Small Group Discussion: Kindness

Small group discussion: Kindness

Being kind is one of the hallmarks of being a godly woman. It encompasses generosity, compassion, and kind deeds. It is shown in practical ways by doing kind deeds joyfully, expressing kind and compassionate words, and speaking those words in a kind and gentle tone of voice.

We are to be gentle, considerate, amiable, congenial, and sympathetic – even with those who are undeserving and unkind to us. To be kind is to be godlike, “for [God] Himself,” Jesus said, “is kind to ungrateful and evil men” (Luke 6:35). Also, the Apostle Paul encourages believers to “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32).

Kind deeds are what make you a beautiful woman, not your physical appearance.

Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments; but rather by means of good works, as befits women making a claim to godliness. 1 Tim. 2:9-10

The Titus 2 woman is not only kind in her words, but she is also kind in using a gentle tone of voice. Proverbs 31:26 says that the excellent wife “opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”

Here’s a warning though- we can’t do this on our own! Both kindness and goodness are ‘fruit of the Spirit’, says Galatians 5:22. So, stop straining in your own power and turn to the Holy Spirit–the Helper that God has given us (John 14:26)– to help us to demonstrate kindness in our words and deeds.

Discussion questions

1. Between a one and a ten on the kind-o-meter, how would you have rated yourself before marriage and motherhood?

What about now?

2. How would you describe words that are kind?

3. What is one hindrance to kindness that you face most often?

Examples: Anger (wanting my way, more than wanting to glorify God by being kind)

Bitterness (nurturing extreme hostility toward others)

Judging (looking for others faults and, without valid and sufficient reason, forming unfavorable opinions of their qualities, words, actions or motives)

How can you apply the Scriptures to your struggles/situation?

4. How would our family and friends portray our character? If we played ‘the reputation game’ with your family members, friends and neighbors, what do you think they would say you like to be “known” for? (i.e. Your style of clothing, talents and abilities, hobbies, standard of living, good deeds, etc.)

*We should be renowned for good works at home, in our churches, and extending into our communities, not to garner attention for ourselves, but to show forth the compelling power of the gospel!*

Let’s be renowned for praying, for listening, for encouraging, for being hospitable, for sharing the love of Christ.

5. Think of a recent situation where you got angry. Now read James 4:1-2. What was it that you ‘desired’ more than you wanted to please God?

Do you need to ask forgiveness of one or more family members? Let’s do it today!

6. Are you currently experiencing weariness in ‘doing good’ for your family? Be assured that being kind and doing good today will yield sweet fruit in the future–on earth and in heaven.

The Cookie Thief

 

A woman was waiting at an airport one night,

With several long hours before her flight.

She hunted for a book in the airport shop,

Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book, but happened to see,

That the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be,

Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between,

Which she tried to ignore, to avoid a scene.

She read, munched cookies, and watched the clock,

As the gutsy, “cookie thief” diminished her stock.

She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,

Thinking, If I wasn’t so nice, I would blacken his eye!

With each cookie she took, he took one too.

When only one was left, she wondered what he’d do.

With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh,

He took the last cookie and broke it in half.

He offered her half, as he at the other.

She snatched it from him and thought, Oh brother,

This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude.

Why, he didn’t even show any gratitude!

She had never known when she had been so galled,

And signed with relief when her flight was called.

She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate,

Refusing to look back at the “thieving ingrate”

She boarded the plane and sank in her seat,

Then sought her book, which was almost complete.

As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise:

There were her cookies in front of her eyes.

If mine are here, she moaned with despair

Then the others were his and he tried to share!

Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,

That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief!

From the home of Cathy Lines

Click here to view in pdf.

Crumb topping
(Great on muffin tops as well as fruit crisps, quick to make in bowl of your mixer)

½ cup butter (if cold, cut into small pieces)
1 cup flour
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup oatmeal

Mix together until butter is distributed and the mixture becomes crumbly. Store extra in plastic container in freezer.

Cran-Apple Crumb Pie (No pie crust needed!)
Fill a pie plate half full with apple slices (Choose a tart variety like Granny Smith’s, peel them, if you wish) Sprinkle with two handfuls of dried cranberries. Continue to fill plate until apples mound up slightly. Add more craisins, a drizzle of honey, and top with crumb topping to cover the apples. Bake at 350° until apples are tender and topping is browned (approx 50 minutes).

Easy does it 9” Pie Crust
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
4 – 5 tablespoons ice water
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and salt in bowl; cut in butter and shortening with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle surface with ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time; add vinegar. Toss with a fork until moist and crumbly (do not form a ball).

Press mixture gently into a 4-inch circle on heavy-duty plastic wrap (may need to overlap 2 pieces of wrap to allow room for 12” circle to be rolled); cover with additional plastic wrap. Roll dough, still covered, to a 12-inch circle. Freeze a few minutes until plastic wrap can be easily removed.

