Early Summertime Photos ~

Keeper of The Stars ~

It was no accident me finding you

Someone had a hand in it

Long before we ever knew

Now I just can't believe you're in my life

Heaven's smilin' down on me

As I look at you tonight
I tip my hat to the keeper of the stars
He sure knew what he was doin'
When he joined these two hearts

I hold everything

When I hold you in my arms

I've got all I'll ever need
Thanks to the keeper of the stars
Soft moonlight on your face oh how you shine
It takes my breath away
Just to look into your eyes
I know I don't deserve a treasure like you
There really are no words
To show my gratitude ........

Shepherd's Pie ~

Shepherd's Pie is an English dish, traditionally made with lamb or mutton. Americans typically make Shepherd's Pie with beef. The English (and Australians and New Zealanders) call the beef dish a "cottage pie". Naming conventions aside, Shepherd's Pie is essentially a casserole, lined with cooked meat and vegetables, topped with mashed potatoes, and baked.
Here is a basic recipe for a simple ground beef Shepherd's Pie.  We dressed it up a bit with some veggies and Worcestershire sauce.

Easy Shepherd's Pie Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs ground round beef

1 onion chopped

1-2 cups vegetables - chopped carrots, corn, peas

1 1/2 - 2 lbs potatoes (3 big ones)

8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)

1/2 cup beef broth

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice

Method

1 Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).
2 While the potatoes are cooking, melt 4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 a stick) in large frying pan
3 Sauté onions in butter until tender over medium heat (10 mins). If you are adding vegetables, add them according to cooking time. Put any carrots in with the onions. Add corn or peas either at the end of the cooking of the onions, or after the meat has initially cooked
4 Add ground beef and sauté until no longer pink. Add salt and pepper. Add worcesterchire sauce. Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth as necessary to keep moist
5 Mash potatoes in bowl with remainder of butter, season to taste
6 Place beef and onions in baking dish. Distribute mashed potatoes on top. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. You can use the fork to make some designs in the potatoes as well.
7 Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown.

Nutella Brownies ~

4 Ingredients} Nutella Brown

I’m very excited to share with you today’s recipe for Nutella brownies. My excitement has nothing to do with the fact that anything made with Nutella tastes better. However, I’m excited because this recipe only contains only four ingredients!!! Now you may be asking yourself right this minute on whether or not you can trust a brownie recipe with only four ingredients. This is a fair question I will address because I had some skepticism myself. But rest assured, these little hazelnut chocolate bites are well worth the 3 minutes (if that) it took for me to mix the batter and the 12 minutes it required to bake !



Back to the brownies. The texture of the brownies are more similar to a gooey cake.. .molten lava cake to be exact. If you’re hoping for a chewy brownie, these are not it. Instead, they are more like super moist cake except the brownies literally melt in your mouth. The recipe makes exactly 12 mini cupcake sized bites and it is hard not to eat them all in one setting. I can already tell these little chocolate bites of yumminess are going to become my regular late night pick me up snack.
I should also mention, this recipe does not require a mixer and children can easily whip up a batch. Enjoy!
Nutella Fudge Brownie
Reprinted with permission from Abby Dodge, cookbook author of Desserts 4 Today: Flavorful Desserts with Just Four Ingredients
Makes 12 Brownies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Nutella spread
1 large egg
5 tablespoons all=purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
Direction
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup mini muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Put the Nutella and egg in a medium bowl and whisk until smooth and well blended. Add the flour and whisk until blended .
3. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins (about 3/4 full) and sprinkle with the chopped hazelnuts.
4. Bake until a pick comes out with wet, gooey crumbs, 11 to 12 minutes. Set on a rack to cool completely. Serve immediately or cover and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

This is what I'm reading !

The Book of Ruth by J. Darline Peipman .

After over ten years of research and many hours of memorizing scriptures and pondering over what each word meant in Ruth’s day, J. Darline Peipman produces insightful, comprehensive, and compelling works in her Book of Ruth –Line by Line, and Book of Ruth –Precept upon Precept. Her research took her far back to the earliest known commentaries from the 1600’s, rare book collections, and further back to the original Hebrew words of Ruth’s time three thousand years ago .

Like an archeologist brushing away the dusts of antiquity and unearthing the real structure, J. Darline Peipman brings to life, in these two books, the treasures of faith and everyday life to be found in the Old Testament’s Hebrew village of Bethlehem. She describes family, community, elders, women, and aspects of their legal and real estate procedures, occurring over three thousand years ago.

