It is a truth universally acknowledged that a college student in a dorm should be in want of the comforts of home. One of these comforts, at least for me, is spiced apple cider in the fall. It is something that my Grandmother taught me to make when I was younger and something that I have missed very much since going to college. Luckily for me, I am living in an apartment-style building this year and have easy access to the stove. (Which is fantastic because being unable to cook last year was killing me.) The cool are is certainly starting to settle in which makes it a fantastic time to enjoy a nice cup of spiced apple cider! Luckily for you, this delicious beverage couldn't be simpler to make!
Ingredients:
1 gallon Apple Cider (I bought mine at Walmart, but if you live near an apple house, even better!)
1 box of Red Hots
(Yep. That's it.)
Equipment:
1 large pot
1 stirring spoon
1 funnel
1 set of measuring cups
Instructions:
Place your pot on the stove and pour in your apple cider. If your pot is too full and is at risk of bubbling over, ladle out a few cups of cider and store them in a separate container.
Heat the stove eye to a just-below-medium setting. Making great cider takes time. You don't want the stove eye so hot that your cider burns!
With your measuring cups, add Red Hots for desired taste. This is all up to you. I added a little less than 1/2 a cup for cider with a little more of a kick. If you want spiced cider with a bite, add more. If you want a more subdued flavor, add less.
Let the mixture sit on the stove for around 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Depending on your stove, this may take more or less time. You'll know it's done when the cider is red, all Red Hots are melted, it lets off a little steam, and your kitchen smells delicious!
Turn eye off and let the cider cool a bit before you enjoy!
Warm and sweet spiced cider in a Bahamas mug! Thinking warm thoughts!
Once cider has cooled, it can be returned to its original container and stored in the fridge. Spiced cider is yummy warm of even cold! Be sure to drop 3 or 4 Red Hots in the cup before you microwave your cider if you are choosing to do so. Some of the good, spiced taste can get lost if you don't.
It's so yummy that there wasn't much left to store!
And there you have it! With few ingredients and very little effort, you can make a fall favorite in the comfort of your own home!
Enjoy some awesome apple cider and stay warm! Be sure to follow me for more tasty recipes!
It is amazing how the tiniest things can be God's way of speaking to you if you are willing to listen. A while back, I was driving home from school on the winding mountain roads. Something happened that opened my eyes and eased my heart. It wasn't anything most people would consider extraordinary, but it was remarkable to me. The story I am about to tell you involves me, a road, a tiny mole, a car, and utter terror....
Behold the mole. I promise I tried to find a picture that would make these furry little excavators look semi-cute. This is as close as I came, ladies and gentlemen. If you ignore his freakishly large hands, this little guy is adorable. Moles are blind. They have itty bitty little eyes, and if they could see, they would hardly be able to see at all! God made these little guys the way they are for a reason: to survive in the environment He put them in. Though they may look disgusting to us, God thinks these little guys are his teeny tiny masterpieces!
How exactly did God use Mr. Mole to teach me something about Him? It's simple. I can't stand to see things get hit on the road. It is seriously one of the lowest moments of my day when I see a squirrel run to certain death just for an acorn! That being brought to light, my story goes a little something like this:
I was driving home from campus,
admiring the all-encompassing beauty of
Fall in the mountains, when suddenly tragedy struck!
In the distance, I could see a chubby little mole scurrying
across the road! He crossed the yellow lines; I would not be the
one to strike the poor soul. But alas! A golden sedan was flying down the
road at top speed! Surely the creature would never survive! Glancing in
my rear-view mirror, I tensed up in fear of what was to come. What happened next was
nothing short of a miracle. The little mole was alive! He scurried off the road and
back to safety! Hallelujah! Oh happy day!
The story seems pretty unimportant, right? A little mole barely escapes getting hit by a car. That's just the thing, though: sometimes God uses the most seemingly unimportant things to speak to us and we might miss them if we aren't paying attention. You see, as I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw that little mole waddle off to safety something inside of me jumped for joy that this small life had been spared. There was nothing this mole could do to save himself, but God was watching out for him. In this mad world we live in, it is tempting to think, "God has more important things to look after than me." Matthew 10:29-31, however, tells a far different story...
"Are not to sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."
God is watching over you even when you don't know it. Yes, He watches over you even when you can't feel it. God is concerned with the sparrows even though you can buy two of them, TWO of them, with a penny. How much more worthy must you be since Jesus paid His life for you? No, much like the little mole, we can't always see how God is watching over us, but we will see all of this clearly in the rear-view mirror.
When you're going through life and it feels like we are the smallest, most insignificant person on the plant, God is watching. He is watching and He sees every bump and every bruise. He sees every tear we cry. The best part is: He is working all of these things together for our good. God is always working His higher purpose for our life even when we can barely make sense of things on a day-to-day basis. Yes, our lives are often very simple, but God still cares. He cares because He is the one who made us. We are His and He is ours.
