Church Jokes and Paxton

Hey everyone!
How's it going? I was excited to find I had a new follower. So I checked out her blog and I was CRACKING UP! Heavenly Humor is great and you should look her up. I love some good jokes. Since it's been an eh kind of day, I thought I'd add some church jokes that I found too to cheer us all up (especially if it's as cloudy where you are as it is here).
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A new pastor moved into town and went out one Saturday to visit his parishioners. All went well until he came to one house. It was obvious that someone was home, but no one came to the door even after he had knocked several times. Finally, he took out his card and wrote on the back: Revelation 3:20 and stuck it in the door.

The next day, as he was counting the offering he found his card in the collection plate. Below his message was the notation Genesis 3:10.

Revelation 3:20 reads: "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me."

Genesis 3:10 reads: "And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked."
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(This is one of my favorite jokes.)

A southern minister was completing a temperance sermon. With great expression he said, "If I had all the beer in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."

With even greater emphasis he said, "And if I had all the wine in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."

And then finally, he said, "And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river." Sermon complete, he then sat down.

The song leader stood very cautiously and announced with a smile, "For our closing song, let us sing Hymn #365: 'Shall We Gather at the River'."

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Also, Paxton is halfway there!!!



Baby Paxton is as crazy/beautiful as his Ma Ma says! If you want to check out the story behind Baby Be Blessed's November Give A Blessing, you can click here (or there). If you'd like to hear how proud his Ma Ma is, click here!

I'm sure baby Paxton would TRULY appreciate your prayers too, so if you feel inclined to donate, thank you! If you feel inclined to pray, CAN I GET AN AMEN!!! :)

Friend-Makin' Mondays

WOOHOOO!!! This week's Friend-Makin' Monday is after my own heart.

Favorite winter recipes.

I actually don't have a recipe that's SPECIFICALLY what I like to make in the winter, but I do have a favorite cupcake recipe. They're called Car Bomb Cupcakes (or Irish-Guinness Cupcakes). I make them a lot. As you can see.





They're a little involved, but totally worth it. I got this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. LOVE Smitten Kitchen!!

Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes

While the Guinness in the cake gets mostly baked out, the Baileys is fresh and potent, so if you’re making this for people who don’t drink — ahem, nobody I know, but I hear such people exist — you’ll probably want to swap it with milk.

The Baileys frosting recipe makes a smallish amount of frosting — enough to just cover the cupcakes. Because they were so rich and this frosting so sweet, I felt it only needed a little. Double it if you want more of a towering effect.

Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes

For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache Filling (Updated to double it, based on many commenters suggestions — thanks!)
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional)

Baileys Frosting (see Recipe Notes)
3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperatue
3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

Special equipment: 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer and a piping bag (though a plastic bag with the corner snipped off will also work)

Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

Make the filling: Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.

Fill the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Those are your “tasters”. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

Make the frosting: Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.

[This is a fantastic trick I picked up while working on the cupcakes article for Martha Stewart Living; the test kitchen chefs had found that when they added the sugar slowly, quick buttercream frostings got less grainy, and tended to require less sugar to thicken them up.]

When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes. [I used a star tip and made little "poofs" everywhere and sprinkled it with various colors of sanding sugar to keep it looking festive for New Years. I bet shaved dark and white chocolates would look gorgeous as well.]

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I thought I've given an update on Baby Paxton as well.

It appears that Baby Be Blessed now has almost $500 for him!! Almost there!!

If you would like updates on how he's doing, you can always follow his Ma Ma's blog, the Wild, Wild Wests.

If you want to follow the progress on the fundraising, check it right here!

Do You Believe In Fate?

I think I have a special dance going on with the idea of fate. I believe that we have free will, but that God puts things in our lives, which I equate to fate, but are probably not.

Last night, as I was coming out of the PATH station, I see that my husband is talking to a man who looks like he could be homeless. I try and give all people the benefit of the doubt and believe that they are telling me the truth. So he's talking to us and is telling us about himself (his name was Eddie) and about generosity in his life and how he wished that he had never come to America (he was Puerto Rican). We listened and he asked us for a ride to a hospital the next day.

Of all the things we do not own, we do not own a car. He asked us for the cab fare to get to a hospital in the morning instead (which was where he asked for the ride to).

We continued talking and the subject came up to God. I'm not sure how long we talked when it's all said and done, but it was maybe 20 minutes and it left my husband and I with a feeling...and I can't describe it really. But I know that, for me, it really made me look at myself and what I have and what loving our neighbor really means.

Have you seen the movie Dogma? In it, God comes down in human form to play skeeball. I know, I know! Weird. But it's one of my favorite movies. My husband said to me, could it be the Dogma idea? And this scripture just kind of popped into my head:

Don't forget to be kind to strangers.
For some who have done this
have entertained angels without realizing it.
Hebrews 13:2

On a somewhat related note...on the idea of loving a stranger, I guess.

This is Baby Paxton.



Baby Paxton had heart surgery at 4 DAYS old. I almost put months. It was DAYS and he's still struggling. Only half of his heart works at this point and he won't have a full functioning heart until he's two years old. BabyBeBlessed has chosen him as their Give A Blessing Recipient.

It's not entirely about money, but more about prayers and what you feel moved to give. If you feel moved to pray more than give money, that's amazing because God really uses prayer. But if you feel moved to donate, the goal is to get Baby Paxton $1,000 by the end of November.

If you'd like to read more of the story, visit Baby Be Blessed and click on 'Give A Blessing.' (There are a few links in that sentence too)

Here's the widget if you want to check the progress through the month: