Memorial Day 2007

Tomorrow (Monday) is Memorial Day here in the U.S.
There are likely many folks who will chose not to take part in the holiday, other than enjoy their day off from work.
I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of this war. I don’t know that the reasons were just. If we want to go to war to end tyranny, we should be just as involved in Darfur as Iraq. That’s my own personal opinion. And I can’t give you an answer as to how we get out of Iraq or what our next plan should be.
But regardless, I respect our military forces. I hold each man and woman who has served, is serving and will serve in HIGH regard.
I didn’t have the guts to sign-up and serve my country in time of war. They did.
“This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.”
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
So this weekend, we honor, we respect, we remember and we give thanks – to those who gave everything so that we might be free.

A memorial video for encounter.

Posts from previous years:

The View from a Veteran (2005)
The Death of Capt. Waskow (2005)
Just a Common Soldier (A Soldier Died Today) (2004)

Cream Soda


Jonathan measures out the special sweatner
Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell.

From our kitchen to yours…

Well the Cream Soda is now tucked away in our secret brewery, AKA pantry. We have to wait and see if it’s any good.
It takes 24-48 hours to brew/ferment, depending on how fast acting the yeast is.
We’ll let you know how it turns out.

Here’s the recipe we used:

1 cup of sugar
4 tbps of vanilla – we used 4.5-5 tbps to cover any yeast flavor
4 small pinches of yeast (about 1/4 tsp)
pour the ingredients into a 2 liter bottle
fill the rest of the bottle with water and shake until the ingredients have dissolved
screw the tap on tightly
leave the bottle to sit and ferment for 24-48 hours (or until the bottle feels hard when squeezed)
open and enjoy

Quick and easy “Creame Puffs”

Laurie just pulled these out of the oven and they are simply amazing.
I think she got the recipe from her mom.
You’ll need a can or two of crescent rolls, a bag of marshmallows, miniature snickers, powdered sugar, butter, milk, vanilla extract and Laurie’s “secret ingredient.”
She claims you don’t need it. I’m not sure. You may have to experiment.
To make, simply cut the snickers in 1/2. Wrap them (or a big-sized marshmallow) individually with the crescent rolls. Make a little ball and place it in a greased muffin pan.
Bake in the oven for the amount required for the crescent rolls.

For the topping/frosting/glaze…
Mix:
2 cups powdered sugar
4 tbps melted butter
2 tbps milk
add vanilla extract as desired
and Laurie’s secret ingredient
Mix it all together until it makes a glaze/topping/frosting.
Once the puffs are out of the oven, cover them with glaze. Let cool for a very, very short time and then enjoy.

As an added bonus, they go great with HEB Wild Red soda.

Coming up later tonight…. Homemade Cream Soda… unless someone can rush over some root beer extract.

No seperation of church and chicken

Rachael Brady, Opinion Editor for the West Virginia University paper has an interesting piece on what Christianity should be.
As a non-believer, she learned it at her local church, no sorry her local BSM, nope — her local Chick-Fil-A.

Monday through Saturday, those who dine in get an earful of God’s glory, as the restaurant always has Christian-themed pop-sounding music wafting on the breeze alongside the alluring smells of chicken and waffle fries.
Normally, when aspects of the Christian faith – or any religion – are thrust into my life without invitation, I get a little bit cranky.
I’m old enough and smart enough now that if I wanted to be converted to your religion, I’d have figured it out by now…
Somehow, though, Chick-fil-a has gotten it right. No one from the corporation is beating down any doors for converts, and they don’t distribute printed materials about faith or damnation while you eat.
What they will actually do while you eat, though, is refill your drink, dump your tray or even just carry on a polite conversation.
The people of Chick-fil-a have taken an essential part of Christianity – the Golden Rule of treating others as you would like to be treated – and they’ve made it their mantra. And they’re not preachy or pushy; they’re just polite.

It’s been said many times that you may be the only Bible someone ever reads. And I love the statement, “Preach always. Use words if necessary.”
Brady adds:

It’s refreshing to see people who are most happy to display their religion by example rather than through radical, alienating evangelism.
Most people don’t want to be approached by strangers about how they may be living their lives in sin. Most people don’t feel like divulging personal secrets and entrusting their spiritual lives to people they’ve never even met.
Most of us just need to be permitted to live our lives and learn our own lessons.
And some of us, along the way, want to eat some chicken.
So Chick-fil-a is, all-around, the purveyor of good news that all Christians should be. If you want a tasty chicken sandwich, there’s no need to worry about choking down a lesson on moral values with it. Chick-fil-a exhibits its Christian values with its excellent service, and that’s that.

Way to go Chick-fil-a for doing just that. Now I’m jonesin’ for a number 6 value-sized

Thanks to CMS for the heads up.

Open source soda


While Laurie and I were in Pagosa Springs we stumbled upon (after looking for a good 15 minutes) a small micro-brewery that was simply awesome.
It had a great atmosphere, friendly staff and we got a personal tour by the owner and founder. Not bad for a Wednesday afternoon.
I told Laurie we should open our own micro-brewery in Waxahachie. I don’t think she was super thrilled with the idea. Although she did enjoy the root beer Pagosa Brewing Company made.
Now, Open Cola has released their “secret” formula so that you too can make your own soda.

From DIY:happy::

The formulas that make up Coke and Pepsi are closely guarded trade secrets – perhaps the most popular and well known trade secrets in existence today. If you want to drink a Cola, you gotta shell out the big bucks (literally, these days) for one of the big guys.
OpenCola is working to change that, having released their Cola formula under the GNU license. Now you can start your own underground neighborhood Cola brewery and give the sauce to your friends and family. The inventors of the drink (is inventors the right word here?) invite people to come a change the formula in hopes of making a more perfect beverage.

So now we just need a root beer recipe and a contract with Blue Bell Ice Cream and we can open our own soda shop.
Wah-la.
Here’s a recipe for root beer too.
Get the formula here
Oh and as DIY:happy points out:

“Many of the oils needed for flavoring can burn skin. Use caution when preparing. They can also dissolve the plastic lining of a refrigerator; store with caution.”