In Memory of My Dearest Lydia Fray

Today has been a hard day for a lot, a lot of people. There was once a very happy missionary family of four. One amazing father, with the name of Nathan, then an incredible mom, named Diane. There was a little, adorable girl named Priscilla. Then there was an amazing, adorable, happy, girl of 13 named  Lydia. She was an amazing missionary girl with her parents, and she touched more people then ANYONE can imagine. There’s a story to go with the story about the memories I’ve had with her. When she was born, she had many health problems. She was born with an exposed spine, so she’s been in a wheel-chair her whole life. She hasn’t had one moment where she could walk. Not one moment. But she NEVER let that bother her. Diane and Nathan were married, and they were called to be missionaries to Sau Pualo, Brazil. They were, and still are the best missionary family I have ever met. They were always happy, and every single thing they did, they did it all for God. I was sad the day they had to leave from their furlough, and I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my dearest Lydia. I hadn’t felt good their last night to see them, and I was totally mad at myself that I didn’t go. Then we got word  that Lydia had been diagnosed with pneumonia. But a few days later, the doctors said she had a blood clot. So they decided to do some surgery. So at ten o’clock at night a few days ago, they were going to perform a surgery to fix everything, but they had sent out word that they canceled the surgery. And so they had her bed rest, and they were keeping a super close eye on her. So, I mean, just one thing led to another, and to make an even longer story short. She went brain-dead, she didn’t know how to do anything, and she was just a little, innocent girl, lying on her bed, waiting for her Heavenly Father to bring her Home. And then tonight, God finally decided to call her to his amazing Kingdom. We had been waiting for this moment for a long time,  ever since she started getting sick. What caused this was the plane ride back to Brazil. The air and just all the stuff they use in planes just messed up her lungs and she was sick from the day they got on the plane. I have been very sad, and I know that her family has a big loss in their family. She made many people happy, and she’s been a big part in their lives too. So right now, my Lydia, I am in loss, and grieve that you have left our world. But you know? She can walk! She can totally walk. And better than that! She can RUN! She can run as fast as she want! And that’s just amazing! And it’s really hard to describe what she’s feeling up there in Heaven with God! It’s a blessing! And more than anyone wanted for her. She’s standing and talking with God, and wow, she’s just probably the happiest person right now! I am running out of amazing things to say about her and what she might be feeling, because there’s not much to say about how happy she is. She’s with God, and walking, and running, and she’s better off there, then she will ever be in our dirty world! Everything is great fer her. Everything! And so now, even with all the tears, and heart breaks, I praise God that he created this world, and gave Lydia to us, and I praise God that He sent His Son to die for us, and to save us from never having the peace and foreverness in Heaven! God is good, in all ways, and he always will be. I love Lydia, and the rest of the Frays, and I want everyone to pray for their family while they are recovering from this terrible loss. I pray for you, Mrs. Fray, Mr. Fray, and you too Priscilla! You are the greatest family anyone could ever meet! You are the sunshine on a cloudy day… and I will forever love you!

Your friend and sister in Christ,

Dana

Scotchabrownies!

This recipe is one that I got off of another blog that I like to read. It’s called “Pinch of Yum” and it’s really cool! I saw

Photo taken from http://www.pinchofyum.com

the title of the post, and I just had to check it out! These are super yummy.  What I did was start by baking a very thin layer of brownies, and then after those were done, I sprinkled peanuts and crushed Reeses cups, and then got that all melty, then I got to the good part! The good part was one package of milk chocolate morsels, then PEANUT BUTTER!!, and one tablespoon of butta! Then I melted all that gooey goodness together, and then when it WAS melted, I put rice krispie treats, and then mixed it up. Then THAT went on top of the brownies.  I refrigerated it for 2 hours, to harden all the gooeyness! Anyway! That was a super delicious recipe I used! Courtesy of “Pinch of Yum… Because life should be yummy!” pinchofyum.com If you enjoy my blog, you will definitely like this one! Enjoy the post! More coming tonight!

It’s almost here!!!!

