Tough Grits

TG's Fiesta Rice 1 lb. ground beef 1 large can crushed tomatoes 1 can fiesta corn (whole kernel corn w/ red & green peppers) 1 8oz. bag of Spanish yellow rice (Goya or Vigo) 2 cups of water 1 Tbsp. butter Cook meat; adding seasonings to taste. Drain meat. Bring water to a boil, then add all ingredients above (including meat) to pot, reduce heat to simmer, cover pot with tight fitting lid, and cook for 20 to 25 minutes...or until water cooks out of pot. I think this serves 4, maybe 6 if you have side dishes to compliment the meal. **More water can be added for moister rice.** Additional veggies and beans can be added to taste. In fact, the more stuff added, the better. Also, my husband’s family bakes this in the oven instead of in a pot, and they cover the whole thing with a thick layer of shredded cheese. So, this is a great meal that is quick and very versatile! ~Enjoy

Grandpa's Chili 2 lb. ground beef 2 (15 oz) cans dark red kidney beans 4 cups water 1 large can crushed tomatoes 1 can tomato paste (6 oz) 1 can tomato sauce (8 oz) 1 cup sugar 2 packets chili powder (McCormick’s ~ 1 mild & 1 hot) Cook meat, adding season to taste. Drain meat. Place meat in large pot with all above ingredients. Cook to desired consistency. Tastes best the next day, after being refrigerated over night, and then warmed up again!!!! Also, feel free to add chopped onions, potatoes, and any other veggies or seasonings. Enjoy~

Churros (Cuban Doughnuts) INGREDIENTS ·1 cup (all-purpose) flour ·1 cup water with 1/8 tsp. of salt ·vegetable oil ·Plate of granulated or powdered sugar DIRECTIONS Sift the flour in a mixing bowl, while bringing the salted water to a boil. Pour the boiling water over the flour, stirring lightly until the dough forms into a ball - about 30 seconds. The dough should be compact, but not runny or too soft. If you have a churrera or a cookie press, load it up with the dough. If not, a big freezer zip lock bag or a pastry bag with a corner cut off works, too. Use a star shaped tip, if you have it. Squeeze dough onto waxed paper in about 6 inch strips. Heat the oil until very hot. Fry the dough in the super-hot oil, turning once when you see the edges barely begin to pick up color (think pancakes). Fry for about 5 minutes total. Remove with a slotted spoon, draining as much oil as possible and place on the sugar plate and roll in the sugar. The churros will be ready to eat almost immediately.

TG's Arroz Con Pollo (Yellow Rice and Chicken) INGREDIENTS 2 small Cornish hens 1 8oz. bag of Spanish yellow rice (Goya or Vigo) Any additional spices of your choice DIRECTIONS Boil the Cornish hens until the meat is falling off the bone. They might be tricky to remove from pot when so tender…but well worth it! Place the hens in a 13x9 dish or on a large platter. Let them cool. When the hens are cool enough to touch, remove all desired meat from the bone and set aside. Follow the instructions on the packet of rice. HOWEVER, instead of using plain water use the chicken broth (the water left over from boiling the hens) to boil the rice. When broth comes to a boil, and the packet of rice to the boiling water and all of the shredded chicken to the pot as well. Now cook mixture according to instructions on the packet of rice. Enjoy~ ***I usually add more broth than the rice packet calls for. I like my chicken and rice to be a moist dish, not dry. Not only do I add more water (don’t know the exact amount), but I remove the mixture from heat just before all the water has been cooked out. I set it aside, leaving the lid on the pot. This will firm it up, but not dry it out. If the extra moisture is not desired, then cook mixture exactly as packet of rice instructions direct.

Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Cream Frosting Frosting - 2 8-oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature (I used low-fat) 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 4 cups powdered sugar 1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam 3/4 cup chilled heavy whipping cream Cake - 3 cups cake flour 3/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 3 cups sugar 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 7 large eggs 2 TBSP vanilla extract 1 cup sour cream (I used low fat) 6 TBSP plus 1/3 cup seedless strawberry jam 2 1/4 lbs strawberries, hulled, sliced (about 6 cups), divided MAKE THE FROSTING 1) Put a small/medium bowl in the freezer to chill. In a separate large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in sugar, then jam. Remove that chilled bowl from the freezer and beat cream in that chilled bowl until peaks form. Fold whipped cream into frosting. Cover; chill for a couple of hours until it’s firm enough to spread. (If you are in a hurry, you could put the frosting in the freezer to chill quickly.) MAKE THE CAKE 2) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans with 2-inch high sides. (I used 10″ cheesecake pans – aka springform pans – because they were the only round pans I had with high enough sides and they worked great!) In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add sour cream, and beat for 30 seconds. Add flour mixture in three additions, beating to blend after each addition. Divide batter into prepared pans. 2) Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edges of the pans, then turn cakes out onto a rack to cool completely. I threw the two cake layers in the freezer for about an hour to make the cake assembly easier. 3) Using a serrated knife, divide each layer in half horizontally. Place one half, cake side down, on a cake plate. 4) Spread 3 TBSP of strawberry jam over the cake, then spread 3/4 c of the frosting over the jam. Arrange 3/4 c of the sliced strawberries on top of the frosting in a single layer. Repeat two more times with cake layer, jam, frosting, and strawberries. 5) Top with remaining cake layer, cut side down. Spread two cups of frosting over the top and sides of the cake in a thin layer, then frost with remaining frosting. Stir remaining jam to loosen, then spoon teaspoonfuls onto the top and sides of the cake. Use the back of a spoon to swirl jam decoratively into the frosting.

