Garlic Parmesan Twists with Pizza Dipping Sauce

This makes a fun meal or appetizer and is a nice 'twist' on pizza or breadsticks.

For Breadsticks:

Bread dough (use your favorite recipe and method and add 2 tsp italian seasoning to the dough or use frozen or store-bought dough and add the seasoning with the garlic, the amount depends on how many breadsticks you want, 4 cups of flour yielded enough to feed a family of three (as a meal) with plenty left over to freeze).

Roll the dough out into a great big rectangle (or several small rectangles) much as you would for cinnamon rolls, aim for about 1/4 inch thick or a little less.

Using your favorite oil, melted margarine or butter, cover the entire surface (don't be stingy).  Shake garlic, a little salt, and parmesan cheese (and the italian seasoning) on top of oil and allow to soak in for a minute or two.  Cut into 1 inch strips with a pizza cutter and cut each strip about 6 inches long.

For each strip, fold it over on itself to get a 3 inch strip with the oil sides together.  Press firmly together over entire length.  Then begin stretching the dough while twisting each end in opposite directions.  Once the twist is of the desired length and shape, place on a baking sheet (they tend to untwist a bit and may need to be repositioned).  Repeat with each twist.  Cover and let rise until double.  Bake in a 375 degree oven until puffed and barely golden.  Serve warm, place extra twists in freezer and reheat in the oven.

Sauce:

In a saucepan over low heat (or in a very small crockpot) place a layer of your favorite pizza, tomato, or spaghetti sauce.  Top with parmesan cheese, shredded pepperoni, etc., then cover with more sauce, top it all with a mixture of your favorite pizza type cheeses.  Don't stir, just heat slowly through (while the twists rise) until the sauce is warm and the cheese melts.  Serve directly from the pan.

Secular Head-scratchers

American society as a whole tends to scratch its head in wonder at the often quirky, sometimes batty, evangelical subculture, but they ain't seen nothin' yet!  Most of them have never been to an evangelical women's conference, then they'd really have something to gawk at.  I'm not saying there is anything wrong with such conferences, I've been to a few and they are a blessing to many, and it may be there is something wrong with me rather than the movement: I'm the geeky twenty something sister who's rather fond of but a little embarrassed by a gushing, emotional, flighty younger sister barely into her teens.  This article was a breath of fresh air!  In our culture it is so hard to differentiate our worth and dignity and value and identity in the church from 'identity politics,' we forget that it isn't Who or What we are, what our lot in the genetic lottery is, but rather Whose we are.  While it is fine to contemplate your role as a 'woman in Christ,' what is far more important is to think about Who Christ is and your identity in Him.  If you are a Christian, He is the be all and end all of your life, goals, hopes, fears, doubts, identity, and eternal future; He's not a flower you put in your hat to complement your dress.

As the old hymn puts it:

'Love so amazing, so Divine, demands my life, my soul, my all!"

In love and war

'All's fair in love and war,' but what about at the fair?  I've been entering stuff at the fair (baked goods, plants, flowers, photos…) for as long as I can remember, but I still think predicting the weather is a whole lot easier than determining how any given item will do any given year for any given person.  This year especially was a little weird, my now 4 year old actually had a few things to enter along with my usual junk.  I entered some of the best pictures I had ever taken, but came away with little to show for my efforts (versus last year where I did very well with less stellar photos) whereas somehow a certain small person walked away with a grand champion in the youth baking division, I feel rather bad for the twelve year old he bested, but then a 14 year old took grand champion in photography (in the adult division) so I guess I know how the kid feels!  I'm not sure what the answer is though, as we have so few entries that having more than 2 age divisions is about impossible but having a 4 year old compete against a twelve year old and a 14 year old compete against an octogenarian is a little silly, especially when it comes to giving the youngsters a little edge in each group, you can't do that without disappointing the oldsters a little, regardless of age, be they 12 or 78!

But then all should remember this is just for fun, we should laugh at the incongruities and at ourselves, and just do our best and be content in knowing we did a good job, and not really care what anyone else thinks, especially when it means some kid gets a big purple ribbon and a little pat on the back for a job well done, even if it wasn't quite as good as that other photo or flower or bread done by the person with decades of experience, but for their age and experience it was well done indeed!  That sort of bias I can live with, especially when it is little old ladies (read grandmas) who are doing all the work/judging, they just can't help themselves.  It is the political bias, basing the outcome on the name rather than the work, that really frustrates me.  The county fair in our previous county did that, I only entered one year, and after I discovered how things worked in that county, I didn't bother with it thereafter, it was too much work and all vain.  I don't mind losing if there are better competitors, or even younger competitors with a good (for their age) exhibit, but when the mediocre and pathetic are winning left and right because the person who entered the project has a certain name, then there is no point in us nobodies even trying.

It reminds me of that story out of the 'All Creatures Great and Small' books by James Herriot, when he is asked to judge the pet show at the county fair.  He talks to each exhibitor, looks at each animal, and then decides that a goldfish, owned by a little boy of no great name, is the winner because he knew all about fish keeping whereas the other children really hadn't a clue.  You can imagine how the parents reacted!  I guess not much has changed in the last hundred years, or even throughout all of human history, just look at how the parents react in any children's sporting event!

This week's lesson: happy in the here and now!

'Only if…' the words ring with angst and anguish and an uneasy hope down through the ages, afflicting every mortal soul, 'I'll be happy only if…'  When I'm married/have a child/finish my degree/own my own house/can afford to travel/get over this chronic health issue/find the right job…what's your 'only if?'  I've had several over the years, and none have really made me happy once achieved, for I'm always seeming to glance from the 'only if' just attained to the next lurking upon the horizon.  But this article hits it head on: I am falling into the trap of neglecting my present joy by regretting the future, whatever it is.  There is great wisdom in the saying, 'Godliness with contentment is great gain.'  It is certainly easy to fall into the pit of self-pity in a culture whose sole preoccupation seems to be 'keeping up with the Jones,'' especially with our social media addiction, wherein our real lives and selves are never displayed, only the happy, easy bits, making us feel that all the world but we ourselves is happy and untroubled.  Maybe minding my own P's and Q's is actually not such a bad thing after all, and therein lies true Joy, rather than skulking around some turn of an as yet untrod road!