It wasn’t but a week or two ago that I sat at a piano and played carols on request.  While basking in the glow of an enormously lovely tree and the warmth of dear friends,  my fingers glided along the keys for “Joy to the World” and “Jingle Bells” and others like “Ill Be Home for Christmas.” I sang along at the top of my lungs, because I love carol sing-a-longs.

But the irony’s not lost on me.

As much as I love the song “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” and all of the happy feelings it encourages, I don’t really know where I would go, if I were to head home for the Holidays.  I love Chattanooga – I love living here with my husband and sweet family – but, I’m not from here.  I love going to visit my parents in Grand Rapids where they live now – but, I’m not from there, either.  And – if I were to visit family in Canada – most of them are in new places, nowhere near where I grew up…

So, this year I had to make a decision.  As much as I love my history and the geography that it involves, “Home” for me has to be my current location, with the people I love here, at my little house in Middle Valley, making Christmas traditions together.

As a musician, there’s been plenty rehearsals and concerts to be a part of – but, I knew there were a few things I wanted to do, beginning a few new traditions in my kitchen.  The first was Michael’s idea:  to bake coconut rum cakes, which are his favorite, to give as gifts – some we shipped, some were hand-delivered.  All in all, I made 13.  Whew! And, truthfully, it wasn’t without rave reviews!  I’m so glad I did it and was able to bring joy to a few dear friends and families.  This may be a tradition we continue.

The second was a bit more daunting.  There is one thing that I remember from Christmases past with my Brubacher family and that is my Grandma’s cream buns.  She made them for every Christmas gathering!  Nothing makes Christmas more wonderful than cream buns.  So, I decided to give them ago, here on my own!

Monday evening before Christmas I made them.  My sweet husband, who has tasted an original made by Grandma, knew how important it was to me for them to turn out right.  He was on hand to taste test the first one fresh from the oven (there wasn’t even any cream in them yet!).  When he took that first bite, he got a few tears in his eyes, and just nodded his head.  I knew they were perfect!

Early Christmas morning I whipped up the special filling and spread it in each bun.  When I took the first bite, I felt like we could have Christmas now – because cream buns taste like “home.”

I’ve had many ask for me to share the recipe – so that’s what I’m going to do!  However, I must warn you that the directions are a little “loose” and you have to practice, so that you know what the dough should look like from step to step…   Believe me when I say, they are worth every ounce of effort!  I promise!

 

Merry Christmas from my kitchen, the heart of my home!

Grandma’s Cream Buns

Ingredients for the buns:
3 cups warm water
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp yeast
3 beaten eggs
7-9 cups of flour

instructions:

Combine the 1st five ingredients.  add eggs, then flour.  (start with 7 cups, then add to get the right consistency.)  put a bit of oil on top of dough.  let rise 15 minutes, then punch down.  repeat that rise/punch-down sequence 3 times.  on the 4th time, shape into rolls and set in pans.  let rise 1 hr.
Bake 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Ingredients for the cream:
5 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 cup crisco (you could exchange for some butter)
1/4 tsp salt
8 tbsp of milk, maybe evaporated milk (add as needed)
2 tsp vanilla

Instructions for the cream:
Cream butter/crisco and sugar, salt and vanilla.  add milk/cream as needed.  Cream til fluffy!  spread onto cream buns.

Best of luck to you!  I hope they make your kitchen a little sweeter!

Credit:  Thanks to my cousin  Amy Switzer who invested the time in finding the perfect recipe for the buns – and for learning how to make them well, and then help me this summer, and then again this week via texts and photos!  you’re the best!!!

My daughter stood at the doorway of the kitchen and wailed this evening, as I peeled and diced potatoes.  I was preparing to make mashed potatoes for dinner.  But my sweet baby girl wasn’t having it.  She stood there and cried, “Mama, mama, mama”  incessantly until I finished and picked her up.

Many thoughts went through my head at the time mostly revolving around the idea of never making mashed potatoes again.  But I’ve thought about it since then – and I have learned something.  Two things actually.  And I couldn’t decide which to share with you, so I will share them both.  I have realized from this experience why I want so desperately to be just like my baby girl.  But then also, in another way why I hope I’m not like her.

huh?

Okay – first – my daughter had some serious perseverance.  She was not leaving the kitchen without me.  She did not get distracted.  She did not get quiet.  She cried and called out again and again until I answered.  She did not waiver once.

I need to be more like that.  By comparison my prayer life is weak.  I call out to my Heavenly Father, but I give up easily.  If I don’t hear an answer in a few minutes, I give up.  I’m distracted by other possibilities, other earthly offerings and I walk away.  I do not always press through to reach His heart.  Sometimes He wants to know I mean business, and unfortunately a lot of times I show Him that I don’t.

Now, what you need to know is that my daughter didn’t know what I was doing.  Mashed potatoes are her very favorite.  She requests them regularly – “Hot potatoes! Hot potatoes!”  I think she would eat them at every meal.  But here she was, pitching a major fit, trying to get me to stop my work in the kitchen and move me to do something else entirely.

I wish I wasn’t like this, but I am.  There have been times in my life where I know that I have pitched a similar fit because I couldn’t see what God was doing, and therefore I assumed it wasn’t going to be good.  So, I let him know, trying to get Him to stop the work, not realizing that what He was doing would be a huge blessing for me…

But there is good news.  With my Heavenly Father there is always good news.  He loves me in spite of it all.  He knows what His plan is for me and He blesses me. In spite of my inability to pray properly, in spite of how many fits I pitch, His love knows no limits.

