The Best Summer of Your Life

This morning as I pondered on the 4th of July and what it means to me, my mind wandered back to the summer between my plebe and yuk years at West Point.  It is advertised as the "Best Summer of Your Life".  At first I thought- as do most- that this is because of all the cool things you get to do.  Zip-lines, tanks, explosions, shooting.  Its like scout camp on steroids!  

But this morning I realized that while all these things are great they are not what makes that summer so great.  What makes it so great is that you really appreciate the small things in life.  You are no longer a plebe which means that you are now treated like a human being.  You are free to talk.  You are free to walk wherever you want to go.  You can even eat without having to first prove that you know "Schofield's definition of discipline" or the exact number of days until every major event for the rest of the year.  I remember a time when being able to shower alone was the greatest thing ever.  Now I complain if the drain is a little slow.  That is the real reason why that summer is so amazing- freedom and the ability to appreciate the small things.  (All the fun stuff certainly helps too though.)

As I think back on that time of my life I would love to go back to that summer.  I would never want to go through plebe year again, but to have that wonderful, simple view of life would be worth it.  That may well have been the best summer of my life.

In 2 Ne 2:27 we learn that these things apply in the spiritual sense too.  As miserable as it was to be "locked-up" as a plebe, we often CHOOSE to be "locked-up" spiritually.  We are free to choose liberty and freedom through Christ, our Redeemer.  All too often, however, we choose to follow a different path.  I have seen how this can steal away our freedom little by little.  I have seen it in my own life and the lives of many others.  We can get this wonderful freedom back through repentance (as Alma explained), but the truth of the matter is that we don't even realize how great our freedom is.  

To any who are feeling "locked-up" right now- life just has you stuck, you are trapped, etc.- seek out the freedom that Christ has to offer. 

Happy birthday USA!

So much to write...

It's been a very long time since my last post.  I have been home for a few months now and often consider updating my blog.  There's just so much I could say though!  Plus I have been getting used to English again. All in all it seems a daunting task.  So, I guess I'll just start with life since I came home from Chile.

To be honest I was ready to come home in some ways. I was tired. I had given my all for two years and it was definately time for a rest. That being said, it is always hard to say goodbye.  Leaving the United States was easy knowing that it was short term- two years and back.  Leaving Chile was different.  It is entirely possible that I will never again see the country that came to be my second home.  While I would much rather live here I would be remiss if I did not say that I love and miss Chile and her people. Someday I plan to go back and visit.  Hopefully.  Ending a mission and coming home is a feeling that is very hard to describe so I am going to stop trying. haha

Since coming home much of my life has changed.  My plans and hopes and dreams all involved returning to West Point.  Due to a medical issue (explained here) that was not possible.  I went through all the processes but the doctors simply said no.  This means searching for a new plan for life, a way of paying for school etc.  The plan so far is to go to BYU and study political science. 

How to pay for it has been somewhat of an interesting journey.  I returned to my old job at Stephenson Honey Company on a temporary basis.  It was the perfect job at the time.  Living at home meant no expenses.  With Stephensons I was able to get time off to visit family.  It was exactly what I needed.  But it was temporary.  I am now living in New Jersey and installing solar panels to come up with money.  It will be a summer job once I get into school, which I will be starting in January if all goes to plan. 

Living in Jersey has some perks.  I am about an hour from West Point so I've been up there a few times.  Its about the same time to Manhattan.

In short, a lot has happened and a lot has changed.  There is far more than I wll ever be able to put up here but I will try from time to time.  It would sure be a lot easier if I weren't doing this on a phone though, so for the next while don't expect much!

Stop-Listen-ACT

Yesterday and last night I experienced something to which I hope none of you can relate.  I am writhing to you on the subject of receiving and acting on revelation and promptings of the Spirit.

Last night we had an elder in our zone go home.  This elder had struggled while he was here in the MTC but we all thought he would make it.

Earlier in the day we had gym time-a chance for us to get some physical activity.  When this elder walked into the gym, our eyes met and we said hi.  In that moment I thought "I need to talk to him and see how he is doing."  The next thought was "Nah, there will be time later.  I need to go run."

Fast forward to the night.  I finished up my nightly prayer and ran to the bathroom before going to bed.  As I passed this elders room I saw the door open and a BYU cop in there talking to him.  Again I felt the need to stop and talk to him, this time accompanied by the familiar warm sensation of the Spirit.  And again it was followed by a discouragement-"the campus cop would just tell me to go away anyway, whats the point?"

I returned to my room and sat on my bed.  The urge to go and offer my assistance returned and I decided to go and do, like Nephi said.  Leaving the room, I hesitated and ducked back into the bathroom-same doubts.  As I walked back to my room I almost turned in to speak with the elder but let my doubts win.

This time I knelt and prayed.  As I poured my heart out to God I couldn't help but hear the voices outside my door.  The word came over the radios and the campus cops escorted him out.  I felt like President Monson running through the halls of the hospital only to find out he was too late.  As one of the zone leaders was leaving I grabbed him and asked him to express our love to the elder.  Too little, too late.

