Another Sunday One

I’m teaching the young women at church today. About forgiveness. There is a story I have always loved from the book “The Miracle of Forgiveness” by Spencer W. Kimball. He talks about a woman who “climbed the heights of self-control as she forgave the man who disfigured her lovely face.” He then gives the account from UP newsman Neal Corbett, as it appeared in newspapers throughout the country:

“I would think he must be suffering; anybody who’s like that, we ought to feel sorry for him,” said April Aaron of the man who had sent her to a hospital for three weeks, following a brutal San Francisco knife attack. April Aaron is a devout Mormon, 22 years of age… She is a secretary who’s as pretty as her name, but her face has just one blemish— the right eye is missing. April lost it to the ‘wildly slashing knife of a purse snatcher,’ near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park while en route to a [youth] dance last April 18. She also suffered deep slashes on her left arm and right leg during a struggle with her assailant, after she tripped and fell in her efforts to elude him just one block from the Mormon chapel…

“I ran for a block and a half before he caught me. You can’t run very fast on high heels,” April said with a smile. Slashes on her leg were so severe doctors feared for a time it would need amputation. The sharp edge of the weapon could damage neither April’s vivaciousness, nor her compassion. “I wish that somebody could do something for him to help him. He should have some treatment. Who knows what leads a person to do a thing like this? If they don’t find him, he’s likely to do it again.”

…April Aaron has won the hearts of the people of San Francisco Bay area with her courage and good spirit in face of tragedy. Her room at St. Francis hospital was banked with flowers throughout her stay and attendants said they couldn’t recall when anyone received more cards and expressions of good wishes.

Modern psychology would probably dictate that April was simply repressing the horror of the attack, and that it would eventually catch up with her. But that is not the case. I saw her for myself some years later, when I was about 12 years old. She was not April Aaron anymore, as she had married. She had a daughter my age, and although I had read that account in “The Miracle of Forgiveness,” my parents did not tell me that she was the woman from the story until later. All I saw was a pretty mom who was fun and had an awesome family.

I believe that only the Atonement of Jesus Christ has that kind of power. The kind where you can take something so terrible, and give it away. Drown it in the depths of the sea, where you remember it no more. And then take what you have been given, and make something truly beautiful. It certainly makes you think about hurts and offenses that you have not let go… why is it that in our human nature, and maybe more especially our feminine human nature, we find a perverse satisfaction in holding petty grudges and in feeling sorry for ourselves? I think that maybe it is because forgiveness requires faith... a leap we are sometimes unwilling or afraid to take. There was a thought from the lesson that I love. It was that forgiveness is not an act of feelings, but one of will. Can we decide to forgive?

The Cinco de Mayo One

It is a common misconception in the United States that Cinco de Mayo is a national holiday in Mexico commemorating their independence. No es verdad. Cinco de Mayo is celebrated in and around the state of Puebla and very few other places in Mexico, commemorating their underdog defeat of French troops in 1862 in the battle of Puebla. Here’s the thing: I don’t care. It is a great excuse to eat Mexican food, which I love love love. And I’ve been obsessed with food this week anyway.

I could eat crispy fried machaca (shredded) beef tacos for every meal. And then I would look like this:


And surprisingly, I am very nearly okay with that. So anyway, let’s cut to the chase…dessert. I am just going to put it out there: I never liked flan. I thought it was disgusting pudding with brown ooze. I had it all wrong. It is the richest crème custard imaginable, cooked gently in a baña María (otherwise known as a water bath, or bain Marie…but this is Cinco de Mayo, amigos) in a pan that has been treated to a coating of caramelized-sugar-turned-hard-candy, so that it soaks in just the littlest bit, and then leaves this lovely caramel syrup to drizzle over the top.

I like to eat flan in a restaurant, but I have to tell you, that my own homemade flan is about ten times better. I usually burn myself at least once in the process of caramelizing the sugar and coating the pan in it, but it is so totally worth it. The recipe I am including steeps some fresh vanilla bean in the cream. You don’t have to do that…you can use pure vanilla extract. But the little flecks of vanilla add a fun texture and appearance, as well as flavor. I like to cut it up into one-inch cubes of sin and serve it in a bowl with whipped cream and sliced strawberries…and then drizzle some extra caramel over the top. Oh, and then hide in the pantry with a spoon, eating the hard candy sugar caramel off the sides of the pan. I already embarrassed myself with this earlier today. I coated the pans in caramel right before I had to pick up Skippy from kindergarten...and on my way out the door, I spotted that big wooden spoon covered in ribbons of golden sugar candy. It was like a grown-up lollipop. I drove to the school with it in my mouth. Seriously...no impulse control.

Now, go try this at home. You don’t have to make it on Cinco de Mayo. After all, as I already pointed out, it is kind of a fake holiday anyway. I can’t post an acutal photo of my flan yet, as it has to chill for at least another five or six more hours... Oh! and my apologies to the sensitive among you, for posting a swimsuit photo. We should all love our bodies, people.

Victoria’s Favorite Flan Recipe
and
Best Chicken Enchiladas
(check the comments about this recipe)