Amy J. Bennett

Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life

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Archives for January 2010

Breakfast for Dinner – The Pioneer Woman’s Sour Cream Pancakes and Egg-in-the-Hole

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We were supposed to go out with Mom and Dad after church today but they decided they had enough leftovers to stay home.  Breakfast for dinner is always my go-to meal but I remembered that Ree had a pancake recipe.  Actually my nephew said while looking at the recipe over Christmas, “Sour cream in pancakes?? Ewww…” But I knew Ree knew what she was doing when she added it to the cookbook and anything with sour cream in it is usually a winner. Ree didn’t let me down again.

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Honest to goodness, these were THE BEST pancakes I’ve ever had in my life.  It was so good it was almost like dessert.  But not in the IHOP cream cheese, I’m going to die if I eat this dessert way.  It’s basically a batter with a lot of sour cream, vanilla and sugar all fried up into a pancake.  Yeah, you don’t want to eat these every day of your life but WOW, were they delicious.  I made a HUGE mistake by halving the recipe.  Most of the time Scott skips on the pancakes and we have leftover pancakes even with the halved Bisquick recipe on the box.  But not this time.  We were scrounging the kids plates for any bits left behind.

The kids declared it good.  Emma said, “Mom, you need to bookmark this one.” Lexi I believed declared it the best pancake ever.  Let’s just say kid tested, mother approved was never more appropriate.

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And I certainly don’t want to leave out the egg-in-the-holes.  I wasn’t at all familiar with this thing but it was easy and it was different than just over easy eggs.  And hey, bread, butter and eggs?  Can’t really go wrong.

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They were easy-peasy and delish.

How many recipes do I need to make and blog about before you go buy her cookbook?

Expectations

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Wednesday night was spent on the large part doing two things.  One, I went to the gym with Melissa to struggle through Week 4.  Two, I recorded a Friday Night Lights podcast with Kaitlin and the hosts of another FNL podcast.  You might not think those things were related at all but I found one common theme: expectations.

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I think I figured out that C25K is even harder than I thought this week because I truly expected that each week would be very doable, comfortable even.  I thought they’d work us up slowly enough that it would seem easy as we went.  In fact, week 3 actually did seem a little easy.  But as I talked to Melissa and read a little on it, it appears that every workout is doable, but it WILL push my body.  So I think if I step back and look at the fact that it has been both doable and challenging and that it will continue to challenge me every step, I can brace myself for the run better.  I didn’t expect a challenge, but I got it and I can do it.

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You don’t have to watch Friday Night Lights to get this but we were doing reviews of several new characters.  And for one of them, I had high expectations. I expected a full-on bad boy with a lot of grit and push-back.  But for me, he didn’t live up to those expectations.  He’s much more compliant and warm-hearted than I imagined.  I expected one character and got another.  But it’s ok.   I think I’m going to like this new person they’ve created.

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Both of these things rolled around in my head right before drifting off to sleep last night and I realized how expectations relate to life.  Maybe you got something you didn’t expect or maybe you didn’t get something you expected.  Can anyone relate to a missed promotion, an unexpected sickness, blissful marriage, unruly children, the loss of a friend?  But while you’re in it, if you take a step back and take your expectations out of the equation and look at what’s in front of you, it’s ok.  Maybe you need to see what’s in front of you for what it is and not what it should have been.  I think you’ll find it’s a lot easier to deal with.  It won’t change it but maybe it will change your perspective.  Perhaps you can become more appreciative even though it’s not what you wanted?  Prepared for what’s to come?  Accepting of the past?  And maybe, just maybe, you’ll find it’s better than expected.

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I can’t think of a better day other than the first of a New Year to take stock, evaluate and maybe shift some perspectives.  And no matter what our expectations were, we all have something to be thankful for from 2009.

For me, today is going to be a day to appreciate all God’s blessings this past year and to be hopeful for what He has in store for 2010.  Things I can always expect and never be disappointed in His love, mercy and grace. May we all experience it richly in 2010.

Happy New Year!