The Knack. ;)

So my poor darling brother has "the knack." Yep. You guessed who. Jason. ;)

Here's a video on "the knack" that I promise is so funny, it's worth every minute of your time. =)

Enjoy! =D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmYDgncMhXw&feature=related

P.s. I shall try and post on my Christmas break soon! =)

Christmas Cheer! =D

Finals are over,
Break is here!
Ring it out loud,
The Christmas cheer!

Yes, Christmas is here in the Kent household and work and school for me ended last night! Now I can have a break to spend some time with my family!

Life is good! =D

Here is a picture of all of us together:



May God bless you richly in this Christmas season and the coming year ahead!
~Rebecca

Jesus is the reason for the season! =D

Hello all! Sorry that I haven't posted of late, I shall try and make up for it this month as I will be home! =D

This past week my family went to Busch Gardens to celebrate Christmas Town. It was fun to go there with our church friends with all of the lights and caroling and Christmas goodies. I was very impressed with many of the songs that were sung. Santa was barely mentioned, yet, the traditional Christmas hymns/carols were sang with full gusto. More and more I come to appreciate that we live amidst the Bible belt.

While at the theme park we had fun riding on roller coasters, drinking coffee, eating cheesecake (and other Christmas treats) and singing Christmas carols. There was even an awesome Scottish man with his bagpipes there! =D

The first thing that we noticed when we came there was the awesome lights. The Christmas tree was spectacular as there were lights that blank along to the Christmas music. Here is a picture of some of the lights that were there. (There were a lot of colored ones there that were amazing but no one took pictures of them. . . oh well. ;) )

The next thing that we did was that everyone went to go ride the Griffin. The Griffin is a fun roller coaster as it goes a few hundred feet in the air and then brings you down with a few loops at the end. Last but not least, generally at least one person gets sprayed with water. ;)

After the ride we were all smiling and happy. It really is a lot of fun to go on the Griffin! =D

When we were finished riding the Griffin we all ate dinner together and went to watch a few shows. The shows were again, very well done and I enjoyed the whole day immensely! =)

THIS WEEK:

We have been decorating our house and have been making Christmas goodies. Last night we put up the nativity scene to Christmas carols and made some delicious cookies and chocolate chip cheesecake bars.

Tonight we're going to get the tree! =D

And today, is my last day for two of my classes. After today I only have three more classes to finish up, I'm excited! =D

Christmas is coming, and it's going to be an amazing God-blessed day!

Merry Christmas everybody! =D





P.S: I'm thinking about getting a camera soon. . . I'm currently leaning towards the Nikon D60 with a Nikkor 60mm lens, but I'm not sure. What do y'all think?

N E W L Y W E D A P P L E C A K E

Recently, I posted a series of pictures on my facebook showing the assembling of my favorite autumn cake: Apple Newlywed Cake. Shown here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=9695&id=100000068864968&ref=mf

But, there have been a few of you saying, hey, what about the recipe?

So here is the post granting you the recipe to my happy sweet-tooth satisfying Fall desert. =)

Enjoy!

Apple Cake
4 apples, peeled, sliced and chopped
1 stick salted butter, (melted)
2 c flour
2 c sugar
2 T allspice
2 eggs, beaten
1 c coarsely chopped walnuts

Directions:
Stir ingredients all together gently. Spoon batter into two greased and floured cake pans. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes, until the top is golden. Pull the cakes out of the oven. When the cakes have cooled you will need to assemble your cake. To begin your cake assembling you will need to place a heavy dab of caramel frosting to the bottom of the cake platter. This keeps the cake from moving as easily off of the platter and makes it tastier by diffusing the amount of frosting evenly around the cake. Next, place the first layer of cake on top of the platter. You will want there to be holes on top so that the caramel frosting can seep into the cake. After you have made the holes, evenly contribute a good amount of caramel frosting on top. After the caramel has been evenly contributed, place the second layer on top of the first. Remember, there needs to be holes so that the caramel frosting can soak into the cake. After that, lay the heaviest amount of caramel frosting evenly on top of the layer and let the frosting drip down the sides of the cake.

Caramel Frosting
1 c brown sugar

¼ c half and half

1 stick butter

Directions
Stir all ingredients constantly over low heat. Remove from heat when sauce has thickened. Spread over freshly baked cakes.

White Butter Frosting

1 ½ c powdered sugar

1 T butter

2 T milk

Directions

Place ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth and fluffy. Drizzle over cake as a garnish.

I hope you all are glad I posted this recipe. I will try and post on my life soon. . . perhaps next post will be on Thanksgiving. Too far away? Oh well, too bad. ;)

Enjoy your life.

