The Living Nativity

Last night Jordan took me to Harmony Square in downtown Brantford, to watch 'The Living Nativity'. In the freezing cold we sat there all bundled up, mitts, hats, & scarves...and we laughed...and well, I cried.

I am a bit of a sap in life to start off with, but Jesus makes me cry a lot. Tonight, it was just tears of joy and thankfulness. I love that my Lord can do that to me... move me so much that my emotions run down my cheeks. Christmas is about the birth of Jesus into this world, and without Him here we'd all be going to H. E. double hockey stick! No but seriously. He's a pretty amazing guy, and I've been focusing on the wrong things this Christmas, getting wrapped up with presents (no pun intended) and parties, and the coming new year- that I haven't spent enough time glorifying the King who came to earth.

Everyone who was in the nativity did such a good job! Thanks Freedom House for putting that on! So tonight is the last night of the Nativity. I urge you if you read this in time, GO! You will love it. It may not make you cry, but it's a little funny, so you'll laugh...but you'll be reminded of what Christmas REALLY is.

It's Jesus. In a manger.

It's Joseph. Loving Mary.

It's a celebration. Of an awaited king.

It's a woman. Following the narrow path.

It's remembering. Why we come together as family.

It's to Praise His holy name.

Soufflé Dismay

Last weekend Jordan & I had a $10 off card to a unnamed (Casey's) restaurant, so we decided to have dinner for less! It was a toss up for me between the fish & chips and the 9 vegetable linguine. I ended up choosing the 9 vegetable pasta since veggies are healthy and who doesn't love pasta!? And Jordan actually chose the fish and chips so we could share. Well we were in for a not so tasty treat. My pasta was bland as ever, whodda thunk vegetables could be so boring! It was the FIRST time I didn't take home my leftovers! But anyways, this blog is not to bash the restaurant, but the treat that came as a result of the restaurant.

Baking a soufflé has been on our list for a while. I even bought the ramekin a month or so back, its just it seems so tough and I always screw up baking! But since we were pretty bummed about our not so yummy dinner, we felt we needed something really nice to finish the night better then it started. So off to the grocery store we went to get our chocolate and eggs and then the delight began!

I had searched the web for the recipe that looked most tempting but they all seemed so overwhelming with so many steps, well i finally found one that sounded really good! It was from a Ghirardelli recipe but that stuff is too expensive! So i used plane dark bakers chocolate. Seemed easy enough:

-double boil chocolate. beat eggs. add sugar. bake.

mmmhmm... well here is where I turned sour. When I bake I seemingly always forgot to add some sort of main ingredient. Well for this recipe I forgot the egg yolks! I always forget something! So after this heap of beautiful chocolate went into the oven I had a mini (or not so mini?) tantrum of how "I am the worst baker ever, yada yada cry me a river" in front of Jordan and his mum. I think I am a bit of an over-reactor...not sure...

Needless to say I hovered over that oven like a cat preying a mouse. And it was challenging not to open the oven to check on my little chocolate baby because for some reason I always like to open it to check, but with a soufflé that would be a disaster! Finally this thing began to rise, I was excited but didn't expect too much of this thing since I am such a mess up with a recipe. It rose and rose until Jordan (my go to guy for everything) said it looked ready. I carefully opened the oven and quickly sprinkled powdered sugar all over and brought it to the dissecting table where we were soon to find out how bad it really was going to taste.

WOAH! It was GREAT! So much chocolaty flavour! I loved it! It is something we will make again for sure...with...or without the yolks!

2 things I learned: It's good to try new things!

and its okay to forget the eggs...well the yolks...if I forgot the whites this could be a whole different story...

Enjoy!

Individual Chocolate Soufflés

Submitted By: Ghirardelli®
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Ready In: 30 Minutes
Servings: 2
"These chocolate souffles are perfect for a dinner party as they can be prepared ahead of time and are served in individual ramekins. "
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 ounces Ghirardelli 60% Bittersweet
Chocolate Baking Bar
2 tablespoons milk, plus
2 teaspoons milk
1 egg yolk
2 egg whites
Powdered sugar for dusting
Directions:
1.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush two 1 1/2-cup or four 1/2-cup ovenproof ramekins with butter; dust bottom and sides with 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. In double boiler over hot water, melt chocolate with milk and 1 tablespoon sugar. Cool for 5 minutes. Whisk egg yolk into chocolate mixture. In large bowl with electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form; add remaining 2 teaspoons granulated sugar and beat until stiff but not dry.
2.
With rubber spatula, fold one-fourth of egg whites into chocolate mixture, then fold in remaining egg whites. Divide between prepared ramekins. (Souffles may be prepared ahead up to this point and refrigerated for up to 2 hours. Bake straight from refrigerator, adding 3 minutes to baking time.) Bake 20 minutes for large ramekins and 15 minutes for small ramekins. Remove from oven; dust tops of souffles with powdered sugar.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2010 Allrecipes.com

Forgotten Fingers.

I feel kinda lazy. I haven't blogged since Indonesia! That's a LONG time! oh well...what can you do... It's not like the queen is going to read it or anything, actually, not sure if anyone does/will/did read it. I was just looking at friends blogs and they are pretty nifty! and fun to read/look at pictures.

Well for my first blog I'm going to write in a long time is going to be about God.

As most of you know I'm moving to Toronto and going to hair school at Aveda. A dream that has only grown stronger since it first got planted in my heart. Not sure why it's in there but it is...and I'm following it. I think it's because I feel this is my place where I will be able to help people. To reach them and hopefully brighten their days! Anyways, why I am writing is because of what's happened along the ride.
Well for starters, I got a GREAT paying job that has DOUBLED any other job I've had/could have had. So Praise God on that one. What did I learn?

He provides.

Well it's not as easy to make the money I just mentioned above, seeing as it depends on commission. Yeah, I make minimum hourly wage but ONTOP of that I get commission. See you take a girl who knows nothing...I mean NOTHING about cell phones and you stick her in a kiosk in the mall with a powerful God and He teaches her everything she needs to know to get the sale. Somehow (not somehow..God's how) I managed to be the leading seller in the store passing 3 other sales reps including my manager who's done this for 7 years! And I outsold her! aka. lots of money for school... and so what did I learn?

He provides.

Without those sales I wouldn't be in the position I am today. Almost ready to move to Toronto and starting the next exciting chapter in my life. And there is lots more of trusting in Him to do, but thank goodness I know,

He provides.


Well I think this is plenty enough for my first blog back! Stay tuned for some exciting news coming soon!!!


live your life to the fullest... don't be afraid of anything.