Thanksgiving Recipes Are BA-ACK!

Oklahoma Farmhouse Cornbread

·         Posted by Peggy Consolver

·   It was August when I was about 8 years old. Mama was sewing on our back-to-school outfits. (3 girls x 5 days a week?)

It was time to start supper, but she did not want to quit just yet. “Peggy, go make cornbread.”

Back and forth I went from her sewing area to the kitchen getting one simple instruction at a time.

2 cups cornmeal,
1 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2-3 cups milk–enough to make it like thick gravy

I doubt she ever measured quite so precisely. She was guesstimating for it all, but the recipe has stuck in my head for, lo these many years.

I learned another trick from Aunt Betty when I stayed overnight with her one time. “Heat a black iron skillet on the burner with shortening while mixing the batter. Pour batter into skillet and hear the sizzle make yummy crust.” Then put in oven at 375 degrees. 30-40 min. (Remove from oven and turn upside down onto a plate immediately to let it breathe so the crust will stay crisp.

And then the ultimate find at a garage sale in Tucson AZ with my sister: a well-aged, well-seasoned square iron skillet, $5. A little heavy in my carry-on, but worth the trouble.
Anyone notice there’s no sugar in my recipe? Nope.

I have a theory. I’ve been querying my northern friends since I married a Kansas Jayhawker.

Do you put sugar in your pinto beans? North and east of Oklahoma, they generally do not. But, they put sugar in their cornbread.

Where I come from, we put sugar in our pinto beans; therefore, no sugar in cornbread, please.

My daddy loved leftover cornbread crumbled in a tall glass of milk. Adding salt.

And without sugar in it, it is perfect for cornbread dressing to accompany the Thanksgiving turkey!

So, eat the crust with your tortilla soup (or milk) and freeze the rest for dressing.

SURELY MY HAIR DOTH GROW LONGER: PONDERINGS OF A PANDEMIC

“Vanity, vanity—all is vanity.”

Talking to my daughter, she quoted a friend: “We’re about two weeks out from knowing everybody’s real hair color!”

Perhaps our real character will also show through.

I left a message for my hairdresser of over twenty years—to chat.

As we wound up the conversation, she said, “I thought you were going to give me a word from God.”

Surprised, I replied, “Do you need a word from God?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Then, yes, I have a word from God: ‘Don’t be afraid. We don’t know what is happening, but God does. And the main thing God wants out of this pandemic is for us to realize we cannot deal with all this alone, and we finally come to the point where we humbly ask God to help us.

“And He will.”

“Thanks.”

“You are very welcome.”

VERSE OF INSIGHT: “No one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone. … Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:13-17

((Who are the self-employed small business owners who help you on a weekly/monthly basis?

Pray for them. Talk to them.))

One Moment of Clarity Can Change the Course of Your Life

Originally posted by Peggy Consolver in 2017.

It was 2009 when I turned to my husband and said, “If I really write this story [of the Gibeonites of        Joshua 9 and 10], maybe I should go there.”

He made it happen, and that statement launched a whole new era in our lives— the biggest adventure of my life began.

Touring Israel with Associates for Biblical Research. The Sea of Galilee in the background

Going to Israel with Associates for Biblical Research to participate in the 2010 dig at Khirbet el-Maqatir opened a whole new world in so many ways.

Climbing the hill to get to the dig site of Khirbet el Maqatir, 2010

The site of Gibeon of Joshua 9 & 10 from a hillside across Aijalon Valley.

On a side trip, our personal Palestinian tour guide and a Palestinian cab driver took us to see Gibeon from across the valley and then to stand on its summit.

The view from the top of Gibeon’s hill. The northern outskirts of Jerusalem are in sight less than 9 miles away.

By going there, I could describe the setting of Gibeon and Aijalon Valley with authority in Shepherd, Potter, Spy—and the Star Namer.

An ancient olive tree on the top of Gibeon.

It was on that dig at Khirbet el Maqatir we met Dr. Gene Merrill and his wife Dr. Janet Merrill. Dr. Gene endorsed my book before publication and an excerpt of his endorsement is on the back cover.

“With ‘the author’s colorful turn of phrase … experience solid learning interwoven with joyful, sanctified ‘filling of the gaps’ that make the ancient text alive…’  Eugene H. Merrill, PhD, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary” (2015)

Being a friend of ABR opened a whole series of new relationships as well. Dr. Bryant Wood, our Dig Director in 2010,

Dr. Bryant Wood in brown hat, Dig Director, 2010.

Dr. Wood has an amazing bio on the ABR website.  I am in awe of his fortitude and dedication  defending the Bible, its authority and its reliability as historical record. I am most pleased and humbled that he volunteered to endorse my book this year.  (2017)

    “Shepherd, Potter, Spy–and the Star Namer tells the story of the Hebrews’ arrival in Canaan from a new point of view. A young Gibeonite shepherd’s eyewitness account captures the tension in the ancient land of Canaan. Accurate descriptions of the terrain give the Bible student new insights into this historical event of the Late Bronze Age. The use of the archaeological artifact known as the Gezer Almanac adds credence to the timeline the author constructs. Bryant G. Wood, PhD, Director of Research, Associates for Biblical Research, Akron PA.”

Dr. Scott Stripling was our square supervisor in 2010.

That’s me “draining the bathtub”—lowering the level of soil bit by bit in my area/locus. That’s Dr. Stripling documenting the finds in the whole 10x10 meter square called Square 20.

Subsequently, he became Dig Director for Khirbet el-Maqatir, which closed out after over twenty years of digging in 2016.  Scott is now director of ABR’s new excavations at Shiloh.

ABR’S Week 4 Dig Team at Shiloh, 2017

And we took our whole family, eleven of us: our kids, spouses, and five grandchildren ages 11-17 to dig at ABR’s first season at Shiloh.

That’s us in 2017. But this pic was taken at Jericho on our tour week with ABR.

Have you ever experienced a moment of clarity that changed the course of your life? Share when this happened in your life.

I’d love to hear from you.

Baptisms and Mine Fields

Near the north end of the Dead Sea is a new site not available to us in 2010. (A re-post from 2017.)

Our family “floating” in the Dead Sea.

In 2010 we visited a Jordan River baptism site at the point where the out-flow of the Sea of Galilee entered the Jordan River. At the time we were told this most northern point of the Jordan River was the only part accessible to tourists to Israel. The rest of the river all the way to the Dead Sea was in a military zone–and there was hardly any water in it due to agricultural use. The new baptism site we went to in June 2017 is near the Dead Sea.

It seems evident to me that Israelis saw great value in building a tourist site available for Christian baptisms closer to the actual site of Jesus’ baptism in the gospels.

I do not know the process or negotiations that took place between the Palestinians, the Jordanians and themselves, but Israelis spent a great amount of money to provide this place and the accessibility at Bethabara. Scott Stripling, our tour guide and dig director at Shiloh, translated the name as “the house of crossing.,” It is on the western bank of the Jordan River. The country of Jordan is across the Jordan River to the east.

The western bank is in the territory of the Palestinians known, logically, as The West Bank.

Beside the road down to the baptism site of Bethabara.in the West Bank near Jericho.

In 2010, we were told the western bank of the Jordan River from the most southern point of the Sea of Galilee was a Palestinian military zone off-limits to Israelis and tourists. We saw this area labelled DANGER, MINES! beside the road in 2017.

All this resulted in a continual flow of tourists coming to be baptized. And Israeli military personnel stood nearby to watch over us all.