The ultimate career

"The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career. "


— C.S. Lewis

Thou Fount

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, Mount of Thy redeeming love.


Here I raise my Ebenezer; Hither by Thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home.
Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.


Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God;
He to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood;
Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.


O to grace how great a debter, Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, life a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.

Shadowlands

So far the weekend is off to a good start. Currently my husband is sorting out his garlic bulbs on the coffee table in preparation for planting them later (he's got quite the green thumb), and I'm trying not to watch the news, which I'm currently overloaded on.

Last night we had our community group (a bunch of medical residents and students and friends) over for a movie night. Usually we meet on Sunday nights and I make a huge dinner over which we discuss the mornings sermon and sunday school lesson. The church we attend is quite large (so different from the small churches my husband and I grew up in) and we need these smaller groups within it to foster true community and accountabilty.

So back to last night. We chose to watch the movie Shadowlands. Anthony Hopkins as C.S. Lewis and the story of his marriage to Joy. I've watched the movie countless times, and even saw the play on stage in London last Febuary...and I love it. To counter the guys hestitation in watching a movie certain to invoke tears from all females in attendance, my husband suggested that they all bring pipes (despite the fact he's an oncologist?) and take a smoke on the porch afterwards in honor of ol' Jack.

Highlights from the movie are some of the words from Lewis' writings. I'll say that you can feel the awkwardness between Lewis and Joy at early points in the movie. Anyway some of the favorites:

"The pain now is part of the happiness then." -stated by cancer ridden Joy, as they sheltered in a barn in the golden valley during a rain.

"Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world." -said by Jack (what Lewis went by since he hated his first name Clive) during several lecture he gave during the movie.

I loved the shots of Oxford. My husband and I went there while in England as well, and even tracked down the Eagle and Child pub where Lewis met with The Inklings, the little literary club he developed with friends like Tolkein. It was funny to walk through the pub to the back room. People were enjoying it with friends as a normal night at any English pub, and I wondered if they knew the conversations that had been carried on in that back room decades ago, and how far the ensuing stories and ideas now reached.

So anyway, that was our friday night. Also making friday day great was the fact that I finished the first draft of a large writing project I've been working on. More on that later. So other than my baby girl falling and scraping up her little cheek this morning, the rest of the weekend looks promising. See that photo at the top of this post? That's from Magnolia Gardens, one of the oldest gardens in the country. I live about 5 minutes from it and several other equally stunning southern plantations. Being a local and a member of the Artist's Guild here (I paint a lot) I have access to all these great places that make me feel like I'm either walking through time or Narnia or something like that. So perhaps later this weekend we'll do a little exploring...

Book Review: Finding Purpose Beyond Our Pain

Finding Purpose Beyond Our Pain: Uncover the Hidden Potential in Life’s Most Common Struggles


By Paul Meier, MD and David L. Henderson, MD

This book is written by two Christian psychiatrists who are also on faculty at Dallas Theological Seminary, and throughout the book they draw on their experiences in biblical counseling and psychiatry to discuss the pain we all experience throughout life, digging for deeper meaning by looking for God’s purpose in it. They divide the book into seven sections about seven general types of pain, each with four chapters followed by discussion and application points. The sections are as follows: Injustice, Rejection, Loneliness, Loss, Discipline, Failure, and Death.

It is rare to find psychiatrists who are Christians, so to have this book from two of them is indeed something to appreciate. Their writing is clear and the examples they include drawn from their life as well as the people in scripture are compelling. I enjoyed their use of allegory in explaining some of the spiritual and emotional principles. For example, in the section on rejection they discuss people who tend to become too transparent early in relationship as being well-diggers, and people who remain guarded and superficial in relationship as building walls. They then applied biblical truth to these issues. I would recommend this book to people who are having a hard time understanding God’s purpose in the hardships they face, as well as anyone in a “ministry” position such as a bible study leader, pastor, missionary, as well as Christian doctors…really anyone who counsels people biblically and struggles with wanting to do it well.

The Cranberry Challenge: Part 3...Cranberry Scones

I think this is my favorite cranberry recipe in this use-three-pounds-of-cranberries-while-they-are-fresh challenge. Scones are so great. They are comforting like my favorite southern breakfast food, buttermilk biscuits. But they are just a little more civilized and fancy. Scones bring back memories of my 29th birthday, when my husband and I were in London. He suprised me with high tea at the Ritz in the famous Palm Room. It was unreal--a once in a lifetime thing for a girl from the most rebellious state in the colonies (SC!). There were silver tea services and tiny tea sandwhiches which kept multiplying. The best birthday present: I found out that very morning I was pregnant with our first child, but had to give up caffeine all at once, meaning the withdrawal from my 6-cuppa day fix was just starting to kick in by the time I ordered my chamomille...But those scones...unreal and oh so london.

