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Bacon Roses

Topic: Cooking | Tags:

Feb
14
2013

BaconRoses

This year I decided to do something different for Valentine’s Day. My wife loves bacon. Maybe not as much as I love bacon but it is pretty high up there. So, I decided to make her some bacon roses instead of some real roses that would die soon. How do you make bacon roses you might ask. It was actually pretty easy.

I started out by getting some fake roses from Walmart. They had 2 different types of fake roses. One type didn’t look like they came apart very easy so I opted for the ones that did. If you look closely at the photo of the one still assembled, you can see that the rose bud should just pop off. The other roses didn’t look like this.

To start out making these, turn your oven on and preheat it to 375. While it is preheating, get a mini muffin pan out and line each hole with tin foil. You don’t have to do this but it helped with cleanup when I was done.

Next, lay a piece of bacon out on a place and roll it up starting at the wider end of the bacon. Place it in the muffin pan fat side down.

After you get them all rolled up and in your muffin pan, put the pan in the oven and let it back for about 40 minutes.

After they are done, let them cool a while. Get a vase out and fill it with rocks or marbles or something along those lines. The bacon is going to be a little heavy and it will tip the vase over.

Now, make sure you have all your fake roses disassembled and the pieces sorted out. Discard the rose petals and the orange plastic pieces. Slide the leave piece back onto the stem and push it down a little. Then place a bacon rose on it and put the whole thing into the vase.

As you see from my photo, the bacon is heavy and pulls things down a little. If I had more time and would have thought about it earlier, I would have used some wire cutters and shortened the stems. I also would have used the red ribbon that came with the fake roses and tied the stems together at the top to get them bunched up better.

Pretty simple over all and they tasted good!

 

 



Are you a threat?

Topic: Christianity | Tags:

Oct
24
2012

Acts 19:13-16

13 A group of Jews was traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation, saying, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. 15 But one time when they tried it, the evil spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” 16 Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered.

Paul was doing a lot of miracles at this time. He was overflowing with the Holy Spirit so much that even handkerchiefs he had touched would heal people. God was doing some amazing things through him. Evil spirits surely knew who he was and what he was doing. These priests tried to leverage that. Figuring the evil spirits would tremble at the name of Jesus or the name of Paul. It didn’t work though. The evil spirit’s were not afraid of these priests who really didn’t believe in Jesus. These priests really presented no threats to the evil spirits.

It isn’t enough to just know about Jesus. It isn’t enough to read the Bible. Satan knows who Jesus is after all. Just knowing about Jesus doesn’t give you power over evil.

When I read this it makes me think about my own life. Am I a threat? Does Satan and his demons know who I am? Have they conspired to bring me down or am I like these priests, someone they don’t consider a threat. Am I doing enough to further the Kingdom of God to be on their hit list?

Going through life and being a “good” person isn’t enough to a threat. Just because I am nice to people isn’t enough. Just because I sit here in the morning, reading some scripture and writing about it, doesn’t mean I am a threat if I am not doing anything with what I read. It doesn’t mean anything if I am not sharing this with other people.

I want to be a threat to Satan. I want him and his evil spirits to know who I am.

Lord, I pray for your Spirit to fill me. I pray for your strength to empower me. I pray for the courage to share with others about who you are. I pray that I would have the huevos to talk to others about you and not be afraid of what they might say.



Sacrificing Jesus

Topic: Christianity | Tags:

Oct
10
2012

Luke 23:18-24

18Then a mighty roar rose from the crowd, and with one voice they shouted, “Kill him, and release Barabbas to us!” 19(Barabbas was in prison for taking part in an insurrection in Jerusalem against the government, and for murder.) 20Pilate argued with them, because he wanted to release Jesus. 21But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
22For the third time he demanded, “Why? What crime has he committed? I have found no reason to sentence him to death. So I will have him flogged, and then I will release him.”
23But the mob shouted louder and louder, demanding that Jesus be crucified, and their voices prevailed. 24So Pilate sentenced Jesus to die as they demanded. 25As they had requested, he released Barabbas, the man in prison for insurrection and murder. But he turned Jesus over to them to do as they wished.

Wow, talk about pure pressure. Pilate is put in a tough situation. He is the leader but the people he leads do not like his decision. Does he sack up and stick with his hard decision or give in to his subjects and follow the popular opinion. Well, as we know from the end of this passage, he gives in. He follows the popular opinion. I wonder what would have happened if he didn’t. Would he have been overthrown as the ruler? Would the people revolted against him and killed him?

We are faced with things like this all the time through our life. Do we stand up for Jesus or pretend we do not know him in order to be popular or liked. Do we stand up for Jesus or cast him aside so we can get ahead in our jobs, in life. Every time we go along in sin with someone else is just acting like Pilate and casting Jesus aside. Putting someone down with a group of friends? Yep. Covering up for a friend that did something bad so that they would still be your friend? Yep. Stealing a piece of candy from the store so your friends will think you are cool? Yep.

It usually starts out small. Sacrificing a small piece of integrity to get a head. A small little lie here and there. Then it grows to something bigger.

Who is the authority in your life?



Bacon weave pork tenderloin

Topic: Cooking | Tags: ,

Sep
30
2012

The bacon blanket (bacon weave)

There are a bunch of posts and images out there of what is called the bacon explosion, pork fatty or bacon bomb and they look soooo good. They are basically a bacon weave with sausage and then smoked for a while. As good as it sounds, I figured I should try to tame it down a little. I eat a lot of fat and protein in my diet but that just seems like a little too much for me.

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Where are your kids?

Topic: Christianity | Tags:

Sep
19
2012

Luke 2:48-49

His parents didn’t know what to think. “Son,” his mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.” “But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

When I read this, multiple things run through my head. At first, the way Jesus responds to His parents seems like a smart ass remark. Sounds like something a know it all kid would say. “Duh, dad. If you had half a brain you would know.”

But, as I think about it more, it also sounds like the type of response I would want from my kids. He was so in tune with God the Father that he seemed dumbfounded that someone would think he would be somewhere else in the city. Why would he be at the mall when he could be spending time with God? Why would he be playing basketball when He could be worshiping the Creator? Jesus wanted to be in his Father’s house more than playing Nintendo with his friends.

Lord, I pray that my kids would have a heart like this. I pray that I could set an example to them of what really matters in life. That they would come to understand that you are to be our desire. That you are to be what we are fixated on. I pray that my kids would be so in love with you that everything else in life takes a back seat.