Seriously though, what is your testimony of fasting? How has fasting helped you?

I have given birth 3 times. The first time (when I was 19), I worked right up until I had to go to hospital with contractions. No PPD with my first son's birth. Second time, from the time I found out I was pregnant, I was SO tired all the time. For somebody who is full-throttle 24/7, that sluggish, exhausted feeling was weird. Then after my daughter was born the PPD began. For me it was not an over-load of emotions. It was a lack of emotions. I am normally out-going and hyper. During my PPD I was "empty". I felt like I was under a larger mass of black clouds that just wouldn't go away. I was still able to do all the things I had always done, I was just doing them as if I was empty. I wish I could explain it better. The third time, I was tired again from the moment I got pregnant, but this time I started getting the dark clouds BEFORE my son was born. In fact, during my 3rd trimester the darkness and emptiness was so bad that I finally mentioned something to my OB/GYN at one of my visits. She basically told me to suck it up (she was ex-military, and I LOVED her) and that there was nothing she could give me in the 3rd trimester. Well, I did exactly as she told me to do, I sucked it up. Little did I know that what I was experiencing was serious. I should have been more vocal, more specific in what I was feeling and struggling with. It only got worse after my son was born. Instead of the clouds lasting for a few months (as with my daughter), I think the clouds last until he was 10 or 11 months old. Hmm...He was born May 2003. I then suffered a complete break-down in December 2004. Maybe I never really got over it then...? I never thought of that. I was under tremendous pressure and anxiety with other issues occurring in my husband's family, that I always attributed my break-down to that. Maybe it was, but maybe I wasn't fully recovered from my PPD. I don't know. I will say this...please take your mental/emotional health seriously. Please be very candid with your doctor about what you are thinking and feeling. They can't help you if they don't know what is going on! If you don't feel your doctor is taking you seriously or has your best interest, then get another one! Get second opinions! There is so much that I would do different if I had known then what I know now. ~TG

Well, at least it scared Vort out of this very feminine thread!

Sorry, StephenVH. I read very fast and I type very fast. I have to say, though, that when I was reading your comment "pools" of matter or spiritual essence is the image that came to my mind. I can't explain it any better than I originally did. Maybe that's for the best!! :) I actually had more to my original post regarding this...but I deleted it before hitting the "Submit Reply" button. It has taken me 14 years of discipleship, of study, of pondering, of prayer, and of living what I believe to come to the knowledge (minimal as it may be) that I have about the Savior. How can that be put into words? Some things just have to be lived to understand. :) I just don't have any deep doctrinal pearls about God's nature, essence, and/or substance. All I can offer is the basic, overly-simplistic testimony that I know that He is my Father in Heaven, that I lived with Him and learned the gospel plan before coming to earth, and that I am striving to get back to Him. I have nothing complicated to offer about the Savior, only my simple testimony that he lives, that he atoned for all mankind, and that he is the only begotten of Heavenly Father. ~TG

Sorry, I didn't see the original post. At least it was edited, right? And at least she stated that, "we all get to choose for ourselves how we will be obedient." Surely that is allowing each of us to do as we feel prompted to do, right? I certainly hope nobody took offense at my posts. I have nothing vested other than to share my perspective. I offer no condemnation to anybody for their perspective. We all have our trials. I did not go through what you did. I am sure you handled it the best you could. I went through two post-partum depressions. I also went through it the best I could. We are all different. I, personally, am glad for the differences! This way we can all share and help each other when going through trials and issues. Much Love, TG

Certainly it isn't just the "young" either. I don't think age is the factor for anybody choosing to wear their garments other than instructed. Young or not, members choose for themselves how they will obey and honor any principle or doctrine of the gospel. To be very candid, yes I wear mine out of obedience, but I also wear them because I truly hate how my bra feels without my silk-top garments. UGH!! Also, I am so glad that I don't have to wear underwear any more...who wants to go back to picking underwear out of places it shouldn't be? LOL I also love that I don't have a panty-line.

