Recipe Contest Winner & Burgoo Recipe

A note from last week's special guest judge, Virginia Smith:

Thanks for all the comments on the recipe contest! A few of you mentioned a few really nasty-sounding dishes. (Garlic Ice Cream? Are you kidding? That has got to show up in a book someday!) I’ve loved reading your responses to the description of Burgoo.

But only one person actually submitted a recipe, so the prize of an autographed copy of A Taste of Murder has to go to Toni Star, of Ohio.

The recipe for her grandma’s stuffing sounds yummy – and since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, the timing is perfect. Congratulations, Toni, and thanks for giving my family something new to try for the holiday!

And now, as promised, here’s a recipe for authentic Kentucky Burgoo:

Kentucky Burgoo Recipe

Ingredients:

4 lbs. mutton

2 lbs. chicken

1 lb pork, smoked and then ground

¾ lb. cabbage ground or chopped fine

¾ lb. onion ground or chopped fine

5 lbs. potatoes peeled and diced

2-17 oz. can corn

¾ cup tomato ketchup

3-10 ¾ oz. can tomato puree

Juice of one lemon

¾ cup distilled vinegar

½ cup Worcestershire sauce

2 ½ tablespoon salt or more to taste

2 tablespoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne (more if you like)

Water

Ginny’s Note: Wild game adds a unique taste, and lends authenticity to the reputation of “road kill stew.” :-)

Directions: Boil mutton in enough water to cover it. Cook until tender, about 2-3 hours. Throw out the broth and bones. Chop meat fine. Set aside boiled chicken in 2 gallons of water in large kettle until tender. Grind smoked pork and combine with mutton. Add potatoes, cabbage, onion, corn, ketchup and one gallon of water to chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Meanwhile, chop chicken meat, discarding bones and skin. When potatoes are tender, add chicken, mutton, pork, lemon, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce

It is NOT a quick dish! If you want to try really good burgoo, I recommend The Moonlight Bar-B-Q Inn in Owensboro, Kentucky. You can order a jar of authentic burgoo from their website.

Thanks to everyone for the lively discussion! If you do read A Taste of Murder, I hope you’ll let me know what you think of it. Send me a note through the contact page of my website.

TRACY HERE: Thanks, Ginny, for a great contest, and an interesting recipe. If I get brave enough to try it, I'll let you know. If any of you Pixels try it, send us an e-mail and share your review of it!

Bloggy Carnival Winners!

It took awhile to sort through all the comments, but we finally have WINNERS for our Bloggy Carnival giveaway!

The winner of the box of 15 Books is:

Jennifer Jesson

She says: I am a SAHM to three boys, 4, 3 and 3 months in Colorado. I have recently started updating my blog much more frequently at Professional Mommy.

I also love to craft and am a member of Craftster.org as lukenlarry. I quilt, sew, glue stuff and do various types of needlework. My relationship with Jesus is very important to me, although I am still very human and make tons of mistakes!

The winner of the $25 Amazon gift card is:

Tami Q.

She says: I'm a working wife & mom who loves the Lord. I have PCOS. My blog is Desires of Thine Heart.

Congratulations, ladies!

And a special THANKS to everyone who participated in this quarter's Bloggy Carnival.

I'll announce the winner of the Recipe Contest and share Ginny's Burgoo recipe in just a moment, so be sure to check it out.

Blog Tour: Rain Song

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Rain Song

Bethany House (October 1, 2008)

by

Alice J. Wisler

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Alice sold her first story to David C. Cook for a take-home Sunday School paper called Sprint. The year was 1988, this was her first submission to a paying market, and the check sent to her was for $125.00.

She was on her way!

