Author Archives: Cecelia Dowdy

Sunday Brunch – The Apostle Paul

Acts 28:8-10
8 And it happened that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and dysentery. Paul went in to him and prayed, and he laid his hands on him and healed him. 9 So when this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed. 10 They also honored us in many ways; and when we departed, they provided such things as were necessary.

I encourage you to read the entire chapters of Acts 27 and 28 – which I’ve copied and pasted below. I read this in my Bible recently, and I keep thinking about it.

This scripture really resonates with me because, well, I guess I keep thinking of the imagery involved. The Apostle Paul, a prisoner, was shipwrecked on the island of Malta with the rest of the crew and prisoners. I keep thinking of the vivid imagery of Malta. I know the winds and the storm were treacherous, but, I’m sure that after everything cleared up, Malta was quite beautiful to the shipwrecked – especially after struggling through that terrible storm.

I also think about what it must’ve looked like for Paul to build a fire and then a poisonous snake to pop out of the fire onto his hand, and he wasn’t harmed or anything. But, what’s kinda weird is, the Maltans thought that Paul was a god since he remained unharmed after being attacked by the poisonous snake. I suppose they thought like this since they were not yet aware of the Gospel.

However, what I find truly amazing is when Paul healed all on the entire island through his faith in Jesus. Isn’t that wonderfully amazing? If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, you know how I’m kinda fixated on the miraculous healings in the Bible. I wish there were movie cameras back then so that it could be caught on film for me to watch. I’m sure it would’ve been an amazing sight to see.

When you read this scripture, what comes to your mind? How would you have reacted if that poisonous snake had attached himself to your hand? I’d have been screaming, scared, my heart would’ve been racing! I know we need to rely on God during those traumatic times, but, the first thing that would’ve popped into my mind was fear!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Acts 27
Shipwrecked on Malta

39 When it was day, they did not recognize the land; but they observed a bay with a beach, onto which they planned to run the ship if possible. 40 And they let go the anchors and left them in the sea, meanwhile loosing the rudder ropes; and they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore. 41 But striking a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves.
42 And the soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape. 43 But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land, 44 and the rest, some on boards and some on parts of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped safely to land.

Acts 28
Paul’s Ministry on Malta
1 Now when they had escaped, they then found out that the island was called Malta. 2 And the natives showed us unusual kindness; for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome, because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold. 3 But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4 So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live.” 5 But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. 6 However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.
7 In that region there was an estate of the leading citizen of the island, whose name was Publius, who received us and entertained us courteously for three days. 8 And it happened that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and dysentery. Paul went in to him and prayed, and he laid his hands on him and healed him. 9 So when this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed. 10 They also honored us in many ways; and when we departed, they provided such things as were necessary.

The Polar Express – On DVD – From The Blog Archives

Christmas Pearl By Robin Bayne

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Christmas Pearl by Robin Bayne

Joe is still bitter after his messy divorce. Since his wife had a shrewd divorce lawyer, she managed to get most of their wealth and possessions during the divorce proceedings. Now Joe is single and he’s stunned when Elizabeth (his wife’s shrewd lawyer) shows up at a family/friends gathering. He can’t forgive Elizabeth (Liza) for the part that she played in his divorce from his wife. In spite of his negative feelings toward Liza, he finds himself attracted to the pretty lawyer.

Liza is stunned to run into Joe. Why can’t he forgive her for what she’s done in the past? Liza is a Christian now, plus, she’s changed her profession – she’s no longer a divorce lawyer. Can’t Joe see that their attraction might not be so bad after all?

Due to a mishap, Liza and Joe are forced to work together at Christmas parties during the holiday season. Can they learn to overcome their differences and fall in love with one another?

This was a cute, enjoyable, light story that I think a lot of people can relate to. Sometimes, when we’re angry with others in breaking up a relationship, our anger can be a bit misguided. I enjoyed reading about the Christmas parties and the holiday touches to the story make it a nice Christmas read.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Book Giveaway Winner! :-)

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The winner for the November Book Giveaway is:

Natasha Grist – Lowville, NY

Natasha, congrats! I plan on mailing you your books this Saturday! 🙂

I’ll be doing another giveaway sometime in the future! I encourage you to subscribe to my blog so that you can be updated about future book giveaways! 🙂

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Stocking Stuffer Idea – Chesapeake Weddings Only $1.99!

Savanna’s Gift By Camille Eide

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Savanna’s Gift by Camille Eide

I really enjoyed this short Christmas story. Savanna returns to the ski lodge where she worked a few years ago. She returns because she needs to drop off her god-daughter, Mylie, to Mylie’s grandparents for Christmas. She runs into Luke, her old flame and ex-fiancé. While Savanna worked at the ski lodge years ago, her and Luke were an item and he proposed and she accepted. However, Savanna broke off the engagement, leaving Luke believing that she didn’t love him because he was just a lowly lift operator. Luke thinks Savanna wants to marry a man who’s higher up on the corporate ladder than him.

