Year End Accounting

2:24 AM in accounting, Aqua, end, year

When the end of the year rolls around, many folks look to balancing their accounts, making sure pennies and receipts are all accounted for.  We do something similar, but with our marshmallows and chocolate.  If we didnt use them up eating Smores in the summer, we make a big batch of Christmas fudge with the leftovers.  (Ok, sometimes we get marshmallows and chocolate just for making fudge, but we use up the leftover ones first.)

It took a little digging to find a recipe that didnt call for marshmallow fluff or corn syrup, but we found what we were looking for in Loris Best Ever Fudge.  (Thank you, Lori, whoever you are!)  Weve made several variations over the years, with many different kinds and combinations of chocolate and sugars.  Its a pretty robust recipe, as long as we respect two factors: first, dont cut down on the sugar or it wont set up right, and second, the flavor is much better if a variety of chocolate types are used (i.e., dont use just milk chocolate).  Weve made a couple variations to the process, too, so we decided to document our first batch this year.

All it needs is six simple ingredients.  Butter, sugar, marshmallows, milk, vanilla, and chocolate.  Hard to go wrong with that combination!

Add the butter, milk, and sugar to a big pot and start it heating.  The sugar can be brown, white, or anything in between.  (We wait to add the vanilla until later.)  In the meantime, grease a cookie sheet (11" x 16" or thereabouts) and count out 25 marshmallows.

If you greased the cookie sheet first, tearing the marshmallows into quarters will be less sticky.  If not, you can challenge Katie to a thumb war afterwards.

When the milk, sugar, and butter have heated up and been boiling for 2 minutes, add the quartered marshmallows.  We dont remove the pot from the heat at this point since it cools down too quickly and we want all the marshmallows to melt.

Almost there!

When the marshmallows are all melted away into the mixture, turn off the stove and add a heaping 4 cups of whatever chocolate youve got on hand--chocolate chips, old M&Ms, discount chocolate chunks from the Amish grocery store--just make sure youve got about half that is semisweet or unsweetened.

Stir until the chocolate meets the same fate as the marshmallows.  There might be a few bubbles, but thats ok.  Add the vanilla extract now.

Pour the whole shebang into the greased cookie sheet.  Make sure to scrape the pot out with a spatula.

Put it in the fridge overnight or until it sets up nice and hard.  The background isnt overexposed in this photo; thats just what heaven looks like.

The recipe:
1 stick butter
1 cup milk
2 cups sugar
25 marshmallows, quartered
4 cups chocolate, about half semisweet or dark, and half milk chocolate
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Heat butter, sugar, and milk together until boiling, boil for 2 minutes or so, then add marshmallows.  Stir until marshmallows are melted, then turn off stove and add chocolate.  Stir until chocolate is melted, then add vanilla extract, mix well, and pour into greased 11" x 16" cookie sheet.  Chill several hours, or until fudge is firm.  Cut into 1" squares if other people are around, into 3" squares if not.

What is your favorite fudge recipe?  What ratio of chocolate types do you like?  Let us know in the comments section below!

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Wishes for an Abundant New Year

10:27 PM in abundant, an, Aqua, for, new, wishes, year

As the pages of the calendar turn to a new year our tendency is to wish our friends and family a Happy New Year.  And if you are in Latin America and other places around the world, the wish is for a Prosperous New Year.  Happiness and prosperity are good things to wish for our relatives, friends and acquaintances. The symbolic transition, however, gives us a great opportunity to make an alternative kind of wish: an Abundant New Year. On this day we celebrate Gods abundant love for us (Isaiah 49:15-16 and Jeremiah 31:3) and we resolve to share this abundant love with others (John 15: 9-14)

So, as 2016 begins, I wish everyone Gods abundant love in our hearts, our minds to guide us as we live our lives in the coming year.

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Reflections for the Jubilee Year of Mercy

3:36 AM in Aqua, for, jubilee, mercy, of, reflections, the, year

On Dec. 8, 2015, Pope Francis launched the Jubilee Year of Mercy, an effort to focus the mission of the church and of the faithful on mercy and forgiveness rather than on judgment. This is a call for both individuals and for the institution. Here are a couple of quotes on mercy, including one from Pope Francis.

Photo via Norbertine Community of Santa Maria de la Vid

Mercy is not a virtue that you choose to put on one day. Mercy has to be your deepest way of seeing, a generosity of spirit that draws from your identity, your deepest dignity, which is love. It is basically a worldview of abundance, wherein I do not have to withhold, protect, or hoard myself.   -Rev. Richard Rohr OFM

The mystery of divine mercy is revealed in the history of the covenant between God and his people Israel. God shows himself ever rich in mercy, ever ready to treat his people with deep tenderness and compassion, especially at those tragic moments when infidelity ruptures the bond of the covenant, which then needs to be ratified more firmly in justice and truth. Here is a true love story, in which God plays the role of the betrayed father and husband, while Israel plays the unfaithful child and bride. These domestic images – as in the case of Hosea (cf. Hos 1-2) – show to what extent God wishes to bind himself to his people.  -Pope Francis (from message for Lent, 2016)

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A One Year Meal Plan Or What Should We Grow This Year

12:31 AM in a, Aqua, grow, meal, one, or, plan, should, this, we, what, year

This time of year is prime time for garden planning around these parts.  As we were thinking about what we might want to grow this year, we came around to the question of, "Well, what did we eat last year?"  We have a partial record of what we made right here on the blog, so that was a good place to start.  From there, we just had to fill in the things we normally eat for breakfast, lunch, and supper that we dont blog about. There is always a lot of variability depending on whats available (or on sale), the time of the year, how much time were at home, how much snacking on high-sugar dried fruits we do while waiting for the other to come home so we can explosively greet them when they walk in the door (like Hobbes greets Calvin), etc., but as a ballpark figure, could we make an estimate for food intake, assuming three servings per person per day?