Have a slice. =)

Tis the Season to be Chilly. ;)

So it is officially fall in VA. =) Yes, the leaves have begun to fall and the air has began to cool so I feel as though I can truly say, it is fall. =)

I absolutely love this season as the leaves are gorgeous, the food is awesome and I "usually" get more time with my family and friends. . . <-- that hasn't exactly happened yet. =/ But I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving! =D So, yes, I know it's been a while since I last posted, but life has been rather crazy of late as I expect it to be until December 17 or so. . . as work and school are blessedly consistent on their pull on my life.

So update. . .

About 2 weeks ago my family and I made a trip to the mountains and got apples, sweet potatoes and pumpkins. I LOVE getting apples and pumpkins every year as there is so much goodness that comes from these two produce. The apples we can make into apple pie, apple betty, newlywed apple caramel cake, chunky applesauce, etc. and the pumpkin flesh is good for pumpkin pie, pumpkin custard, pumpkin based soups, with the seeds being extra good as a salty, healthy snack.

As we went up to the mountains we left a green part of VA to a part of VA that was definitely in the midst of fall. I love going to our mountains as they always have all four seasons and the mountains are gorgeous every time of year. Also, the mountains are filled with lots and lots of trees. I love trees! =) (And no, I'm not a green weirdo, I just love the nature that God has given us.)

When we got to our destination we got out and picked out some Fuji apples, (very similar to a honeycrisp apple), if you haven't had either you ought to find them and buy them. They are my favorite kind of apples. Their a mixture of tart and sweet, absolutely delish! =) After we picked out some apples we went to a field of pumpkins and bought about 5 of them. They were even a better price then Wal-mart's pumpkins and they were fresh! =) The seeds were delicious as we baked them at home the next day. =)

Here are a few pictures of the trip, (I apologize that I don't have more):

The pumpkin field

Jon and I standing in the pumpkin field

Because I only have weekends off, that was all I really did with my family that week. =/

The next week our church had a celebration of the Reformers of the church, known as Reformation Day. We celebrated the lives of several reformers including; John Calvin, John Knox and Martin Luther.

We did this by a combination of games, food, and music, and the celebration was great! One of my favorite things that my church does during this day is play Reformation Jeopardy. I find that I am always learning a lot of reformer history that I didn't know before during the game. Such as the name of Martin Luther's wife, how many children he had, what books he wrote, etc. (Yes, I know, I ought to know, and I've heard it several times before, but I don't always remember.) Perhaps I have Jr. Alzheimer's. ;)

I would love to say more on the subject, but I have to get to Biology lab. I'll try and post some more pictures later and fill you all in. =)

I shall leave you all with a part of one of my favorite fall poems:

"Once more the liberal year laughs out
O'er richer stores than gems or gold:
Once more with harvest song and shout
It's nature's boldest triumph told."
-John Greenleaf Whittier

I pray that you all enjoy your Fall season! =)

CHRF Campout! =D

Sorry I haven't posted about the campout until now but I've been busy. The campout was amazing and I had a lot of fun! =)

Day #1) The first day of the campout we started out in putting up the tent, setting up the picnic table etc. as all smart campers do. As soon as we got there, Jon brought Andrew Eissing over to help him with the tent and together, (with a little help from the rest of us,) they got the tent up.

Here are a few pictures of them/us putting up the tent:

Jon and Andrew putting up the tent.

The tent is almost completely up! =D


Rose helps tie some of the few last stakes to the ground.


Rose sweeps out all the nasty dirt from the last camping trip we had.
She's such a great helper! =)

After we got our campsite set up we then went to the pavilion where the session and diner was to be held. Diner was amazing. It consisted of sub-sandwiches with all sorts of yummy sides.

Here's a picture of the subs:

After we had our meal we had our first session. The session was on hosting others to your house and practical ways in keeping the Lord's day when having people over. It was a very good session and we talked about subjects such as: should you be able to have ultimate frisbee after lunch? Should you go shopping on a Sunday? How much food should you have prepared before you host? Etc.

After the session, we had our CHRF Annual Bonfire. Our bonfire is a lot of fun as we have hay rides and lots of fellowship involved with it. The smores I could almost care less about. The chocolate is what everyone is always after anyways, isn't it? Well, I know that's what I'm after. ;)

Here are a few pictures:

Our lovely bonfire

The best part of a smore. =)

After our beautiful bonfire it was time for bed.

