Someone once asked me on formspring what do I splurge on? I've never forgotten this question. I'm not a big spender and I don't splurge on much... Honestly, I am really cheap. I enjoy saving and investing, and the sort of shopping I really like is thrifting, clearance racks, and leaving the store feeling like I got a great deal. I'm the type of girl who feels burdened to make every penny count towards something sensible. And I'm a sucker for practical gifts.

Are you surprised that I'm doing a post about rice? I'm surprised that I'm doing a post about rice. But wait a sec, because this is not a throw-away post. Rice can be so awesome when it's done right! I've learned a lot about it in the past year. Real rice, that is, not Minute Rice. Mostly how to soak it, cook it, and make good things out of the leftovers. But the other day I learned something new! Something I will pass down to my daughter. Something that changes everything.

I cooked my rice in chicken broth.
It was the best rice of my life.
Lesson learned.
Stop cooking rice in water.


Now that we've established the importance of trying rice cooked in broth at some point in your life- hopefully sooner rather than later- I wanted to share some other ricey things. I've been asked what kind of rice I buy and whether or not I soak it, so let's start there.

1. I usually keep a bag of both white rice and brown rice in my cupboard. I like to have white rice (Jasmine or Basmati) on hand for a quick throw-together meal, because it takes less than 20 minutes to make. It's also easily digestible. And I like brown rice because it has such a nice nutty flavor and as it's a whole grain, it has more nutrients! I do buy organic rice when I can. (because it is one of the most highly pesticide-sprayed crops)
2. Unless brown rice is sprouted or soaked, it is harder to digest (the bran in brown rice contains phytic acid, an anti-nutrient that prevents your body from being able to get the vitamins/minerals in the grain) so I do soak it every time before I cook it. I soak brown rice in my special rice soaking water. Oooh! Fancy, right? It's super easy. I'll explain how I soak and cook it in just a minute!
3. Rice is great hot and fresh out of the pot, of course, but I also keep a bowl of leftover in my fridge all the time to whip up fast meals. Here are my favorite ways to use leftover rice... in a stir fry, with this sausage & kale soup poured all over it, cilantro rice salad, sweet cinnamon vanilla rice, or even as a base for a gluten-free quiche!


How to Soak Brown Rice 

1 cup brown rice
filtered water

Add 1 cup of brown rice to a glass bowl. Warm some filtered water to body temp. Cover brown rice with the warm water. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and soak for 24 hours. Strain the rice and save the soaking water in a mason jar in the fridge. The next time you are ready to have some rice, just warm your soaking water to body temp again and combine it with rice, and soak for 24 hours. Repeat as often as you like! Each time you use your soaking water, the brew will become stronger and more effective for reducing phytic acid and increasing enzymes. *Never heat the soaking water above body temp (burning to the touch) because you'll kill the live enzymes.

How I Cook Rice

White Rice: Combine 1 cup of rice with 1 3/4 cup of broth or water in a small pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover the pot. Set timer for 17 minutes. When timer goes off, remove rice from heat and fluff with a fork.

Brown Rice: Soak 1 1/2 cups of rice overnight. (see above) Put the soaked rice and 2 cups of broth or water in a small pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low heat and cover the pot. Cook rice for 45 minutes (or as long as 60 minutes), until all the broth/water has been absorbed and the rice is tender. remove from heat and fluff with a fork. Serve hot with sea salt and some healthy fat!

What's your favorite way to enjoy rice?

Happy Tues, everybody! Sorry I've been away so long. We had planned on taking a little trip over the President's Day break, and I had planned to post the next part of our love story for Valentine's Day, but the Lord had other plans for us. We've been busy experiencing His greatness over these past 5 days. I can't even tell you!! Last week I was memorizing Promise No. 5: "He gives power to the faint and to those that have no might He increases strength." and a few days ago I saw Him prove this to us in a very real way. Without getting into the details, Thursday night on our way up to bed we looked at our kitchen window, where this verse card was propped, and we were able to say- that happened today. It is so good to be alive to the fact that God is faithful. He answers prayer. He keeps His word. He loves us. He delivers us. He is powerful! Praise the Lord!

How have you seen God be faithful to His word since we started memorizing these promises?