I do not know if this elder would have stayed because of my words, but I do know that I failed to do my duty as a disciple of Christ.  The words of Elder Bednar rang in my head for hours.  During an address given at the MTC he answered the question "How do I know if it is the Spirit or just my thoughts?"  He quite passionately stated:

"Quit worrying about it!  Quit stewin,' Quit fussin', Quit worryin' about it!"

Any thought or impression that leads you to do good is of God.  When I had that thought in the gym, it was of God.

I encourage you, I urge you, I plead with you-when such thoughts come, act.  Act right then.  There is not time later, the time is now.  Don't hesitate.  Don't waste time worrying about if it is the Spirit or not.  You cannot afford to lose that time.  I know that this is the work of God.  I know that if we act we can be the answer to the prayers of others.  I also know the guilt that comes from failing to act.  It is my sincere desire that others not have to feel it too.  I share these things in the name of Jesus Christ , Amen

Leaving

For those who don't know I will be leaving to serve a mission tomorrow morning.  This means I did not get around to updating about everything.  This also means I will not be around to blog for the next 2 years.  During that time this blog may be used on occasion to have my mother post things I send her to keep people updated on my goings on.  Just so you all know!

Mission Mail

If you would like to get in touch with me during my mission the best way to do that is to write a letter.  I would love to hear from anybody and everybody and hear how things are going for you.  In my mission; however, we use pouch mail.  It is a way to send mail to Chile (or other countries) for cheaper but has some different requirements.  The following is copied from the information I received because it can explain it better than I can:

"Pouch mail instructions: The Church provides pouch mail service to your mission.  Items sent by pouch mail use the United States Postal Service from your location to Church headquarters, where they are forwarded to the missionary by a private courier along with other Church mail...

...Only postcards or one-page correspondences (no envelopes) written on one side of the page may be sent through the pouch.  Notebook of other light-weight paper will not process through the USPS machines.  Photographs are not acceptable...

...Items restricted from the pouch [such as photographs, packages, letters more than a page long, etc.]

may be sent through the USPS or a private courier."

If you choose to use the pouch service (which is cheaper) fold the paper into thirds and tape the long edge of the paper closed.  Put a stamp on it and address it to:

Elder Richard Bishop

Chile Santiago East Mission

POB 30150

Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150

If you choose a more conventional method (or have to use it since what you're sending won't go through pouch) then address it to:

Elder Richard Bishop

Chile Santiago East Mission

Pedro de Valdivia 1423,

Providencia

29 Santiago

Region Metropolitana CHILE

Phone: 56 2-340-5035

You will need the phone number for a private courier.

Wow, such a long explanation!  I look forward to hearing from you all!!  And if you're not inclined to write me don't worry, I fail at writing to missionaries too. 

Stocks!!

For years I have wanted to experiment with investing in the stock market.  At the moment I find myself with a little free time and some mad money (money I can lose and not be hurt). 

I initially invested $500, but the problem is that with a small amount of money it is hard to recover from the brokerage fees ($7 for each trade).  Though all but one of the 5 stocks I chose have been up around 10% from where I initially bought them, I still cannot sell out of them without going in the whole because I don't have enough shares to cover the fees!!  Good thing this is only to learn, right?

Right.  But it still irks me to know that even though my investments have done fairly well, I will still be ending this endeavor with less money than I began (probably only by a couple of dollars, but its the principle of the thing!!).  So, even though I have told myself and my parents that I will not become a day trader, I have picked out a stock that I feel I can make significant money on if I watch it and day-trade on it.  I know, usually you pick a lot of them and different ones each day and all that good stuff, but I am confident on this and if it works out well perhaps I will talk more about it. 

Basically it is a crappy company with consistent (almost every day for the past year) daily highs and lows.  My plan, obviously, is to buy in on the daily low and sell on the daily high.  The dangerous part is that a quick glance at the company's financials plus the fact that the stock has been stagnant for over a year means that this company could disappear any day.  Bankrupt.

Risky? Yes. Good thing I can lose this money and not be too hurt!  That being said, I am still fairly confident in this plan and I can watch the stock during the day and see exactly when other day traders do the same thing, so I'm not alone in utilizing this cash-cow.  In a few days I should have more than paid for the "learning experience".  I'll keep ya'll posted!!

Wow...

...ok so I may have let my blog fall behind as of late.  No, I did let my blog fall behind.  Its been busy!! (but mostly I've just been lazy)

Last time I posted I was headed for West Virginia.  That was a fun trip!  I spent about 2 weeks visiting my brother and his family.  My sister-in-law had to go up to girls' camp the second week to help run things so I watched the kids for her.  It only amounted to one day really but that was enough.  SOOO glad I don't have to be a mother.  Seriously, I don't know how you women do it!  Between crying children trying to climb in the shower with me and poopy diapers, I was ready for their dad to come home and save me.