Day #2) This day, I honestly can't remember too well. Oops! But. . . we played kickball for the first time and my team won so we got to advance to the finals! =D

Here is a picture of the first game:

After the first game we had diner, the second session and then danced. =) The second session was on putting Jesus first on sundays, and, every other day of the week. . . =)

The dancing consisted of contra, the Virginia reel, (my favorite kind of dance,) and a waltz, which I didn't get to dance because my brother's were off dancing with other girls. . . shoot! =P

Oh well, it was fun, and my hair was crazy by the end of it. =)

Here's a picture of Jon, my little sister Ruth and a casual friend, Katie after we all danced:



Day #3) This day started out with some football. At first I played with some of the youth in our church and then I played with little Christopher P. He is soo cute! And he really has talent when it comes to sports. =)

After football was over we played the last 2 games for the kickball game to determine the winners. My team ended up getting second! =D (It wasn't of my doing though. ;) ) But it was fun to get to play some kickball. It's been a while. . .

Here's a picture of the final game:




After the final game my favorite time of the campout. I got to help my mom with the nature crafts! =) The most interesting part about this time was being asked to take pictures and help the children with their crafts at the same time. This resulted in some interesting pictures being taken. =P

Here are a few of the ones that I took:

The children waiting patiently for the activity to begin.

Mom shows them how to make the two nature crafts that we were doing that day.

The children asking questions.

After the nature crafts we had diner and then the talent show. It was a lot of fun! =)

Day #4) This day we had church outdoors in the pavillion. It was awesome, yet slightly cold. After that we had lunch and went home.


The End! =D


P.s. Here are some more pictures of the campout if you wish to see some more:

One of my favorite little girls: Cara, and I. =)

Whitney! She is awesome! =)


Tim and one of my favorite little boys at our church: Joshie! =)
So cute! <3

Our awesome psalter book that I "believe" is traditional in conservative Presbyterian cricles. =)

And that is all. =)

Amish White Bread

One of the things that I enjoy doing in my spare time during the fall and winter months is baking bread. Just recently I stumbled upon this recipe. It has to be some of the fluffiest bread that I have ever made.

The only changes that I made to the recipe were:

1) Cutting the sugar to 1/4 c.
2) Using all-purpose flour instead of bread flour
3) Using a beaten egg for a wash to receive a golden, crispy crust, and,
4) Slathering the bread with butter as soon as it got out of the oven.

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I have and here are some pictures that I took with my little sister's $20 camera so that you can get a general idea of what the bread looked like. ;)

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul." - [ John Muir ]

Decklan's Portrait. =)

Recently I finished drawing a portrait of a little boy that I enjoy babysitting at church a lot. His name is Decklan and he is adorable! =) He is always laughing and has a twinkle in his eye, and he has to be the happiest baby I have ever known. His portrait took me several months to draw as there was a lot of detail involved. Here is the portrait and the reference photo. I hope you enjoy looking at the photos as much as I did drawing the portrait! =)



















The reference Photo

Beautiful food is like beautiful music. . . they both feed the soul. . . =)

Many people that I know use the cake mix that came out around 50 years ago. They love to make "30 minute meals," and they especially hate making any meal, or cake that takes any longer to make. They don't want to spend 3 hours to cook a meal. They don't want to plant an herb garden, and they especially don't care about either planting their own garden or going 30 minutes out of their way to get fresh produce in bulk from the farmers market.

Growing up in a family that had either a quarter of an acre of garden to an acre, that never made their meals from "the box" I never really understood the concept of "let's hurry out the door and grab something to eat on the way."

In fact, it wasn't until 2 years ago, while visiting a relative that I first made a cake from a box. I felt more uncomfortable with following the directions on the box then following the recipe of the white cake that I had at home. (And that's not talking about my weary feelings about eating the cake after reading all of the ingredients on the box. . .)

The reason why, was because I had learned to appreciate beautiful, gourmet food from scratch, that takes effort to make. Cooking in the kitchen is where some of my best memories have been made growing up and where I have learned to especially love. My first memories are of baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with my cousin, making spaghetti noodles and pretzels with my grandmother and of helping my mother milk some of our dairy goats in Florida and use the milk to make cheese and pudding.

In Proverbs 31, scripture tells us that the proverbs 31 woman:

"gets up while it is still dark; and provides food for her family and portions for her maidens."

About 3 years ago I was studying this passage of scripture and meditating on it and one of the things that dawned on me was the time that she got up to make food for her family. She got up while it was still dark. Think about it for a moment. She could have had her servants make the food. She could have also spent minimal time making the food, and just put fruit and wine and things prepared by the servants before to give to her family for breakfast. But because she cared about her family, she got up early, and spent time and effort on making breakfast for her family. If I could guess, I would say that she probably enjoyed making gourmet food for her family that took effort to make.