Do you remember when I started my cookbook and I said that I had a whole  year to finish it? Well, it’s been about half of that year now. I have done 32 (can you believe it!!! 32!) recipes, and I have 68 more to go! WOW! And the last day I will have to finish this is January 17. I don’t think that will be exactly a year, but I thought I could pick a day in January to finish, because I started this sometime in January! I think.  I’m so excited about finishing! It’s gonna be so amazing! I’m going to have a party, and celebrate, and it’s just going to be an amazing accomplishment for me! I’ll even reward myself somehow. I don’t know how yet, but maybe, just maybe my parents will get me something special! But I’m not expecting a  special present! I’m expecting a special night doing my last recipe, and then having it and knowing that I did it, and that will be enough for me! I just want to know that I am a chef, who can cook all the recipes in a one cookbook! I think that’s a big accomplishment for a teenage girl like me! That will be special enough! I can’t wait! Not that I will be done with the blog, but being done with something not many people like me do! It’ll be great! I know it will! I’m excited about the party too! Anyway, I wanted to update you and tell that I have 68 more recipes and about five months to finish it! So pray for me that I’ll finish, and just that I do a good job! And I really don’t want to mess up anymore recipes because that means I have to do them over! And that will just take more time for me to finish. I think you’ll be seeing more posts now, because I have to get on a roll so I can finish this! Bon Appetit!!!!

Eeeewwww Gross!!!!!!

Well, a few days ago my brother got his drivers license and we went out today for the first time… by ourselves! And we went to my grandparents house, and for some reason we were talking about horseradish! And guess what??!!! I tried some! Ugh, it was so gross. But I’m happy I tasted it! But it was like sour, and I didn’t think it was that bad, but then the tastes started forming, and then I was finished with it, and it had the worst aftertaste ever! I won’t go into details! It was crazy! I think since I AM going to be like the most famous food network chef, it was good for me to taste it! But I won’t ever again!

Oh, I have something to tell you! Remember the Chicken Salad I made? (If you don’t then you can just look at the post before this one!) Well, I had leftovers, of course, and so I decided to make little chicken bundles with them! I took two cans of crescent rolls, and then laid them out just like they would be when their tore apart. I didn’t do anything special to them. I put a little scoop of chicken salad in the center, then rolled it up, and backed them for 12 minutes, and they were so good! I might end up having those for dinner! I usually don’t cook on Wednesdays because I have church at 6:30, and I’m usually not even done cooking by then, so I take Wednesday off! Hope you enjoy my post all about nastiness!

Basic Chicken Salad

Today  I made like THE BEST chicken salad ever! It was like so amazing! Oh my goodness! Greatest stuff ever! Okay, I’m pretty sure you get the point!  It was really fun to make too! It was easy and everything, but the only thing was it took a little longer than I hoped, because my chicken wasn’t thawed all the way, but it was all good!  What I did was start with the sauce, and the hard boiled eggs. I’ll get to the eggs in a minute! What I did with the sauce was super easy! I mixed half a cup of mayonnaise, and 2 cups of celery and half a cup of red onion. When that was done, I pretty much had like 30 minutes of doing nothing! I had to wait on the chicken, and wait on the eggs, and I didn’t have much to do with the meal at that point. But I did make a mixture to go on the mayonnaise, and that was 2 teaspoons of oil, and 2 teaspoons of thyme. The recipe didn’t call for thyme in that part, it called for curry powder, but I didn’t have any, so I thought that I could just experiment, and so I used thyme. And that was a REALLY good substitution! I could taste it in the salad when it was done, and it was perfect! Absolutely perfect!  That was good! Then, the chicken was ready to start cooking! This was the fun part… where things started picking up on the pace, and I had lots more to do!  I started on the chicken, and what I did with that was poach it in 2 cups of chicken stock, and half a cup a hot water. I used the water so the liquid would cover all of the chicken because I didn’t have anymore chicken stock! [ssshhh!!!] That had to cook for  about 25 minutes, until it was cooked all the way through. And then my eggs were done, so I put them in a cold water and ice bath so they could cool. This is another point where I wasn’t that busy.  My chicken was boiling, and my eggs were cooling, so there really wasn’t much to do. But then the chicken was done, and I had to cut that up, and then I put it in the mayonnaise and vegetables.  Then I did that plating!  I was very proud about plating! I have a picture so you will be able to see it! But I was really happy about it!  I put a piece of… you know what! Just look at the picture! I would never think of that! I’m so smart! Hope you enjoy the post!!!