The answer is yes!  And the estimate is fascinating. [...says Jake as Katie snores...]  If youve been following this blog for any amount of time, you probably know that a spreadsheet is about to appear.  And so we begin, with three sets of columns: one each for supper, breakfast, and lunch.

Into each set of columns, we enter recipes (copied and pasted from memory or the internet), specify the number of times per year were going to prepare them, and make sure units and ingredient names are consistent (e.g., that we dont say tomato in one recipe and tomatoes in another).

Then we use a pivot table (one each for supper, breakfast, and lunch) to count everything up.  Its a bummer we dont know how to make a pivot table from more than one range at a time (theres probably a way), but thats ok.  The workaround isnt too hard. From each individual pivot table, we create a master pivot table.  From the master pivot table, we can estimate how much of everything we need to acquire during the course of the year.  For example, we learn that we need about 54 dozen eggs, 49 gallons of milk, and 110 loaves of bread (assuming 12 slices per loaf).  If youve been in our kitchen, you know that works out to a surprisingly accurate figure of roughly one dozen eggs, one gallon of milk, and two loaves of bread per week.  And also 23 pounds of mushrooms, which sounds delicious.  Model validated!

More importantly (and to the point), we can estimate how many pounds of vegetables well have to grow and how many pounds of meat well have to catch to be self-sufficient.

Clearly, if we want to keep taking carrots to work for lunch, well need to grow a ton. (Or, a one-fourteenth of a ton, rather).  Similarly, we can see that we ought to devote a lot of our remaining garden space to tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, and greens.  Of course, were going to grow a larger variety of veggies than that, but the quantities we tend to eat (and would need to find storage space for) are instructive.  And honestly, well probably try to grow more winter squash, green beans, and peppers than the chart suggests.

On a similar note, if we want to keep on our current diet, well need to grow another batch of chickens and catch one large deer and a quarter of a pig. (Or raise one deer and catch a flock of wild chickens.  But we dont have space to raise both!)

All things considered, its a pretty balanced diet, not too far from Harvards Healthy Eating Plate.  Were a little heavier on the veggies, but hey!  Maybe well end up being a very localized blue zone.

Its important to keep in mind that these numbers are just guidelines; were not locking ourselves into a whole year of rigidly following recipes.  We substitute veggies and meats in and out of a recipe like a Wall Street bankster swaps stocks (although we hope none of our meals would be considered subprime or toxic assets).  But its nice to have a set of go-to dishes we can pick from and toss together from stuff in the fridge or pantry if weve already spent our creative energy for the day and still need to make supper.  Whatchagotamology at its finest!

We wont vouch for the user friendliness of the spreadsheet, but if you want to play around with it, you can download it here.  Suggestions welcome!


Do you make meal plans?  Whats your planning strategy?  Let us know in the comments section below!

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Early Letters to Congress on Global Nutrition are Helpful This Year

2:06 PM in Aqua, are, congress, early, global, helpful, letters, nutrition, on, this, to, year

Bread for the Worlds 2016 Offering of Letters urges Congress to increase funding for the nutrition and health of mothers, newborns, and young children in developing countries.  Here is the full guide for this years letter-writing campaign.

Hellen Mbithi

We have scheduled a workshop in Albuquerque on Saturday, March 12, to examine how local churches can become involved in this campaign. Our featured speaker is Hellen M. Mbithi, a nurse who was born and raised in the small village of Ngai in Kenya. She will tell us more  about how a lack of nutrition for mothers and infants can impact the development of children.

SPECIAL NOTE: Early Letters are Helpful: A major goal of this year’s Offering of Letters is increased funding for programs for the health and nutrition of mothers and children. This spring, Congress will be considering the funding levels of key global health and nutrition programs. As Congress begins determining next year’s funding priorities, it is important for your members of Congress to hear from you with letters early in the year.  Below is an early sample letter.

WRITE TO CONGRESS
Ask Congress to Support Global Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health and Nutrition
[Date]
Dear Senator__________ , or Dear Rep.___________ ,
Our country has led the way in improving the nutrition and health of mothers and children so they can achieve their full potential. We have seen tremendous progress, but our work remains unfinished. My faith calls me to urge that we continue until every mother and child has the chance to survive and thrive. Every life is precious.

As Congress considers funding for next year, I ask you to support at least $230 million for international maternal and child nutrition programs in the Department of State foreign operations appropriations bill’s global health account.

Sincerely,
[your name]
[your address]
[city, state, ZIP]

Here is a useful graphic from Bread for the World on a five step process how U.S. foreign assistance reaches people in need.  It all begins with our letters.

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