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The culmination of Jars of Renewal — four Christmas baskets filled with homemade goodies being delivered today.

I was reading scripture I’ll be teaching at church this morning and it specifically mentions two turtle doves. Coincidence? Nah. Amazing is more like it.

So, Joseph and Mary had to pay God two turtle doves when Jesus turned 30 days old to officially buy him back from the Lord — per Jewish tradition. Isn’t that fascinating? I didn’t know anything about this until I was researching Simeon and Anna and how to present, once again, a daunting topic to children. Today’s I’m to speak of Anna’s grace.

This got me thinking — grace. It’s a concept I’ve only recently begun to understand. How should I explain this to a gaggle of noisy, Christmas-hyped children? I started thinking about ways I experienced grace as a kid, even though I didn’t recognize it then.

• That immediate sense of relief and joy diving into a cold pool on a scorching day
• The first time I held my baby brother
• That breath-taking moment between jumps on a giant trampoline
• The smell of wet desert
• The sneaky joy of catching your parents in a private look and witnessing their love
• The ocean or Grand Canyon for the first time and that moment when you think, “No! It can’t be!”

Grace is easier to understand as an adult — I find myself feeling that spiritual presence when instead of being characteristically impatient, I take a deep breath and keep listening, don’t flip the person off in traffic, stop to speak to a homeless person in need of conversation as much as change.

Here goes nothing!

~K

BEFORE: And the commotion begins. I took on a bit too much for this dinner; from beginning to end, it took about six hours to prepare and clean up afterward.

Aztec squash soup

Turkey chile

Carbs o’ plenty

AFTER: phew.

Last night’s communiy dinner menu included: crockpot turkey chile, aztec squash soup, buttermilk biscuits, cornbread, carrot cake, brownies, homemade hot chocolate with candy canes and marshmallows and a partridge in a pear tree. The prep for this dinner took quite a bit of time, but it was well worth it. There was plenty of food, lots of cheer and even a dozen friends who stuck around to go caroling afterward. We walked through the neighborhood singing a variety of tunes completely off key and completely enjoying ourselves. We agreed the night was well worth embarrassing ourselves when we came to a house where an older gentleman opened the door and his wife, bald from what we guessed was cancer treatment, cheered us on.

We spread a bit of cheer and walked off those calories in the process. I had a lot of fun and am really thankful for my friends. I realized last night as we tromped through the street that I have some incredible people in my life, willing to do the ridiculous to make me happy.

A month or so ago, Colleen sent me a sweet package including a jar of her spicy tomato chutney {recipe here!}. She said in her note that this was good on “just about everything.” I am a pretty basic girl when it comes to condiments. I like spicy mustard, balsamic vinegar, salsa, and a bit of pepper. I rarely need anything more — unless it is the occasional dip into the crunchy peanut butter for a bagel.

Once I opened the jar, I quickly realized I was going to need more of this stuff and I was going to need it soon! It was rich, spicy, tangy and just as she said — good as a dip with vegetables, great as a spread on a whole wheat tortilla and turkey wrap, yummy on quinoa, and delicious as a spread with grilled chicken. I was in love.

Colleen shared her recipe and yesterday I managed to get a bit of cooking accomplished. Using a canning book Finny sent me for my birthday, I used a few more of those Jars of Renewal recycled jars and voila — seven more small gifts for the holidays.

Considering both of my forays into canning have been solo adventures, I’m not certain I’m doing everything just right. Also, I really should have read the recipe better because malt vinegar and normal old vinegar aren’t the same. It is still yummy, but it is different than what Colleen sent me. Next time, I’ll follow her words to the t.

I highly recommend this simple and sassy recipe. I plan to partner these with freshly baked loaves of bread and a great bottle of red wine for a few Christmas gifts. I am also quite pleased at the number of jars I’ve repurposed with this little Jars of Renewal project. Yahoo!

If you are looking for other great frugal (yet truly fabulous) ideas for Christmas, check out my other friend Colleen’s great project.

Cheers,

K

Do you have men in your life who you want to treat to homemade gifts but who recoil at the thought of anything crafted? Yeah. I’ve got a bunch of those too. I’ve spent way, way too much time and energy in the past trying to change their minds with felted pencil holders, embroidered pot holders, and even a man bag or two. I haven’t known my audience well.

When J asked me last week if I’d ever heard of chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, I knew what the next Jars of Renewal project would be. Jason is the husband of one of my best friends and father to a small cadre of children who I adore. He is also the brains behind the design of this site and worthy of all the tailored spoiling I can muster.

I bought a large jar of roasted sunflower seeds, two large dark chocolate Hershey’s bars and threw them together on a cookie sheet. This then went in the freezer for an hour and then I carefully broke the pieces apart by hand before filling the jars. A simple, salty-sweet treat I’m guessing most men (women, children, monkeys) would love.

~K

DC was excellent; I had such a great time at the Green Festival with Mike and Sam. Let me tell you — these two know how to hosts guests.

The adorable Tuck home.

They not only drove me around for three days, set up a hotel room in the city so we could walk and enjoy our time without worrying about driving back to the burbs, and spoiled me silly with chocolates on the pillow, awesome food and gobs of time, but they did so graciously. They didn’t make me feel like a guest, but like someone they’d really been looking forward to seeing and I couldn’t be more thankful. We also spent a night in Georgetown singing Billy Joel songs at a piano bar, surrounded by hot men in suits. (Seriously, DC? Good work on the men. Well-dressed eye candy abounds.)
It was a blast, and I’m pretty sure everyone within a five-foot distance — as far as my shouting voice could carry over the piano — knew that there were no such venues in Maricopa County. Phoenix, we need a piano bar, lots of Billy Joel and more suit-worthy weather.

Spicy chicken wrap with local veggie salad: $10. This was about three bites and the one thing I’d change about the festival was the commercial angle. They charged $1 for a cup of water — as in they charged you for the cup and then you used the faucet. Pretty silly.

Africankelli bag being rocked at the festival by Ms. Sam.

Books for sale a the fest. I didn’t buy any books. I spent my cash on an ionized foot detox instead. The photos are here, but be forewarned, they are horrifying.

We also heard Marion Nestle and Amy Goodman speak. Nestle is one of my public health heroines and she did not disappoint. Goodman gave me an entirely new perspective of the media. I learned gobs and felt right at home with my fellow Birkenstock-wearing, earth-loving, tree-hugging friends.

My notebook, ready for some Marion Nestle insight…

Dr. Nestle, who within five minutes of taking the stage made me reconsider everything I eat. In a nutshell: the US now imports the majority of our foods (and preservatives and pharmaceuticals) from China, India and Mexico — noteworthy because of their lack of quality control in areas such as preservatives and pharmaceuticals. Or so she and the recent dog food/melamine/baby formula scandals would suggest. Scary. Her talk made me sit up straight and think of all the foods I’d eaten in the last two hours that had countless preservatives, most of which probably came from an unregulated source. Yikes. Time to make some serious pantry changes.

In response, we decided not to go out for dinner after the conference. Instead we celebrated with a homemade meal and lots of local incredients:

Roast acorn squash filled with apples and garlic…

Turkey, sage and squash simmering with onion and olive oil.

Voila — the perfect meal to end a fantastic weekend. We included local Tarara wine, which was excellent.

There is certainly something to eating fresh, local and eventually vegan.

Three cheers to the Tuckers at Washington DC. I’m smitten.

~K