisions and do good works. But because we are supposed to do this through grace, discernment and wisdom, as fully matured children of God. We aren't supposed to blindly follow a rule book in order to make all our decisions.

It is far, far easier to treat the bible as just a rule book - but that diminishes what the bible is and what Jesus came to do. Far harder, but more glorious, is to become the people that Jesus calls us to be - sons, and not just slaves.

Lemon, lime and bitters pie

This is the recipe for lemon, lime and bitters pie, I made it yesterday and it is great, but very rich. There are two different ways to do the topping, I will write both. The first one would be better I think because it uses less cream so it is probably a bit less stodgy.

For the crust: You need to either buy a pie shell or make a basic pie shortcrust such as this one (in my recipe book at home the replace one tablespoon of water with white vinegar. Not sure if it makes any difference.). Prebake the pie shell completely as it will not go back into the oven with the filling.

For the filling:
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1 tbsp orange bitters
• zest from 1 lemon
• zest from one lime
• 75 grams butter, cubed
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten

Method:

1. Place eggs and sugar in a double boiler and whisk until the sugar dissolves
2. Add butter, juices and zest and whisk until the mixture is thick enough for you to leave a trail with a whisk that closes over only very slowly. Do not allow the mixture to boil.
3. Add the bitters and whisk in for around five more minutes. Put in fridge until completely cool.
4. Add to the prebaked pie crust and put on topping.
5. If you are short on eggs or don't want to use so many, you can substitute in some cornflour for the eggs. This is basically just a modified lemon curd so you can look up how much you will need to substitute. You will have to cook it a bit different if you do it that way because cornflour in cooking needs a bit of care.

For the topping (version 1 - this one must be put onto the pie immediately after making):
Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp bitters
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• double cream or similar
• a bit of lime zest (a teaspoon or so)

Method:

1. Sprinkle lime zest onto the filling in the tart shell.
2. Combine sugar, juices and bitters in a small saucepan over low heat and bring to the boil, stirring continuously.
3. Cook until the mixture reaches the hard crack stage ( approx. 143 C, or when it forms brittle threads when drizzled into icy water).
4. Take off heat and allow to cool a little before drizzling over the curd filling in a lattice shape.
5. Serve with a dollop of cream on the side.

Topping version 2 (this one should not be put onto the pie until just before you serve it):
Ingredients:

• Whipped cream
• a little zest from a lemon and a lime (1tsp or so)
• 2tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp bitters
• 1/4 cup caster sugar

Method:

1. Put whipped cream over the curd filling and sprinkle zest over the top.
2. Make the syrup in the same way as in version one, but cook only until the liquid reaches the thread stage (it forms soft, loose, thin threads when dropped into icy water, approx. 106-112 C)
3. Allow the syrup to cool until it is safe to eat at least, then pour over the top of the whipped cream and zest before serving.
4. If you want to store the syrup in the fridge you can but you might need to warm it up a bit before you serve the pie so it pours more easily. You could also make a bit more syrup so that you could pour it over each slice on its own plate. Just don't go overboard - this sauce is very flavoursome :)

If you try this recipe, don't be afraid to modify it you think it needs it, because I am still trialling things. If you do try it, please let me know how it goes!

Saskia

Spiced Mushroom and Capsicum Pie

Well today I cooked two pies. One is for lunch with my family-in-law (specifically dessert) and is a lemon lime and bitters pie. Hopefully it will be tasty.
The other one was a mushroom and capsicum pie with Indian spices that we had for dinner. It was good. I thought I would put the recipe up for the savory one today, then maybe I will put the recipe up for the sweet one after we eat it and I know if it is nice or not.

Spiced Mushroom and Capsicum Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe pie crust (either buy, or make with one of these recipes). If making your own, pie crust should be refrigerated for at least 30 minutes before making the recipe.
• olive oil for frying
• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp dried ground cardamom
• 2 or 3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 or 5 small mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 a large red capsicum, chopped into small squares
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1/4 cup water
• salt and pepper 
• 1.5 tbsp tapioca or cornflour

Method:

1. Line pie dish with one half of the pie crust and blind bake for about 15 minutes on 200 C. When done leave out to cool.
2. Put a small amount of  olive oil in a pan and heat. Fry the coriander and cumin seeds lightly for 1 or 2 minutes.
3. Add the other spices, garlic and onion and fry until fragrant.
4. Add the mushroom, capsicum, tomato and paste and water and stir till it is all mixed through.
5. Add the salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle in the tapioca. Stir it through and cook for another few minutes until the sauce thickens slightly.
6. Put the sauce into the prepared pie crust and put the second portion of crust over the top. Join the top to the bottom crust and cut a slit in the top of the pie so steam can escape.
7. Cook for 20 minutes at 200 C or until pie is golden brown on the top.
8. Remove from oven and let cool for five minutes before eating.