Whenever you're feeling so small that God couldn't possibly care, you couldn't possibly be more wrong. God cares about every little thing in our lives. All we have to do is cry out to Him when we are struggling or hurting. God doesn't just want us to go through the storms thinking about how someday we will understand. That is promising news, but realistically, it doesn't always help in the here and the now. God wants us to call out to Him so He can wrap us up in His arms and love us when everything falls apart. We may feel like the moles of the world, wandering around blindly and barely escaping danger, but God is always watching. He is always there. All we have to do is call for Him.
Casting Crowns said it best in "Who Am I?"
"I am a flower quickly fading, Here today and gone tomorrow. A wave tossed in the ocean. A vapor in the wind. Still, You hear me when I'm calling. Lord, you catch me when I'm falling, And you've told me who I am. I am Yours."
A hilarious video featuring some of NBC News' finest anchors has recently gone viral. I watched this side-splitting video twice before I actually started to dissect what made Brian Williams and Lester Holt perfect for this spoof and then it occurred to me: Their voices are perfectly flat and absolutely void of any sort of dialect. If nothing else, watch the video from about the 1:13 mark on and you will see what I mean. This got me interested enough to consult my handy-dandy go to fact checker (Google) in order to find out where these two men are from. Holt is from California whereas Williams is from New York. Does anyone else find it a little odd that two men from opposite coasts have the same flat accent? Sadly, most people aren't surprised by this.
You see, mass communication has had a huge effect on the way Americans view dialects. I am sure that this isn't anything unique to any region in particular, but I will use my experience as a person from the Appalachian mountains.
I get a lot of grief for the way I talk.
I get grief when I go on vacations. I get grief at my college. I get grief from teachers and people who consider themselves intellectuals because for some unknown reason, I am expected to find my intelligence inferior to theirs simply for the way I talk. Here's that catch: I don't want to change. Everyone's dialect reflects their heritage and upbringing. In my hometown, most people will have a commonancestry. (Which I've heard means we moved to Appalachia to escape the Potato Famine.) The way people in Appalachia speak is a direct reflection of their heritage just as is true for anyone anywhere in the United States.
Yes, I speak slower than some people.
I speak slowly because when I am talking to you, you are important and I am in no hurry. I have no need to rush through conversation, but if I'm pinched for time, I'll let you know. I was raised to give people respect and value them (because, after all, the most important thing we have in life is each other). Everyone was raised with different guidelines for decorum so we all carry conversations differently. You know what? That's pretty awesome.
The Media has caused an environment only accepting of one dialect.
For some reason, Americans today strive for the flat accent. We all seek to have plain speech that doesn't distinguish us from the next person. If you watch the news (or anything on television for that matter) you will most likely find that everyone is speaking in roughly the same manner. Where is the color and vibrancy in that? Where is the celebration of the uniqueness of man? Where is the diversity? After all, America is a melting pot, right? Apparently this isn't the case. We have been taught that one of the greatest things about America is that America is a place where everyone mixes together. Nowadays, people say we are less of a melting pot and more of a salad bowl. Our cultures are unique and distinct yet they compliment each other beautifully. I like to think that we are like the salad at Olive Garden. You've got your lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peppers, croutons, and it is all tossed together in the same delicious salad dressing. Everything is different and has it's own flavor, yet it is all tied together with one common trait. This is the quintessence of America.
If we claim to celebrate diversity we should celebrate the diversity in the way we speak. It has been said that the hamburger is the only truly American cuisine. If this is the case, then imagine people from every state sitting down at a big, long table. When it is time for the meal, everyone is served the same exact McDonald's hamburger and is given water to drink. They have to do this because it is standardized, across the board American cuisine. That doesn't sound very fun does it? Now, instead, imagine this: the same people meet for dinner, but this time everyone brings their own flavor. The Louisiana native brings Jambalaya, the citizen of Maine provides lobster rolls, people from Chicago and New York City compete to see who has the best pizza while the Georgian and Texan just shake their heads and smile as they sit down their apple pie and fresh tacos. Which of these dinners would you rather be at?
You see, America is too beautifully vibrant to try to standardize our speech. The drawls and distorted word endings have been artfully crafted by years of existence. To drop our dialect is to deny our history and to mock someone else's is to be an utter fool. (You can explore and embrace your heritage while respecting everyone else's or you can snidely mock a person who speaks differently than you. Who is truly ignorant there?)
We all ought to learn to love not only our manner of speaking, but also that of those around us. No one should feel more or less intelligent or superior simply because of the way we speak. We are all different, but without each other's dissimilarity, our country wouldn't be what it is. We are Southern, we are Northern, we are Midwestern, and everything in between. We are doctors, we are farmers, we are firemen, we are housewives, we are whatever we want to be. We are tall and small, we are bohemian and conventional, we are young and old, we are nerds and jocks, but together we are America and America is beautiful.