Since then, Alice has sold articles and devotions to the Upper Room, Alive Now, Standard Publishing, ByLine magazine and others. In 2006 she sent her novel Rain Songto Bethany House...and the rest is history! She signed a two -book deal and the second, How Sweet It Is will be out in 2009.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Nicole Michelin avoids airplanes, motorcycles, and most of all, Japan, where her parents once were missionaries. Something happened in Japan...something that sent Nicole and her father back to America alone...something of which Nicole knows only bits and pieces. But she is content with life in little Mount Olive, North Carolina, with her quirky relatives, tank of lively fish, and plenty of homemade pineapple chutney. Through her online column for the Pretty Fishy Web site, she meets Harrison Michaels, who, much to her dismay, lives in Japan. She attempts to avoid him, but his emails tug at her heart. Then Harrison reveals that he knew her as a child in Japan. In fact, he knows more about her childhood than she does.

To read the first chapter of Rain Song, click HERE.

How to Cope with the Current Financial/Economic Crisis

This week, for my Saturday "Soapbox," I wish to share an article written by my dear, precious friend and prayer warrior Nancy Arant Williams. She is a loving, giving, Godly woman filled with wisdom, and a prolific and talented writer and editor. On her Web site, she offers several free "mini-books" that will encourage you in your Christian walk, and a few free ones especially for writers, too. When you drop in, be sure to check out her full-length books, too - you will be blessed.

Now, Nancy's article:

How to Cope With the Current Financial/Economic Crisis

by Nancy Arant Williams

Perhaps like me, you’re struggling to understand how to cope with what is becoming a cataclysmic financial bind. We’re in crisis and we need wisdom to know how to respond.

First of all, as a Christian, I can say the Bible speaks volumes on this subject, even predicting it to a certain extent. So you may be asking, does it address the issue of where to invest our money or what to do when we lose our jobs and homes?

No, it doesn’t give specific direction of that kind, but it deals with something that’s actually more important than physical needs.

How can that be, you may ask. Because time is short, and all the signs of the times are pointing to the fact that Jesus is coming soon.

And while God has always cared about the needs of human beings, our comfort and security are not His first priority. In fact, I believe He’s allowing this crisis to bring us to our knees, to find out who is truly His.

Our nation has truly been blessed. Our flourishing economy has allowed us to become wealthy and, unfortunately, greedy and selfish. As a result we’ve come to expect a certain standard of living that I believe was originally a blessing of God on our Christian nation.

At this point in time, however, we have strayed far from our Christian roots and even further from the truth of God. We have come to believe our own rhetoric—thinking that we can do no wrong, and if we do, it won’t matter, because there will be no day of reckoning.

Well, obviously, we were wrong, and our day of reckoning has come. We’ve seen it coming on the horizon, but now it’s here.

And as much as I hate to say it, I believe America and the entire world are in for a depression the likes of which the world has never known. According to Scripture the world financial collapse will have the world clamoring for a savior, a person who has economic solutions. This will invite the entrance of the Antichrist, who will make promises he won’t intend to keep, except in accord with the devil himself.

You may be upset that I have no better news to offer. Well, in the middle of this mess, there is no good news in the natural world, but in the spiritual world, where it really counts, there is amazingly good news. Jesus still saves and keeps and anoints and ministers exactly as He always has.

For unbelievers this won’t seem like good news if all they’re after is economic relief. But for Christians it is cause for incredible rejoicing, because God is in control, and He is still trustworthy.

Let me give one warning here though. If you became a Christian simply to be blessed by Jesus, as Santa Claus, perhaps after hearing a name-it, claim-it gospel, you will fall away, because from this point on it will no longer be easy to be a Christian. Christians won’t be famous or in control of great wealth or influence. True Christians will simply be sold-out servants of Jesus Christ, who want to share the love of Jesus with an angry, bitter, vengeful world. We will be, for the most part, hated, scapegoats for those who need someone to blame.

It won’t be a fun place to be. But in the middle of chaos, we as believers who are truly the Body of Christ, will join together in love and unity, to share the message of salvation with those who are teachable for the very first time in our generation. That alone is worth getting excited about!

But let me address the question uppermost in your mind. How do we as Christians deal with the loss of everything we’ve held dear in the material world? We hold it loosely and get ready to let go of it if the Lord calls us to do that. And we choose to say, “I trust you, Lord, no matter what I see with my eyes.”