At the end of my visit my sister-in-law and the kids flew back to Utah with me so that she could go to her family reunion and my other brother's wedding!!  Congrats bro!  The night before we flew out my brother gathered his family around him and gave each child and his wife a father's blessing.  It was a wonderful example to me of a man utilizing his priesthood- much like my father always has been.  He and his wife offered me the opportunity to bless their youngest child.  It was such a sweet and tender moment for me- one that I will never forget.  The priesthood power is truly amazing.

The wedding/reception was the Saturday after I got back so there was a lot of work getting the yard ready for the reception and the like.  The day went well and, in spite of the stress and tension, was a good day with family.

The next family event will be taking me to the Missionary Training Center in Provo.  Yes, I have a mission call.  I have had it for a long time now, just haven't written about it.  I will be serving for the next two years in the Chile, Santiago East Mission.  I enter the MTC on August 31.  My mission- geographically speaking- is the smallest proselyting mission in the world.  It is about 20 miles long and 7 miles wide; however, in that small area are about 3.5 million people!!  10 stakes, 55 wards and 2 branches of the church fit within the boundaries of my mission along with a Temple, the headquarters of the church in Chile, an MTC and possibly- my fingers are crossed- the Chilean Military Academy.  It will be a fun and exciting 2 years!!  I'll post contact info for me while I am gone in a later post, along with what my life has been and will be made up of until I go.

Productivity!!

I had such high hopes for making today a productive day, but then I combined, counted and stacked my coins:

21.75 in quarters- pretty simple

 10.30 in dimes- still nothin' fancy

 2.00 in nickels- blurry photo

and 0.62 in pennies- my crowning achievement for the day!  Sad, I know.

On a more significant note, I am leaving for West Virginia in the morning to visit my brother and his family before I leave on my mission- ya know, the one I haven't blogged about yet.  When I come back hopefully I'll get on and post some sort of update on my life.  Maybe I'll get ambitious and write something tonight, but don't count on it- I've got to catch up on what I should have been doing this morning!

Long time coming

Its been a long time since I wrote anything on here.  Not much has happened, but what has happened is big enough it should probably be up. 

My mission papers are finally done!  There were problems with getting a doctor's appointment but after over a month of trying/waiting (we only have two doctors- we need probably 4) I finally got in and had my physical.  Immediately afterword I had my interviews.  Pres. Chappel is an amazing man to sit and talk with.  Of course there was the standard worthiness interview but then we just sat and talked for a while.  What a truly inspired and inspirational man!  Still waiting for the call.

The next bit of news is regarding my esophagus.  We got a copy of the notes from my endoscopy in Las Vegas and the doctor included a diagnosis of GERD- as was expected- and directions for treatment of it as such.  I had an EGD (don't ask, I can neither say nor spell what that stands for) on Monday.  Sunday night my dad and brother gave me a blessing in the which he promised me that everything would be clear.  The next morning the doctor went into my throat with a balloon to expand my esophagus and couldn't, it was already as big as it should be.  There were no signs whatsoever of GERD, heart-burn or any other of my symptoms.  The medical history is there, but the signs are not.  He biopsied a section of my esophagus to check and gave a tentative diagnosis (which I can also neither say nor spell).  The results came back and I have whatever it was.  Medical research still doesn't know what it is.  They're not sure what causes it, but they think its some sort of an allergy.  This sounds bad because if they don't know what it is, they can't treat it, right?  Wrong!  I checked the list of disqualifying medical conditions for the military and this is not one of them.  I have the same symptoms and take the same drugs, but its called something different so- for now- it looks like I can serve.

The posts have been slower lately because for work we have been going back and forth between here at home and Needles Ca.  We don't have internet in Needles so I haven't been posting.  Headed back Monday for the final trip of the spring.  Since this trip will be about a month long there will probably not be any posts until mid-June at the earliest.

That's pretty much all the news!  I was hoping to have a new recipe to put up here today but between the dying lawn mower and the extra wet spring it took me several hours to mow the lawn this morning.  So much for that...

On a sadder note

I've decided to go ahead and make some information more public.  Everyone who has read much on this blog knows that I went to West Point for two years and then left to serve and LDS Mission.  If you read a few blog entries back you will see that I have recently had a somewhat severe problem caused by acid reflux.  My acid reflux is most likely (though I have no official diagnosis) a symptom of GERD.  The bad news is that GERD is a disqualifying condition for service in America's Armed Forces.  Moreover, the fact that I have had food stuck in my esophagus hints that it may be somewhat advanced.  I emailed one of the doctors on the Medical Examination Review Board (MERB) that medically approves cadet candidates and his response was "This doesn't bode well."

So, although there is still a chance of receiving a waiver and being allowed to resume my planned future at the Academy, it looks like I will most likely be a civilian for the rest of my life.  Civilian life is not bad, don't get me wrong, but I had really hoped for a different outcome.

In the end I know it doesn't matter.  If I do what I am supposed to do, I know that Heavenly Father will ensure that everything in my life works out.  His plans are not always the same as our plans, which is frustrating, but His plans are always perfect and I have come to know more than ever that He truly does have a plan for me- even if I cannot see it.   As Isaiah said:  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa. 55:8-9)

If He wants me to be at West Point, I will certainly return.  And if I return, He certainly wants me to be at West Point- as it appears I would be the first person to be allowed admission under such circumstances. 

If anybody knows someone from the Academies- any of them- who was granted a medical qualification after such an event, kindly leave me a comment below to let me know it is possible.  All I have found is that many have been turned away for far more minor symptoms of the same disease.

Best Bites Pesto Pasta

My mother and I shared a birthday the other day.  One of the gifts was a joint gift to both of us- a cookbook.  Not just any cookbook though, it was the cookbook from one of the most popular cooking blogs on the internet.  Ok, so I have no numbers to back that up, but its pretty popular and they have great food and fun ideas.

Since today is Saturday, I spent my morning looking for recipes.  Most of the time was spent looking at a Romano's Macaroni Grill online cookbook and the recipe section of Olive Garden's website (yes, both places publish their recipes!), but there wasn't anything there that sounded appetizing.  Cookbooks haven't really been a big part of my experience so far, so I didn't even think to pull one out until my mom handed me the one we got for our birthday.  Of the many recipes that I've decided to try, one stood out in particular.  It was bow-tie pasta with pesto sauce and roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and pine-nuts on top.  Though neither of my parents are big pesto fans, the meal was loved by all.  Since I'm pretty sure its copyrighted I won't put the recipe up, but strongly suggest trying it. 

Pine-nuts are used in two parts of the recipe.  You can buy pre-shelled and pre-toasted pine-nuts but they are expensive and basically don't exist in Delta.  Minus the time spent shelling pine-nuts the recipe would take about 20 minutes.  Shelling all those nuts by hand?  Several hours.

Also, pesto requires lots of fresh basil.  There are two stores in town- Quality and Jubilee.  I shop at Quality and bought out what was left of their supply of fresh basil-which amounted to about half as much as was needed.  Grudgingly, I headed to Jubilee to buy enough basil to make up the difference.  The basil down there was horrible!  The leaves were all wilted and turning a brown/grey color.  And the packages cost twice as much!  There is more in each package, I guess that's the reasoning for the extra cost.  But then you have to throw 3/4 of it away because its no good.  Guess I'll keep doing business where I have been.

spring?

It has been in the 80's lately and we've all been thinking  spring- but then you wake up one morning and BAM! this is what ya got:

You can't tell in the picture but it is still snowing quite heavily...

Why can't it just be spring?!

Goings on

I have not posted for a while.  I have not cooked for a while.  I do have some stories to share though. 

The last time I posted was three weekends ago.  The following weekend I went to Salt Lake to visit Temple Square.  It was wonderful to wander around the temple grounds, in and out of the visitors centers.  I spent some time sitting in front of the statue of Christ in the North Visitor's Center.  It was a wonderful experience. 

Then I met up with a friend and we went to lunch.  I figured since I was on the road, I would taste some food made by the professionals rather than my own cooking for a weekend.  Ironically, I this gave me food poisoning (we think) and Monday night was a very miserable night spent on the couch.  How surprising!  All these weeks of eating my own, amateur cooking and never a problem.  Eat something made by a pro and that luck changes.  It boosted my confidence.

The next weekend my mom and dad got the four-wheelers running.  The plan was for them to go for a ride, but my dad had a headache so mom and I headed out for a relaxing trail ride.  We didn't know that there were going to be motocross races that day.  We got stuck in the middle of the races and were stuck trying to find a way around them for a long time.  Eventually, we gave up and cut through the course.  In all, we were gone for about 2 hours and I did not feel at all like cooking when I got home.  So I didn't.  Instead, I set about getting ready to go to Needles for work. 

This weekend, well this weekend I'm actually home.  Not in Needles.  I inherited many things from my father.  Unfortunately, I also inherited his esophagus.  I have acid reflux disease.  Over time the acid causes narrowing in my esophagus and makes the muscles spasm and misfire from time to time.  These two combined make food sometimes get stuck.  Until this past week I was always able to get the food unstuck on my own, but Wednesday night was different.  Michael and I sat down to dinner at about 8:30 and the first bite didn't go down.  I took a drink, which usually pushes the food down, but then the water stopped, hurt and then came back up.  All over the place.  After a while of fighting with the piece of chicken I gave up and told Michael we were going to need to get to a hospital. 

We made some phone calls and discovered that the closest place that could do the necessary procedure was in Las Vegas- 2 hours away.  We had a truck to unload that night and there was no way for Michael to drop me off at the hospital and then make it back in time to meet the truck.  So, when the truck showed up at 1 AM we unloaded it and met my parents in Searchlight.  We made it to the first hospital at about 6.  They couldn't do the procedure.  6:30 we hit St. Rose Dominican Hospital Siena Campus in Henderson.  At this point, the food has been stuck for 10 hours.  

After some x-rays, IV drugs with a very small success rate and several hours of waiting I was taken to same-day surgery to have an endoscopy- scoping of the esophagus.  16 hours after the food got stuck, it was removed.  I woke up a short time later and spent the rest of the day in and out of a coma-like state.  Normally anesthesia makes people drowsy, but the anti-nausea drugs I was given mixed with the anesthesia to create an extremely potent cocktail.

Now I am home, writing this blog.  That pretty much sums up my life for the past little bit.

Speculoo?

Speculoos are a biscuit style cookie better known by the name Biscoff- the brand that is served on Delta Airlines flights all over the world.  It is also probably my favorite cookie.  That's saying something because I don't do favorites :) 

The recipe I shared a link to in my last post turned out pretty decent.  Something is just off, and I don't know quite what it is.  Perhaps some other time I will try other recipes and play around more.  The cookies are good, don't get me wrong.  I would probably eat the whole pan if my parents weren't also enjoying them. Just goes to show how good they are, even when they're off they still rock!  Plus they're probably the easiest cookies I've ever made, which is always a plus. 

As far as the instructions to roll out the dough, it doesn't work.  You have to chill the dough first because it is entirely the wrong consistency to roll out.  Because of my wonderful patience, I chose to spread it around on a cookie sheet with a rubber spatula.  It worked, but in the future it is worthwhile to chill the dough, roll it out and cut it before you bake it.  That is the only way you will really get the cookies to bake evenly.  Other than that maybe more brown sugar.  Give it a try!  They're great!

I'm a little behind so...

...this blog will have 2 weekends' worth of cooking.

Last weekend my brother brought his fiance home to meet the family.  As I was debating what to try cooking it was brought to my attention that I would not be cooking for myself as usual, but rather for the family.  Because of this I decided to do something I knew would work out and leave the experimentation for the appetizer.  We had Orange Chicken and Lettuce Wraps like those found at PF Chang's. 

Since I only mentioned the orange chicken and never really discussed it, the recipe can be found here.  It is a lot of work, but very much worth it.  I did not have the red pepper flakes and my mother (who was helping me because these are both rather involved recipes) suggested adding cayenne pepper to spice it up.  I gave the go ahead and she put some into the sauce.  It really made everything else pop, but there was no spice.  I told her to put more in, and there was still not the spicy element I was going for.  Unfortunately it did bring the flavors out even more and in the end the orange chicken was too strong.  A minor mistake.  It still tasted great, the orange was just a touch too strong.  Moral of the story: adding a bit of cayenne can really bring out the flavors, but be careful not to add too much. 

The lettuce wraps were a narrowly averted disaster.  Knowing that making these two complicated recipes at the same time would be a stretch for me, I mixed the cooking sauce before starting the real cooking.  I put it in the fridge and forgot about it.  I got everything cooked up and thought "this is not working, the flavor is not there."  Frantically, I had my mother stir as I scrambled and threw a little of this and a little of that into the pan.  Just as we were about to serve the meal, my mom opened the fridge, pulled out the sauce and asked what it was.  I just about died from the embarrassment.  We put some in and let it simmer a little and served dinner.  Afterword while thinking about what I had added to the pan, I realized that we had ultimately re-created the cooking sauce plus some chili paste.  The appetizer was amazing, very much like PF Chang's. The chili paste gave it a little bit of flare- almost enough to make you breathe fire if you got a chunk of chili.  It would have been better with some cashews added.  Also, shiitake mushrooms are hard to come by in Delta, so I used portobello mushrooms instead.

So far this weekend I have made Orchiette Pasta with Wild Mushroom Cream Sauce.  There are biscoff cookies in the near future (the ones served by Delta Airlines),  but I'm still in debate on that.  The pasta worked out okay.  Rather than a pound of wild mushrooms, I used the rest of the portobella mushrooms from last week.  Everything but the cream was eyeballed and I intentionally added extra cheese.  Ultimately I think it was good, but missing something.  After some discussion with my parents I decided a little bit of sweet Italian sausage would be perfect.  For those (like me before making this) who do not know what orchiette pasta is, it is the little shells.

If I make the biscoff, or more properly speculoos, I will write about it later.  The recipe I am looking at is here.  These are probably my favorite cookies, so finding a recipe has made my day!  I no longer have to wait until I have an excuse to fly in order to enjoy them!  Assuming of course I can bake, we'll see about that...

Word of Wisdom

There are a couple of things I would like to say before I write actually write this post.

1) Comments are welcome and very much appreciated.  This includes those who do not have an account for blogger.  I know there are several out there.  If you have any questions, concerns or other comments about what I am about to write, please share- even if they are critical.  I will do my best to respond to any questions that people may have through future posts.  Just be aware, if you are rude, use inappropriate language or write your comment in a language other than English (because I won't understand it) I will remove your comment.  Yes, those of you who read this from Russia, France, Korea, etc. I know you are reading it.  Stats are amazing.  Feel free to join in, but please stick to English so that I know what you're saying.  Although, given the results of my last plea for feedback, I probably don't really need to worry about any of those issues. 