I think the key in making successful scones is using very cold butter. I've tried other versions of scones in the past without paying attention to the temperature of the butter, which turned out to be a terrible mistake, resulting in scones which were really more like slightly-less-sweet cookies. In any case, I found this scone recipe here. I changed it up a little, of course. Pecans are always my go-to nut in these recipes so I used those instead of walnuts. They turned out great. Of course I was glad I could enjoy them with coffee again, though the little cuddly toddler snuggling next to me made those caffeineless months well worth it!!

Helping Africa

This morning, for several reasons, I was thinking about Africa. Perusing photos from a recent medical missions trip some friends of mine made, memories of my times on the contitent broke over me like waves. I almost smelled the wild sage as our jeep drove across parts of the Vendi region of South Africa, and remember the face of hospitality in a tiny hut on the shores of Lake Victoria.

Then I happened across Justin Taylor's blog and read some thoughts about why aid to africa isn't working, and it got me thinking.

I’ve gone to Africa with a stethascope and bags of medicine enough times to know that the current strategy of putting bandaids on a gaping wound isn’t going to cut it.

The thing about it is that whether you are there or here, the need is ever present. There it is in the form babies dying in front of me with cerebral malaria and adults thin as rails from aids. Here it is in the long, drawn out nightmare that is alzheimer’s and the painfully extended deaths we elicit in our hospitals while flogging our dying with tubing and painful procedures.

The thing about approaching all this as Christ would is we fight agaist it as hard as we can because He called us to, and we do it in his name, offering cups of water as we are equipped. But the thing about it is still the crux of the gospel itself: all our striving will never be enough. The day we think we can solve it ourselves is the day that we stop relying on Him to be glorified in the midst of all the mess we make with the gifts He’s given, despite ourselves.

So we lift up our heads in the midst of all the muck of the decay and pain around us, fixing our eyes on the prize set before us, on the face of the One who has called us to fight the good fight and finish this race.

A Caramel Cake Tutorial

I have been trying to perfect this recipe for years, and think I am about as close as I'll ever be. The thing about caramel cake is that it's kind of like any other skill--the more often you do it, the better you'll be at it.

The first time I tried to make it I was in medical school, when a really cute medical student {who happens to now be my husband} said it was his favorite kind of cake. It was coming up on his birthday, and we were dating at the time, so I decided it was high time to try my hand at it. The caramel cake that is famous in his hometown is an ELEVEN LAYER concoction that rivals the best desserts in all of Charleston {even the famous peninsula grill coconut cake}! I was determined to learn to make it myself, but of course the recipe was a secret! So I searched and experimented, and finally {years later} have perfected something people rave about. Mind you there were a lot of bumps in the road. Most vividly I remember that first attempt, in my tiny studio apartment kitchen back in med school. I had about six square feet of room and about one square foot of counter space to work with...but the real problem was that I tried to make that icing with no electic mixer- just my hands! For most cakes that would be feasible but not for this one--I beat that icing till my arms were about to fall off and still couldn't get it right! I still remember the way the icing just ran all over the place, pouring out from between the cake layers and gettin' everything it touched sticky. No I know that if I'd just beated it long enough it'd turned out OK. It was just one of many cooking embarrassments for me, but my sweet husband enjoyed every bite, runny icing and all, which is I guess why I keep on being adventurous and reaching above my skill level in cooking {despite almost certain failures along the way}!! All that aside, I'm going to share all I've learned through all those mistakes how to make a Caramel Cake to die for....

These directions are for a six layer cake, but you can increase the quantities for more layers! Also I'd like to say that this recipe was adapted from Joy of Cooking, however they don't include any of what I think are the important details or photos, which is probably why I messed it up so much before!