However, Savanna had other reasons for breaking her engagement to Luke, and she’s determined to make him listen to her reasons. While they’re in the midst of a Christmas snowstorm and the roads are shut down, Luke and Savanna attempt to find their way to one another again.

I think I enjoyed this story because Luke and Savanna never forgot one another. In spite of their breakup, their love still ran deep. I also enjoyed the wonderful setting. I loved reading about the lodge and about the guests staying in the lodge, stranded during a Christmas snowstorm. The snow, the lodge, and the Christmas things (like decorations, traditions and such) gave this story a nice holiday appeal. A good, comforting read to enjoy during the cold winter holiday.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Warm, Comforting Christmas Reads

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Check out these short Christmas stories on Kindle (or other e-readers). Each one is only 99 cents and it’s a nice, inexpensive way to enjoy some inspiring Christmas stories. I’ve already downloaded these and plan on featuring on my blog over the next week or so. So, sit back, relax, get a cup of coffee and some Christmas cookies or cake and enjoy these stories. You can probably finish one of these stories in one evening! 🙂

A Texas Christmas Mystery by Anne Greene
A lady Coastguardsman searches for a killer. An oil rig troubleshooter accused of murder races to clear his name. The murderer strives to silence them both.
Sparks fly as Amber Meredith seeks to arrest Derrick Darbonne. She needs to solve her first case, but the handsome Cajun suspect makes her heart race and her toes tingle.
Derrick has worked all his life for his high-paying, adventurous job. When the past threatens his future, will he endanger the woman he loves in order to save himself?

Christmas Pearl by Robin Bayne
Joe Gardner never expected to see Elizabeth again, not after the part she’d played in ruining his life. Refusing to believe she now shares his faith, Joe tosses aside her efforts to apologize.
But when they are forced to work together in the midst of the Christmas season, Joe has to face the truth about Elizabeth, and himself.

Savanna’s Gift by Camille Eide
Forced to return to the ski lodge where she once worked, Savanna Holt is reminded of one special Christmas and how ambition led her to make the worst mistake of her life: Leaving Luke Nelson.

Stunned to discover Luke never left, but worked his way up from lift operator to manager, Savanna sees the opportunity as a gift from God. She’s determined to win Luke back. But Luke wants no reminders of his past hurt, or a relationship with the woman who put ambition before love.

Can Savanna convince Luke she’s changed and her interest isn’t because of his position? And when her dream job beckons, will she sacrifice her dream for a second chance at love?

I hope you’ll download these stories and read these wonderful authors!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Too Much Butter! :-(

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Do you think there are typos in the recipe below? Leave a comment!

ULTIMATE SOUTHERN LIVING COOKBOOK – ISBN: 0-8487-1816-X
Publisher: Oxmoor House
Page 241 – Beef Stroganoff – I think this recipe has a typo in it! Usually I don’t use this blog to vent, but, this has been on my mind for awhile! Since this is food-related, I feel comfortable blogging about my experience with this recipe since I do talk about food and recipes occasionally.

I tried the Beef Stroganoff recipe on Sunday (12-4-11). I even got an expensive cut of meat because I didn’t want the meat to be tough. When I started making the recipe, I got kind of suspicious. You’re supposed to coat the two pounds of cut-up meat in flour – one and a half cups of flour! Also, before cooking the meat, you have to melt ONE AND A HALF CUPS OF BUTTER – THAT’S THE EQUIVALENT OF THREE STICKS OF BUTTER!!

I stopped when I saw that amount. Before starting the recipe, I’d just skimmed it and looked at the ingredients. I stopped and asked my husband if I should make the recipe – it didn’t sound right. He said to go ahead and make it and we could alter it later once it was done. So, I agreed, took his advice and made the recipe.

So, I melted the butter. That was the first time I can remember EVER melting 3 sticks of butter in a pan. The smell made me ill. Don’t get me wrong, I love butter, but, that was the first time I’d used so much for a main course. The only time I’ve used that much butter was when I make my yummy lemon pound cake. When I was melting the butter, both my husband and my son said, “What’s that smell?” The scent filled the air, and it wasn’t pleasant.

Anyway, after I melted the butter, I ended up dumping the floured meat into the butter. The butter and the flour together made this yucky brown sludge – the smell made me ill, seriously. My stomach curdled while I was cooking. I couldn’t stand the scent. I finished making the recipe and when I tried it, it was awful! The smell and the taste just made me sick because of all that butter. I took the entire pan of hot stroganoff and dumped it into the trash! 🙁 I think that’s why this bothers me so much! I wasted so much butter and meat – we didn’t even get one meal out of it! Butter is expensive! I rarely use margarine because butter is much healthier for you! We ended up eating sandwiches for dinner that evening.

I think the recipe was supposed to call for one and a half TABLESPOONS OF BUTTER AND ONE AND A HALF TABLESPOONS OF FLOUR. Don’t get me wrong. I like this cookbook and I’ve used several of the recipes in it. I’ve even blogged about a few of them, but, this recipe was just all wrong.

