January 29, 2012

Tales of 25 Ridiculous Pounds of Flour

Sometimes I don't know what to do with myself.

Today was such a day.



I wasn't exactly bored, no, more like serenly content to see what would wander my way. I didn't have a single item on my 'To Do' list. Not even a single item on my 'Things I Should Do But Haven't Felt Like Doing in the Last Six Months' list. I couldn't even steal something off of Andrew's 'To Do' list unless I wanted to participate in sermon writing [and the audience collectively groans].

Andrew is preaching for the umpteenth time tomorrow at our church (He's an intern). Yeah, I'm a PW (Pastor's Wife)... but not really. And not yet. He still has to finish school, be ordained, and find a job. I'm just trying to get used to the 'Pastor's Wife' title. I've shortened it to the afore-mentioned 'P-Dub' just so it sits better with me. To my lovely coworkers, I am already a pastor's wife.

Of course, who knows what I really seem like to my coworkers. I get the funny feeling they think I am some strange hybrid kind of a girl who they cannot and will not ever grasp or fully understand. Let me explain. And let me just say that this is a pretty comical situation for me as well as for them. You see, in my brief life experience there are three different types of Americans:

1. There are those Americans, like my family and I, who grew up in a church, any church, and are familiar with the need for church/faith/religion//whatever words you would like to use to describe sprituality, and who weave this faith into every aspect of their lives.

2. Then there are those who have a faint recollection of attending mass on holidays, or going to vacation Bible school during the summer just so their parents could have some grown up time, alone. These people do not currently attend any type of religious service but still affiliate themselves with a particular religion. 

3. Then there are those, like my coworkers, that have never tasted church/faith/religion/spirituality and who are quite apathetic to it. It is to this group that I have explained how my husband is going to seminary. THEY wonder how I could be married to a priest. Yeah. Then they wonder how a priest's wife can have tattoos. They also think, that because I am from Lancaster, I have grown up Amish and have somehow reached my epitome of rebellion by marrying a First Lieutenant in the military.

So in summary, according to my coworkers, I am the wife of a priest-who-is-also-a-soldier and I have apparently been shunned from the Amish church because of my tattoos and for marrying a soldier. Thus, I become a dental hygienist and ended up gracing their presence in New Jersey...

I have completely given up trying to explain my way out of that one. I simply let them think whatever preconcieved ideas they already have of me! Needless to say, they think I am a bit, well, to put it nicely, different.

THIS is somewhat amusing to me.

Maybe I should play up my character and write a book about my experience?????

Back to being bored serenly content...

My priest/soldier husband and I are Sam's Club members (and still haven't done the math to see if it is exactly worth it). On one of our shopping adventures we picked up a 25 pound bag of flour. I know you are curious... Why would a two-person family need this? To be perfectly honest, I don't have an answer. I was just tired of buying small bags of flour.

I wouldn't call myself a baker, but I do love a chocolate chip cookie! (We also picked up a 25 pound bag of rice which we are almost finished with! My priest/soldier husband is also Asian and can pound rice like it's nobody's business.). Today on Facebook, I posted this picture with this status update...


'SPENDING THE DAY FIGURING OUT HOW TO USE 25LBS OF FLOUR.'

Many people replied with great ideas (well, mostly birthday cake comments), so I figured I'd make a recipe that I have been dying to make and, since I am serenely content today, I would blog about it.

My sister, SuperMom-Kristen, who I would definitely call a baker and who wows us with homemade bread every now and again, gave me a crusty bread recipe a while back. Upon her advice, I decided to make them into bread bowls for dinner tonight. I served some cheesy broccoli soup in them that I had strategically frozen for such a time as this! Have a look!





YUM!
I then made a spontaneous decision (I was easily influenced by  The Mennonite Cook Book upon which I was browsing) to make rice pudding. After all, we only have about 10 pounds of the lovely white grain to use up.



Rice pudding is one of those adult foods, like avocados, tomatoes, and coffee, that I discovered in the wildness of my early twenties. And while I do loooooove cinnamon and was trying to make my photo look super yummy, I pulled a Messy-Missy and accidentally dumped an absurd amount on it. On another humurous note, I'm not quite sure when we bought those raisins. They are pretty dried out and somewhat solid and I had to pry them from the side of the container. Guess pictures aren't always as perfect as they seem. Har-har. I'll let Andrew eat the raisins... He always loves a good challenge.

We have 15 more weeks in P-town... 15 weeks to use 25lbs of flour, 15 weeks to make a lot of birthday cake. I can't imagine Andrew and I eating 25lbs of flour by ourselves... so if I find myself in any more flour adventures (good or bad), I'll be sure to blog!

Here are a few random pictures from our last minute pear-themed New Year's Eve party. I meant to take photos of the sliders, artichoke dip, cupcakes, and pear cocktails, but we had so much fun that taking photos was the last thing on our minds!






On another sidenote, if you find yourself bored serenly content, check out Our Little Bale Home... my good friends Jesse and pregnant-Sara are finishing up building a house of of strawbales! I visited the other day and it looks SO KOOL! Jesse is doing as much as he can himself, and they are focusing on re-using, upcycling, and being energy efficient! Check it out... you won't be sorry!

. . .


.with love.
.with hope.
(m)








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