Merry Christmas!

Hope you have a great Christmas this year and we'll see you back on January 5th! 

Another Dessert Recipe

So I really like making sweets at Christmastime! Recently, my husband bought a box of pears from a friend that benefited her daughter's school (a good cause) but that now leaves me with about 20 pears (after giving some away). I don't even eat raw pears! Luckily, I found a recipe that a friend gave me a few years ago for a "Pear and Chocolate Cream Tart." I had it at her house and it was reeeaaaally good. So I am going to try making it tomorrow and thought I'd share the recipe with anyone else who might be interested. This is a bit more involved than my brownie recipe, but worth the effort!

Pear and Chocolate Cream Tart
serves 6-8

9-inch tart pan lined with chocolate pastry (recipe below)
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, melted
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
3 ripe pears

1) In a saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate, cream, and half the sugar, stirring frequently, until smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Beat in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla or almond extract and spread evenly in pastry shell, set on a cookie sheet.
2) Preheat a 375 degree oven. Peel the pears, then halve, and core them. Put them on a work surface cut-side down and cut crosswise into thin slices.
3) Arrange pears spoke fashion in the pastry shell and press gently with the heel of your hand to fan out pear slices toward the center. Tap tart gently on the work surface to eliminate air bubbles.
4) Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temp. to 350 degrees. Sprinkle surface of the tart with the remaining sugar and bake until custard is set and pears are tender and glazed, about 20 minutes more. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve warm.

Chocolate pastry

8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup superfine sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1) Put butter, sugar, salt and vanilla into bowl of food processor fitted with a metal blade and process for 25 to 30 seconds. Add cocoa and process, about 1 minutes. Add flour all at once and process for 10-15 seconds until it is well blended. Turn pastry out on to a sheet of plastic wrap and shape into a flat circle. Wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
2) Soften pastry for 10-15 minutes at room temp. Unwrap and sandwich between two large pieces of plastic wrap. Carefully roll out to 11-inch round, about 1/4 inch thick. Peel off top sheet and invert pastry into a greased tart tin. Gently ease pastry on to the bottom and sides of the tin, then remove the bottom layer of wrap. Press pastry into tin, then cut off any excess. Prick base of pastry with a fork and chill for 1 hour.
3) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Blind bake for 10 minutes weighting pastry with a layer of foil and dried beans. Then remove foil and beans and bake for 5 more minutes until just set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy! Merry Christmas!

The Calm and the Chaos

My house just went from full to empty in a matter of seconds. From loud, happy, chaotic chatter to quiet peaceful and controlled calm. From 10 people to 3 people (me, a sleeping baby and a toddler lounging on the couch with books).
My husband's cousins (all single girls from late teens to late 20's) came to visit. It was such a short stay (one day and overnight) but I loved it. I like having people laughing in every room, I like not being able to follow all the conversations that occur simultaneously and I like watching them meet my children for the first time and watching them tease, hug and fall in love with each other. I liked getting to know each of them a little better, as we do not see each other often. We promised to stay in touch and talk more, to stay involved in each others lives a bit and I hope we do.
Now listening to the sudden quiet in my house, I miss all the voices and smiles - but also realize that I enjoy the calm moments as well. I am wishing that it was not such a calm moment though and feeling a bit lonely for these cousins, this family, who I did not even know I missed! It was a blessing to have time with them.

My life is a mix of calm and chaotic moments, and there are times when I love them both. I find myself trying to control the when, where and how the calm and chaotic times occur though. As a mother, I often try to control when my home and children are loud and when they are calm. Which of course is impossible. It is like my relationship with the Lord, in that there are still, quiet times when I need to listen to Him speak. And there are exciting times when I feel like He is doing so much, so fast that I cannot keep up. Both moments are amazing and blessed....but I cannot choose when they occur. God has His perfect timing for each moment, for each season of my life. It is only a struggle for me when I decide that I want a period of calm and quiet, but God is saying - take action, let's go, I have great changes coming for you. Or when I am excited, bouncing off the walls trying to move forward, but God is telling me to wait, trying to guide me, if only I would be quiet enough to listen.

I am learning to be on God's timetable, which can be frustrating ...but also wonderfully freeing when I can let go of my expectations and hold on to His promises!

Ramblings

I feel as if I've been running constantly on a treadmill for months.

In the back of my mind I know I should stop at one point, but I can't for some reason.

I wonder why?

Many times I'd opt for being comfortable. I don't want any more challenges that make me stretch. I think I've been too comfortable in my busyness of life that God's calling me out of the comfort zone once again. 

If I'm disciplined in this area, I know that it probably won't hurt as much to be pushed. Unfortunately, it's the opposite case, and I'm just complaining.

Things need to be slowed down and revisited. Then eventually, should move on.

The Tale of A Fool- It's a bit long, but I'm writing my heart out here :)

I was called a fool by a friend of mine not too long ago and I felt a bit upset about it. But at times, I wonder if I really am a fool, especially in God's eyes.

I never knew I had a material obsession until I had my first baby. I love baby clothes and I can't help myself :) But my fetish is a little different from what you think it might be. My obsession is not with buying, rather, it's with holding on to them or you might even call 'hoarding' them.

I don't know about you, but it's always been a challenge for me to practice giving. Of course it's easy to give away what you don't want anymore, but it becomes a different story when it comes to giving away something you treasure and still would like to have it around.

When my mother first found out she was going to become a grandmother to my first daughter, she went quite obsessive also with the shopping. She bought an entire wardrobe of all the cute baby girl clothes she can get for her first grand-daughter. So, ever since then, I had bags and bags of baby clothes that I loved and held onto for my future children.

But when my 2nd child was about 2 years old, I felt this nudging inside me. You know, the gentle whisper from God that feels like a ton on your heart? Yes, that's the one. I felt He was asking me to give all the clothes away especially to the people who need them the most. I know this sounds silly, but it really was a big struggle for me and I reasoned with God. I even asked Him if I could keep the clothes that have the sentimental values for my future children and give away the rest. But to my surprise, He was asking me to fully trust Him that He'll provide when that time comes, and give away everything.

To make the long story short, after much heart break and even shedding some tears, I ended up giving everything away. Then literally two weeks later, I found out that I was pregnant with my third, who happens to be another girl. At first, I started to panic. I couldn't exactly ask for all the clothes back, nor could I afford all the clothes and baby gear that I needed. But He gave me a sense of peace, and I learned to trust Him that He'll provide. And He did! Almost mysteriously. People around me were so willing to give, I barely needed to buy any clothes or gear for my third child. So, ever since then, it's been my practice to give especially the ones I'd love to keep. It's still a challenge, but I have tasted both the joy of giving and receiving what others treasured, and this helps me to go on.

So, when my friend asked me if I'm all set for my fourth child (btw, I'm having a girl-for those who's been asking :P ), I told her I have not much since I gave everything away after my third, she called me foolish for not thinking about the future. She kinda gave me a lecture about how I should at least keep the ones I really like as if I hadn't thought of all that. To this, I gave no reply, but sometimes, I wonder if trusting God and following my convictions make me look like a fool. 

I'm sure it does. But I want to tell my friend this: one thing that I have learned through this experience, is that yes, God does provide. But even if God doesn't provide the things I want, I still should praise Him because I know He loves me to the point to sending Christ to the cross and plus, Christianity is not about having all my need met anyway. I think this is something we ought to remember especially through times such as now, with the financial crisis and all. When things get tough, it's easy to focus on the little details that only last but a moment, but when we place our trust and faith in Him, He will bring you the greater perspective of what truly matters.