by jphilo | Feb 10, 2022 | Recipes
My husband is spending the weekend at our son and daughter’s-in-law farm. I was invited too, but am staying home in hopes of shaking the cough that is the last vestige of a virus that likes me much more than I like it.
The guys will watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, so I’m sending a batch of shortbread for them to enjoy. This is our son’s favorite cookie, and I can’t believe the recipe hasn’t been featured here before. (I’m also sending crumb top apple pie for my daughter-in-law.) Both recipes are from the Betty Crocker Cookbook that was a wedding present in 1977. Shortbread been a cookie staple at our house for over 40 years.
With only 3 ingredients, it’s easy to make. It tastes best after a few days stored in an airtight container at room temperature…if it lasts that long.
Super Bowl Shortbread
1 1/2 cups softened butter (preferably made with butter made from Snippy’s cream)
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups all purpose flour
Heat oven to 350°. Cream butter and sugar. Work in the flour. If the dough is crumbly, mix in 1 to 1 tablespoons softened butter.
Roll dough 1/3 inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Use a small water glass to cut into rounds. Place 1/2 inch apart on a hot, ungreased baking stone. Bake for about 20 minutes or until set. Remove from stone to cool.
by jphilo | Feb 3, 2014 | Church Newsletter Columns
I press on toward the goal to win the prize
for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:14
The media’s been having a field day with the interview–or rant, depending on your interpretation–with Richard Sherman after the Seahawks won a spot in this year’s Super Bowl. I observed the brouhaha from the vantage point of a person with zero interest in any sport other than Olympic level figure skating and congratulated myself for devoting my energy and time to better, more dignified pursuits.
Until the recollection of my behavior at our church’s Minute to Win It competition held the same day as the Seahawks game brought me down a peg or two. In case the buzz hasn’t reached you yet, our small church won the competition. We also took possession of the big, shiny, traveling trophy. Which if you’re interested, is on display in the church’s foyer for the next month.
Admittedly, our team won with little assistance from me. Unless my cheering for the more athletic members of our group counts as more help than hindrance. I cheered with gusto matched only by a willingness to interpret the rules so our team would win, WIN, W-I-N! Thankfully, they didn’t take my advice. Instead, they embraced the spirit of the evening and won, won, won by following the rules.
Now when the Richard Sherman interview–or rant–gets air time, I can no longer observe the brouhaha from the vantage point of someone far, far superior to those engaged in this media sports circus frenzy. I must observe it from the vantage point of someone equally capable and culpable of winning-is-all-that-matters behavior.
The implications of this realization stun, scare, and humble me. If I so quickly cast good sportsmanship aside for the sake of a shiny trophy, how might I respond in a situation with much higher stakes? How can I keep that happening?
The truth is that as a frail, feeble human trying to resist temptation on my own, I will fail again. The same truth holds for you, though your temptation may not be a big, shiny trophy gloriously displayed at the church welcome center. But whatever your temptation is, you will also fail to overcome it on your own. Unless you, me, and Richard Sherman have something greater and higher in our lives to motivate us, we will fail again and again and again.
To win we need something–no–we need someone to live for. Someone who is greater than our own whims and desires. Someone able to capture our hearts. Someone who is a prize above and beyond any other. To win, we need Jesus.
We need Jesus in us and beside us. We need his voice whispering truth in our ears when we’re tempted by big, shiny trophies. We need his hands on our shoulders steering us in the right direction. We need his voice cheering us on.
Look up!
Look at me!
Press on toward the goal!
Win the the true prize…eternal life in me!
We need his spirit within us, changing our hearts until, with unfailing certainty, we know Jesus is the true prize, the only prize worth winning.
Photo Credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net
by jphilo | Jan 31, 2014 | Uncategorized
Just when a non-sports fan thinks the annual Super Bowl hype can’t get any hypier, it does. This week, advertisers who paid small fortunes to air ads during the big game, are maximizing their investments by releasing “sneak peeks” of their commercials.
In other words, they’re making commercials about commercials.
My non-sports fan inner cynic started scoffing the minute the news broke. It didn’t shut up until the beauteous implications of this hype-ocity penetrated my thick non-sports fan skull. Watching the sneak peeks commercials about commercials ahead of time will streamline Sunday’s Super Bowl watching experience for non-sports fans.
In other words, our game time conversations need not be interrupted by commercial breaks.