So how should we respond to this as Christians?

I think that the Proverbs 31 woman really comes down to this bottom line. Are you thinking of your family in everything that you do?

We always hear the phrase, "put God first in your life" and that's a good statement, but when you say, oh I'm thinking about the extra time I'll have in the day for more "important things" when I spend less time in the kitchen and it's really, to read that novel/theology book that's been sitting on your shelf for about a month, is that really putting God first in your life? I'm not saying that it's always wrong to read a book instead of spending every moment with your family for we all need a break from time to time, but we should all strive to be more like Jesus in every action and every word that we submit to the world every moment of every day.

I once heard a quote from a chef on Avonlea that I thought was right on. He said:

"Beautiful food is like beautiful music, they both feed the soul."

Many of my most special memories come from the days that my whole family all had time to spend several hours in the kitchen and make an amazingly delicious and beautiful meal, paired with beautiful music, and beautiful flowers from our flower garden. These moments fed my soul with joy and laughter.

You can bless your family with these moments as well, if you only take out the time.

Melissas Bridal Shower. =)

One of my favorite things to do in my spare time is to decorate cakes. Unfortunately, I really didn't have too much time to decorate Melissa's cake when I got home from the Boston 500, but, I think the simplicity of the cake made it look elegant in a way. The cake was made for one of my best friends bridal shower who recently got married. Even though it was really simple to make, it was a lot of fun! =) The cream cheese frosting was FANTASTIC! I have never made cream cheese frosting that spread so well! I will always use this recipe for cream cheese frosting from now on.

Here are some pictures of the cake:

p.s. The frosting get's completely even (like fondant) when you cool it completely in the fridge and then use hot water with a pastry brush to smooth it out.

My new painting! =)

One of the birds that I absolutely love is the ruby throated hummingird. We have several (probably around 20) that are flying around right now, so I thought that I would paint one in impressionist style and here are my results:

Blog update. (I'm so random. =P)

So I decided to move all of my art stuff to another blog and just use this blog for everyday stuff. You can go here to view my other blog.

Lesson 1: Art And The Impact It Has On The World Around Us

"All the books of theology ever written had less impact on the fate of mankind than the great religious paintings."

After thinking about this quote from a famous philosopher, I began to realize how important what we draw or paint is. When you draw or paint something, you are communicating in a very real sense a certain amount of emotion and vitality with how and what you paint or draw.

An artist can convey harmony, distraction, unorderliness, beauty, love, and many other emotional themes with the colors and tools that they use to paint and draw.

In fact, during the Renaissance our world may have had it's most dramatic changing period in history. The revival of learning and culture in that time frame though was mainly due from the major rejuvenation through the arts, (literature, music, and painting.) Some of our most brilliant artists were from that day and age. (Da Vinci, Michaelangelo.)

Although these painters were perfectionists and their paintings in a sense "refined" and brilliantly created, the themes that they used were sadly very non-Christian.

If you wish to study these painters I would encourage you to look more for the landscapes or studies that they did instead of their "most famous works." Their most famous works could be very well defined and expressed as profanity towards our Heavenly maker.

On the other hand, you can learn a lot from studying these painters and their techniques and I would encourage you to do so if you have the self-discipline enough to be able to throw out the bath water and leave the baby.

This past Spring I made it my goal to learn all of the several color themes that I could when it came to painting or drawing. I found that there are many ways that you can express yourself when you paint and draw. I encourage you to take out the time to learn your color wheel as what you want to communicate to the world around you can become that much easier when you study the basics.

From the 3 primary colors and the colors black and white you can literally create hundreds of brilliant and beautiful colors. This week try mixing the primaries together and see what cool combinations you can receive through practice.

I know that one of my favorite colors to use in my paintings is an amber orange. It's bright and happy and it shines the light of Christ in the midst of our very dark world.

Colors make people happy. What's your favorite color?

To All My Lovable Friends and Students :)

So, I have been thinking and discussing about getting a blog for the past 3 months and have decided to take the plunge.

This blog will usually be discussing either art, music, or culinary art, pertaining to my friends and future students this fall. If you are reading this blog I pray that God, through me, may be able to open your eyes just a little to the wondrous beautiful feast that He has prepared in front of our eyes. May we always find joy no matter what situation we are in through Him and His bountiful blessings bestowed upon us! :)

In Christ,
~Rebecca