chili casserole and becoming new

So I know that you've probably seen my hope to keep this blog updated regularly and can see that it was in vain.  Here I am, a year and three-ish months later, and only now am I writing post number 2.  Go me.  So let's just dive in, shall we?

The recipe:
Cheesy Cornbread Casserole

Please bear in mind that I pretty much never follow a recipe exactly and each time I make it it turns out a little differently.  So I'll include what I changed and how it tasted.  One word for this one.  Freakin-amazing.  Okay, so two words and I cheated with a hyphen and dropped the 'g' to make it one word.  But it was good, really good, an I-couldn't-stop-myself-from-eating-it-at-every-meal-until-it-was-gone kind of good.

Changes:

• whatever cheese I had in my fridge which was about a 1/2-3/4 pound of mozzarella, 1/4 pound of colby jack, and about 1/8 pound of provolone.  You can use the already shredded stuff, but grating cheese yourself is easy and cheaper and it really doesn't take a lot of time...and it melts better.
• spices...with the garlic powder and cumin, maybe 2 generous teaspoons, and I added about 1T of chili powder.  I also add red chili flakes (1/2tsp, maybe 1tsp), salt (maybe 1tsp) and pepper (1/2tsp).
• in lieu of a fresh jalapeño I used one can of diced green chiles, undrained, seeds and all...no capsaicin on me to be accidentally transferred to an innocent baby who won't know the joys of that crap until she touches it herself and accidentally touches her nose, eye, mouth, ... you get the picture.  I don't need a screaming baby, thank you.  And washing my hands never gets it all off...maybe if I had some Gojo around, but I do not.
• cooking process:  soften onions and season with salt, pepper, half of the garlic powder, and half of the cumin; add meat; while the meat is cooking, prepare 1 box of Jiffy corn muffin mix and set aside to rest; when the meat is almost cooked through, add chiles, beans, enchilada sauce, and chili powder; while that combines, grate the cheese into the corn muffin mix and stir to combine; taste the sauce and add the red chili flakes and the rest of the garlic powder and cumin as well as any other spices you choose to add at this point; pour into a 9x13 pan (I used a non-stick metal cake pan) and carefully spoon globs of the cheesy muffin mix on top of the meat/bean/saucy deliciousness; bake 20ish minutes at 350, until the toothpick comes out clean...you know your oven, bake more or less depending on your oven.
• I did not cool it at all...except for the obligatory blow before shoving it in my pie-hole.  Then came the stuffing of my face once the first bite rendered my eyes wide and my mouth salivating because of how awesome it tasted.

Next time I'll be more exact with measuring...well, maybe not...that's just not how I cook.  Sorry.  But, I will attempt a picture at varying steps...maybe...if I remember...mostly if Brinnan isn't yelling in her bouncy chair while I attempt to make dinner before the husby gets home.  Her dinner and first evening nap coincide with our own making and eating of dinner...except hers needs my boob and it's hard to remove that for her exclusive use.

Enough of the TMI and overshare, on to what I read in the Good Book:
Short and simple, here is the scripture, my own ideas for cross references, and my thoughts...
1Peter 1:23 (KJV)
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."

• "Being born again...by the word of God"
• Doc & Cov 27:18, Ephesians 6:7-18, 2Corinthians 5:17, Mosiah 27:26

There are a lot of times in my life when I wanted to be someone else...when I didn't like who I was.  I would imagine scenarios where I would be someone else entirely, but as my life's circumstances changed, my imagined scenes changed.  Life has thrown me some serious craziness, but the harder things got, the more "in tune" with myself I became.  I was no longer someone else entirely, I was a better version of myself in those dreams.  I noticed that I didn't want to be anyone other than that better version.

Part of that change can definitely be because of my spiritual growth.  I read the Bible when I was in high school, pretty much only because of seminary, but during the obligatory reading to get all the stars on my reading chart, I could feel obligation becoming desire.  I wanted to read more about God and everything the prophets and apostles went through while they tried their best to do as they had been commanded.  My own life was full of me just trying to figure out what kind of a person I wanted to be, not what I should be or how God played a role in that at all.  When I got to know Christ a bit more I stopped disliking myself and things started changing.  I learned about the atonement...I learned about love.  While still making a ton of adolescent mistakes and having typical teenage experiences, I read everything I could about becoming a new creature in Christ.  How could I become that better version of myself that I imagined when I was less than satisfied for how I had done something?

The change from a sinful creature into a new, clean creature in Christ requires constant and diligent nourishment in the word of God.  Once we have that and are firmly on the path to acquire more light and knowledge, we can't neglect the people around us.  We need to use His word to teach them and bring them to Christ.  Nephi in the Book of Mormon talks about the Spirit's role in relaying truth to people.  He brings it to us, but it's our responsibility to let it in so it can change us.  Similarly, we have to carry the message to people so they can choose for themselves to accept or reject what is being offered.  We decide to become new creatures by choosing to apply that which we learn from the word of God and through personal revelation.  Immersion in the word and the Spirit allow us to be continually and forever changed.

...and I'm out of steam for the moment.