“This is the closest picture we have, in the Bible, of ancient Hebrew daily life and it is found in the Biblical book of Ruth. J. Darline Peipman, by studying the classical literature and the original Hebrew meanings, has whisked away the dusts that clouded the real personal characteristics and messages from the book of Ruth and she has painted a truer picture of the personalities of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz,” writes one reviewer.
“Ruth was never a loose woman, nor was Naomi ever a bitter old woman as many male writers throughout the ages have depicted. Boaz was the quintessential kinsman redeemer .
whose personality a thousand years before, foreshadowed the very character of The Lord Jesus Christ,” says the author, of this series of books, on the Biblical book of Ruth ~
In times like these we need encouragement and examples for daily living that are tried and true. The Biblical books of Ruth that J Darline Peipman writes about contains just those secrets for life during hard time .

Facts about Israel ~

Real news, culture and comment direct from Israel

There are some great news resources in and from Israel, some of which we have listed for your reference    ~

This is where you can find their news and views blogs, and where you can get involved by posting your own comments and questions…

Israel factile
Geography:
Israel is only 1/6 of 1% of the landmass of the Middle East.
Israel is roughly half the size of Lake Michigan.
The Sea of Galilee, at 695 ft. below sea level, is the lowest freshwater lake in the world.
The Dead Sea is the lowest surface point on earth, at about 1,373 feet below sea level.
Israel is the only nation in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees.
Jericho is the oldest continuously inhabited town in the world.
The Mount of Olives in Jerusalem is the oldest, continually used cemetery in the world.
Demographics:
Israel 's population is half the size of Metro New York City.
Israel has only 2% of the population of the Middle East.
Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees per capita in the world.
Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation in the world - by a large margin.
Israel has the highest number of scientists and technicians per capita in the world - by a large margin.
Israel has the highest number of engineers per capita in the world.
Israel has the highest number of PhD's per capita in the world.
Israel has the highest number of physicians per capita in the world.
Israel has the largest percentage of its workforce employed in technical professions in the world.
Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation in the world, per capita.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the Christian population has grown over the last 50 years.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Christians, Muslims and Jews are all free to vote.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East where women enjoy full political rights.
Economics:
Israel has the largest number of start-up companies per capita in the world.
Israel is the world's largest wholesale diamond centre, finally surpassing Antwerp in the 1970's. Most of the cut & polished diamonds in the world come from Israel.
Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies outside of the US and Canada.
Israel was the first country to have a free trade agreement with the United States.
Apart from the Silicon Valley, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world.
Electronics:
The cell phone was developed in Israel at Motorola's largest development centre.
The Voice Mail technology was developed in Israel.
In the early 80's, IBM chose an Israeli-designed computer chip as the brains for its first personal computers.
The first anti-virus software for computers was developed in Israel in 1979.
Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed in Israel by Microsoft.
Both the Pentium-4 and Centrino processors were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.
The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.
Israel has the highest number of home computers per capita in the world.
The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ was developed in 1996 by 4 young Israelis.
Israel was the first Middle Eastern country to launch a satellite, the Ofek 1, on September 19, 1988.
Culture
Hebrew is the only case of a dead national language being revived in all of world history. Hebrew had not been spoken as a native tongue by anyone for centuries. Today it is the native tongue of millions of people.
Israel has more museums per capita than any other nation in the world.
Israel has more orchestras per capita than any other nation in the world.
Israel publishes more books per capita than any other nation in the world.
Israel publishes more books translated from other languages than any other nation in the world.
Israel reads more books per capita than any other nation in the world.
The most independent and free Arabic press in the Middle East is in Israel.
Military/Security:
Israel has the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the US .
Israel has the world's most impenetrable airline security.
Israel spends more money per capita on it's own protection than any country in the world.
Other
Israel's dairy cows are the most productive dairy cows in the world. They average 25,432 pounds of milk per cow per year, compared to just 18,747 pounds from American cows; 17,085 from Canadian cows; 13,778 from European Union cows; 10,207 from Australian cows; and 6,600 from Chinese cows.
Israel has more in-vitro fertilization per capita than anywhere in the world, and it's free.
Israelis, per capita, are the world's biggest consumers of fruits and vegetables.

Holy ~

'Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because He is holy, all His attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy. He has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe.' A.W Tozer