Just a reminder for you, we are doing Promise No. 6 this week. So if you've got your cards, pull out #6 and tape it somewhere you'll see it! I've got mine on my bathroom mirror. I'll post a picture later (@summerharms on Instagram). I bought some pretty washi tape from Heather's cute shop, The Paperie, and it has been the greatest! I've got cards taped all over my house now. :) And I LOVE that you guys have been telling me how you've been using your 50 Promises cards! I've heard about some of you putting them up in frames, making collages, teaming up with friends and sisters to memorize together, giving them away as gifts, and of course, covering the front of the fridge. Thank you all so. so. much. You don't know how fun it is for me to think about a whole league of friends looking at the same words that I am.

If you've gotten your 50 Promises cards and have them in your hand, your house, your bag, your car, etc. tag your Instagram photos with #50Promises! There's a new one each week, so you've got lots of opportunities to take pictures! I really want to see! 

Last week I found this delicious, gorgeous food blog called Top With Cinnamon. I came away with new zeal to bake something (these! these bars right here!) and several recipe tabs left open on our iPad for days. Izy is brilliant. She's only 17! Today! Happy birthday, Izy! I love her food styling and her smart ideas. Like putting a roasted banana on top of a coconut macaroon crust and then melting chocolate on top of that. Whoaaaa. Easiest bar I've ever made and so uniquely yummy. I made them last night while Grant was away at a meeting and I was watching The Terminal and folding laundry. A dangerous scenario for eating dessert recklessly... kind of like writing a blog post about these bars when you have a pan of them sitting on the desk with you. (This is happening right now. I just laid down my fork.) Anyway, this recipe comes straight from her brain.

Izy made these into s'mores bars with cute mini marshmallows on top. I didn't have marshmallows, so I just left the swirly melted chocolate exposed. Her recipe also called for white chocolate in the coconut crust (clever girl!), which I didn't have either, so I tossed in chopped pecans. Love pecans with coconut!  They just go together perfectly. So, if you haven't found an indulgent dessert for Valentine's Day yet... a) these are chocolatey. So they're the right choice. b) a roasted banana?! So crazy romantic! c) these can be whipped up in under an hour. d) these will be right here.... waiting for you.

Back when I was first discovering that I had a colossal crush on Grant, I became deeply interested in whatever he was interested in. I tried the foods that he said he liked (Chipotle). I watched the movies that he mentioned (X-Men). I bought the songs that he was listening to. And of course, in every boy-girl song that I heard, I had to imagine that he was the boy and I was the girl. Of course! To this day, I still have a playlist in iTunes where I've stored all the songs from that stage of our relationship- everything that I bought because I wanted to be able to tell him, "Oh, I love that song too!" :) This one is my absolute favorite from that playlist. I've been listening to it a lot lately because I love it all over again.

We've been thinking about doing this for such a long time, and now it's finally done. Exciting! We really only watch a handful of shows, and they are on the internet somewhere, so it's going to be nice. Can't wait to not pay for that every month. We also have Amazon Prime instant streaming and an appleTV, which we really love. Honestly I think the thing I might miss the most is being able to turn on Special Report with Bret Baier. I really like news.

What is your tv situation like these days? Do you have Netflix or Hulu? I'd love to hear what you guys like!

ps. If you guys ordered the 50 Promises card collection on Friday or over the weekend, they'll be shipping out this afternoon!

Break out your crock pots, guys. Let's make a roast! Wait. Maybe you use the oven to make your roast? How long do you let it go? Do you add carrots and potatoes? Well, I'll tell you how I've been making mine and then you can tell me your way and we'll compare notes. I'm so anxious to hear all of your tips and tricks for fork-tender roast beef! But first, let's talk about today.

There is a "significant" winter storm headed our way, Grant had his last early morning basketball practice, we got fresh farm eggs delivered to our door this morning, you guys keep ordering my card collection, and this day just keeps getting better and better! What a way to kick off the weekend. And on top of that, Hadley and I had roast beef leftovers for lunch. mmm.


We were able to buy 1/4 of a grass-fed cow a couple months ago. Huge, right?! I am ecstatic about all the hormone-free, wonderfully-raised meat in our two freezers in the basement! It's such a big, big blessing. And now I need to learn how to cook it all. The issue for me is the roasts and steaks. I have a general idea of the best way to prepare them from watching my mom, mother-in-law, and seasons of Top Chef, but I don't have my own go-to techniques yet. So if you are a pro at red meat, and even if you're not, you guys should give me tips from your experience! Here's the method for my favorite roast so far.

