A Pair of Bartletts

Grandma's Vegetable Beef Soup

I made this incredibly warming, comforting and downright yummy soup today, and it was all thanks to Rob's late Grandmother Crabtree. Y'all know by now that I don't measure much of anything, but I think I can get this pretty close for those who need to stick to the step by step.

Here is what you will need:

GRANDMA CRABTREE'S VEGETABLE BEEF SOUP

2 pounds of good beef stew meat

2-3 beef boulion cubes (or more to taste)

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

3 large ribs of celery, chopped bite sized

5 large carrots, peeled & sliced into 1/4 rounds

1 cup heaping frozen mixed vegetables

1 heaping cup frozen mixed okra

1 cup heaping frozen butter beans

1 medium russet potato, cubed (small) (optional)

1 large can of whole tomatoes in sauce

Water

Coarse kosher salt

Black pepper

Olive oil

In a large 5 quart Dutch oven, heat a few teaspoons of olive oil and brown stew meat, enough to get color but not cooked through. Cover meat with about 4-5 cups of water (halfway up the pot) and drop in at least 2 boulion cubes and add two good pinches of kosher salt. Bring to a boil, cover and let meat cook about 15-20 minutes. Add chopped onion, carrots and celery and cook 15 more minutes at a rapid simmer. Add frozen veggies, then add whole tomatoes one at the time, squishing each one before you drop it in. Add all residual tomato sauce from the can. Add enough water (if necessary) to fill the pot almost to the top. Allow to cook at a very rapid simmer, stirring off and on for a good hour. Adjust seasoning to your taste with salt and pepper. If you want a thicker "stoup" (Rachel Ray's term for a cross between a stew and a soup), add the chopped potato in the last 15 minutes of cooking. If you don't use the potato, consistency will remain that of soup. Adding the potato will definitely thicken it a bit.

Serve with crackers, cornbread or some hot homemade crusty bread. Enjoy!!!

From A Stump To Butterfly Paradise

 

 

This beauty in the picture is quite deceiving. It is hard to look at something that is thriving and green and flowering and really see what had become of it. This beautiful varigated lantana bush had become nothing more than an ugly brown twiggy stump that was sticking out of the corner of a flower bed. Rob and I moved to this house a year ago. The flower beds had become terribly overgrown after the previous owner passed away. The sad part was that 40 years of beautifully cultivated flowers and plants had become buried and covered up by overgrown ugliness. One Saturday afternoon about 2 months ago I began to dig in and focus on uncovering and saving what I could in the beds. That is when I encountered a stump. Honestly, I almost yanked it up by the root. The only thing that kept me from totally destroying it was that it had one tiny green leaf peeking out at the base. When I saw the leaf, I saw a glimmer of hope for the stump. Fortunately I have grown up around plants and gardens and knew that this stump had to have been a bush, due to the size of it. The leaf also looked incredibly familiar. So, I decided that the right thing to do would be to coddle and protect it and water it and feed it, in order to uncover whatever loveliness might lie beneath the ugliness.

So, I started with trimming part of the stump that was obviously burnt.  I clipped off the unhealthiest parts and left what I thought would be the most viable.  Every day, I've watered the stump, until finally, a few more green leaves started peeking out...then another, and then another.  I was so excited!  We were getting somewhere!  I finally had enough leaves on it that I could do some further "testing" of the future "fruit" and not destroy it totally.  So, I plucked off a leaf, crumpled it and smashed it between my fingers and then gave it a deep sniff....just what I thought!  I had lantana on my hands.  I knew down deep what was really under that stump, but I had to be sure.  I had been around enough lantana over the years to know what fragrance it "should" give off when put to the test.  I knew that lantana was really a beautiful plant and not an ugly stump.  I also knew that not only would there be a beautiful lantana bush in my garden, but that just its presence would attract other things to my garden, like beautiful butterflies and some great pollenating bumble bees.  I knew that this would bring an overall benefit to the rest of the garden and not just to that one plant.

At any rate, as you can see from the picture, all of those months of deadness and ugliness and pruning paid off.  The beauty underneath is nothing that I could have produced on my own...it was only because of the pruning and nurturing that had to be done to the plant.  It had to become nothing, only to become bigger, better and more beautiful than ever.  