I think your post is fine. The last line of the post says it all! I do not remove my garments for very many things...only the few things that they must be removed for. I do yard work in them and I go to the OB/GYN in them--we have to take off all of our clohes off when we get there anyway. Oh, the things we women must bear.

Put mine back on as soon as I could. I think after my second child, I put them on as soon as I was able to get off my bed and take a shower (maybe 3 or 4 hours after giving birth). I put regular clothes on too. Couldn't stand that breezy gown. I just used the over-night pads all the time, changed them often, and wore underwear (for support) over my garment bottoms. I never had a problem, but everybody's comfort level is different. Just go with the Spirit. ------------------------------------------- Posted the above before reading all the other posts. Just wanted to add that my pregnancies did not involve complications with the birth itself. My problems came with the post-partum depression. I just didn't want it to seem that my birthing experience was a "cake". LOL I had problems too, just not with the garments or bleeding.

Good example. I like patterns. If we are modeled after Heavenly Father, then why would he send us to earth, born into "families" if we didn't have that in the first estate as well? We create children. They are very different from us in the beginning: small, can't talk, can't walk, can't feed themselves, can't see very well, can't survive without our assistance and nurturing. To me, this is like our time in the first estate with our Father in Heaven. We were taught. We were nurtured. We were spirit children of our Father, but we were not exactly like Him (just like a newborn babe is not exactly like the full-grown adults that created it). Then, after much nurturing, teaching, and growing, we send our children off into the world to find their own way, while hopefully keeping to the standards and truth that we were supposed to have taught them. This reminds me of Heavenly Father sending us to earth to "find our own way" while still holding to the standards and truth that we were taught in the first estate. Our doctrine is centered on family. Mistakenly, some think our earthly family is the center of all we hold dear as Latter-day Saints. I would say, that the real reason we hold families so sacred, is because we have a perfect, Heavenly template of family that is hard-wired into our very being, our very essence. We know families are sacred, because every sinew, every particle of our bodies and spirits reminds of us a greater, eternal family that we belong to. For me, my Father in Heaven is who I am striving to return to. How can I return to something that I wasn't part of to begin with? Not only am I striving to return to Him, but I want as many of the people that I know and love to return to Him as well. Family. It is the center of everything. Our Heavenly Family. I know who I am. I know whose I am. I wouldn't trade what I know and believe for anything else the world has to offer. Knowing that I am a daughter of God fills me with purpose, with peace, and with courage. How else could I battle the demons of the world on a daily basis, if not for the sole purpose of knowing that if I endure well, and remain steadfast and immovable in my discipleship, that I will have the opportunity to return to my Father in Heaven?

Yep. In fact, one of my favorite authors has been quoted numerous times: C.S. Lewis.

I would have totally hit the laugh button on you, except you might actually be serious. Yes, I wear makeup too. I don't think I am a Jezebel, or that I am going to Outer Darkness for this. I am modest in my style and my dress, but that can be a matter of interpretation. I also wear deodorant, brush my teeth, and take baths. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I am NOT a frilly girl, not that there is anything wrong with that. I'm just simple, and basic. However, I have been biting my nails severely for the past 10 years or so. It is awful. I usually by fake nails, glue them on, shape them, and paint them myself. I usually break-down and do this when I have bitten my nails to the point that they throb or hurt when I touch things. Typing can be torture. I have had acrylics at various points throughout my life. I got them done this past weekend on the spur-of-the-moment. The nails turned out great, look pretty, and I am not gnawing my real nails to the point of blood. I am just disappointed that I was mislead. The sign clearly said: Acrylic $35 Gel $40 It did not say "acrylic with gel top coat". If somebody wants to pay $5 extra for the gel topcoat, fine. But they should be more clear in their advertising. Does anybody know...acrylic by itself is strong (though porous), so why would a gel topcoat be desirable? To prevent nail polish from staining the porous acrylic? I mean, is there a justifiable reason for even wanting the gel layer on top of the acrylic nails?

I know that an answer to your question was already given, I just wanted to add that I downoaded the official LDS app to my Kindle. The app can "sync" with LDS.org to update/maintain whatever I do on any device. Because what I am doing isn't really just on the device itself, but on my account at LDS.org. So removing the official LDS app from a single device will not erase what I have saved to the LDS.org site. I guess only something happening to the site itself would erase my saved "markings" and notes.