Instead of trying to address these issues with our minds and problem-solving skills, we will need to choose not to lean on our own understanding or the wisdom of men. These days, we will need to seek God, knowing and resting on His Word, asking for wisdom, protection, provision, and above all, the hope and joy found only in Him.

And lest you be downcast, believing it’s time to be depressed and give up, let me say that we as believers were born for such a time as this. If we can get past the loss of material things, and major on the reason we live, we will, above all men, be most blessed, most joyful, most excited, and most hopeful. Because Jesus is the answer to every question.

Personally I’ve seen this coming for some time, and I’ve been asking the Lord to change my heart, so I don’t clutch tightly to material things only to lose my own soul in the process.

We as believers will absolutely lose jobs, homes, retirement funds and money, things we’ve always counted on. But if we really believe what we say we’ve believed, that God is faithful and trustworthy to direct our steps and meet our needs, now is the time to put feet to our faith. The truth is, nothing else will be steadfast and secure from now on. To survive, we must daily dump all our fears and cares at His feet, in faith and love, choosing to serve Him no matter what the cost. If we do that we will be like brilliant lights in the blackest of dark nights, attracting the lost like bees to honey.

Probably the hardest thing to give up will be our control and our self-sufficiency, because we will have no control, nor will we be sufficient in and of ourselves. Things will appear totally out of control; but you and I have access to all of heaven’s wisdom, glory and provision, to bless those who are desperate for something. May they be desperate for God and His message of salvation—the very reason we live.

So what’s it to be? Will we give our grief and neediness to God and be part of the solution, or will we fall away, part of the problem?

I want to be part of the soul-winning team that loves Jesus with all my heart, soul and strength. I’m asking for nations, for revival for my own heart, for our country, and the world.

Will you let your light so shine? Join me in repenting and choosing to go the narrow way.

Copyright 2008, Nancy Arant Williams. Used with permission.

Tracy here: You can count me in, Pixels. What about you?

Thanks for sharing with us, dear Nancy. May the Lord bless you for your faithfulness and service.

Fun Friday!

I normally don't do these kinds of posts, but I needed a little break, so I decided to play. This is one of those "Get to Know Me" tag games, and I was tagged by Nicole over at Nicole's Writing Space. (If you haven't visited her, go check out her site - she's doing NaNoWriMo, and has some great tips for partipants, and lots of other tips for writers too!)

First, these are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.

4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Seven Facts About Tracy:

1) I love - LOVE - to fly fish, and learned to use a flyrod by the time I was 5 years old. But I've never fished for trout - I've fished only in lakes in the South. (Bream are my absolute favorite fish - to catch and to eat.)

2) I signed my first book contract this week! Yaay! It's a travel book and will release next year.

3) I hate the winter time change. I wish it could stay the summer time change all year round. I've even written my Congressmen asking them to make it law - many times!

4) Critters seem to like me - beautiful, funky-looking squirrels in my yard entertain me daily, lizards like to come inside and visit, and even an armadillo stopped by for awhile this summer (thankfully he stayed outside.)

5) I think ocean water - real ocean water, not the fake stuff or the Sonic soft drink - is healing to our bodies, and I can never visit the ocean enough to satisfy!

6) I don't currently own a car. But we're thinking about getting me one. Maybe. (They're just too expensive.)

7) My two sons had a difficult upbringing, and I'm partially to blame. It's taken me years to use that word "partially" instead of "totally" but I eventually got there. Now my sons have reached adulthood and they are making smart, good choices for themselves, and for their lives and I am so incredibly proud and grateful to God for getting us all to this point. I'm also thankful to be friends with them - that's a rare gift, and I definitely don't take it for granted.

Now comes the fun part - tagging 7 more people!

Debra Ullrick - Christian Romance Writer

Rosebug Hive 40

Joy in the Mornings

Cheryl W - Life with Cheryl - Roll Tide, Woman, Roll Tide!

Roderick - Christian Life & Lessons

Christianity with Tracey

Christian Parenting