current life happenings

recent date night

Here are some things currently happening in our life....

-Slater started a new job a couple of weeks ago at a new outdoor store. Outdoor Waco will open sometime in April! It will be a bike shop, an outdoor store, and a coffee shop all in one in downtown Waco.

-I am still loving my job as the Admissions Coordinator for the Master's program at the Baylor School of Social Work.

-We are in a night discipleship training school with our church. We go to class two nights a week from 6-10. We worship God, hear teachings, are discipled, read through the Bible, memorize Scripture, read books, share the Gospel, serve in our church weekly, disciple others, and go deeper in our walk with the Lord. We are learning a lot. It feels really busy to work full time jobs and go to night school, but we are thankful for this unique season of life and for the ways we are going deeper in our faith together during our second year of marriage in this discipleship training school.

-We are running the 5k portion of the Bearathon next weekend. It will be my first 5k to ever run and our first race to run together.

-Slater has been really into playing basketball for many months, but has recently really gotten into playing frisbee golf. He has been playing with guys often. He taught me how to play. I like it because you can hang out while you play. There are beautiful courses at Cameron Park. We have been spending lots of time at Cameron Park lately and are thankful for the spring weather, longer days, and more time outside.

-I still love cooking and trying new recipes. Slater is always happy to eat my food, and we enjoy being in the kitchen together.

-We transitioned out of leading in the college ministry at our church last summer and are really loving our new young adult lifegroup.

-Waco has a new downtown farmer's market and we like going on Saturdays and buying our eggs and maybe fresh veggies or a crepe.

-We had a week long break from our night class in honor of spring break and we really enjoyed being active at the park together and getting more time hanging out with our friends. Slater played more frisbee golf with his friends and I had a girls night of cooking and watching a movie. We love our friends.

-We love Saturdays at home together!

Crawfish Etouffee

I am a southern, Louisiana girl. I was born in New Orleans and then lived in Shreveport almost all of my life. I have lived in and loved Texas for almost six years now. There are many things I treasure about Texas. However, the cajun food in Louisiana cannot be beat. My brother is an excellent chef. He worked for a crawfish catering company for years, went to culinary school at the Cordon Bleu in Belgium and Paris, was the daily chef for 500 students at a YWAM base, and now works as a cook at a Mongolian restaurant in California. He loves cooking for large crowds and I love cooking for smaller dinner parties with friends and family. He is the cajun food cooking expert, so I texted him for some crawfish etouffee tips. Here is my recipe (using some tips from my brother) for Crawfish Etouffee.

Ingredients:

1/2 stick unsalted butter

4 1/2 tbsp canola oil

2 1/2 tbsp flour

1/2 a large yellow onion

1 chopped green bell pepper

2 stalks of celery chopped

4 cloves of minced garlic

4 stalks of green onions chopped

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons of Tony Chacheres seasoning

2 tbsp white cooking wine

1 1/2 cups of water

1 pound crawfish tails

dash of salt

2 tsp lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp of dried parsley

cooked brown rice

Instructions:

Chop all the vegetables. In a large pot (I use my Le Creuset dutch oven), melt the butter over medium-high heat and add the canola oil. Add in the flour. Stir continuously to make a light roux. (I use a wisk. Do not stop stirring! You do not want to burn the roux.) Let the roux thicken a little. Add the onions, dried parsley, celery, bell pepper, green onions, bay leaves, garlic, salt, and some Tony's. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes until the vegetables are soft. (Adding in the dried parsley right after making the roux helps release the flavor more.)

 Add in the white cooking wine. Cook for 3 minutes. Add the water and the crawfish tails. Sprinkle in more Tony's. Bring to a boil. After it boils, reduce the heat and simmer until thickened, about 7 minutes. Add in the lemon juice and the rest of the Tony's. Serve over the brown rice.

Laissez les bon temps roulet!

(Commonly said in New Orleans. French phrase meaning "Let the good times roll!")

Spring

I am listening to a songbird make melodies as the sunshine streams in through my windows covering me in a blanket of warmth. I feel a strong sense of delight and am daydreaming of gardens, summer vacations, and fresh flowers. Spring is coming! The coming of Spring renews hope in me in the strongest way. I have a natural aversion to winter. I have always disliked it. I am trying to grow an appreciation for it because my husband dearly loves it, but it usually makes me a little miserable. I suppose because I dislike feeling cold, I relish Spring as it promises light and warmth. I am such a sunshine girl. I crave sunshine more than I crave chocolate. There is promise in the budding of plants, joy in the melodies of songbirds, and happiness in basking in sunlight. God is so kind to bring Spring every year. Here are a few of my favorite Spring images I have pinned on my Pinterest. (Follow me at http://pinterest.com/marylinds/ .)

 New life!

 I can't wait to plant a vegetable and flower garden someday.

Fields of wildflowers are one of life's supreme delights.

I would love to host a dinner party for my friends in this lovely setting.

Japanese Magnolia tree. My parents have one in their front yard. Its blooming is one of the happiest sings of Spring.

Fields of sunflowers. :)

I would love to live in a cottage like this with Slater someday. I will walk outside to cut fresh flowers from our yard to have fresh life in every room in our quaint cottage.

All this talk of Spring has me looking forward to summer and the beach!

 

photo credits: www.aholyexperience.com, whattopin.com, thebottomoftheironingbaskey.blogspot.com, www.google.com, treespictures.net, kellymccaleb.tumblr.com, vintagerosebrocante.tumblr.com