Here’s the recipe – DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!! 🙁
Do you think there are typos in this recipe? Have you ever tried a recipe and thought that it was a mistake? Leave a comment!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Beef Stroganoff
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour – I THINK THAT’S TOO MUCH FLOUR – I THINK THIS IS A TYPO!
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 pounds of sirloin steak cut into one-inch cubes
1 1/2 cups of butter or margarine melted – THAT’S 3 STICKS OF BUTTER!! I THINK THAT’S TOO MUCH BUTTER – I THINK THIS IS A TYPO!
3 cups of sliced fresh mushrooms
1 small onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 cups beef broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 1/2 cups sour cream
7 1/2 cups hot cooked noodles

Combine first 3 ingredients in a large zip-lock plastic bag; add steak. Seal bag and shake until meat is coated.

Brown meat in butter in a large skillet, stirring occasionally. Remove meat from skillet; cover and keep warm. Add mushrooms, onion, and garlic to drippings in skillet; cook, stirring constantly, until tender. Remove from pan, keep warm.

Add wine to skillet; cook over high heat, deglazing skillet by scraping particles that cling to bottom. Cook until wine is reduced by half.

Add beef broth and tomato paste, stirring until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Add meat and mushroom mixture; cook until thorougly heated. Stir in sour cream; cook just until mixture is hot, stirring constantly. Serve over noodles. Yield: 10 servings.

Saturday Matinee – Tuck Everlasting

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Popcorn photo courtesy of Free Digital Photos.

Could you imagine, drinking water from a spring, and living forever? Would you crave a life on earth that never ended?

Well, that’s what this story is about. I saw this movie on cable a few days ago. The premise sounded interesting, so, I thought I would watch. Fifteen-year-old Winnie is from a wealthy family, and she lives a very sheltered life. She’s alone a lot and she’s not allowed to do things that other kids do like play ball and have fun. She craves to leave her household, to go out and explore the woods on her father’s vast property.

When her parents threaten to send her away to a boarding school so that she can be properly taught to be a young lady, Winnie runs away into the vast woods – woods that she’s always been curious about. She gets lost and runs into Jesse Tuck drinking from a spring that’s sprouting from a large tree. He’s shocked to see her and when Winnie tries to drink, he forbids her to do so, telling her the water is poisonous. Young Jesse takes Winnie to his family so that they can decide what to do with her. The Tucks have been spotted and as far as they know, no living mortal knows of their secret.

Winnie and Jesse fall in love as Winnie continues staying with the Tucks. The Tucks have a secret – they’re immortal and the reason why they’re this way is because they drank from the spring of water in Winnie’s woods. “Young” Jesse Tuck is actually 104 years old.

As time moves on, Winnie doesn’t know what to do. She knows the Tucks secret, and she doesn’t want to return home to her family, plus she’s fallen in love with Jesse. The plot thickens because there is a man searching for the Tucks. It appears that he knows of their secret and this man wants to get ahold of this fountain of youth and profit from it.

This is a sweet movie and both adults and kids will like it. It makes you think about death. Although we’re all going to die, I think most people will say that they’re not ready to die. Jesse’s father takes Winnie aside, making her really re-think about becoming immortal. After all, he thinks you should live your life as is, but LIVE and enjoy and experience life to the fullest. He tells her it’s hard to be immortal like they are. Your life never ends on this earth. As people die and the earth changes, you’re always here, never getting older.

Could you imagine, drinking water from a spring, and living forever? Would you crave a life on earth that never ended? Have you seen this movie? If so, did you like it?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Lakeside Reunion by Lisa Jordan

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Lakeside Reunion by Lisa Jordan

If you were engaged, and your fiancé(e) broke your engagement to marry another, do you think you could forgive him/her?

That’s the premise for Lisa Jordan’s Love Inspired novel, Lakeside Reunion. Five years ago, Lindsey’s fiancé, Stephen, broke their engagement so that he could marry another woman. Stephen’s reasons for doing this had to do with something he’d done a couple of years ago. He’d gotten a woman pregnant after a one-night stand. He didn’t know about the pregnancy until two years later when the woman shows up with his child. He felt he was doing the right thing by breaking his engagement to Lindsey and marrying the mother of his child. After all, his child needed a father.

Now, five years later, his wife is dead, and Lindsey returns to town. Her mother has had an accident and Lindsey must leave her inn and relocate to Lakeside for a few weeks to care for her mom. While in town, she discovers that there’s still chemistry between her and Stephen. Can she forgive him for his past actions. Is this there second chance at love?

Lindsey is also stunned to discover that her mother’s life has changed so drastically. Her mother is seriously dating someone. Lindsey is stunned, doesn’t her mom remember the wonderful marriage she had with her deceased husband? How can she mar Lindsey’s dad’s memory by committing herself to another?

Lindsey finds it hard to deal with her mother’s changed life and her feelings for her ex. Also, she finds herself drawn to Stephen’s child, the little boy whose existance ended their engagement. She’d initially resented the child years ago, but finds herself now bonding with the youngster.

This is a sweet story that realistically deals with the issues of forgiveness and healing. Overall it was a good, heartwarming read.

So, if you were engaged, and your fiancé(e) broke your engagement to marry another, do you think you could forgive him or her?

~Cecelia Dowdy~