happy burfday jerod!

Last Tuesday Jerod turned 27!



We celebrated the day of with cooking a meal together and eating with Nicole and Charles. We made venison, with a feta sauce, basic tomato sauce with zucchini and brown rice spiral pasta.



celebrating jerod:
1. He loves God
2. While we were getting to know one another and then while we were dating, he pursued me and loved me well. We did not do everything perfect, but he desired to guard my heart and I always knew where I stood: he loved me and the end goal was marriage.
3. Now that we are married, even when we are not communicating well or not seeing eye-to-eye he labors to make our relationship better, and I do not always in the moment give him credit for that.
4. He fixes things well, especially since I am frequently breaking things.
5. He fights for our Sabbath and our date night.
6. He has a good sense of humor, cliche yes, but so important. Sometimes his humor brings perspective.

Jerod is a wonderful man, who loves God and I'm so thankful to be married to him! I would not want to be anywhere else!

dmj.

Pizza with Leftovers

This pizza was AWESOME. I made it with the left over rib meat from Jerod's lunch at The Pit. If you have not been there, you should go. Like every other Empire Eats Restaurant I've been to in Raleigh, it is good eatin! So far we've tried all but Sitti, which is Lebanese cuisine.

(Note: This was the first time I have ever tried to make homemade pizza dough. I usually get the one from Trader Joe's, but I was never happy with it.)



The dough recipe I used is from a favorite blog of mine called Smitten Kitchen. She makes a really simple homemade pizza. Here are some of her tips for pizza making that really helped me.

What went wrong? It turned out pretty well, BUT I think it would have turned out better if I had used actual plastic wrap and NOT aluminum foil. I do not think it trapped the air in the bowl, and hindered the dough from rising to its full potential. I also did not really knead the dough as much as I should have. I really did not know what it meant. But this is a great video I found later that I'll be using next time.
What went well? Well it tasted great, and I will never cook pizza unless I use the broiler EVER AGAIN. Despite my fear the dough did not turn out, it cooked up beautifully under the broiler. I may actually give TJ's dough another go, and see if this technique works. Turning on the broiler 10+ minutes before using it, made a big difference.

Pizza with Leftovers

1 C Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 Yellow Onion, sliced thin
1 Recipe Homemade BBQ sauce
Leftover meat off pork ribs, about 1 C, cut up smaller/shredded
1 Recipe Homemade pizza dough (recipe bellow) or store bought

Make the dough:

3/4 C whole-wheat flour
3/4 C all purpose flour (plus more for your counter)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water, you do not want to kill your yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil (plus more for your bowl)
Corn meal

Baking pan
Plastic wrap

(Note about how I cook: I like to get all my ingredients out and measured for the most part before I start actually doing anything.)

PREP #1: lightly flour your work space, and have extra flour handy.
MIX: In a bowl, place flour, salt and yeast; then add water and olive oil. I used a wooden spoon to gather all ingredients together in a nice ball.
KNEAD: Dump your ball our onto your prepped work space and knead the dough for several minutes. (very important step)
RISING: I put a drop of olive oil in the bowl I used earlier, and rubbed it all over. Then, I put the dough back in the bowl. As mentioned before I put aluminum foil but you should put plastic wrap. Leave it for an hour.
Place dough back on your floured work space, press the dough with your hands and roll back into a ball. Place back under the plastic wrap and leave it along for another 20 min.
PREP #2: Prep all your pizza topping ingredients. And turn on your broiler.
ROLL: Put a little corn meal down on the baking sheet. Then roll out the dough. You will end up making a thin crust pizza with this recipe. Place your rolled out dough on your baking sheet.
I'm sure you could double it to feed more people or to have a thicker crust?
INGREDIENTS: Spread out BBQ sauce on the dough, spread onions out, shredded rib meat, then lastly, spread out shredded cheese over the top.
BROIL: I think I had it in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Everything was hot and crusty... yum! Crusty cheese is one of my favorite things :) The crust was cooked all the way through and not soggy! I wish I had a picture for you but before we thought about it, we had eaten it all! All in all I would call it a semi-success but worth trying again to perfect it! What a great date night this would make though? I always love cooking with Jerod. You can also adapt this in anyway. What I love about cooking is how the better you get, you don't need to panic when you do not have a particular ingredient, you take the basic techniques you know and build on them. Enjoy!

dmj.

Did I pass Lord?

The end of this past week and into the weekend I had the suspicion that God might be testing me. I've been learning a lot about testing as I've been doing the Patriarch study by Beth Moore. Some tests seem extreme, like when God tested Abraham. God seems to go after the thing/things that we love the most. And out tests have our name on them. God puts out "loves" out on the table and forces the issue with us. Have you really given this over to me? Do you really love me more than ___?

In Genesis 22:1-2 God tests Abraham -->

"After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Take you son, your only son Isaac, whom you love , and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.'"

Did Abraham really love God above all else? Even more than the son God provided him that supposedly would be the father of many? But last minute, right before Abraham was about to sacrifice his only son, God provided a ram to take Isaac's place!

Beth Moore points out that throughout Genesis, God is teaching Abraham so he can teach. He provided a way for Abraham to know acceptable sacrifices- the Law. Here he could be foreshadowing the Gospel!

I love this story because it is a reminder; what do I value, what do I love, what have I/have I not given to God? I have finally admitted to myself, Jerod, my family and a close friend, that I do want a baby. But I also know Jerod and I have submitted a plan before the Lord: we're naturally family planning, want to start trying to have kids in about 3 years, but if it happens earlier than it does. This desire is more something I think about when I'm alone, its a quieter desire and sin issue in my life- not obvious to others. But this weekend I wonder if God was testing me... I've told other people I've given it over to God but have I really?

I was 4 days late and my cycle keeps getting longer and longer. But I took a pregnancy test and I was not pregnant. But being that late my mind started to wander, to think, to dream about what it would mean if I was. And I had to spend some serious time giving over my desires and my hopes.

I love in the story of Abraham, God provided for Abraham. And I know God has provided for me as well. No only do I feel peace about God's provision and plan in my life, other fears I had were addressed and I have peace. I want to live free of fear or anxiety. I believe God has a plan bigger than I can see, I want to see when God tests me and see His provision in my life.

dmj.

what's goin on in the Johnson house and then some.

Hello September!

{life}
Can you believe it is already September? This year has gone by so fast. I feel like I have not gotten everything done that I set out to do. But things have been going well.

Jerod started back with teaching school at Enloe HS. He says so far things have been going well, his potentially tougher group of kids is first thing in the morning. MUCH better than last year when he has them the last two period of the day when everyone, including Jerod, was tired and ready to go home.

I started school back up but I really never stopped. I took Microbiology over the summer with Ms. Dix and now I'm in Pathophysiology for fall semester. I work with two clients every week who I love dearly. I consider the one women my friend. She is older, sweet and understanding. Often we just sit an talk for a while.

v21 {kids}
Vintage 21 is starting a new campus! We are doing it right down the street at 110 S. East St. It is another church but we are using their building in the mornings. Ethan Perkins describes it as a "church in a box" which makes sense. Everything will have to be set up and then later taken down. I am nervous because I do not have as many volunteers as I would like, but I remind myself that God is faithful! He provides what we need, when we need it. Praise that within a couple days I now have 5 people who are interested! So I'll be praying for favor over the next several months. I desire that God would show up and make Himself known. I want to glorify Him and show people Jesus.

what's on my {heart} lately
Pastor Tyler has been teaching us out of Galatians. Paul rebukes the Galatians because instead of living free in Christ, they are still finding their value, morality and hope in the law, not Christ! The Galatians where finding their identity in the wrong place. And how quickly we forget what Christ has done for us? Paul says in Galatians 3: 1, "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified". They saw Christ die with their own eyes! I know the work Christ has done in my life, that through now power of my own, in total depravity, Christ sought me out and saved me from death. But how quickly do I forget?! Too quickly sometimes. I see this the most when I am dealing with people. I get impatient, intolerant, I'm not understanding. I have to give mercy and patience just like I was given.

Our salvation comes from faith in God, accepting that Christ came to fulfill the law, fulfill the covenant God made. I have been doing a Bible study with some of the women in my community group, Marsha and Nicole. We are studying the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) my Beth Moore. I love how we see Paul reminding the Galatians that Abraham was counted righteous because he believed (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6, James 2:23). That was all he had to do. Believe God was who He said He was and He was going to take care of business.

I do not want to ever be foolish and believe things that are untrue about God or lead others astray because I am living according to the law, doing good deeds, looking good on the outside, but being unchanged, ugly and dead on the inside! I want to find my freedom in Christ.

dmj.