Sweet counsel…

We took sweet counsel together,
And walked to the house of God in the throng.

Psalms 55:14

We had a party! We were the guests of a friend, who while being among the most gracious hosts I’ve ever known, can’t cook to save her life.  We chipped in, helped out, coached, provided recipes and encouragement along with our own dishes.  We shared sweet counsel.

http://www.suncoastmcc.org/images/fellowship.jpg

To be fair, David penned the 55^th Psalm when his heart was broken.  He was distressed about his own sin, betrayal, weary of the duplicitous nature of people in whom he trusted, supposed people of God, so perhaps it wasn’t the scripture I should consider when basking in the afterglow of a lovely evening spent in fellowship.  However, the poetry of this particular phrase within the Psalm speaks precisely to sweet spirit that abided with us yesterday.  These are the friends of my friend who themselves have become mi familia.  We relished in sweet counsel.

Maybe I should have considered Ephesians 4:32, where Paul gently admonished the young church to “…be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." We do give our girl a hard time for her culinary skills, but let me also say when it comes to our friend; we are kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving.  We love her and give her grief like you do a younger sibling, which is probably how we treat her.  However, I must be forthcoming.  In thinking about it, we are not an easy bunch.  Let me introduce you to the overachieving crew that are my friends.   

Despite that they can be viewed as intimidating (which they aren’t), my friends are wonderful.  This group is well educated, dynamic; extraordinary women who work hard, love to laugh, deeply grateful for the blessing of friendship.  They are lovely, giving, warm and loving people to be around.  It’s why we create excuses to hang out together.

Exhibit A has done (in cooking and entertaining), most of the things to which I aspire.  Somehow, limoncello came up, and I mentioned that I’d planned to make it this year to give as Christmas gifts.  She (without any flourish and not an ounce of one-ups-manship) takes a bottle out of the fridge, with a label she made, and pours some for me.  This is also the woman that sliced and fried the plantain chips we ate, heck, girlie even makes her own raisins and yes, puts them in a custom blended cereal. She’s all that.

Exhibit B is my BFF.  If she tells me to try a particular recipe, I do, because it’s going to be a hit out of the park.  She is supermom, superfriend, la diva entertainer, and built the spreadsheet that kept the party on track from concept to execution.  She shopped for the grocery, programmed the music, and what she didn’t prepare herself while coaching our host, she made and then proceeded to give away all the credit. 

We shared sweet counsel.  We talked about worship experiences, memories of church and family gatherings and everything else, mission trips, our hopes and our dreams.  We shared sweet counsel.  We worked in the kitchen together, sat and laughed around the food, ate too much, laughed real hard, and were sad to go home.  The invitation to the party didn’t even have a end time, everybody knew we wouldn’t be leaving at any decent time, and we didn’t.

We shared sweet counsel.  A sweet, sweet spirit was present in the room, and it abides with me still as I think about last night.  Fellowship.  Sweet counsel.  Blessings which remind me again that God is good.

Today’s Feast: Cream Cheese Frosting Ice Cream

Back story-When I heard that Exhibit A was making batter for red velvet waffles, I knew they’d need Cream Cheese Frosting (Ice Cream).  What better to go with them than a recipe inspired by the genius Le Internet Cooking Princess I discovered online.   Once again, I took her frame, and made it my own. (I just refuse to blindly follow recipes…). I hope you’ll enjoy this as much as we did.

Ingredients

3 eggs (at room temperature)

½ C powdered sugar

2 C heavy cream

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

2 t Vanilla extract

Method

With a hand mixer, beat the eggs and powdered sugar together in a chilled bowl until fully. Set aside.  Whip the cream cheese, then slowly add the cream and vanilla until it’s fluffy, but not stiff (you don’t want butter).  Add in the egg mixture and pour into the ice cream freezer. 

After the mixture is solid, transfer to a sealed container and freeze until ready to serve.