Celebration Dip

I posted this recipe in the beginning of the year as “Study Dip”, since then it has become fairly popular with my friends and at home. So here is a slightly revised version and a new name. I hope you enjoy this delicious dip!

Cut these up and put in a large bowl:
1      Red Pepper
1      Onion
1      Jalapeño Pepper (without the seeds and white flesh)
1      Can of Corn

Mix in a smaller bowl:
1      Avocado
8oz  Cream Cheese
1/4   Cup Miracle Whip / Mayo / Sour Cream
1      Package of Ranch Dressing Mix

Scoop the dressing mixture into the large bowl with the vegetables and mix together thoroughly.

Eat with chips, veggies or crackers.

Simple and Fluffy Gluten Free Corn Bread

My family has started to go gluten free and so I needed to make some changes to my favourite corn bread recipe. Here is the modified gluten free version. I have gotten many complements on my corn bread in the past and I recently brought this recipe to a potluck and many people were surprised it was gluten free. Enjoy!

Preheat the oven to 350F
Mix together in a large bowl:
1      cup cornmeal
3/4   cup gluten free flour
1/4   cup arrowroot starch
4      tsp baking powder
1      tsp salt
4      tbsp brown sugar
Whip together in a smaller bowl:
2      eggs
1      cup milk
1/4   cup canola oil
Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the liquid ingredients in. Mix together thoroughly, making sure there are no lumps. Let sit for a minute then pour into a greased 9×9 pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is browned and a fork comes out clean when poked into the centre. 
       

Reading Week Study Dip

For those of you who don’t know, I LOVE chips and I like them even better when there is some dip to go along with them. So I decided to have some chips and dip while I study (I have been doing way too much procrastinating) but I came to the conclusion that any dip I buy will not be nearly as good as one that I make myself (more procrastinating). I looked at a couple of recipes and decided to make one up myself. It turned out really well and was a huge hit so here is the recipe if you want to try it yourself.

Cut these up and put in a large bowl:
1      Red Pepper
1/2   Onion
1      Jalapeño Pepper (With seeds)
1      Can of Corn

Mix in a smaller bowl:
1      Avocado
8oz  Cream Cheese
1/4   Cup Miracle Whip / Mayo / Sour Cream
1      Package of Ranch Dressing Mix

Scoop the dressing mixture into the large bowl with the vegetables and mix together thoroughly. Eat with chips, veggies or crackers.

If you decide to try it let me know how it turns out!

Enjoy!

Fiddles, Friends & Fellowship

My first day of social media freedom has been quite a good one. I woke up bright and early before my alarm, miraculously I did not feel as tired as I could have. I had a shower accompanied by cheery christmas tunes which I all to willingly sung along to. I’m grateful to have neighbours that enjoy hearing me sing. Then I got dressed and did my hair and makeup all before 9:00. I proceeded to make a breakfast of toast and eggs and then eat it in the company of my maker.

The devotional that I did today was focused on being discontented with what we have and where we should be seeing God more in our lives. This was a particularly good devotional for this day. I am very thankful for the faith supports that I have in my life to help guide me through my day to day life. One of the things that I thought about as I was dwelling on the devotional was that so often in my life I don’t realize I am unhappy I just out of instinct buy something new or sign up for some random thing that I think will add more depth to my life. This is in fact proving to be less than true, as my life is becoming more and more cluttered I am finding that I am becoming a more shallow person. I am struggling to have the deep and life-giving conversations that I long to have. Because of this want for more meaningful encounters with people I am beginning to find friends that I can relate to in ways other than our opinion on the opposite gender. I was once the type of person that loved to talk about boys…I mean LOVED…but as I have been getting older I have realized that yes, sometimes you can have good conversations about what kind of person you like and the relationships you have been in in the past. But the best conversations I have with people are about things in this world or about topics that have more to do with the way we live life than who we live it with. I am starting to see where I am discontent in my life and hopefully through these next couple weeks and through some serious soul searching I will be able to see where God is providing enough and where I should be spending my time and energy.

This afternoon I was gifted with part of my Christmas gift from my parents, my mother took me to go see the Natalie MacMaster concert with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. This was quite the experience, I have seen her perform twice before this. Both of the previous concerts I went to were quite a bit more laid back and casual. It was amazing to see her accompanied by a huge symphony. A really funny thing about Natalie is that every time I hear her perform live I start crying as soon as she starts to play. I have no real reason for this, maybe it is because I am a little jealous of the performing life, or perhaps I just connect to the music. But for whatever reason, as soon as she starts playing I become a blubbering mess…good thing the concert hall is dark. She really is an amazing individual. She is 41 years old and is pregnant with her sixth child. She performs about 100 shows a year but still manages to homeschool her children. Her husband Donnell Leahy is also a fiddle player and tours with his family doing shows as well. I truly admire this woman.

Natalie and I after the concert. (she signed my CD!) 🙂

Then this evening I had another brand new experience, I went to an Anglican church called St. Benedict’s Table. I had never been to a liturgical church, it was very refreshing and a great way to get me into the true christmas spirit. It was great to sit there in the beautiful church and take in all of God’s glory. I love having the opportunity to sing and listen to scripture while just soaking it all in. I think I will try to go there more often next semester, I miss feeling a part of a church community.

Now to the part that you were all waiting for…but the shortest part of all…the tea of the day. Todays tea was English Breakfast, a classic black tea. It was a wonderful drink to have with my eggs and toast. 

I hope you have all had a wonderful third Sunday of advent. May the Lord bless you.

what happens when we get on a bus.

So today some friends and I went to the forks.

At breakfast we came to the conclusion that something needed to be done with our day so we decided that a picnic at the forks would be lovely. none of us were very hungry so we just bought some snack food and bused there. when we got there we found out that there was some sort of festival with a crazy amount of mascots there! we were thrilled!!! so we ate food, dance a little and got some pictures with the mascots then walked around some more.

this is most of us. some people were lame and didn’t want to be in the picture.

now i am back and i need to find something to eat before i go to choir…