Sweet Archives | Inky Jazz

Mini Berry Cheesecakes

Cold like ice cream, smothered in berries — these mini cheesecakes are a great make-ahead summer dessert in convenient single servings. A tiny bowl of luscious blueberries encased in a creamy base with a touch of lime — not too rich and just enough sweet to satisfy.

Vanilla and Chocolate Popsicles or Pudding | Dairy Free

You’re a blender whirl away from creamy vanilla pudding pops, faintly reminiscent of vanilla cupcakes, or a chocolate version that tastes like you’re licking a bowl of rich brownie batter. Dairy-free and sweetened with dates, a perfect summer treat.

Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies – Gluten Free

The weather is getting hot (finally), so what better reason do you need to make up a batch of these gluten-free, buckwheat chocolate chip cookies? That’s what my mother said last night, and early this morning I heard the high speed blender grinding up buckwheat, and shortly after, the smell of freshly baked cookies wafted […]

Granola: The Master Recipe

My Master Granola Recipe — the basic proportions and “technique.” Create different granola “flavors” with your favorite combination of Add-Ins or munch away as is. Granola: The Master Recipe Ingredients 6 c rolled oats (not quick cooking) 2-4 c nuts and/or seeds (note: seeds will measure out as “more” per cup) 1/2 c coconut oil […]

Crunchy French Toast

If Pete offers to make food it will be either popcorn or breakfast. But his popcorn is perfect, and he is the breakfast king — both in terms of eating and cooking. That’s a good thing because I love popcorn and I don’t do breakfast. His specialty is a yeasted waffle, crispy on the outside […]

Happy Birthday, Aunt Laura

I wrote this in February, the month of Aunt Laura’s birthday, but just decided to post it today. One Easter, Aunt Laura, in her Sunday dress, pearls, white pumps, and classic white hair, knelt on the floor, nose to the ground, and showed the grandkids how to roll Easter eggs with their noses. I can […]

God Doesn’t Need My Money

Our focus is on the downtrodden these days. Maybe it’s the media. Or the internet with its potent visuals making the world that much smaller. Maybe more of us are finding ourselves among their ranks, or dangerously close. Maybe the reality that it could happen to us brings it closer to home. Whatever the reason, […]

Why I Erased My Mother’s Face and What I Learned

A response to Joe Bunting’s Fail Faster (So You Can Become a Better Writer). “Writers are terrible judges of their own work,” Joe said. The words resonated deep in the recesses of my soul. All my life, I was the student in the front row, needing that big red “A” to tell me I was […]

Grace for the Good Girl

I want to read Emily Freeman’s book, Grace for the Good Girl, the way my three year old wanted to hear me talk about him on his play phone. He would hand me the phone and wait expectantly while I gave the listener a play by play description of his activities. He wanted to see […]

One Last Time

Brain dead. Like anything dead, it seems so final. I’m sitting beside my father’s death bed. There’s that word again. Death. It’s why you say goodbye when you can. Why you say, thank you and I love you, over and over. So when the only sound is the shallow breathing of the ventilator and the […]

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Sarah and Abraham | Deja Vu All Over Again: Part 1

He was not a coward. No, not in many things. But he had an irrational fear, a foreboding almost, that someone might kill him to get at Sarah.

Yelling Into the Void

Where in her life had she made the Wrong Turn? What had she done to deserve a barren womb? And where was God in all of this? What was the good of a God who controlled all things, if at best, he forgot you, or at worst, botched everything up?

The Sacrifice | Cain & Abel: Part 1

Cain loved the smell of the earth. His father and mother said it was cursed. “Farming was a lot easier back in the day,” his father would say, with that faraway look in his eyes. He said God had given them the job of working the earth, and Cain enjoyed the challenge of coaxing life […]

The Empty Altar | The Sacrifice of Isaac: Part 3

“We have the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

First Blood | Adam & Eve: Part 3

“The serpent deceived me,” the woman said, hoping to mitigate what she was about to say next. “That’s why I ate it.” She was relieved when God turned his attention to the serpent.

Degrees of Separation

I watch the monster who is me pressing the blade into my brother’s flesh until his blood runs hot over my own flesh. I see my brother’s face, the shadow passing over it when he realizes what I’m about to do. I rewind and see him running towards me from across the field. He is just within arm’s reach. I can choose to embrace him, but instead I pull my knife from its sheath.