A very sad but tasty ice cream alternative

I love dairy in all its forms, especially cheese and ice cream, but apparently it doesn't get along so well with my intestinal tract (the whey), so I've had to forgo ice cream loveliness for awhile (it could be a long summer!) as almost every variety of ice cream or sherbet I can afford has added whey or milk, though I seem to tolerate heavy cream okay and I'm not bold enough to spend actual money on a soy or other plant based alternative for fear it will be a repeat of soy cheese (ugh!).  So I've been playing around with things like fruit juice and instant pudding trying to find a decent alternative that tastes great, is easy to make (I don't own an ice cream maker), and doesn't cost a fortune.  I tried a sorbet recipe I found online but that is basically a frozen slushy, while tasty, it isn't ice cream.  But after a bit of trial and error, I think I actually found something that works, it even has the right texture and you can scoop it without having to let it thaw for 10 minutes on the counter!  Feel free to play with flavors, the possibilities are endless!

Easy Freezer Fruit 'Sherbet':

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add a small package of jello (any flavor), stir until well combined.

While waiting for your water, in a clean gallon ice cream pail with a lid combine 1 container of 100% juice juice concentrate, 1/2 cup sugar, and if desired, a dash of lemon juice and vanilla.  Add the jello mixture and stir well.  Place in the freezer until ice begins to form on the sides and top, remove and mix well.  Mix in two small containers of cool-whip until well combined and return to the freezer, stirring every 60 minutes or so, scraping the frozen stuff off the edges and bottom and mixing well.  Eventually it will be the consistency of ice cream and you'll have a nice fruity treat!  If you are using orange juice or something similar, I'd leave out the lemon or it might get too tart, almond extract makes a nice addition as well.  Enjoy!

Not our mother...

“The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. This gives to the typically Christian pleasure in this earth a strange touch of lightness that is almost frivolity. Nature was a solemn mother to the worshipers of Isis and Cybele. Nature was a solemn mother to Wordsworth or to Emerson. But Nature is not solemn to Francis of Assisi or to George Herbert. To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.”

~ G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy~

'Tis the season for outdoor adventures, and in this age of 'trees over people,' this is an excellent point to remember!  Go out and enjoy nature, but not as a goddess or mother, but rather as a friend, a blessing, an inheritance of which we are stewards!

Cheater's Peach Crisp

I love peach crisp, but for most of the year peaches are not in season around here, and those you can get at the store taste like nothing.  I bought some once to make jam and could only taste the dash of lemon juice I added to the concoction, ugh!  So what do you do when you crave peach crisp but can't use real peaches for one reason or another?  Use canned!  No peeling, no lackluster flavor, no stickiness everywhere, and even better, you can make about 3 servings in 15 minutes rather than a gigantic crisp that you can't eat (or shouldn't eat) the entirety of and takes several hours to complete.  You can even make it gluten free.  So what are you waiting for?

1 15oz can sliced peaches (your choice of juice/syrup)
2 Tbsp oatmeal
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour (your choice, I used oat)
pinch of salt

Divide the peaches evenly between 3 oven safe single serve bowls (custard cups, stoneware, mugs) cutting into bite size pieces.  Combine the oatmeal, flour, sugar and salt then cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, sprinkle over peaches and bake in a 385 degree oven until bubbly and golden brown.  Serve with ice cream and enjoy!  That's it!

Dark in the Dell, Joy in the Morning

"One evening Sam came into the study and found his master looking very strange. He was very pale and his eyes seemed to see things far away. 

"What's the matter, Mr. Frodo?' said Sam. 

"I am wounded,' he answered, 'wounded; it will never really heal.' 

But when he got up, and the turn seemed to pass, and he was quite himself the next day. It was not until afterwards that Sam recalled that the date was October the sixth. Two years before on that day it was dark in the dell under Weathertop."

~Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien~

I keep thinking I'm going to be 100%, I'm going to get over this, I can heal and be like I was or should have been, but no matter how much I grow or learn or heal or change, it never seems to be enough.  Frodo came back from Mordor triumphant, but not whole, a different person than he was when he set forth, a better, bigger person no doubt, but one who was wounded with an ache that would never heal.  And he had to embrace that pain, that sorrow, that wound if he was to live without the chains of bitterness dragging him down into the inescapable pit of despair.  We all carry such a wound, whether we realize it or not.  It is the way of this broken world, none escapes it unscathed or unscarred, and we must realize the truth of the matter if we, like Frodo, are to live at peace with ourselves and our world.  We can't despair because things can't go back to the way they were, rather we acknowledge that truth and move on with our lives as best we can, we give ourselves permission to have bad days and weak episodes, but we can't live in that place of darkness, else we aren't really living.

What are you dealing with?  What haunts you?  Are you tired of trying every pill, diet, exercise, supplement, lifestyle, therapy known to man?  I'm not saying there aren't things that can help or that medical help should not be sought, but rather that there are just some wounds that this world can't heal, that we must learn to live with rather than letting it consume our lives and hope.  But Frodo had a hope, even when all hope seemed lost.  We can have that hope too.  We are promised that joy does indeed come in the morning, but first we must make it through this disquiet and interminable night of sorrow called life.  Even in the grim and hopeless shadows of Mordor, Sam sings this bit of encouragement to lighten their aggrieved and weary hearts:

Though here at journey's end I lie

in darkness buried deep,

beyond all towers strong and high,

beyond all mountains steep,

above all shadows rides the Sun

and Stars for ever dwell:

I will not say the Day is done,

nor bid the Stars farewell.

And that too can be our hope, no matter our pain or lot, at least if we are willing to seek the true Master of those stars, the One who wrought and named each one, Who counts the hairs upon our heads and knew our names ere we were born, Who counted our lives more precious than the life of His own Son.