Tag Archives: Cheesecake

Wayfarer's Journal

The Latest 08-07-2017

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They typically call August in Iowa the “dog days of summer,” but it definitely as not felt that way this year. We had the 100 degree August heat in July, and now nightly temps in the 50s have us thinking of football weather. And the Iowa State Fair hasn’t even begun.

It’s been terribly dry here in our little neck of the woods. Our lawn is dead. We’ve been watering to keep the landscaping alive, but that’s about the extent of it. It’s a little depressing to see nothing but weed in a sea of brown grass.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Wendy and me. July was full of business travel for me. I returned home to assist Wendy with running the box office for Union Street Players production of The Wizard of Oz and to helm meetings in preparation for our community theatre’s upcoming Board elections and Awards Night. Wendy and I are stepping down from leadership this year. It’s time for a new generation of leadership, and we’re ready for other things.

We also spent some time at the lake together. It was a working getaway. Having home offices, it affords us the opportunity to work from the Ozarks. While it’s hard sometimes to sit inside and work while the lake and sun are just out there waiting of us, it is nice to wake up in the morning and have a cup of coffee on the dock. It’s nice get done with work and enjoy dinner on the deck or go for a boat ride. We managed a few dates out in the boat, which is always a ton of fun.

Wendy’s key lime cheesecake.

Wendy has been busy making cheesecakes (and cupcakes) this summer. Not only has she made them for Grandma Vander Hart’s 90th birthday bash and her upcoming Cabi party, but she also has been getting fairly regular orders from people wanting cheesecake for this or that celebration. She loves baking, and I’m glad that she gets the opportunity to do it so regularly for others. If she satiated her desire to bake exclusively for the two of us I’d weigh 400 pounds.

I’ve also been busy on Sunday mornings. Three weeks straight I’ve been in the pulpit at our church here in Pella. That’s been really enjoyable despite the demands of preparation and delivery.

Taylor officially announced her pregnancy a few weeks ago and it’s been fun celebrating the good news with people. I can’t wait to be grandpa. It’s a fun new stage of the journey for us. Taylor is still in Des Moines and works for a digital marketing firm. Clayton is in Africa working on research for his doctorate degree. He’ll return in November and be with Taylor for the duration with baby’s arrival due mid January.

Wendy and I are pumped to make a fall road trip to see Madison. She’s been in South Carolina for so long and we’ve yet gotten down to see her in her community there. She’s still working for Laura Geller New York and is really enjoying her ever expanding community of friends there. She’s also enjoying being just a couple of hours from the Atlantic coast and the beach.

In a couple of weeks both Taylor and Madison are going to join Wendy and me for a trip to the lake together. It will be the last time that just the four of us will have family vacation time together. January begins a whole new chapter in life. We’re looking forward to marking the time together.

Sunday Summary

The Latest 10-04-15

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Summer has turned to autumn. The mornings are crisp and cool. The late summer sun is strong, but tempered with the cool fall breeze. The trees are changing color and looking increasingly bare. Here in the Iowa heartland the combines are out and the landscape changes daily as fields full of tall corn are laid bare with the harvest.

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A few weeks ago we returned from our fall weekend at the lake with Kevin and Becky. While we were in Missouri there had been a big rain back here at home. And, I had been watering our fledgling lawn religiously. Early that week I was sitting in Vander Well Pub with Taylor talking about her day when I looked into the basement family room and noticed that a big pillow sitting on the floor was discolored. It was then that I discovered our sump pump had not been working and our storage room and family room were flooded. When our contractor came over to inspect the issue, he found that at some point the sump pump plug was not flush in the outlet. All he did was push it in and the sump started to work. It was not a good evening.

We had a lot of damaged photos, artwork and other belongings that were still boxed in the storage room from the move. Fortunately, our friend Brad responded to my text and brought over huge fans and a special machine for sucking up water out of the carpet/pad. I was up until the wee hours trying to dry things out. Ugh.

The Latest 10 04 2015 - 1The Latest 10 04 2015 - 4Wendy has been planning a new tat for a long time now, and had vowed to put it off until after the summer (You’re supposed to keep new tattoos out of the sunlight). She finally pulled the trigger and had a gorgeous phoenix inked onto her upper left arm. It’s a gorgeous tat. The phoenix, a symbol of rebirth and glory from ashes, has long held special significance for Wendy. I’m happy that she finally got it done.

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Last weekend was Pella’s Marching Band Festival. Des Moines Christian was marching, so Jody and my folks drove down for it. Wendy and I met them at the field to watch the band, then came back to the house for a quick bite. It was great to have them here and to see both Emma and Harry Roose marching.

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This past week Taylor received word that her Master’s dissertation had been accepted by Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. We uncorked a nice bottle of wine, made a special dinner of grilled salmon, and toasted her acheivement!

Yesterday we were in Ames. My dear friend, Megan, asked me to be honorary dad at ISU Dad’s Weekend. Her mom picked Wendy and me up early in the morning and we drove up to the campus. Megan has pledged to a sorority, so after picking her up at her dorm we went to the house for tailgating and games. We then walked to Jack Trice stadium and sat in the student section to watch the Cyclones beat Kansas. It was a cloudless day and one half of my face got nicely burned! It was great to see Megan and, as always, it was a privilege to be honorary dad.

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Wendy and I have spent the past couple of weeks finalizing our transition out of leadership with Union Street Players. There have been files to transfer, final reports to prepare, meetings with the new Board. Last night was the 2015 USP Award’s Night which was essentially our final major responsibility. Wendy planned the event and made several cheesecakes. I put together the year-in-review video and emcee’d the event. Suzanna came back from school to attend. Our friend Heather MacClennan came down from Des Moines with her trio to provide entertainment. Good time had by all (despite some maddening technical difficulties that just about fubar’d the entire evening for me).