Tools you need:
Cake Pans {I use 3 round 9" pans to cut into 6 layers}
Candy Thermometer {it's best if you find one that can measure the temp in the center of your pan, not the edge--more on that later}
Electric Mixer {stand is easier but you could do it with a handheld too, if you have strong arms}
Medium Sauce Pan {If this is your first time you may want to use a pot that's not your favorite...I'll explain later}



Ingredients for the Caramel Icing:
Brown Sugar {I use light brown}  3 cups
Heavy Cream  1.5 cups
Butter 3 tablespoons
Vanilla Extract  1.5 teaspoons

Step 1: Bake the cake. Notice I'm not including a cake recipe here...that's because this cake is all about the caramel icing and all about as many thin layers as you can make so you can have as much icing on there as you can! The cake is secondary, so keep it simple. I usually use a boxes of yellow cake mix, mixed according to directions on the box, and add an extra egg to make it stiff so thin layers hold together better. So you can do this too, or use your favorite cake recipe and be sure you make it a firm enough cake {add another egg if you need to}. Once I mix up the batter, I put equal amounts in each of my 3 buttered round cake pans and bake them, then let them cool, and turn them out of the pans. This can be done the day before the icing if you want.

Step 2: Be sure your candy thermometer fits properly in your saucepan. By this I mean, clip it on the pan and be sure you can adjust it so it doesn't quite hit the bottom of the pan but almost does (like 1/4") from the base. And it's important that the thermometer is measuring the temperature toward the center of the pan and not just the very edge. Otherwise it won't read accurately! Trust me, I've learned this the hard way and ended up with a pan of solid hardened caramel before (which wasn't friendly to my cast-iron Le Cruset's enamel when getting it out!). Thus my warning to use a cheap saucepan for this!

Step 3: Begin the Icing. Put the Heavy Cream and the Brown Sugar in a medium sized saucepan on the stove. If this is your first time you may want to use a pot that's not your favorite (I'll explain later). Mix it until it's well dissolved, over medium heat.

Step 4: Turn the heat to Medium-High, and put the candy thermometer in place as described in Step 2 above. Allow it to cook on the stove without stirring it, until the temperature reaches 238 degrees Fanenheit.  This will be the part where you are tempted to leave the stove for a while while you wait for it to get hot enough. DON'T DO IT!

{Last time I drifted over to my laptop to check my email and when I checked again, the temp had already hit 250 and the icing was ruined! In the case you do ruin a batch in this way, the think to do is to pour it out of the pan immediately into/onto something heatproof and lined with wax paper. Allow it to cool there instead of in your pan. Then boil some water in the pan to help get it cleaned out. If you leave the overheated icing in the pan to cool you will have a much harder time getting it out later!!!}

Keep a close eye on your pan of hot caramel and when it gets close to 238 degrees, be ready to pull it off the hot stove right away! For some reason it like to hover around 230 for a long time to lull you, and then it races up so quickly you can easily miss the moment. Anyway, when it does hit 238 degrees Farenheit, pull the pan off the stove right away and place it on a trivet. Be sure you don't have kids in the kitchen during all this (easier said than done, I know!). Leave the thermometer in place.

Step 5: Cut the butter into a few slices and just kind of lay them on the top of the hot caramel.

Step 6: Allow the saucepan of hot caramel to cool without touching or stirring it, until it reaches 110 degrees Farenheit. This will take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

Step 7: While it is cooling I start to prepare my cake by slicing it from three round layers into six round layers. This can be done a number of ways, as I've seen desribed in various cookbooks. But for these, layers, since they are so thin, I use the Dental Floss Method. First, I use a long serrated bread knife to cut a groove all the way around the edge of each cake. Then I wrapp a piece of {waxed and preferably plain rather than mint flavored} dental floss all the way around in the groove, crossing the two ends together in the front. Then I slowly tighten the dental floss, allowing it to cut into the center of the cake and producing two layers from one! {no one mentioned a mint flavor in this particular cake, so if you that's all you have, go for it!}

Step 8: When the caramel is cooled to 110 degrees, pour it into a bowl and beat it with your electric mixer until it becomes cool, thick, and creamy. It will take a while! You will know it is done when the color has lightened, and it's no longer runny at all. If it gets too stiff you can add in tiny amounts of cream. You want it to be spreadable and hold it's shape.

Step 9: Frost it up!! Save the prettiest layer for the top of the cake. Spread the frosting between each layer, alternating frosting with cake layer until you have them all stacked up. Then frost the top and outside! You can do this a day or two ahead and it will still be great when you cut it up and serve it. It tastes great with vanilla ice cream. Also you can try different cake flavors with it as you gain confidence. I did a banana last time and may try a spice cake next time. My husband still thinks a plain yellow cake is best though.

Let me know if you try this and leave a comment with any changes/problems you run across, so I can improve this little lesson if needed! Have fun!