The Family Meal

Today, my wonderful father arrived home from his 5 day business trip, and he walked in right when me and my mom were preparing dinner. My brother, who was faithfully working on our lawn, walked inside, since of course, my dad arrived. We were all standing around talking, and having a good time, and then we had to get back to dinner, or at least I did. My mom went off down stairs with my dad, so the meal was in my hands!! We were all happy that my dad was home, and I was happy my amazing brother was back from work. He works every day except Wednesdays, so I don’t get to see him as much anymore. But when we were all together, I felt like a family. When my dad isn’t here, that’s a big piece of our family that isn’t here, so I really like it when he comes home, just as dinner is being prepared! I can’t say that I’ve never made a meal without being angry, because I have, many times, but at times like these, I really enjoy cooking. When I know that my dad is on his way to our cozy house, and ready for me to hit him with one of my new creations, that’s when I enjoy it!

Okay, I’ve said enough about family, even though there’s more to say, but I might get back to that later! Okay, so my meal was absolutely delicious, and thanks to my mom, we had meatloaf. I’m not an expert at the kind of meatloaf we wanted tonight… my mom is sort of the chef for certain recipes, like the old family ones. I’m the one who does the experimenting! Anyways, so I told her I wanted her meatloaf, and she made it!  I did the sides.  I made cornbread, and boiled golden potatoes both out of “Get in There and Cook”, and the were really good! What I did for the cornbread was get some cornmeal, and mix that in with some flour and sugar, and some baking powder and baking soda, and then a little salt. Then I added buttermilk, and eggs, and then mixed that together, then cooked that in a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes! And it was really good, but I honestly have to say, I’m really not a big cornbread person. I find it… bland. I can’t find a taste. I just taste a dullness, but it was okay. And the potatoes were really simple! All I did was boil them with some salt, and I was good to go! They turned out just like baked potatoes, but they tasted a little different. I think that was because I used golden potatoes! But, I was happy with my meal, and it was super tasty! Except for the cornbread, at least to me. My family loved it!

Okay, so I’m going to be running a little voting session. This will go on for a while, but I just can’t seem to make up my mind. Okay, so here it goes. Vote Yes, if I should make lobster for my very last meal. Vote No, if you think I can’t handle it. I get really freaked out at certain things, but maybe I can deal with the lobster. I want to, but they just gross me out. I’ve been going to their little tanks they have at the grocery store, and they are okay, but that’s because there is glass in between us, but I’ve been thinking about it, but I need advice, and votes. So please HELP me! It’s in my cookbook, so maybe I should go for it. I mean, I can’t do the WHOLE cookbook without making lobster, so I think I should. Anyway! I must leave you now, for I am about to fall asleep on the keyboard!!!!!!
Happy Eating!!!

The Little Things

Well, I haven’t written a post for a while so I decided to just blog about the little things going here! I’ve been a little busy, but not like I used to be! It’s summer, and pretty much all I do during the summer is hang out at my house. And “hang out” usually mean sit on the couch and watch TV all day… but that’s because I don’t have much to do! But anyways. I’ve made a few things lately. Last night I made an Asian Pork Tenderloin. It’s pretty much just a pork loin with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Aka EVOO) and a special Asian seasoning from Pampered Chef, and then thrown in my magic pot, and cooked for about 18 minutes! It was good, and it made the most amazing juice. All that juice came out of it, so I let it just absorb all of the juice, because it was sooo good! The other night, I made a pretty good meal. I made Teriyake Chicken, and Rice Pilaf, and then I cook the chicken in some rice, and teriyake sauce, and onions, and that turned out really good. Okay, so I have this little habit of turning up the heat on my stove, with out even knowing it, so what I thought I did with the rice pilaf was I covered it, and thought I had it on low just to keep it warm until everything else was ready, but I accidentally put it on 5, and left it that way, and then I hear this really lord sizzling sound, and the first thing that came to my mind was “OOOhhh no!” and yes, I burnt the bottom of my pilaf. Yeah, so that was a bummer, but my meal was still really good! The chicken was really juicy and good, so that made me pretty happy!!!
Anyways, that’s an update, I guess! Enjoy the post!

Happy Birthday My Dearest Julia!

Today was my dearest Julia Child’s birthday! She was my very favorite chef and she was a happy person! I love her so much even though she has gone away! She was one of the most known chefs at her time, and she was a good one too! Her recipes make me smile every time I take my first bite into one! Mainly her Boeuf Bourguignon She was a favorite person of everyone, and I want to wish her a happy birthday! To my sweet, sweet Julia! You are forever my friend! She was born in 1912. She would have been 98 today!
Happy Birthday!!!