Other than a bathroom break and a brief check of the Bruno Mars halftime show, we non-sports fans can talk non-stop for hours. We can also stand guard at the food and drink table and chase people away from our favorite snacks.
In other words, my kind of party!
Those of you who are interested in streamlining your Super Bowl experience can watch the sneak peeks commercials about commercials at these websites:
Forbes.com: At Forbes you can not only watch, but vote for your fave.
2014 Super Bowl Commercials: While this site offers oodles of share buttons.
Mediaite: No voting here, but it loads faster than the other two.
Spinach Dip: No commercials here, just a hint about where I’ll be hanging during the game.
If you start now, you have plenty of time to watch all the commercials, share, vote, and make the spinach dip before Sunday’s pre-pre-pre-pre-game show starts on Saturday afternoon. Or does that begin on Friday this year?
In other words, what will they think of next?
Photo Source
by jphilo | Jan 28, 2014 | Current Events
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM 5) recognizes the addictive nature of Downton Abbey. They warn fans to watch for the following signs of Downton Abbey Addiction (DAA):
10. You or those you love no longer call their spouses by their first name. Instead, in a thick English accent, they use their surname. As in “Mr. Philo, could you pick up bread at the grocery store on the way home?” To which your loved one replies in kind. As in “Certainly, Mrs. Philo, I’d be delighted.”
9. You or someone you love plans to wear a beaded flapper dress or black tails and white tie on a Valentine’s Day date.
8. Your children or the children of someone you love get this Sesame Street skit the first time they see it.
7. The first response you or someone you love as to the Harry Potter movies is, “Oh look, Professor McGonagall is played by the Dowager Countess of Grantham.
6. You or someone you love wishes your local news channel would carry more stories like this one which aired on KCCI in Des Moines, Iowa. You or someone you else also TiVoed the clip and show it when company comes to your house.
5. On Sunday evenings, you or someone you loves sets an alarm clock for 20 minutes earlier than Downton Abbey’s start time, so you can pop popcorn beforehand.
4. You or someone you know snorts liquid out your nose every you see the Downton Arby’s spoof.[youtube]http://youtu.be/NMykqW9ibiY[/youtube]
3. You or someone you love is circulating a petition to demand the Olympic Games be suspended when Downton Abbey is on television.
2. Ditto for the Super Bowl and the Grammys.
1. The list of potential baby names for your next child or grandchild consists of these names: Mary, Edith, Sibyl, Violet, Cora, Ivy, Anna, Daisy, Rose, Bates, Grantham, John, Matthew, Tom, Robert, Carson, and Alfred.
The DSM 5 recommends that if you or someone you love is displaying three or more of the above behaviors, they should begin attending Downton Abbey Addiction Anonymous (DAAA) immediately. Groups meet 24/7 except for Sunday evenings when the show airs.
What DAA symptoms are you or someone you love exhibiting. Begin your comment with, “Hi, my name is ______________________ and I’m a Downton Abbey Addict.
by jphilo | Feb 5, 2013 | Current Events
Another Super Bowl has come and gone, but it left these top ten lingering impressions in its wake:
10. My, my, my, those players have to be sore this week.
9. The more a TV show (like Parenthood, Downtown Abbey, or West Wing) draws me in emotionally, the more likely it is to enter my dreams. Rest assured, Super Bowl 47 and I were not bedfellows Sunday night.
8. Between brothers who are head coaches and the power outage, Super Bowl 47 should provide a motherlode of obscure facts for color commentators in the decades to come.
7. The best thing about the Super Bowl is the socially acceptable, junk food extravaganza that accompanies it each year.
6. Surely, John Harbaugh will leave his Super Bowl ring at home when he goes to Jim’s house for Thanksgiving dinner next year.
5. Finally, we know how to render football commentators speechless. Just turn off the lights in the stadium.
4. So, are the football players with the braids really football players, or are they Saruman’s fighting Urak-hai moonlighting on the sly?
3. The lack of sportsmanship displayed by players, coaches, and fans left me feeling sorry for elementary PE teachers and any adult on recess duty. How can educators encourage kids to be good sports when their pro-athlete role models are such bad examples?
2. The Super Bowl is considered family entertainment, right? Did someone forget to remind Beyonce and the producers of the halftime show about that?
1. Most of the Super Bowl commercials didn’t make much sense, which shows how out of touch I am with popular culture. However, the Doritos commercial where the dad dressed up as princess and played with his daughter and all his friends joined in was very cool. The world needs more dads like that.
