The Beauty of Basil

All right, for those of you lovely people out there who were interested in me posting some recipes and ideas for the herbs I grow, here we go.I have decided to start things with my very favorite herb to grow--
                  Sweet Basil.
There is no more rewarding plant to grow in your herb garden. It is prolific, smells amazing from the moment you plant it, and it is well known for many many health benefits.
   And honestly, there is nothing like a chicken roasting in the fall, or opening up the lid to a pot of homemade soup and getting that basil smell. Guaranteed to make your mouth water, folks. As I decided to make my family one of our favorite meatless recpies tonight, using basil, and also that it is the height of the garden season for so many of you, I will start with that one. Easy, fun and your family will love it--even the little ones! :) Just a tip--if you have veggie haters (*gasp*) just run this soup through the blender before you add the rice, and top it with a little shredded cheese. I have never had a kid refuse it..ever! Just think of the potentials of getting those veggies in, Moms!

Fresh From the Garden Soup
1 sm yellow squash and 1 med zucchini, both diced to bite size pieces
1 med tomato, again diced
2 sm onions (one red, one white), diced small
1 handful green beans, chopped
1-2 stalks of celery, chopped (I add the leaves as it adds a certain flavor)
1 handful of long grain rice (about 1/2 c)
water to cover (about 2-3 quarts)
*bring to a rolling simmer, and let cook for 15 minutes. Take a good sized pinch of dried basil, and a good sized pinch of dried sage, and rub between your hands over the pot. It should crush and spread the herbs well throughout the soup. Cover and let simmer for another 15 minutes.
*Meanwhile, make a roux (for those of you who have no idea what this is, it is taking 1/2 stick of butter, 3 TBS of flour and stirring vigorously until it is warm and bubbly in the pan, then adding milk while stirring with a whisk. It is the basis for most of our gravies and sauces here in the Estey house). Once you have made your roux, take off the stove, and add 1/2 C cheddar cheese, stirring until it is melted. Honestly, I always make a lot at a time, and just save the remainder for the next dish--like homemade mac and cheese, or the gravy for my potpies (another basil recipe). It keeps for a couple days in the fridge. :0)
Taking the soup off of the stove, pour one or two ladles of the soup into the roux you have reserved, and then add the whole thing back into the soup while whisking. Your soup will become creamy and cheesy--a family hit. :)
   We love to use crusty bread croutons in this soup as it just makes it that much more hearty and filling. You can make some out of the next recipe by cutting it into slices or drying what is left after a couple of days on a cookie sheet in your oven at 200* for about 30 minutes.

Homemade Herb Bread
*Mix in a large bowl: 4 C flour, 2 1/4 Tsp yeast, 2 tsp sea salt, 2 TBS dry milk powder, 1/2 TBS crushed basil and 2 tsp sugar  until well blended. Add in 1 1/2-2 C lukewarm water and 3 TBS neutral flavored oil (I use coconut, but you could use canola if you like). Mix well, and when it is thoroughly mixed, turn out of mixer onto floured board and knead for 10 minutes adding more flour to board and hands as necessary until dough is smooth and elastic. Oil a large bowl, shape the dough into a ball, and plop into bowl, spinning upside down so whole dough is oiled. Cover with damp towel and let rise until double (takes about an hour). Punch down, shape into two loaves, and let rise again until desired height. I actually make one loaf  and form the rest into rolls in a muffin pan. When risen, bake at 350* for 30-40 minutes, you will know when done by the brown crust and smell. I immediately brush the tops with butter when done to keep the crust soft as it cools.
To make the croutons, you just cool, then slice, then bake again in a low oven until crispy. I also make stuffing with this bread, throwing in every spice that appeals to me. :0) Enjoy!

   Just another quick note---I use basil in a million more things, but another family favorite is when it is added to the pie crust for my chicken and turkey pot pies in the fall. You just make your normal recipe for pie crust, adding in 2 tsp of crushed basil (my recipe makes 3 pie crusts so adjust as necessary). It is amazing.
   Also, basil is an excellent addition to almost every kind of food, especially roasted meats or italian food. Get brave--begin to experiment and you will find soon enough what works for your family and what they like! Basil is easy to grow and I would recommend it to anyone who is beginning an herb garden--it even grows easily in pots in the kitchen here in MN during the winter with short hours of sunshine! Let me know what you think!

Waiting is hard, but has its rewards...