Disclaimer: The amounts, times and temperatures in this recipe are approximate. If something seems too much or too little to you, change it. My only warning would be that putting too much turmeric will make it taste funny. Same with the tapioca/cornflour. :)

Cinnamon and pear essence pancakes

To make these pancakes I use:

• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• tiny sprinkle nutmeg
• 1 large splash pear essence
• approx. 1/2 tsp cinnamon, or to taste.
•  you can also put in a bit of baking powder extra if you want them super fluffy.
• Butter, for cooking

Just mix them all together until all the ingredients are well mixed and there are no lumps. A whisk is useful, I've also had success with a blender (brute force method!) My mum tells me leaving the mixture in the fridge overnight makes for great pancakes, but I have never tried this.

To cook the pancakes:

• Heat up butter in the pan on a medium-high heat,
• Put a ladle full of the batter into the hot pan and wait until bubbles form on the surface. 
• Flip and cook until browned on the other side. 
• I like to keep the cooked pancakes in the oven (on the lowest setting) so they are all warm when you eat them.

For the topping, you need:

• Maple syrup (the real stuff, not imitation), 
• Greek natural yoghurt (I like Black Swan brand), and 
• Fresh or frozen seasonal berries. If you use frozen berries make sure you get them out to thaw before you start cooking the pancakes so they aren't too cold when you eat them.

I think the best way to do the topping is to:

•  Stack the pancakes with maple syrup in between each layer. 
• Sprinkle the berries over the top and put a blob of the yoghurt on top. 
• Then drizzle some more maple syrup over the top.

Nom nom nom!

Adulthood

Recently I have been reading a book called "The God Who is There" by  Francis Shaeffer. It talks about some of the philosophical trends that have happened in the last century that have to do with denial of absolute truth in the like. In it, he mentions two French philosophers who talked about self actualisation (I forget who they were). Basically, to self actualise, you just have to do an action. You have to make a choice - so helping a lady cross the street would be no more or less valid than beating her up and stealing her bag.

Simultaneously I have been coming across a lot of material (blogs, sermons, and, who knew, a complete recording available for free online of C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity" - gold) which have been talking about adulthood or maturity in the faith and the journey onward to salvation.

The theme of a lot of it has been something clearly biblical, yet which I think many mainstream theologians have either overlooked or downplayed. I have heard it a lot from those who would be considered "heterodox" - like Greg Boyd (highly recommend looking him up) and Rob Bell. It is the idea that the New Creation that will happen when Jesus returns is a certain type of place. In this life we are trying to practise and exercise our wills so that our characters will transform more and more into the type of character that can exist in a place like that.

This is a really cool way of thinking about life here, and it also gives me a context in which to understand the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox idea of "work's" role in salvation - this character transformation happens only through our exercises of will and the actions big and small that we carry out each and every day. So even though we are justified through grace alone, our "salvation" in the sense of becoming completely free from sin and surrendered to God, does happen through works.

So why have I called this post adulthood. Well, it occurred to me that the real and true way of "self actualisation" is, paradoxically, to give the self more and more over to the will of God. In the words of John the Baptist "I must decrease, He must increase."

God is calling me, and all of us, to adulthood. To self actualisation by submitting our will more and more to Him. To growing up into the character that will be made completely ours in the new creation - and thankfully by His grace, we can do this without feeling we have to prove ourselves or justify ourselves. Little by little, we can practise, and change, and grow.

Mike Licona

OK so this guy Mike Licona has written a book about the resurrection, I haven't read it yet but it sounds great (edit: I read it. It's great. But it is a little heavy going). It is called The Resurrection of Jesus. I have been reading around the issue, because he apparently has been getting heaps of flac from some evangelicals. Here is an article about it for you to read. If you don't want to read it, the upshot is that this guy Licona is basically being called on to recant by a couple of other Christians because although he has written a 700 page tome about the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he suggested that the part in Matthew where a bunch of other dead people rise and appear in Jerusalem may not be true. They say he is denying inerrancy by saying this.