Pork Chops with Mustard Onion Gravy… My Successful time!

Do you remember when I tried making those pork chops with mustard onion gravy, but didn’t work out? You know how I burnt the gravy? Well, I tried it again tonight… and I did it! I made it, and it was so good! I was so happy. I think I had figured out why I messed up the last time, and I think that it was because when I was braising my pork chops, I had the heat too high, and everything was cooking too much too fast, and I didn’t check on it so the gravy had evaporated, and there was nothing left besides black junk all over the bottom of my pan!! Anyway! I had a whole lot of fun making this! I got to make caramelized onions which are my absolute favorite, and I got to use thyme in them too, so that was a treat for me! I love thyme! And then I browned up the pork chops, and then put vegetable stock in with the onions and then it was time for braising! I had that going for about 25 minutes and the pork came out of the pan, and I made the gravy (which fortunately didn’t burn!!!”). And that was interesting because I’ve never made gravy by scratch before. So this was a first! And oh yeah, I took put to onions too! And then I evaporated it big time, and then added mustard and red wine vinegar, and I let it sit for a minute, and then my delicious, unburnt gravy and pork chops were so good! The gravy was elegant and very different because it had the slight bit a sourness, and that was really nice! And that was the ending of the perfect meal!!!!
PS… thanks for going on my trip with me! It was really fun, and I had a great time in Atlanta, and thanks for sticking with me last week! You are some really good readers! And faithful to my blog!!!!

Quadruple D, The Sad Last Day!

Yesterday was the day we had to say goodbye to beautiful Greenville.  The day we had to say goodbye to our trip! Our great trip!!!!  We got up, not too early, took our time getting out, and then we had a long drive ahead of us.  In the morning, we had some delicious pancakes… they were out of this world!!! I don’t know how they were made, but they were good! We had breakfast and then sat and talked for a little bit, and that was fun! Then sadly, it was time to leave.  I didn’t want to, because I was having just so much fun!

 We got on the road and my dad told us that we were going to go to this place called Graham Soda Shop!! I’ve been there before when we went to the Wilds Christian Camp, and it was amazing! This place is a family run business, so it is only one restaurant; it’s not anywhere else in this entire universe! We got there at about 2 o’clock, and I was really hungry by that point! But when we got there, it didn’t look like there were many cars parked outside, so my dad went and checked what time it was open. It said that it was closed on Sundays, and unfortunately we went on a Sunday. Too bad.

 Me and my brother had spotted a place called the Cook-Out, and that sounded pretty good, so we went and checked it out. Well, you know we were sitting in that car forever, and we really wanted to get out and stretch!!!!  This Cook-Out place was kind of like Sonic, you sit in your car and eat… and there was no way that we were going to sit in our car and eat, so our hunt for a good restaurant was still going on! Sorry for that little glitch. I hadn’t finished my blog post and somehow it still got on my blog, so that’s not the end of it! I’m super sorry!!!! Here’s where you hear about my meal!! I went to Carvers on Elm. This isn’t a very KNOWN joint, but it wasn’t terrible food. Well, I didn’t want to say this, but it wasn’t very good! It made me even more sad once I took my first bite that we couldn’t go to Grahm Soda Shoppe!!! But the only thing that I was totally amazed about were the hush puppies!!! They were AMAZING!!!!! I loved them! I ate like TEN!!! I’m not kidding, guys! OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! But my cheeseburger tasted a little bit… and I need you guys to understand that I have had a ball pretending to be a food critic, so that’s why I’m saying this!!!… I thought that it had a hint of like a plastic flavor! I’m sorry if someone from Carvers on Elm reads this, but It’s a little true! Do I sound mean? I’m sorry if I do, but a food critics gotta do what a food critics gotta do!!! It’s true!!!! Anyway! That was my day, and the food really wasn’t THAT bad, but it wasn’t the best! And I don’t think that a special Food Network star named Guy went there, and I don’t think he ever will! Anyway, there you go! I miss my trip sooo much, and I really want to go back! I know that’s a place that I could go back to!! I really want to! Can’t wait until we go again! I want to go back for the food personally!!!! They have some of the best food ever! Really good places! One thing that I don’t like about my blog is that every time I blog about good food, I start to get really hungry! I think I’ll go get some cold chicken!!! Yummy!
Happy Eating Ever After!!!!!!!! And many more!!!