   Seems like the things in life that take the longest to bear fruit are the ones that are worth waiting for the most. Is that how it is in your life?
   God has taught me so many things through my years of gardening, and I cant even begin to name all the lessons that have been hammered home over time there.
   I have also noticed that there is nothing like quiet time in a garden, tomatoes and corn towering over you, green bean plants lushly filling in bare spots, brilliant yellow flowers on the cucumbers and melons and pumpkin plants. My favorite time of day is the early evening. the bugs are busily humming around pollinating everything, the wind is gently blowing, and it just seems so peaceful. These are the times that God speaks to my heart loudly, but quietly, if you know what I mean. I think being seperated from all the craziness in my house, sitting and listening as I take care of the plants, gives me the ability to hear clearly what He is saying to me.
   I have waited so many many years to have the family I have now. 10 years of miscarriages, heartbreak, horrible doctor visits...you name it. And yet I always felt like God was telling me to wait, it was in HIS time, and that with faith I would see this reversed in a totally unexpected way.

Well, here we are. :)

   I have a ten year old, and two adorable, crazy 4 month old twins. Yes, it has been painful, and heartbreaking....but I am more ready now than I ever could be. God has taught me so many lessons in that time period of waiting, sewing the seeds of patience and self-lessness...both things that take a long time to grow and bear fruit in the stony ground of my heart. He has tenderly nurtured the plants of compassion and gentleness, both of which were sorely lacking in my early years, sad to say. The hardest part was when He had to prune back those plants, eliminating some of the branches so that in the end they would root deep and bring forth even more beautiful fruit. I have to do that to my herbs and tomatoes every year, and it is a poignant lesson for the woman who loves to just take things and run with it. I have to be careful to take only so much...or I kill the plant. God always knows the exact amount He can prune from my life, and not kill me in the process, right? Even if it doesnt feel like it all the time! :)
   Those things worth the greatest effort are precious. Kurt and I hope to add more children to the family...eventually....but I am also content to see what God does in His time, and in His way.
   Because it is so much better than if I were to take it into my own hands and run with it.

Pulling Up The Weeds

I have had so many of you ask to read this posting that was mentioned on the radio program a couple weeks ago---

This is one of the writings that I did when this was a personal family blog, and the message still hits home, even today. I just asked my daughter, who is now 12 going on 13, if she remembers this, and she smiled, hugged me, and said she still hates weeds. :)

Many blessings to you this Friday, and I pray you will be back here on Monday as we start the Grain Mill Wagon challenge with recipes I am making using my new Wonder Mill that was a gift from the company. Monday will be still be Meal Plan Monday, but will also share a fabulous recipe for you!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Heather  

 July 5th, 2010

 A few days ago, we were having one of those mornings around here...you know, the kind where you contemplate how much money it would cost you to ship yourself to Bermuda for a while (or permanently). Everything that could go wrong, not only went wrong, but did it with a splash. People, house, laundry, all of it....

   I am not sure how many of you are aware that we homeschool our 10 year old, or even more so, how many of you are aware that this year we switched to a year-round schedule. So while many of Anna's pals are either hooping it up at the local swimming hole (or in daycare) we are diligently working on getting her through the 4th grade and moving on.


   It has been a delicate balance, homeschooling. I have had to consider many times her emotional needs over her educational needs.  Until this year, Anna was an only child. Unlike many homeschool families where the children have many siblings to play with, Anna had herself, and me. So socialization and play dates have been a big part of our scheduling. It is easy for my only child to get lonely, especially when her friends are out playing and she is inside doing school, or in the winter months when she is isolated from kids due to getting sick so easily.


   But this year for some reason (my mother says it is her age), I have seen more of an attitude from Anna than I have noticed before...at least since she was a terror on wheels at two. And the morning we are discussing was the worst I had seen in a long time. Everything was an argument, she was rude, sassy, disrespectful, and shockingly unashamed of her behavior. It honestly seemed like nothing I did to work with her was working. Those of you who home school have had days like those, dread them, and can completely understand. You want to lock yourself in the bathroom and cry, or lose it completely, neither of which is constructive. I was baffled and had no idea what to do next.

   Then the Lord laid something on my heart and 

I knew I needed to put it into action and share it with my daughter.

   I have been reading, again, the book "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp. It is a beautifully written book about shepherding your child, and teaching them to look beyond their behavior to the sin that lies underneath, showing them how to deal with the core issues, not just how they are acting. In other words, cleaning out the inside of the cup, not just the outside (see Mt. 23:25) . It has inspired me many times over the last 10 years, and each time I read it, she is a little older, and it hits me in a new way. I highly recommend it to anyone desiring to raise their children to love the Lord, and be godly from the inside out.