This beautiful plant is only likened to the pruning that the Lord has to do the stumps of our lives.  We become burnt, ugly and nothing more than a stump, but God looks beyond the ugliness.  He can see that one little green leaf peeking out and He can also see the finished product that is on the other side.  My lantana plant didn't have a choice as to whether I would prune it or not.  It could do nothing more than sit there, dormant, stagnant and ugly.  It was totally reliant on me, the vinedresser, to come and rescue it, love it, see beyond its ugliness and cultivate its beauty.  

I am thankful for the reminders that the Lord provides to me, even in something as simple as going out this morning to water flowers.  He is constantly giving me life lessons and life reminders through His word.  I am thankful for His reminder of the words in John 15 today.  I pray that they will be as meaningful to you today as they were to me.  He always has perfect timing and He always provides gentle reminders right when I need them.  I just have to resign and allow Him to continue to prune me so that I can bring forth the best fruit in my life and that I can be an example to others.  Thank you Lord for your lessons!  I'll leave you with the words that He gives us in John 15 about he Vinedresser....

John 15 (NKJV)

 

The True Vine

 ¹ “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;^[a] and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will^[b] ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ⁸ By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

Blessings to you on this Lord's day,

 

Think Pink

I pray that this blog post find everyone doing well.  I can't exactly say that the great State of Alabama has been doing so well.  Some of you may not know, but a tornado of epic proportions, along with many other tornados, ripped through certain parts of our beautiful state and destroyed or utterly leveled everything in it's (their) path(s).  Many people lost their lives....many people are still nowhere to be found.  We do not understand, but what we do know is that God is Sovereign and He is still on His throne.  Although it's hard for our fleshly minds to grasp, none of this caught our great God by surprise.  And in the wake of the destruction of 4/27/2011, God's people have banded together and exhibited the true spirit of brotherly love that the Bible teaches.  This incredible storm hit a little too close to home for me, as I have immediate family members that were in its vicious path.  Praise God alone, my family members were unharmed.  However, there are many in their lives who were not so fortunate to go without total devastation.  

Please continue to keep the great state of Alabama (and the surrounding great states of Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee) in your prayers.  They were also greatly affected by off shooting storms from the massive system that went through Alabama.  I can't help but think of the words that Jesus spoke when the disciples woke Him up in the bottom of the boat in a panic over a storm...."Peace Be Still".  Our Father is still the Peace Speaker.  

Isaiah 41:10 (New King James Version)

¹⁰ Fear not, for I am with you; 
      Be not dismayed, for I am your God. 
      I will strengthen you, 
      Yes, I will help you, 
      I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ 

 

On a final note, I'm sure that you might be wondering why I included a picture of a hydrangea (of all things) in a post that is about the destruction of a tornado.  Well, I'll tell you why.  The reason that I chose this picture was simply as a reminder.  Hydrangeas can be grown in many places in the United States, but there is something unique about Alabama hydrangeas.  They're almost impossible to kill...and they come back bigger and stronger every single year for decades...for probably centuries.  There is not really anything that you can do to them to destroy them.  You might even cut it back to a nub, but guess what...it's still probably going to come back even better.  This hydrangea happens to be in my yard.  It's a "Penny Mac" pink hydrangea.  And to me, it represents the strength of the great state of Alabama in the face of utter death and destruction....God has seen us through incredibly tough times on the Gulf Coast and all over Alabama.  We are totally vulnerable to hurricanes and now this system of tornadoes in the middle and northern parts of our state.  But God is still on the throne and we will give Him the glory for the great things that HE is going to do as a result of the devastation that has occurred.  And, rest assured, Alabama will be back...and we will be bigger and stronger and even more beautiful than before.  I think our state will need to renamed from "Alabama the Beautiful" to "Alabama the INCREDIBLY Beautiful"!

Thank you in advance for your continued prayers.  If you are interested in helping with or donating towards Tornado disaster relief, please contact The Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions Tornado Relief or Samaritan's Purse.  Both of these organizations are reputable and both are directly involved with providing immediate relief to victims.  Our great state appreciates every prayer offered up on our behalf. 

To God Be The Glory!