The Good Life

When it comes down to it, few things in life bring more joy and satisfaction than being with the ones we love and eating good food together.

I had to start this post off with a pic of the fruit tart I made for our friend Dan Mower and his family on Thursday. Dan was our realtor and helped us to find our home when we came to Corning. He recently returned home from several weeks in the NICU with his baby boy Noah. To celebrate Noah's return I made him and his family a meal including Moroccan Beef Tagine with sweet potatoes and raisins over cous cous and the fruit tart for dessert.

I love cooking for others and creating something not only pleasing to the palette but pleasing to the eye and soul. There is something about sharing a meal with others that translates into the feelings and words and love that we can't quite express. Perhaps it is the satisfying of that very basic, humble need that we all have, to be fed and nourished, comforted and sustained.

Ben and Sol and their daughter came to our home on Friday with the missionaries to eat dinner and to have a discussion in our home. We had ginger-soy pork tenderloin, pesto pasta salad with roasted bell peppers, fresh mozz, calamata olives and cherry tomatoes, and vanilla ice cream with fresh berries and whipping cream. Sol is from Chile and was just baptized into our church on Saturday. It was a beautiful day for Sol and her family.

He's back in the saddle again. . .Shay has been so busy with work and travel to Asia and India that he hasn't cooked for a long. . .long time. I really miss his great cooking and having a little break from the kitchen once in awhile. He made his luscious omelettes on Saturday morning for a late breakfast.


The omelettes were stuffed with asparagus, red peppers, pepper-jack cheese, and bacon. Topped with cilantro and served with rice and chili sauce. We ate breakfast outside on the deck and enjoyed the crisp air and bright sun after days of rainy weather.

Miss America. . .Addie poses before church in her new dress.

Shay and I together after church. . .we don't take enough photos together. . .we finally got a few.

I made fish tacos for lunch with lemon-butter broiled Tilapia and tomato/avocado/scallion salsa.

I adore olives. . .my mission to Spain endeared me to these precious pearls. I love serving a plate at the table with lots of family meals.
I roasted yellow and orange bell peppers to add into the fish tacos.
Sweet Adelaide

Addie and Grandma Ka

Elijah and Grandma Ka on the playset

He is Not Here. . .

Shay, Addie, Elijah and I visited Jude's grave on the Saturday afternoon before Easter and brought some flower pots, a little birdbath and bunnies. Addie helped me to pick out the flowers and she was so excited to visit her baby brother's gravesite. Elijah loves to roam around the graveyard and pull mementos off of other people's graves--oops. I stood for a few minutes by myself while Shay and Addie chased down Elijee, next to the rectangular patch of newly seeded earth where Jude's grave had been dug and subsequently filled. I listened to the chimes tinkling around the cemetery at different graves, giving a voice to the wind. I remembered the day I helped to lower my baby's coffin into the earth. Elijah (not yet 2 years old) kept saying "Ohp, Ohp," which mean't "open." He wanted to open that box and see his brother one more time, set him free. It was so tender. It is a hard thing to wrap my head around--knowing that Jude's physical body lies there silent below the earth, but that his spirit, his Being continues to exist in another sphere. I've always believed this and been a faithful person, but when death happens for real to someone so close, it really makes you ponder these deep questions and to want more details about the hereafter.

When I start missing Jude and thinking about him being gone, I try to focus my mind on the fact that he is still there and that his spirit is aware, watching and listening. I call him by name and talk to him, and this is when the feeling of peace returns to my heart. I tell him my feelings and share my thoughts with him, and I am put at ease.

On Easter Sunday while we were in Sacrament meeting listening to talks about the Savior and His Atonement, Crucifixion and Resurrection, my mother-in-law received an unexpected phone call. It was my sister-in-law calling to let us know about a tragic death in our extended family. Shay's brother's wife Tess lost her older sister Briana in a fatal car crash on Saturday afternoon. My mother-in-law was visibly shaken after taking the call and she whispered the news to me as we sat together in the pew at church. The shock of this news and how it would impact Tess and her family overwhelmed me. I felt incredible love for their family and understood some of the emotions and thoughts that they would struggle with in losing their child and sister. The thought came into my mind. . .how senseless and injust this life would be if there wasn't more to our existence than mortality on earth. My own tragedy and the tragedies of others continue to build my faith in a loving Heavenly Father and Savior who have a greater plan that extends beyond the bounds of death and time. I know that all things will be restored and that all will be made equal and right. He is not here, for He is risen! These were the words of the angel at Christ's empty tomb. What glorious news that eases the sting and sorrow of death and gives us hope to move forward with faith in the unseen.

God bless you Briana and the whole Blackwelder family.

All Hail The Lemon Curd Tart

This is my second time making a homemade lemon curd tart. The first occasion was to celebrate Shay's return from a business trip and the most recent was to celebrate Easter and the hoped for return of warmth, sun and life. Although it was rainy and dull outside this Easter Sunday, we had our own little orb of light in the form of a most luscious lemon tart. If anyone is interested I used Anne Burrell's recipe from the Food Network--you can find it online. She calls it Meyer Lemon Curd Tart. I have made it with Meyer lemons and also regular lemons. I actually prefer regular lemons (more tart) rather than the sweet taste of Meyer lemons. I served it with fresh whipped cream and blueberries. We had a lovely dinner together with Shay's Mom and Dad at our home in Corning after church.