Remove 1 sheet of wrap; fit dough into a 9” pie plate. Remove top sheet of wrap. Fold edges under; flute. Line bottom of dough with a piece of foil; arrange dried beans on foil. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes. Remove beans and foil; cool on wire rack.

Maple Spice Pumpkin Pie
(Makes Two Pies)
1 can (29 oz.) Libby’s pumpkin purée
3/4 cup of honey or maple syrup
2 tablespoons molasses
1/2 teaspoon ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (Trader Joe’s)
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 can evaporated milk

Mix all ingredients together until well blended.
Pour into two 9”pie shells (pre-bake the shells at 400° for 15 minutes, explained in pie crust recipe).
Bake 45 minutes at 350° F or until set.
Cool on wire rack. Serve room temperature or chilled with whipped cream.

Sweet Potato Pie
2 cups sweet potato purée (from 2 large yellow sweet potatoes: microwave baked, peeled, and whirled in processor until smooth)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest (from one orange)
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (Trader Joe’s)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/3 cup evaporated milk

Mix ingredients until well blended.
Pour into 9” pie shell (I pre-baked the shell at 400° for 15 minutes, see notes).
Bake 350° F for 40 minutes or until set.
Cool on wire rack. Serve room temperature or chilled with whipped cream.

Savory Walnut and Blue Cheese Tart with Cranberries
(Great for supper with a green salad, or as a warm appetizer)
Crust:
1 cup flour 2/3 cup walnuts ¼ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper 3 tablespoons cold butter
Whirl in food processor until blended, add 2 tablespoons milk and pulse until dough comes together. Press into a 9” tart pan (or 9” spring-form pan) with removable sides, prick all over with a fork. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Filling:
2 tablespoons olive oil 1 large onion, finely diced ½ teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts 1 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen 1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons fresh thyme 2 eggs 1 cup light cream
2-3 oz. crumbled blue cheese

Sauté onion in oil with salt in heavy pan over medium heat until onion is tender and caramelized. Add cranberries and sugar and cook until berries pop. Stir in walnuts and thyme and spread in baked shell. Wisk eggs and cream together and pour over mixture in shell. Sprinkle with the blue cheese and bake at 350° until golden and custard is set, about 20 minutes. Cool 15 minutes before serving.

From the home of Rachael Starke

Click here to view in pdf.

Your Best Pie Now
Apple pie is simply cooked, sweetened apple surrounded by pie crust. Pie crust is simply layers of fat and flour, bound together by a little water, which has been exposed to high heat. A few good tools, careful attention to temperature, and a gentle technique are all that’s required to create these basics and turn them into America’s favorite dessert.

Tools
The shortest path to consistently great pie in record time is travelled with the help of a food processor. It cuts even the coldest fat into flour with ease, and makes quick work of slicing the several pounds of apples needed to make a deep-dish pie. When you consider that a good-quality processor will last you well over ten years, and the variety of functions it performs, it’s pretty much an essential investment. If buying a new one is cost-prohibitive, consider checking EBay or Craigslist for used ones. KitchenAid and Cuisinart make the highest-quality models.

Other tools that make pie-making easier are:
• An excellent peeler (OXO makes great ones)
• An apple corer/slicer – a tool that looks like a wagon wheel with flared sides to grip. Helps you core and slice a peeled apple into eight pieces in one swift motion.
• A wooden pastry board – if you have tile counters, rolling pastry directly onto it will not only leave grout lines in your dough, but will also leave you with skidgy grout filled with flour and dough. While you can make do with the back of a large cookie sheet or even a wooden pizza peel, a wooden pastry board also usually has helpful circles marked out so you know when you’ve rolled out the dough to the right circumference for your recipe.

Temperature
When making pie dough, cold is your friend and warmth is your enemy! Store butter and shortening in the fridge or freezer; if you can, measure out and cut up needed quantities in advance, wrap them lightly in plastic wrap, then store them in the freezer until you’re ready to make your dough.

While some apple pie filling recipes have you put the fruit in uncooked, the recipe I like calls for cooking down the apples in advance and letting them cool completely before adding them to the prepped pie pan/crust.


Technique
When cutting fat into the flour, resist the urge to mix too much. When adding water, add just enough so that the dough is just sticking together and is still a little bit crumbly. Bring it all together on your flat surface, but don’t knead it! Shape it into a smaller version of the shape you’ll be rolling out later – either a rectangle for lattice strips or a disc for a crust. Remember to let your chilled pie dough sit out for twenty minutes or so before rolling it out, or it will likely break and not be able to be formed into a consistent circle.