This is hugely encouraging, and for me, a commission of sorts. By saying "quality time," Elisabeth is referring to the idea in our society of reserving a chunk of time to do something entertaining with your kids. Although not a bad thing in any way- quality time is fantastic- it is not the same as being together, participating together in the daily routine. In the daily routine is where our kids are learning This is what we do, This is how we do it, This is where things go. They learn by watching. The power of influence is extraordinary.

My thoughts as I encountered this quote:

1. It's so encouraging to know something important is going on just by having a routine and letting my daughter be a part of it. I'm re-excited about spending typical days with her, letting her watch me do a thing 50 times, so that she'll know how to do it for herself. That's important! It's my job to start showing her that she's a necessary and appreciated member of the family.
2. I'm motivated! Let's do these ordinary days! Hardly anyone but me sees how the hours are spent at home on an ordinary day, but big things are established in these little known hours. I want her to see that we put our heart into the work God has given us to do today and draw her into the acceptance of responsibility as early as possible.  (Read E. Elliot's Serious Play, Careless Work for more notes on this)
3. I'm humbled. My influence on her is so concentrated. How I clean up a spill or a broken bowl is being watched oh. so. carefully.
4. I need help. She will need thousands of reminders and repeated orders and corrections. I will need wisdom, and I will need to stop whatever I am doing to help/discipline her. I will mess up and miss out on opportunities to teach something. I will get worn out and will wonder whether the way she puts that thing away or climbs on this piece of furniture really matters. But I'm praying for faithfulness and patience.
5. At this point, still being under 2 years old, we are limited in height and motor skills as to how much Hadley can help me. But I can let her watch. If there's one thing I've learned about my toddler, it's that she is interested in whatever I am doing. So, I'm giving myself a challenge. Even though it's harder to do things efficiently with her underfoot, let her watch. Let her see a thing being done thoroughly. daily. faithfully. carefully. orderly. That will mean a sacrifice of time and attention from me, but it's the sort of attention that she can't have too much of, and it will repay me later.
6. I have a dream. It's after dinner time and my family is in the kitchen with me, putting away leftovers (depending on how many mouths there are, maybe there won't be any), washing dishes, talking about stuff, and we like getting a job done together.

I hope this post will be an encouragement for you guys in your plain old ordinary days, too! Writing it out helps me so much. I'm excited about the days ahead. This post kinda goes hand in hand with this song from last Friday. :)

If you have been reading this blog long at all, you probably know that I love this lady Elisabeth Elliot. Wife of missionary Jim Elliot and a superb author. She often gives me something to think on that lasts years and years. I'm surprised how many of the things rolling around in my mind are from reading just a few of her books. Here are a few favorites... Keep A Quiet Heart, Let Me Be A Woman, Passion & Purity, The Shaping of A Christian Family, Discipline: The Glad Surrender.

Hey guys, how was your weekend?
We spent ours working on projects (new laundry area in the basement, new stuff in my shop), cycling through messing and cleaning up the kitchen, staying for the business meeting at church, Sunday dinner with 20 of the Harmses, napping, muffin baking, hair cutting, and Super Bowl watching.


Somewhere in the weekend mix, I also designed and put up a new blog banner for February. I may have to update my headers more often, because I love making them too much. If you have an idea for a new banner for your lovely blog, let's talk! I'm officially designing them now. (Just did some last week and it was so fun!) You can talk to me at summer.harms@gmail.com or select the Blog Banner item in my shop.

In other news, we're moving on to Promise #4 this week. You ready? If you haven't started this little game, you've only missed 3 verses, so jump on in! And the memory cards will go on sale later this week!!

P.S. Today I wrote out the recipe for my basic chicken thighs and carrots to someone who asked for it on formspring. If you need a menu idea come mid-week, this is one of my faves. I like to slide in a pan of sweet potatoes on the side. (peeled and chopped into cubes, drizzled with olive or coconut oil, and sprinkled with salt and minced garlic.)

Happy February, friends! Kicking off this lovely month with our most recent purchase, and the new favorite song at our house...



We have a new goal of bulking up our Ella playlist this year.
Love you all! Have a great weekend and come back soon for more my grass fed roast recipe, thoughts on ordinary days, and.... the next chapter of our love story. It's February. I promise you it's coming. :)