Saturday Morning Thoughts

"Life shrinks or expands according to one’s courage.” Anais Nin (1903-77)

"I guess I’ve always been somewhat of a risk taker, which is amazing when you think about it. I’m a person that is deathly afraid of getting lost, and yet . . . in the year 2000, I hopped on a plane and flew across an ocean to a foreign country to meet the man I thought I was in love with, in person . . . for the very first time. When I think back on it now, I think that it sounds a bit crazy, but I never thought anything about it at the time. It was just something that I needed to do, and I can remember being very excited, and not a bit afraid of what might happen. I had prayed to God for Him to show me the perfect person for me about six months before that, and God had shown me Todd, so . . . I guess I had no reason to be afraid. I was going to meet God’s choice for me! (a beautiful illustration on what happens when you pray and are in tune with the spirit enough to listen for and to hear the answers)



I’m like that with a lot of things in my life. If I wasn’t a bit of a risk taker, I’d never have made the decision to move over to England in the end, and I wouldn’t be sitting here at Oak Cottage writing these words to you right now. I’d probably still be living in my mother’s house and working in a donut shop. Not that there was anything wrong with that (I love my mother), but just think of the great adventure I would have missed out on. I would never have experienced the joy of being married to a person who stands on the same ground as I do spiritually. I would never have gone to Chef’s school. I would never have gotten my job working here at the Manor or be living this very special life that I am living, and it all started with a gutsy girl having enough courage to step on a plane and believe in a future that was within her grasp.

I believe that life presents us with new opportunities all the time, and that it is up to us whether we want to grab hold of them or not. We can take what we see to be the safe road and stick with what is familiar to us, and live a very close life, narrow in experience and in expectations . . . or . . . we can take the road less travelled, and expand our horizons, our joy . . . our experience. The choice is always ours to make.



The world is full of wonderful and beautiful things which came about because people dared to think outside the box and stretch beyond their limitations. It’s all pretty wonderful in my opinion, and I hope that I shall always have the courage to live my life to the fullest, with my face open to the wind and my wings ready to soar. I hope that I will never let my fear of the unknown, or of getting lost, or of what might happen tether me to the ground. I pray every day for the courage to do the things that I need to do, and to make the decisions that I need to make . . . and I listen for that still small voice that tells me the right direction to go in.

Most often I get it right, and when I don’t . . . well . . . it all gets chalked down to experience, and that can’t be half bad, can it? Isn’t that what we’re all here for? “Man is that he might have joy and have it abundantly.” (2 Nephi 2:25) You won’t find that sitting in your safe zone. You have to spread your wings just a little bit and take a chance once in a while."



If you think you have read that before and you are a person who has been following my journal for a couple of years now over at my Muses before I started writing this one on blogger, you would be right. This is one of my previous posts from over there. I thought it was a good one. I was up ever so late last night working and, as often happens when I have to work late, I had a had time falling asleep afterwards. That's the way it is I guess when your brain has been going like mad. It takes a while for it to settle down. Nevermind, I got there in the end!

I'm really excited this morning as I am finally going to meet my good friend Tracy from Pink Purl ! We've been onling blogging friends for quite some time now. We connected right off the bat, which sometimes happens. From the very first time we chatted we felt like kindred spirit friends, even though I am probably about 15 years older than her! It's so wonderful that we are finally going to get to meet each other in real life. She is an American gal that moved over to Norway when she married her husband, who of course is Norweigian! They have been holidaying here in England for the past week and are coming down by train this morning and we are going to spend the day together. TJ and Todd are both civil war buffs so they will have lots to talk about! We are going to take in some of the local scenery and have a picnic, although the weather doesn't look too promising at the moment! Then we will come back here to the cottage and then we have plans to go to the local pub for supper. I just know it will be a wonderful visit!

I'm going to cheat and show you a recipe this morning that I also did on my muses a while back, but I am trying to move all my recipes over here as well! As I mentioned the other day, the potato is my favourite vegetable and I love stuffed jacket potatoes most of all! In fact, one of the very first meals I had over here in England was a Jacket potato stuffed with cheese at some quick food place in London. I had just come in to Heathrow and we were in London waiting for a train to take us on up to Chester. I was soooo tired, having flown all the night before, but was so excited to finally be here and with Todd. I can remember it being very expensive at the time, over £10 for two potatoes and a couple of drinks!



*Chili Stuffed Jacket Potatoes*
Serves 2 - 4 (depending on how hungry you are)

These is the perfect dish when you are tired and lacking in energy and inspiration. I suppose you could just bake the potatoes, and then top them with the chili, but why not go just a little bit further and make something just a tad more exciting! This is sort of like a Chili Cottage Pie all tucked up in a baked jacket potato!

2 large baking potatoes
1 (410g) tin of chili con carne (I used Stagg)
½ cup cheese and spring onion dip (from the refrigerated aisle at the grocery store)
½ cup grated red Leicester cheese

Pre-heat the oven to 200*C/400*F.

Wash and dry the baking potatoes really well. Pierce them with a fork and then place them into the heated oven, directly on the oven rack and roast them for about 45 minutes or until they are tender to the touch and nicely crisped on the outside.

Remove them from the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes. Once you can handle them without burning your fingers, carefully slice them in half lengthwise with a very sharp knife. Using a spoon, very carefully scoop out the potato flesh, leaving a thin potato shell. Try very hard not to tear the skin.

Empty the chili into a saucepan and heat it to a simmer over medium heat, stirring it once in a while to keep it from sticking.

While the chili is heating, mash the potato that you have taken out very well with a fork and then beat in the cheese and onion dip.

Place the potato shells into a shallow casserole dish. Spoon the chili into each one, dividing it equally. Top each with a healthy spoonful of the mashed potato mixture, mounding it up on each one.

Sprinkle the red Leicester cheese evenly over top and then bang them back into the oven to heat for another 15 minutes or so, until they are nicely browned on top and heated well through.

I like to serve them with a tossed salad and some broccoli on the side.