Humpty Dumpty Jumpty

Good Morning!  Kael and I are up early this morning because I have to pack.  I also wanted to get this out to you early so that I could really focus on my day.  Yesterday morning I was baking before church and I was thinking about how the bible uses food analogies.

1^st Corinthians 5:6-7, Paul speaking to the church at Corinth and he writes: Your boasting is not good.  Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?  Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.  For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Leaven is yeast or other ingredient that causes dough to rise.  This was an example they understood, because they actually had to bake their own bread.  Not to mention they had to grow and gather the grain.  Then grind it up, then make the dough, let it rise, bake it…and lastly after all that effort they got to eat it.  Now we get to drive our scooter through Walmart and pay $1.99 to knock a bag of bread in our cart.  Another thought for another day.

It is inevitable, if you bake with eggs you will at one point or another get shell in the batter.  If you choose to ignore the glaring little white chunk of shell and finish your baking someone is bound to end up with that piece of shell and it will ruin your tasty treat for them.

Once I was eating a piece of chocolate cake.  It was so good; soft, moist, and delicious, and then it happened…crunch!  Egg shell.  ‘Awww man!  If they got egg shell in the batter what else could be in here?’, is what I thought to myself as I discreetly raised my napkin to my mouth to get rid of the evidence of their oversight.  You must, I repeat must, go after the shell if you see that you didn’t get a clean break.

Sometimes it is messy trying to retrieve that little shard of Humpty Dumpty that jumped into the bowl; but if you don’t, you or someone you love will have to pay the price and eat shell.

 

Sin is the same way.  If you leave it in your life and cover it up it will come to light sooner or later and either you or someone you love will have to deal with it.  I was thinking about this the other day when I had an ‘Awww man! Doggonit!’, egg shell mishap.  I am usually really good at breaking eggs and often do it one handed.  “Look mom, one hand!” Ha ha! But it happened and I knew what I had to do.

I got a clean spoon out and I chased the little turkey (yes, I am referring to the egg shell fragment as a turkey, it seems very fitting to me) through the egg white.  It kept going deeper into the batter, but I couldn’t give up, I had to get it.  I knew if I acted too hasty it might escape; game on.  So I leaned in and slowed down.  It took a bit of maneuvering, but finally victory was mine!  I got it and took it out, and restored peace in my kitchen.

Once this unfortunate event was behind me I kept thinking about what could have happened if I left it there and I how when sin gets in you have got to get it out.  I guess what I felt God let me have the opportunity to see in my silly little egg shell moment was that you can’t leave sin in your life like you can’t leave shell in the batter.  You will ruin your life, or ruin your cake.

If there is something in your life that you haven’t dealt with that you know God is dealing with you on, deal with it!  Deal? J

I made some more Biscotti yesterday.  Caleb and I are leaving early tomorrow morning for Washington.  I can’t wait to see all my Seattle family and friends.  I haven’t been home since January and when I was there I was sick.  I am looking forward to catching up on some sleep.  Pray for us for safe traveling, and that Caleb will be an angel on the plane.  My mom wrote me an email telling me how excited she was that we were coming.  She also mentioned how sad she was that they were on their last piece of the Biscotti I sent for mother’s day.

You don’t have to ask me twice to bake biscotti!

I must say that this Cinnamon Toast Biscotti I made is my favorite to date.  I really like the flavor combination of the cinnamon dipped in white chocolate…what could be better?  I am thinking next time I am going to try key lime and white chocolate; oh, the possibilities!

Cinnamon Toast Biscotti

Ingredients:

¾ cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ½ cups flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped nuts (I used my usual nut/seed/dried berry mix)

1 extra egg

Preheat oven to 350

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add in eggs one at a time and vanilla.  In a large bowl whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt together.  Gradually combine the wet mixture in with your dry ingredients.  Stir in your chopped nuts and berries.  Shape dough into one or two logs about 12 inches long and flatten to about ½ inch thickness. In a small bowl whisk an egg.  With a pastry brush or the back of a spoon, brush the egg over the top of your biscotti so that it glistens.  Sprinkle with some cinnamon and sugar.

Bake for about 30 minutes.  Let sit for about 5-10 minutes, just until your cookie sheets are cool enough to handle.  Use a knife and cut your biscotti to your desired thickness.  If you chose to make two logs out of the dough you can cut them on the diagonal to get bigger pieces.  Return to the baking sheet and space them slightly apart.  In the picture below if you are like "where did all the delicious cinnamon and sugar go?" I would first commend you for being so observant.  I didn't know how the cinnamon and sugar would turn out so I made two batches one with and one without.  

Bake for about 10 more minutes.  Let cool completely.  When they are cool you can melt your chocolate and dip them.  Oooooooohhhhhhh YUMMY!

Xoxo

Ronda