Here are my ranty thoughts on this controversy that I posted on another blog in the comments section. It is pretty ranty, but hopefully it makes some sort of sense, because to me, if the presence of some error or myth in the bible, still doesn't detract from the good evidence of Jesus' resurrection, then that is some pretty damn good evidence we've got.

It seems like Licona is saying that *even though* there is a possibility that the gospels contain myth, *even though* they are written in the style of greco-roman biographies, and so it is hard to tell where fact ends and myth starts, the available evidence *still* points very strongly to the fact that Jesus lived, died, and rose again! How ridiculously compelling is that? That is so incredibly heartening to me.

What is more convincing, someone saying to you, “There were angels at the tomb, many rose when Jesus did, and the resurrection of Jesus is true. I know all this things because the bible says them.”
OR, someone saying “I’ve looked at the evidence for these three things. The first two seem like they *may* have elements of mythology and may not have really happened. But from what I can see, the third one pretty much definitely happened.”

That’s incredible! That kind of biblical scholarship should have people jumping up and down in excitement: though they may deny the presence of angels, though they may deny many biblical events, *even skeptics* cannot deny the strong probability that Jesus *actually* rose from the dead.
I just can’t stop ranting about how incredible that is. I can’t believe any Christian would tear someone down for saying that. If that isn’t a compelling argument for Christianity, nothing is. It’s certainly better than saying “the bible is inerrant so everything in it is true. How do we know it’s inerrant? Oh, because it says in there that it’s inerrant. Since it’s inerrant, we must believe what it says about itself being inerrant.”

The Parable of the Geraniums

I was out watering my garden this morning and I found a flower on one of my geranium plants.

This is interesting because I originally had two geranium plants, one of them I planted in pretty shallow soil and the other one in deep soil. The first geranium plant bore lots of flowers after about two days. I was overjoyed, but puzzled as to why the other geranium didn't have any. The flowers lasted for another couple of days and then died. This geranium has slowly been dying ever since. Now there are a few green leaves on it but most of them are brown and its stalk is all withered.

The second geranium just sat there for weeks. Its leaves were still green so I knew it was alive but it didn't seem to be thriving. Its leaves were sort of slightly curled up and it was... well... just sitting there.

But today, at least a month later, probably more like two months, it finally has a single flower, and still looks happy and green.

This reminded me in a really concrete way of Jesus' similar parable. And it made me realise the point of that comparison - it's not actually a good thing to do lots of good stuff and look like you're doing really well straight away. If you bury yourself deep in the soil of God's love and His word, then the fruit will come.
But you have to be patient. It won't come straight away, and you might only get one change at a time.

I find this so comforting because it makes me realise how true Jesus saying was "my yoke is easy and my burden is light." I mean seriously - ALL we have to do is revel in God's love? We don't actually have to work changes in those impossible areas ourselves?
I also find it comforting because it shows me that sometimes there might be times in our lives where we feel like we are not bearing much fruit. But that doesn't mean we're "backsliding". A church I used to attend used to tell us that if you aren't moving forward in God, then you're backsliding. You can't just stand still. And I understand what they mean but at the same time that idea can cause lots of anxiety if it's taken wrongly (or presented wrongly).
Sometimes you might feel like you are at a standstill. But if we rest deep in God's love we will never stop bearing fruit.

Paradoxes Are Cool

We approach the truth from many sides. Some may appear to contradict each other - like two waves travelling in opposite directions.
The waves hit, collide, and send up a spike of water that transcends all our approximations and reaches the pinnacle of the truth.
Even if we cannot ourselves ever imagine these high truths, our approximations, our labels, our descriptions, our wrestling with the paradox, all point us towards them and enable us to grasp them just that little bit more with our minds.

Paradoxes lead us further into God's mystery.
That's why they're cool.

Unfortunately what normally happens is the second scenario - our views appear contradictory, so we kill each other. I've used pretty contradictory views but it even happens with paradoxical disputes within monotheism, and even within Christianity.
But I think it's happening less and that's positive.

Aliens Make Crop Circles.

So this is a lame joke I came up with a few years ago. I have no idea whether aliens really do make crop circles. Crop circles are really cool though, there's some crazy ones out there.

The farmers are saying "Whaddya reckon? Aliens?" "Naw, just some kid with a rope and plank..."