See, I would have hit the laugh button on your post because of this one little sentence!! ~TG

Yes, I can see that your understanding is profoundly different than mine. I guess that is why you are in the religion of your choice, and I am in the religion of my choice. I am not a scientist. I am not a scriptorian. I don't even profess to be particularly intelligent. However, I know what makes sense (to me, obviously). I don't think that there are cosmic "pools" of angel matter, God matter, regular-going-to-be-human matter. I am not making fun. I am just trying to explain that this just doesn't seem correct to me. In the first estate, we were all spirit off-spring of our Heavenly Father. The Savior became the only begotten when he was born of flesh and blood through the sacred union between Mary (an earthly woman) and Heavenly Father (a god, our Heavenly Father). The rest of us are literal spirit children of our Heavenly Father, but we are born of mortal mothers and mortal fathers. Jesus is different. Rightly so. Only begotten = the only spiritual off-spring to also be born of flesh and blood of Heavenly Father. It does not mean, to me, that the Savior was the only spirit begotten of Heavenly Father. I have come to understand that the Savior became our "father" when he atoned for all the sins of man, when he ransomed himself for each of us. Don't we have brothers and sisters in our mortal families who "rebel", or who turn against what they have been taught? Why couldn't that have happened in our spiritual family? This is why it does not offend or bother me to know that Lucifer was once in the first estate with me, or that he rebelled. Lucifer made a mistake. A big one. His rebellion not only robbed him of his inheritance (of gaining a body and getting to live with God again if he lived righteously), but it lead 1/3 of God's other spirit children astray. They chose to follow Lucifer, thus damning themselves to the same eternal banishment and punishment as Lucifer. It makes sense that Satan is trying his hardest to destroy us, considering that he rebelled against his Father, against his brother, and against light and truth itself. He hates us. We represent everything he will never have: Bodies. Families. Love. Joy. Peace. Eternal happiness. His hatred of me, of you, of every good person (regardless of religion or lack thereof) makes more sense understanding that he was once in the presence of all truth, all righteousness, of his very Father in Heaven, and yet he rebelled. He not only hates us for what we have, but he must hate himself an awful lot for making such a monumental mistake. The mistake of all mistakes. To rebel against Father, while in His presence. For me, this brings clearer, deeper meaning to the commandment to honor thy mother and father. I guess you cannot make me "feel" what you believe, any more than I can make you "feel" what I believe. I just know that I have found what makes my soul sing. I have found what makes my head and heart agree. I have found what I would die for. I have found what I will live for. I have no fear, no shame, no regrets. I know that I have found what makes physical sense, spiritual sense, and cosmic sense to me. Hope I was clear.

I have had the same experience. I "laughed" at something at the end, but the post itself wasn't funny. There have been a couple of "laughs" that I thought the mods were going to zap me for, thinking that I was mocking.

If Christ is the example in all things, then wouldn't his existing in the first estate before gaining a body of flesh and blood be a template and a model that we were to do the same even as he did? Therefore, like him we existed in the pre-mortal world, and like him we came to earth and gained a body of flesh and blood. ~TG

See, smack in the middle of a serious post, you inserted something humorous! I would have laughed out loud and made you mad, especially if you were doing the speaking when I laughed! It never occurred to me to go so in-depth on such things. I guess for somebody who still can't figure out the Noah-ark-too-many-animals thing, I just haven't progressed to anything more complex.

UGH! It really amazes me how dishonest nail salons are being right now with their "gel" nails. Please go to the links below and read the articles if you "think" you have gel nails. Gel nails are more expensive, more natural-looking, and take longer to apply, but some salons are putting acrylic nails on (the liquid and powder stuff) and then brushing "gel" stuff on and charging the high gel price, even though they are acrylic NOT gel. Gel nails are made with GEL, not the stinky liquid and powder of the acrylic nails. So, if your salon is still putting the "stinky" stuff on, but charging you for "gel" nails, then they are being dishonest and scamming you. There is no such thing as "gel powder". Gel is GEL. Only acrylic uses POWDER. Some salons are trying to do a hybrid acrylic/gel combination, but that is not even a real nail process. Either your nails are acrylic, or gel...but should not be a combination. Honest salons should know this. If somebody likes their "hybrid" nails and doesn't mind paying for something that they didn't really get...that is fine. We all have agency, but what really BURNS me is when businesses take advantage of customers. People pay money to have an "expert" take care of them. It really disgusts me that some "experts" abuse customers. Fool me once, shame on YOU. And that is all it takes, because not only will I never visit that establishment again...but I will tell EVERYBODY I know what happened. If you have been scammed, PLEASE file a complaint with the state, so that other women won't be scammed! Are your Gel Nails Authentic - Or Have You Been Scammed? - Rebekah & Co. | Simply Shellac'd Exclusively At: SPALON Anyone have gel nails? - Yahoo! Answers Weighing Down on Beauty: GEL to POWDER NAIL SCAM- BEWARE

Sorry, but I really have to hit the "amen" button on this one.