   Anyhow, back to my inspiration and lesson.

   It was pouring outside, but I handed Anna her garden hat, tied mine on, and opened the door in invitation. (If you could have seen the look on my daughter's face--I think she thought I was going to take her outside and bury her or something! :) Anyhow, we walked down the garden at the bottom of the hill and I took her into my pumpkin patch, which has been sadly neglected because of the constant rain and twin-raising. It looked miserable, weedy, wet, and not something we would be getting lovely pumpkins out of in a couple months.

   Anna shivered in the rain, and then looked at me. "Why are we out here Mom?"
   I pointed at the patch and asked her what she saw.
   "Big plants. Mud. Weeds. " (if you can imagine this said in the snotty tone that annoyed kids get, you have it right).
   "Okay," I said. "You see those weeds?" She nodded.
   "Is it good for those to be in there with my pumpkin plants?" She silently shook her head no.
   "What kind of weeds are those?"
    And that was when she surprised me. "Those are thistles. And before you ask me what they do, I know. They send their roots deep into the roots of the other plants around them and they strangle them."


   Now you need to understand something. I had felt the Lord prompt me to go outside, I knew there was a lesson in the pumpkin patch, but until she said those words, I was struggling to put into words what I was thinking. Anna's response made it crystal clear, and I sighed.
   "Anna," I said, "I want you to think about this pumpkin patch like a person's heart, ok? Your heart, my heart, Daddy's heart, even the twins' hearts. God loved and loves us so much that He tenderly cares for us, planting good and healthy seed into our hearts..seeds of love and kindness, compassion, gentleness, godliness, and a desire to seek him. But our sinful attitude, selfishness, pride, anger, whatever, can grow into big strong weeds. And what do you think that it does to those plants?".
   I looked at my daughter, and saw tears running down her face...not raindrops.
"They kill the good plants Mom." she choked out, then threw her arms around me and cried. Together we reached down and pulled out one of the larger weeds from the base, and to my surprise, with the thistle came up a pumpkin plant.


   I couldn't have said anything that would have had the impact that little lesson in the garden had. Seeing the plants choked with weeds, seeing the little pumpkin plant come up entangled with the roots of the big thistle....God had a lesson for both of us in the garden.
   Annalise walked away that day with a renewed sense of understanding, that she (and all of us) need to deal with those weeds that grow so quickly to overtake the good things in our lives. Selifshness, anger, hatred, bitterness, pride...they all become monsters if we dont deal with them immediately and ruthlessly. The worst thought is that if we dont deal with them, they will kill and steal life from the things that are good--our families, our ministries, and our walk with the Lord. How horrible to think we let them get so bad that they would completely destroy something so dear to us as any of those precious gifts, right?

   The deeper lesson He had for me that morning was simple--as parents, we are not alone. I dont know if you are like me, but I feel sometimes I have very little to go on in raising my children after coming from a home that went through a very messy and painful divorce when I was 13. Our culture does little to teach us anything of value in this area, and while I am thankful my mother is such a huge help, and now loves the Lord with all her heart, I still need a path laid out for me that I can follow. I want to raise my kids to love God, to be good and righteous people that love others, and are good workers. I want them to be passionate about what is right, and to stand up for what they believe in, respectfully. I want them to be confident to face the world, and step into it as fully functional adults who are always learning, always aware of what God is doing in their lives and in the lives of others around them.


   I cant do all that on my own, and Kurt and I can not accomplish that even as a team without the leading of God. But it looks like we don't have to, because if I am willing to just listen and lead, He is right there in front of me, showing me what to do.

   It's a good feeling.

   I am happy to report that day is over, and I have seen a huge change in my daughter since then. I am thankful my child has a tender heart, and that God is stirring in it the beginnings of a sensitive and thoughtful nature. On a funny note, she has been seen a couple times around the yard pulling up weeds out of many places--the flowers around our house, the dog kennel, the propane tank. It makes me laugh, and yet, it makes me thankful as well. The Lord imprinted that lesson deep on her heart, and all I had to do was not weed for a while. I think that is a good trade off... :)

   What is He teaching you today?
Many Blessings to you and yours,
Heather

Linked up at: These Five Of Mine Plus Two, Above Rubies, The Time Warp Wife,