Chapter-a-Day

Sensually Good

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wendy vander wells chocolate truffle cheesecakeSolomon:
You are my private garden, my treasure, my bride,
    a secluded spring, a hidden fountain.

Young Woman:
Awake, north wind!
    Rise up, south wind!
Blow on my garden
    and spread its fragrance all around.
Come into your garden, my love;
    taste its finest fruits.
Song of Solomon 4:12, 16 (NLT)

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a true “foodie.” When I was a kid I drove my folks crazy with my narrow list of acceptable foods. My preferred menu was grilled cheese sandwiches, blueberry pop-tarts, eggo waffles, and Lucky Charms (are you noticing a sugary breakfast theme?) and pretty much nothing else. As I’ve gotten older my palate has expanded, but my preferred menu is still pretty narrowly defined in comparison to most people.

At the same time, I love food and have come to appreciate a good meal (not to be confused with a big meal) as one of life’s true pleasures. As an adult, I’ve also come to realize the sensuality of food and drink. I’ve learned that certain foods stimulate more than just my taste buds. I’ve realized that food and drink in certain combinations have a stronger affect than when they are consumed my themselves. I’ve even come to realize that certain foods create emotional and physical responses within me. Confession: I have found Wendy’s cheesecake to be, for me, such a sensual experience that at times it feels simply erotic.

How interesting to find in the lyrics of Solomon’s song these erotic references to gardens, fruits, food and the imagery of taste. There is a connection between our God given senses. God created our bodies to sense and experience a wide range of feelings and emotions and He called it “good.” To be sure, any sensual appetite can be taken to excess in all sorts of unhealthy ways, but the sensual experience is not in itself wrong of sinful. In fact, sensual experiences are natural, healthy and spiritually good when experienced in the proper context. How sad that the institutional church has, through the years, gotten so confused about this truth. In an effort to stamp out the excess of our sensual appetites the church often tries to deny, outlaw, and shame the senses themselves. I find this reactionary legalistic excess to simply be a mirror image of the excess indulgence they attempt to thwart. In reality, both extremes are equally sinful.

Jesus said he came to give us abundant life. This includes a healthy appreciation for the breadth of senses God gave us to properly experience the full range of creation in its sensual glory.

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Chapter-a-Day

Of Cheesecake and Chains

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Wendy's key lime cheesecake.
Wendy’s key lime cheesecake.

O Lord, the God of vengeance,
    O God of vengeance, let your glorious justice shine forth!
Arise, O judge of the earth.
    Give the proud what they deserve.
Psalm 94:1-2 (NLT)

International Justice Mission (IJM) is one of the groups Wendy and I regularly support financially. In fact, because Wendy has developed a bit of a reputation for her amazing cheesecake, she occasionally gets orders for them. She decided some time ago that we will eat the cost of making any cheesecake ordered and every cent of the money she charges people for her cheesecake goes directly to IJM who works around the globe to rescue victims of slavery, exploitation and other forms of violent oppression.

I couldn’t help but think of the work of IJM as I read Psalm 94 this morning. The psalms are all ancient song lyrics that express a wide breadth of human emotion. The lyrics of this one are a heart-felt calling out for God’s justice in a cruel and unjust world. When I hear about the horrors experienced by those IJM has delivered from bondage, it inspires to sing along with this ancient cry for vengeance and recompense.

At the same time, my thirty years of sojourn through God’s Message have taught me many things. One of the lessons learned is that I cannot forget the fact that as I call on God to rain down justice on evil-doers I am asking for judgment upon myself. Jesus used the metaphor of yeast when talking about wrong-doing. Anyone who’s made bread knows that you put in just a teeny-weeny pinch of yeast and it spreads throughout the dough, causing it to rise. In God’s economy, the person who has a pinch of wrongdoing in their life is as guilty as those who have a pound of it. We are all in bondage to uncontrollable appetites of one form or another.

There is something incongruent in my heart with this. I cry out for God to strike down those I see as evil doers while at the same time I cry out for God to have grace mercy with the evil that I do.  It is a natural human emotion to desire justice for evil. It is an equally human trait to diminish, ignore and excuse the evil in me.

Jesus said to bless our enemies and pray for persecutors. Jesus Himself had nothing but kindness, love and forgiveness for corrupt and unjust tax collectors, the thugs-for-hire who beat Him, and the Roman soldiers who executed Him in horrific fashion. Jesus’ most vehement and judgmental tirades were exclusively aimed at the good, clean-cut, upstanding religious people… like me.

Today I am pondering cheesecake, charity, and chains. Wendy will continue to make cheesecake and we will continue to support IJM and the work of delivering victims of oppression. But, my personal attitude towards those who do such evil is challenged this morning. I believe they deserve justice, but they also need God. They need God as much, if not more than I do. The evil and wrongdoing in me is well concealed and relatively controlled, but it is still there. If I had been born in a different time and place in different circumstances I might just as easily have been the one enslaving others.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Mark 12

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“And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.” Mark 12:33 (NLT)

Wendy has been doing a lot of baking lately. Cheesecakes and cupcakes have been the specialty as of late. She is amazing in the kitchen. One of her cheesecakes recently sold at a charity auction for over $1100. She’s learned in her baking that the quality and purity of the ingredients makes a difference in the outcome. The same is true with life.

For example, Jesus said that the greatest commandment is love.

Not good theology and love.
Not temperance and love.
Not obedience and love.
Not goodness and love.
Not sacrifice and love.
Not purity and love.
Not giving and love.
Not ___ and love.

The greatest commandment is just love. Love God with all you’ve got.
The second commandment is just love others as you love yourself.

The simplicity and purity of the ingredient is what makes the resulting life taste so good.

If you add anything to it, you ruin the recipe.