Boiling Pot

In the past four years, I have noticed that the South tends to get teased a little bit lot up here in Minnesota, so I’ve been tempted to do a series of posts to try and redeem all things Southern in the minds of my beloved Minnesotans.  I’m not saying that I haven’t joined in the playful banter concerning the great state of Texas and its neighbors to the right, but when it comes to certain things (i.e. Food) we’ve got the North beat.  Need further convincing…

Enter Boiling Pot…one of the many reasons Joe and I love the South and love Rockport, Texas!  Over Thanksgiving (and any time we visit) we must stop by the Boiling Pot at least once.  Joe’s family has been coming to this restaurant for years and folded me into the tradition when we began dating.

I recently bought the packages of spices that the Boiling Pot sells, so when the weather warms up, I plan on having our friends over to the backyard and cooking up some of the best Cajun food in the country…

The waitress comes to your table and lines it with sheets of white butcher paper and ties plastic bibs around your neck.  It gets pretty messy eating with your hands, but that is part of the whole experience…

Then, the waitress comes with giant silver bowls of steaming spicy food and pours it on the butcher paper right in front of you.  You know how men get “meat sweats” on Thanksgiving, etc., well, Joe and his brothers get the “boiling pot sweats” and here’s why…

Spicy shrimp, crawfish, blue crab, sausage, potatoes, corn…

If you want to try and cook some of this up yourselves, here is a recipe that I have used before…

Ingredients:

6   ears of corn
6   4-inch smoked sausage link sausage
12   red new potatoes
3 lb fresh shrimp, unpeeled
2 teaspoons of Old Bay seasoning per quart of water ( I use the actual spices that Boiling Pot sells, but Old Bay will work fine)

Directions:

Fill a large pot with enough water to cover all of the ingredients. Add the seasoning and bring to a boil. Adjust the seasoning to suit your taste. When the water boils, add the potatoes and sausage. Cook on medium heat for 20 minutes. Add corn and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Add shrimp and cook for no more than 3 minutes. Drain and serve with warm bread.

My top 10 favorite Piper sermons…

For the past 7 years, I have been listening to and reading sermons from one of mine and Joe’s pastors at Bethlehem Baptist Church, John Piper.  I especially grew to love and appreciate Pastor John’s preaching ministry while working for Desiring God from 2006-2009.  The following sermons are 10 of the most helpful sermons/seminars I have ever listened to or read.  All of these messages can be watched, read, or downloaded for free on the Desiring God website under the Resource Library.

1. Pray Like This: Hallowed Be Your Name : (My most favorite sermon)

2. The Beautiful Faith of Fearless Submission : (On the role of women in marriage)

3. A Generation Passionate for God’s Holiness : (My first time to hear Pastor John preach)

4. How Few There Are Who Die So Hard! : (Biography of Adoniram Judson)

5. Future Grace : (Ten-session seminar on Battling Unbelief)

6. Boasting Only in the Cross : (From OneDay 2000)

7. Preaching Through Adversity : (Biography of Charles Spurgeon)

8. Job: When the Righteous Suffer : (2008 Fall Regional Conference)

9. Doing Missions When Dying is Gain

10. The Pleasures of God : (Five-session seminar on God’s Delight in being God)

What are some of your favorite messages from your pastor or preachers you listen to?  I could use some recommendations for Sam’s late night feedings!

songs that help me…

I don’t know about you, but there are very few things in this world that can get me out of my own head more effectively than music written and sung to the Lord.

The past two days have been a fresh reminder of how weak my frame is when measured against the strength of my fears.  My mind and heart were everywhere.  Moments of peace and calm interspersed with moments of paralyzing fear that took my breath away.  This definitely wasn’t the first time I have felt this way and it will not be the last.

While my racing thoughts felt like they were running the show, my spirit was aching to rest in the living God.

What helped?  What rushed in and lifted my head to the throne of a prayer-hearing God?

Songs.

The gift of good music is such an undeserved pleasure that God gives his children.

I think He knows we need it.

Here is one of my favorite songs that gets me out of my head and on to Christ:

A few others would be:

“Mighty to Save”

“How Firm a Foundation”

“Jesus Paid it All”

“On Christ the Solid Rock”

“O Come, O Come Emmanuel”

What are some of yours?

i fell in love with Joe today…

No. Not my husband.  Falling in love with him happened years ago!

I fell in love with another Joe…

I’m sure that I am like some of you out there with this ongoing struggle of choosing a grocery store that works for your family and your monthly budget.  My struggle has been that no matter what I value, it always seems as though something has to suffer.  Money, health, convenience, etc.

Here’s a glimpse of the debate that has been bouncing around in my head for the past three years…

• I want to serve good and healthy food to my family = Organic food can be extremely expensive.
• I don’t want to fill our bodies with a ton of processed junk food = A ton of processed junk food agrees with my budget.
• What I eat, the baby eats = My mom didn’t eat organic with me, I survived.
• We feel so much better when I cook healthy & organic meals = We lose this feeling when I have to sell an organ to pay for that healthy meal.
• Maybe I can get by with buying a few organic food items= The random lady at the local co-op pops into my head saying, “You either pay now…or you pay later!!” Hmm…I wonder what she meant by that, she was so vague.

Then walks in my good friend, Liz Holst (Liz is on the right).

Liz has been mentioning TRADER JOE’s on and off for as long as I have known her.  She doesn’t buy all of her groceries here, but everyone in her family seems to love what she buys!  I have heard nothing but wonderful things said about this store.

Joe and I were having lunch at the Holst’s house this past weekend and Liz made some of the best homemade pizza I have ever had!  When I asked her how much the TRADER JOE’s ingredients were, I was amazed!  I have known about TRADER JOE’s for about 5-6 years now, but never lived close to one until I moved to Minneapolis.

I decided to take my friend’s enthusiasm for this grocery store and try it out for myself today!  Friends, I was extremely pleased!  Here are the top 5 things I loved about it:

• PRICES: so reasonable and comparable to Super Target, Rainbow Foods, etc.  Many of the items I bought were even cheaper!  I am still in shock at how low my bill was…
• HEALTHY OPTIONS: they offer a ton of all-natural, organic food products that were significantly cheaper than Whole Foods, etc…
• SELECTION: they had everything that I needed and a wide variety of specialty items that you can’t find in a regular grocery store…
• SIZE: I love that I could get around the entire store in a matter of minutes- if I forgot something, it was right around the corner!
• ATMOSPHERE: one of the cutest little grocery stores I have ever been in…I even bought a few of their canvas grocery bags so that I don’t have to deal with the dozens of plastic bags collecting in our pantry!

I was really thankful to finally find a grocery store that is close in location, not a burden on my checkbook, and has a great selection of affordable, fresh, and healthy foods.

So, if you have struggled with the same dilemma as I have, I would highly recommend that you try out TRADER JOE’s today if you have one in your area!