If you read to the end you get a life update, but first Monday night’s dinner… 

Blue cheese and pear pizza

This is my friend Sara’s creation. She and Caroline and I celebrated Valentine’s together with a dinner, chocolate covered strawberries, red wine, and romance. Ha.

How I would recreate Sara’s recipe:

1. Buy the pizza crust (in a can or on the frozen aisle).
2. Finely chop 1 small white onion and 2 cloves garlic into slivers. Sautee in olive oil until slightly brown and soft.
3. Peel and slice 2 pears.
4. Spray your pan. Drizzle olive oil on the crust. Cook the crust for a few minutes (as directed on the package).
5. Pull it out and coat with balsalmic vinegar.
6. Pile onions/garlic, then pears, then crumbled blue cheese.
7. Bake until crust is slightly brown on the edges.

YUM!

Tuesday night’s dinner recipe is modified slightly from the latest Real Simple magazine…

Chickpeas with kale and pan-roasted tomatoes:

Ingredients:

• 1 C brown rice
• 2 T olive oil
• 4 small plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
• 1 small bunch kale, remove thick stems and tear leaves (about 8 cups)
• 1/3 C golden raisins
• 2 cloves garlic, slivered
• salt and pepper
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 T lemon juice

Intructions:

1. Cook 1 C brown rice according to package directions.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet on med-high heat. Add tomatoes, cut-side down and cook until soft and browned, then flip to the other side for about 1 minute. Transfer tomatoes to plate.
3. Reduce heat to medium and add kale, raisins, garlic, salt and pepper, and about 2 T water. Cook the kale until it wilts and you have some more room in your pan. 5-6 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Add chickpeas, lemon juice and the tomatoes back in. Cook until warm.
5. Serve over rice.

This was so so good! I had leftovers for lunch today and it was good cold too.

Just a quick life update. Last weekend was totally and completely consumed with writing a paper. Since I was all work and no play for 3 days straight, my brain apparently gave up on productivity for 2 days. I had two girls nights/sleepovers this week – on school nights! Fun… but really? The week before an Old Testament exam? Looks like this weekend will be another work weekend, but hopefully some rest as well.

The weather here is GORGEOUS! Can I say it again? GORGEOUS! I hope the spring is here to stay!

On Sunday, I’m going to Rome, GA to preach at North Broad Baptist Church. February is Baptist Women in Ministry’s “Martha Stearns Marshall Month”. MSM was a Baptist lady preacher in the 1700s. Churches are encouraged to invite a woman to preach one Sunday in February. I’m excited and honored to have been invited up to Rome this weekend! I’ll be preaching on Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18… “Doing Holiness.” This will be only my second time to preach outside of a classroom setting. I really love the process of crafting and giving a sermon. It is all ready, just needs a bit of practicing before Sunday.

That’s all for now… All this staying up late and having fun is really cramping my sleep schedule. Time to get back on board with the “early to bed, early to rise” mantra.