2) This is MY blog.  I am not writing this to force my religion on anyone or offend anyone.  I am writing this because it is important to me.  If you don't like it, don't read it- that simple.

3) A note on sources.  Many people may try to argue that I only listened to my church's side of the story.  In fact, I did not use any church resources or even any that were approved, endorsed and/or supported by the church.  Many of the things contained in the sources I used to learn about this issue spoke very unkindly about my religion.  That being said, you must go out and find your own resources about the topic in question.  I have put off writing this for quite some time and cannot find my sources.  I'm sure if I tried hard enough I could, but I see little point.  No, there will be no plagiarism in this entry, I do not intend to refer to any of my sources specifically but rather stick to things that are, in my best judgment, common knowledge.  Again, any concerns just leave a comment.  If there is something you feel needs a source, comment about it and I'll go out and find you one- although you could just find it yourself a lot faster. 

Okay, now for some background information.  For those who don't know, I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or in terms more easily understood by most of the world, I'm a Mormon.  The biggest belief that separates us from the rest of Christianity- and the world- is that we believe in modern revelation and that our church is led today by a prophet of God.  We believe that our church is literally led by Jesus Christ through revelation given to His prophet.

One of the other beliefs that sets us apart from the rest of the world is the Word of Wisdom.  This is a code of health given to the prophet Joseph Smith (who we do not worship, incidentally) cautioning the saints to avoid several things that were at that time generally accepted to be either healthy or of minimal concern, but have since been revealed to be the cause of many of the health problems in our world.  Two of the more well known examples are smoking and drinking alcohol.  It was originally given as strictly a word of wisdom, a caution, but has since come to be regarded as a commandment by our church.

Finally, the story.  During a discussion with a friend of mine who is unsure of various points of church doctrine, this friend told me that "The Word of Wisdom was made a commandment by a vote!  That is not revelation!"  This shocked me as I had never before been told that.  Honestly, it didn't make me question enough to be concerned about my faith, but I had to find out what happened for myself.  I knew that at some point the change had been made and some of the possible reasons, but had never given any thought as to how.  So I did some digging.

What I found blew me away.  There was actually quite a controversy over this in some circles!!  Mostly it seems the claim has been used by the authors of anti-LDS materials.  The "vote" in question occurred in the 1851 general conference when Brigham Young, the second prophet of this dispensation, asked the saints to make a covenant with their Heavenly Father to adhere to the Word of Wisdom.  I cannot remember an exact quote, but the phrasing was something to the effect of "by the show of hands, who would be willing to observe the Word of Wisdom if it were a commandment?"  After this "vote" he encouraged the saints to observe it even though it was not a commandment and promised that there would be many blessings if they did.  It is interesting to note that Brigham Young himself did not observe the Word of Wisdom for a number of years after this event.  Clearly, they had not voted to make the Word of Wisdom a commandment.

After the General Conference, there are many anecdotes and events which seem to point in both directions.  I will discuss two.

After the saints were driven from their homes in Nauvoo, Illinois and had settled in what is now Utah, they began building a temple.  In order to work on the construction of the temple people had to be interviewed by their bishop and deemed worthy by way of upholding all of the commandments of the church- just like the interview to go into a temple today.  During the construction of the temple, a letter was sent out to the bishops of the church telling them that they could no longer send men with the intention that the church would provide chewing tobacco for them when they arrived.  It specified that if the men must chew tobacco, they must chew their own.  This means that you could chew tobacco- which is against the Word of Wisdom- and still be counted worthy.

Some time after the saints had come to Utah, a man was ex-communicated from the church for drunkenness.  Many people claim that this shows that the Word of Wisdom was enforced as a commandment, a claim which is further supported by Pres. Young's statement along the lines of "if we as a church do not begin to observe the Word of Wisdom, many more will follow this man's path."   He was trying to use this as a cautionary tale.  Yes, Christ drank wine, but He was never described as getting drunk from it.  In fact, many times throughout the bible we are encouraged to avoid drunkenness.  Drinking alcoholic beverages was often at that time a matter of medical necessity but getting drunk never had a good purpose.  The man who was ex-communicated from the church was treated thus because he was an alcoholic who refused to accept help.  He had been in trouble for public inebriation many times and had been told that his conduct was inconsistent with a member of the church.  Pres. Young was warning the members of the church that the occasional drink can often lead to an addiction.  The easiest way to avoid addiction to any substance is to avoid its use in the first place.