Basic Pie Dough
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2+tbsp sugar
½ cup shortening, chilled
12 tbsp (1 ½ sticks) butter, cut into ¼-inch pieces, chilled
6-8 tbsp water

1. Process the flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor until combined. Add the shortening and process until the mixture has the texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds. Scatter the butter pieces over the flour mixture; cut the butter into the flour until the mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse crumbs, with butter bits no larger than small peas, about ten 1-second pulses. Turn the mixture into a medium bowl.
2. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture. With a wooden spoon, use a folding motion to mix. Press down on the dough with the back side of the spoon until the dough sticks together, adding up to 2 tablespoons more ice water if the dough will not come together. Divide the dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic and regrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 days before rolling.

Lattice Crust Pie Dough
Follow the directions for Basic Pie Dough, increasing the flour to 3 cups, reducing the shortening to 7 tablespoons, reducing the butter to 10 tablespoons, and increasing the ice water to 10 tablespoons. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Flatten the larger piece into a rough 5-inch square and the smaller piece into a 4-inch disk; wrap separately in plastic and chill as directed.

Apple Pie Filling
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) butter
4 lbs. apples (firm varieties like Granny Smith or Golden Delicious), peeled, quartered, cored and sliced ¼ inch thick
¾ cup sugar
¾ tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp cognac or brandy
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg white
1 tbsp sugar

1. Heat butter in a large (11-12 inch) skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples slices, sugar and cinnamon, and when they start to sizzle and steam, reduce heat to low. Cover pan and simmer until apples soften and release their juices, about 8 minutes. Uncover, increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring frequently, until softer apples start to fall apart and juices thicken to thin syrup consistency, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer apples to a jelly roll pan; refrigerate or set in a cool place until apples cool to room temperature. Stir in cognac or brandy and vanilla extract.
2. Adjust rack to lowest position and preheat oven to 400F. Roll pie dough out on a lightly floured even surface into a 12-inch circle, about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer and fit dough into a 9-inch ovenproof glass pie pan, leaving any overhanging dough in place. Turn cooled apples into pie shell.
3. Roll other disk out on a lightly floured surface into a 10-inch circle. Lay it over fruit. Trim top and bottom edges to ½ inch beyond pan lip. Tuck this rim of dough underneath itself so that folded edge is flush with pan lip. Flute dough or press with fork tines to seal. Cut 4 vents at right angles on top of dough to allow steam to escape. Brush pie top with egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Freeze pie for 15 minutes.
4. Place pie on a baking sheet and bake until the top crust is golden, about 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and continue baking until crust is golden brown and juices bubble, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; cool slightly. Serve warm.

Cherry Pie Filling
¼ cup cornstarch
1 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
3 (24-ounce) jars Morello cherries, drained, or fresh or canned sour cherries, pitted and drained
¼ tsp almond extract

1. Remove lattice crust dough from fridge (let stand for 30 minutes or until malleable). Roll the larger piece of dough to a 15 by 11 inch rectangle about 1/8 inch thick; transfer the dough rectangle to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. With a pizza wheel, fluted pastry wheel or paring knife, trim the long sides of the rectangle to make them straight, then cut the rectangle lengthwise into 8 strips 15 inches long by 1 ¼ inches wide. Freeze the strips on the baking sheet until firm, about 30 minutes.
2. Roll the smaller piece of dough on a lightly floured work surface or between 2 large sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap to a 12-inch circle. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie plate. Working around the circumference of the pan, ease the dough into the pan corners by gently lifting the edge of the dough with one hand while pressing it into the pan bottom with the other hand. Leave the dough that overhangs the lip of the pie plate in place; refrigerate the dough-lined plate.
3. Remove the dough strips from the freezer; if they are too stiff to be workable, let stand at room temperature until malleable and softened slightly but still very cold. Form lattice top and place in the freezer until firm, about 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, adjust an oven rack to the lowest position, place a rimmed baking sheet on it, and heat the oven to 500 degrees.
5. Mix together the cornstarch, 1 cup (or a little more if desired) of sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the cherries and almond extract.
6. Turn the cherry mixture into the dough-lined pie plate. Remove the lattice from the freezer and place on top of the filled pie. Trim the lattice strips and crimp the pie edges. Lightly brush or spray the lattice top with 1 tablespoon water and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
7. Lower the oven temperature to 425 degrees. Place the pie on the baking sheet and bake until the crust is set and begins to brown, 25 to 30 minutes.
8. Rotate the pie and reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees; continue baking until the crust is deep golden brown and the juices in the center bubble, 25 to 30 minutes longer. Cool the pie on a wire rack for at least 2 hours before serving.

Recipes taken from:
“The New Best Recipe”, from the editors of Cook’s Illustrated
“The Perfect Recipe”, Pam Anderson