Author: Rachel

2018 word of the year: ABUNDANCE

When she's not busy making websites, Rachel likes to hang out with her family and all their critters (3 dogs, 3 cats, 11-ish goats, 1 sheep, and a gazillion chickens).

Categories
What's Cooking?

Pressure cooker “hard boiled” eggs

Easter Eggs.
Eggs in their cardboard carton, sitting on a rack in the pressure cooker.
Eggs in their cardboard carton, sitting on a rack in the pressure cooker.

Wow. Just tried these for the first time and they peeled easier than anything I’ve ever seen before.

Test 1:
Put 1 cup water in pressure cooker.
Put steamer tray in pot.
I put the eggs (still in their cardboard tray) into the pot.
Close up the lid.

settings:
Steam setting
manual: 6 minutes
natural pressure release: 5 minutes

Cool in cold water when done.

3 of my 9 eggs cracked a bit, but I couldn’t see the cracks in 2 of them after the cold water soak.

Test 2:

5 of my 18 eggs cracked, but the cracks on 3 re-sealed when I put them into the cold water bath.
5 of my 18 eggs cracked, but the cracks on 3 re-sealed when I put them into the cold water bath.

Same except for using “low pressure” rather than “steam” settings.

2 eggs broke. I think the “steam” setting was better; when I did natural pressure release with this one I heard a loud pop, which I’m sure was the eggs cracking from the pressure change. Next time, I think I’d give it a longer NPR and use “steam.”

 

We have these 2 Instant Pots:
Duo 60 (6 quart)

Duo 80 (8 quart)

Categories
Life and Stuff

Holes & emptiness

I spent several lovely hours catching up with a friend this afternoon. There is something so comforting about being able to relax in being known.  We have been friends for over a decade. She knows me – knows me from my old, single days. We sat at her dining room table and drank lemonade and I felt deep peace as I looked around at the familiar surroundings. I hadn’t been to her house in a year or two, but there – the same shower curtain! the sofa we sat on to watch endless episodes of The Bachelor!

I was safe and at home and could drop my mask for a while.

I’m lonely.
Motherhood is hard.
I miss my friends.
Work is boring, but I don’t have the energy to change.

She asked me a question. Back when I was single, when we would talk about longing to be a wife & mother, I described feeling a hole inside. She wanted to know if it’s still there.

I have been pondering that for days.

At first, the hole seemed to be filled. The whirlwind of wedding and being a newlywed and finding out several weeks later that the baby was coming – these were all things that seemed to soothe the ache. But now? I think that a husband and kids might have filled in that hole (a bit) but they ripped a bunch of new ones in my heart and soul. The pains and aches are not ones I ever expected, but there are there, just as real and driving as the ache for marriage/motherhood had been.

 My heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.
-St Augustine

So. There it is. I am searching for the answers in places that cannot supply them. The real problem is finding out what can. My concept of God shifts & slips through my fingers, fluid and slippery as a minnow.

 

Categories
Life and Stuff

Rest-less

I am rest-less. Weary. Lacking rest.

I want to become rest-full.

This is not an easy task, when you take into account work, kids, animals, home, freelance biz, gardens, etc.

 

It really sucks to start the week feeling exhausted, though. Yesterday I tried to take a nap & immediately got plunged back into kid-duty. And then by bedtime I had missed the golden sleep window & was unable to fall asleep until nearly 1am. Woke early to blinding sun shining in my eyes and the roosters crowing.

Coffee is not going to sustain me much longer.

How can I find rest?