The Word of Wisdom came to be viewed as a commandment by the church more than 50 years later when Pres. Joseph F. Smith, then prophet of the church, issued a letter to bishops and stake presidents urging them to consider adherence to the Word of Wisdom when conducting an interview for worthiness to attend the temple.  It had been an issue of debate amongst the Twelve Apostles and First Presidency of the church for a while before the letter was issued.  Many of the 12 did not want to see the change in church policy because it would mean they would have to give up some of the things they loved- yet another witness that the "vote" changed nothing.  Shortly before he died, Pres. Lorenzo Snow made it clear that he would not be making such a change.  The succeeding prophet, Joseph F. Smith, issued the letter shortly after being ordained.  I do not believe that it is coincidence that things worked out that way.  God will not allow His prophet to lead His church astray through either action or inaction.

I am a firm believer that those who are called of God to lead His church are each called to a specific task.  Please do not take my statements above to mean that I believe Lorenzo Snow was an evil man or trying to lead the church astray.  Rather, I believe that the changing of the Word of Wisdom was a task given to Joseph F. Smith.  However, it still serves as a witness to me that if at any time a prophet of the Lord will either take the church in a wrong direction or stop the church from progressing in a correct direction- regardless of how trivial the point may seem- Heavenly Father will remove him from his position and put another in his stead who is ready and willing to do the will of the Lord.

I testify that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the restored church of Christ on the earth today and that it is the only true and living church.  Many other churches have a large measure of truth, but this is the only one that has it all.  I am a witness that the reason we have the truth is because of living prophets of God who truly commune directly with Him on a daily basis to lead His church.  I also gladly add my voice to those of many others who sustain the prophets and apostles of the church today for I know that they are truly called of God.  I testify that Jesus Christ stands at the head of this church and guides those who have been placed in positions of authority in it.  I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ- our Lord and Savior who gave His life and so much more as an atonement that we may be able to return to live with our Father again. Amen.

Wanting Won Tons?

This weekend's experiment was not a main dish as it has been in the past.  I didn't have work Friday and spent the day trying to decide what to make but everything I could think of was desserts!  Wontons have been something of a curiosity to me for the past little while so I decided to make those.  Unfortunately, nothing else oriental sounded good to me, so there was no meal to go with them.  Actually, for lunch/dinner I had my semi-famous "Uncle Rick's Mac and Cheese" which is almost more like a tomato macaroni soup heavy on the macaroni. 

I wasn't sure if it would be possible to find won ton wrappers in the wonderful Delta grocery stores (though I have since been informed that I could have) but the idea of making my own sounded interesting anyways so I searched for a recipe.  The one I used is quite simple, but not at the same time.  Making the dough itself was easy, but rolling it so thin? Not so much.  More on that later.

The recipe came from About.com.  Before you bother going there, I'm actually going to put that one on this blog since its so short and simple.

1 egg
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
about 1/2 cup water
extra flour to flour your rolling surface (or if you're like me to fix the dough after adding too much water)

Put the flour in one bowl and everything else (only 1/4 cup of water for now) in another.  Mix the bowl with the egg and add it to the other bowl, adding water as needed.  Rather than making a dough and then kneading it, I chose to just mix the two bowls by kneading them together.  Doing this, I only had to knead the dough for a very short time before it was "a smooth, workable dough" as suggested by the original recipe. 

Now the hard part.  Dough- at least mine- doesn't like to be rolled out that thin.  Maybe I'm just no good with a rolling pin.  Either way, the dough would not roll.  I found that if you take just a very small piece of dough it will roll thinner, but then you have to roll out each won ton wrapper individually!  This worked okay for me since I was only making a couple for my own personal food, but if you were trying to make them in any large quantity you're going to have a problem.  That is one problem I definitely hope to solve.  After rolling it out cut the dough into squares and you have wrappers.

The rest is pretty simple though.  Put some oil on the stove at a low heat- barely enough to bubble when you add something to it.  Mix whatever you want to put in your won tons.  Experiment!  Be creative!  I've had a lot of fun trying different combinations to see how they would work.  Simply put a spoonful of the filling (proportional to the size of the wrapper) in the middle of the dough square.  Wet your finger and run it along the edges of the wrapper to make them sticky.  Try different ways of folding them.  Be creative.  This is a fun snack to make- maybe even good date material ;)  Dump the won ton in the oil and let it sit until golden brown- flipping occasionally to ensure even cooking.  I prefer for things to cook fast, so I started with really hot oil.  This works for some things, but won tons do not fit that category.  Turn the heat down, take it slow. Let them cool and enjoy your creation! 

Needles

As I mentioned in my last post, I have spent much of the past two weeks in Needles California for work.  Every year bees are moved, by truck, from all over the country to groves- apple groves, orange groves, etc.  Our bees go to almond groves in Bakersfield Ca.

Over the last little while, all of the bees have been moved from the Utah area to Needles.  Then we all loaded into the trucks and went down to them out.  For about a week we hit all the yards- where we keep the bees- and checked every hive to ensure that they were healthy and had enough honey to survive.  On Monday, two of us went to Bakersfield and Michael and I stayed in Needles.  We had a lot of hive covers and boxes that needed to be painted- which took most of the days- and then we went out to load bees on a truck to ship to Bakersfield.  Bees have to be moved at night because during the day they leave the hive.  If you move the hive during the day, many of the bees will be lost. 

