playing in the dark, something sorta cajun, art, unfolding light

Last night I took the girls out at about 5:30 and we played in the yard with flashlights. It was mildly chilly but not bad. They had fun - I experimented with taking photos in the dark without a flash - using the flashlights as spotlights. Perhaps not an experiment that interests everyone but I kind of liked the results.





Last night I made another one of my cobbled together recipes. About five years ago I decided we were eating way to much Tex-Mex and American-Italian style dishes and that we needed something different. Hubby doesn't like most southern style dishes but I decided to cobble something together that we might enjoy - after a great deal of experimenting. This is what I came up with.

M's Cajun Dish

2 cans of tomato sauce
2 cans of diced tomatoes
3 beef bouillon cubes
1/2 - 1 tsp. hot pepper sauce
2 tsp. seafood seasoning
3 cloves of garlic
1/4-1/2 tsp. cayenne
Beef Kielbasa (sausage)
Shrimp

Mix everything but the shrimp and the sausage in a crock pot ). Simmer. Slice sausage up into thin slices add to sauce about an hour before serving). Add shrimp 20 minutes before serving (however many you want). Serve over pasta.

One of the nice things about this time of year is that our local grocery stores will sell their frozen shrimp bags two for one. I will get six of this dish out of the two bags. It is nice to be able to serve shrimp and not feel like you are breaking the bank.

Speaking of breaking the bank. I've recently been reading a lot on frugal living as a sort of a personal refresher course. When reading about saving energy, not one article has mentioned crockpots. Using a crockpot as opposed to an oven or a stove can be a great deal cheaper plus it saves time. I've modified a lot of conventional recipes to use a crock as a way to keep it warm until hubby comes home. His arrival is sporadic and I like to have hot food ready as soon as he is and the crock is an excellent tool.

Here is a neat art site that makes me want to go further in my efforts - I found it at the 'inaminuteago' blog. http://www.reneeharris.net/index.html

I was reading Psalm 119 this morning. Almost everyone who has memorized verses or learned songs in Sunday School is familiar with vs 105 "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." but I was startled by vs 130 which seems a true companion to vs 105 and a lovely and haunting image "The unfolding of Your Words gives light."

The idea of unfolding is beautiful - what tremendous openess and honesty when something is unfolded - vulnerability. And here is a thought - is God's heart so tender to us that it is vulnerable?