And so, I’m hopeful after learning these lessons from my baby girl.  The next time there is something uncertain or unknown, I’m going to try to remember to spend time sincerely in prayer.  But, I’m not going to protest – it might be mashed potatoes.

From Jeremiah 29: 11-12  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”

 

Originally written February 2011.

Standing at the butcher’s counter at Publix, I couldn’t help but notice what was in his cart.

Not because I was judging him.  No,  I was envious.  He had donuts.  and fried chicken.

I on the other hand had butternut squash and lettuce and avocado and grapes and brussel sprouts.

Over the past 22 days I’ve been following the Whole Thirty regimen, eating fruits, veggies, healthy fats like coconut oil and olive oil, meats, eggs and nuts.  Its a short list of “okay” foods.  Truly, it has been good for me because it has been similar to pushing a reset button after a long holiday season of rich and decadent eating.

I’ve done pretty well overall, following the rules and sticking to the diet.  My whole digestive system has been thanking me for it.  I have energy.  I’m sleeping well.

Do you know what I did?

I looked at his cart and almost salivated… and then I almost broke into tears.    Because I had a choice to make.  and it was all I could do to keep from spinning my cart around and heading for the bakery.

Now.  I don’t want you to think that I believe those things are bad.  Donuts and fried chicken are not evil. But I like that kind of food so much that I end up letting it rule me.  I completely ignore the produce drawers in my refrigerator and gobble down the unhealthy foods.  and junk food takes over my mind and my stomach.

Did I mention that I love bread?  and brownies.

Over the past few weeks I’ve come to realize something.  For the most part, the more I fill up on the healthy foods – the fruits, the veggies – the better they taste and the more I desire them.  The more I eat of those kinds of foods, the more I am satisfied and the less I want donuts and fried chicken.

But, I have to choose it.

Friends, this is not just similar to, but an actual part of living a life unto the Lord.  I know that I belong to Him.  And because I know this – what I do in word and in deed should be done to His glory.

What brings glory to Him is when I place Him in control of every area of my life.

Not movies, or other’s opinions, or food, or style trends and the latest must have clothes, not money or the love of it, not my reputation – none of it should be controlling me- only the Holy Spirit.

So.  What does that mean for my food intake?  It means that because He said my body, as a believer, is a temple of the Holy Spirit, I should care for it the best that I can.  He is living in me, and I am a walking testament of His grace.  I think He draws and convicts each one individually in different ways so that we know how to live.  I know that He has spoken to me so clearly over the last 22 days, and he has given me the strength to continue making the right choices.

Here is what else I have learned.  Good food leads to eating more good food.  And satisfaction with good food leads away from the desires for unhealthy food; it is the same in other areas of my life.  The less crazy, sinful, worldly stuff I watch on tv, the less I want it.  The more I fill my mind with God’s Word, the more I am satisfied with Him, and less fulfilled with all of the junk this world offers.

My new reality:  its not about what food I choose, or what book I choose, or what music I choose.  It is actually about choosing Jesus.  Choosing more of Him.  And as I do that – His voice is louder, His way is obvious, and ALL of my other choices become more clear; all along the way He is making me able, by the power of His Spirit.

Wait.  I think I began learning this lesson before – but, I’m relearning more of it.  because I’m human.  because I’m a sinner.  How grateful I am that the Holy Spirit isn’t showing signs of giving up on me!

As I moved around my kitchen, putting dishes away, I felt my sock get wet.  Standing just below the dishwasher there was a puddle.  a puddle of warm soapy water…

And I knew there was trouble.

Our twelve year old dishwasher has seen better days.  Originally, it was given to us brand new – an unexpected gift at a time when we desperately needed a working dishwasher. I won’t go into all of those details now, but suffice it to say, all these years and washing cycles later, our dishwasher has given up the ghost.  With an already broken handle (which my husband had brilliantly rigged, since there is no replacement part), our faithful dishwasher decided to leak warm water all over the floor.

Lest you worry for us, we will survive.  A few weeks of saving and watching for sales around town, and we’ll be on the road to a new dishwasher.

In the mean time there is this old-fashioned approach.  You may have heard of it: If you fill your kitchen sink with hot soapy, foamy water, you can set your dishes in there and with a cloth, or a sponge you can get those forks and knives sparkling clean.  It’s true!

Well, we’ve been sharing the opportunities to wash dishes by hand this week – and, for a number of different reasons it has been good for our whole family. It is never a bad thing to share in a bit of work.    After all, no one wants to eat their dinner off of dirty plates, right?

As I took my turn at the sink yesterday,  I had this thought.  The same daily concern my little family is taking with our glasses, silverware, pots and pans, I should be taking with my mind, too:

from Philippians: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  ⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

Often I spend my days viewing life with a filthy lens, my mind cloudy with the grease and grime of worldly thoughts.  And what happens is exactly what you’d expect:  an anxious, uneasy, complicated, even sinful life.

But when I take the time to clean my mind, as Paul suggests here, in Philippians – the Holy Spirit is able to wash and regenerate my life with His Word.  Allowing my thoughts to meditate on what is true and good by His standards, my heart changes and then even my actions change.

I am so grateful for His cleansing work in my life – better than any dishwasher.  And I am thankful He has the power to change my heart and mind to be more clean than the most sparkling clear glasses.

amen