Our trucker was a man from Spanish Fork.  He was great to work with!  Loading means a lot of time spent sitting and waiting, but the people you work with can make it a fun experience and my co-workers certainly did. Four nights (one load a night) and several more boxes and covers than I care to remember later, we were done.  It was nice to get up Friday morning and head home.  It is never fun to go to Needles and work like we do, but I returned, as always, with stories and a greater understanding of bees, beekeepers and the way things work.

Been gone, but I'm back in the kitchen!

Today was another great Saturday in the kitchen.  Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn't, but there was no entry about it last week.  In fact, there has been nothing for a while.  I have been in Needles California for work.  Never heard of it? Not surprising.  It is a small town in the middle of the Mohave Desert where California, Arizona and Nevada meet.  There will most likely be a post about that at some later date. 

Back to the kitchen!  Today I made Chicken Carbonara.  The recipe I used came from HERE; however, when I cook I rarely follow the recipe the whole way through.  Rather than using pancetta- which is impossible to be found in Delta's woefully inadequate excuses for grocery stores- I used fresh side pork which I cooked up in advance and seasoned with salt and pepper.  Then I began the recipe and used the pre-cooked side pork where it says to use the pancetta.  I started the pasta, mixed the sauce ingredients together using dried herbs rather than fresh- it works but I have no idea how much I used, just eyeball it. About this time I also began browning diced chicken.  Rather than adding shredded chicken to the pancetta and garlic, I added the sauce mixture and allowed it to cook into the sauce I wanted and then added it to the browned chicken.  Once the pasta was cooked, I added it to everything else and it was done!  Goes great with peas.  All in all very small changes.  My family had this for dinner and mom and dad loved it! 

Note:  Where the recipe says to avoid boiling the sauce as it may cause the egg yolks to turn into scrambled eggs, it will.  Luckily, this doesn't mess with the flavor, but it gives your sauce a funny texture.

Before making the main course, I noticed that it calls for 8 egg yolks.  That leaves you with the whites of 8 eggs!  What can you do with that?!  Dessert of course.  The dessert was a baked meringue with roasted berries on top.  It worked out amazing, in spite of some small errors.  First, we didn't have any raspberries.  This means I was a pint short on the berries.  This means a shorter cooking time.  I forgot that part.  Roasting berries though...they still taste good if they're a little over-done.  The pan on the other hand?  That took some scrubbing.  Then, as I was folding the last of the sugar into the meringue, I was a bit too rough on it and the meringue lost some of its stiffness.  Neither of these mistakes seem to have changed the outcome of the recipe and it tastes great! 

Today was a great success in the kitchen.  If anybody is bored with eating the same old things or doesn't know what to make, give this a try.  It takes some work, but I promise you'll enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Saturday's Kitchen: A New Twist on an Old Classic

Its Saturday, so I headed back to the kitchen, but had no idea what to cook.  What really sounded good was my world famous (well ok, maybe just famous within my family and a few close friends) macaroni and cheese with tomatoes- but that's old hat.  I've done it too many times!  There's nothing experimental about that anymore.  Giving up on my search, I decided to just put things in a pot and see what it turned into.  It ended up being macaroni with a cheesy tomato based sauce.  I cannot give you amounts because the combining of ingredients was all done by how much looked right, but I can give you a list of ingredients so you can play with it too!

Tomatoes (I used 2 of my mom's small bottles of tomatoes) blended until smooth
Heavy Cream  (edit: I went back and checked and it took about 1 cup of the cream)
Garlic (1 fairly large clove- chopped)
~2 Tbsp butter
Parmesan Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese
Macaroni
Salt

In a saucepan melt the butter.  Add the garlic and cook on medium high until fragrant and slightly brown.  Reduce the heat to medium.  Add the blended tomatoes all at once to the butter and garlic.  Stir cream into the sauce until it is a pinkish red color.  Reduce sauce by half, stirring frequently (but not constant).

Fill a pot about 2/3 full of water.  Add salt and bring to a boil.  Dump the macaroni in and let boil- stirring occasionally- to al dente.  Drain and rinse.

When the sauce has been reduced and while the pasta is cooking, add desired amounts of parmesan and mozzarella cheeses and let them melt.  Reduce heat to low and continue stirring sauce occasionally to prevent burning.  After the pasta has been rinsed, return it to the pot and add the sauce all at once.  Stir together until pasta is fully and evenly coated and serve.

I know its a very vague recipe.  Maybe next time I'll try measuring everything out to see how much of it is used.  If anyone tries it though, let me know what you think!

P.S. A word of caution- if you are using the bottled, pre-ground type parmesan cheese like Kraft makes the cheese is much stronger than you give it credit for.  I went overboard on the parm and it is really overpowering the other flavors.  That being said, it still tastes pretty good to me, give it a try!