God is in control

"I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things." Isaiah 45:7

To some, this verse might not be very important. To many others, today, this verse is extremely significant. I live in Southeast Virginia...very close to where the tornado ripped through yesterday afternoon. We are praising Jesus that we were are safe and our home is not damaged, but my heart just aches for those that were in and around that powerful storm. Isaiah 45:7 shows us that God is in control of all things. He creates light, He creates darkness, He creates the heavy rains and winds. It ALL comes from HIM. The Bible also tells us to give thanks in every situation and sometimes it seems so hard to be thankful when devastation surrounds us, but we have to have faith in knowing that God will bring good things from this disaster.

Please be in prayer for those affected by this tornado that has devastated southeast Virginia as well as the Colonial Heights area of VA.

Blessings~
Alyce

Super Easy, Yummy Cake

Its been raining here for 2 days now. We need it too. The ground was pretty dry. I actually love rainy days. It seems to cause me to slow down more. I also love the smell of rain on a warm day. It is so nice to cozy up with a good book or magazine, cup of coffee and light a good smellin candle. We sometimes need rainy days to get us to just stay in and focus on God's blessings and provisions. Rainy days are also GREAT days to get in the kitchen and bake! So today, I am going to share with you a recipe for a very easy and very delicious cake!

Butter Pecan Cake

1 cup milk

4 eggs

2/3 cup oil

1 can coconut and pecan frosting

1 box butter pecan cake mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a tube pan. Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer. Pour into pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Check after 45minutes as ovens vary.

And yes..that is right.. the frosting goes INSIDE the cake. It makes a very moist, yummy cake!

Blessings~

Alyce

Making some changes

For some time now I have wondered what I was going to do with this blog. One of my passions is cooking. I thought I could establish a blog and share recipes. I really didn't know how to go about it. I also didn't think I had time to create and manage a blog. Finding a creative name for a blog was also an issue, I could just never think of anything....until this evening... The kids wanted me to stay outside with them and I just couldn't because of cooking supper. I told my daughters "I can't.. I've got pots on the stove". It clicked. I thought, oh cool, I'll use that for my title. So.. here it is. I am going to try to post a new recipe as often as I can. The recipe today is for Salmon Cakes. A very easy and yummy dish.. Enjoy!

Salmon Cakes

1 package boneless, skinless pink salmon (this is a vacuum sealed pack)

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

1/4 cup chopped red pepper

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 Tbsp lemon juice

about 1/2 tsp black pepper seasoned salt

about 1/2 tsp Old Bay

1 egg

about 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Empty salmon into a bowl and flake with fork. Add other ingredients and mix well. Form mixture into 6 cakes or patties. Heat a frying pan, add a little olive oil. Pan fry cakes until done, maybe 5 minutes per side.

I often do not measure my ingredients. When I do create a recipe, I will guess or eyeball ingredients..that is why you will see "about" or "approximately" in some of my recipes.. Just try it and play with it yourself!

Sweet Blessings~

Alyce

Home Problem Area

Lysa TerKeurst is doing another Swap and Hop! What fun.. This time it is to address an organizational problem area in your home. My biggest problem area is my home office. In this room there is the desk, an end table with the printer on it, a tall filing cabinet that has a small TV on top, a treadmill, a bookcase, gun cabinet (hunters here), and near the bookcase is an area where we have an old school desk that my daughter is suppose to use. And surrounding the desk, is all her stuff. The desk is about to go to the attic, she doesn't use it enough. But its not organized at all and there is STUFF all around. Tons of papers, mail, the "hunting" items, storage boxes (cute ones though) that are under the end table and on top of the filing cabinet, filled with things. What to do????? Some days I get it cleaned and say to everyone "OK, it looks great in here now, now everyone keep things put away". Its a room used for many things obviously, so how do I keep it orderly and classy with all the things that are in there??

Visit Lysa's blog for more ideas www.lysaterkeurst.blogspot.com

Blessings,
Alyce