New

I have started a new blog.  The problem is, I have absolutely no idea what to do with it.  It is part of my desire to do something to help promote the issue of congenital heart defects.  It's got a stupid title which I hate and I posted my story on it, but I truly have no clue where to go from there.

But it's a step in a direction.  And I needed that.  It's called Helping Hearts (I told you it was stupid).  It's at www.helpforhearts.blogspot.com.

Am I being selfish?

I am pro-life. I have been pro-life since I knew there was such a thing. So the actual position is not new to me. But I have come upon a rather unsettling revelation lately.

I think since Nathan and I decided we were going to adopt, I have become even more strongly pro-life. The feeling is something like "if I'm not pro-life, I really don't have any business adopting." But I'm also concerned that this increase in feeling may be driven by an impulse of "if there are suddenly an abundance of abortions, there might not be children for Nathan and I."

Then I start feeling selfish. I'm just not sure.

Little Cups of Heaven

I come from a meat and potatoes family and I just generally love food. That being said, a few years ago, when I went to study in England for a semester, I felt like I was going to be right at home in a meat and potatoes culture.

But the highlight of my British culinary experience was by far Yorkshire Puddings. They are basically a little cup of batter for putting gravy into and are served traditionally with roast beef and vegetables. I developed a deep and abiding love of them. When I returned home I thought about them with a twinge of longing from time to time, but would then have a slice of pizza or some spaghetti and feel better.

Not so this year. I began an all-out quest to find them in the "international foods" sections of one of the many stories I shop at. They are harder to find than I would have thought. In England you can buy them frozen and just heat them up, I could not even find that anywhere. So I located a recipe and tried making them. The recipe I had advised using popover cups, which I do not have, so I thought a muffin tin would work just as well...turns out, not so much.

But as it happens, my family loves me and wants me to be happy. For Christmas I received not only the requisite popover cup pan, but also, direct from England and special ordered for me by my sister Anne, two little boxes of Yorkshire Pudding mix. The sound I made when I opened the package was something akin to a song bird being throttled.


This is what they look like in the pan...I was so happy when I pulled this out of the oven and they looked right.


And that golden brown cylinder of deliciousness is what it looks like on the plate. It was amazing.

Thanks, Anne!