Life's Secret Ingredient

The container of mascarpone cheese unexpectedly captured my attention in the grocery store and got me thinking about baking some scones.

During my cooking class in Italy this summer, we whipped up the filling for tiramisu with mascarpone cheese and it tasted so good I wondered what mascarpone cheese would be like in a scone — or maybe even on a scone.

I haven’t done much baking lately since I’m waiting for some sort of divine inspiration to assemble my bulging file of recipes into the new notebook I bought in Atlanta last year.

And since I can't organize all my scone recipes, I certainly can't bake any scones, can I? 

But I've missed whipping something up in my kitchen, so last weekend despite the fact that my recipes are still a mess, I became inspired to bake again.

When I spied a lemon and a container of raspberries in my refrigerator, I decided to concoct lemon-raspberry-mascarpone-cheese scones. I looked a recipe up online and subtracted some heavy cream to add my cheese. The photos of the scones looked so promising.

I was quite hopeful this would be my new favorite flavor. 

But the first bite out of the oven left me underwhelmed. 

And hungry for something more. 

Maybe it's more of what God has for me?

Sometimes I feel as if I’m too far down the road of life to have so many questions. The only questions I should have at this stage of my life should be about maximizing my retirement account contributions. 

But until I figure that out, I have to believe I should keep trying different recipes to discover the direction to head for the next chapter of my life.

And prayer just might be the secret ingredient.

Not just the watch-over-me and help-me kind of prayers I've prayed most of my life. 

Prayers that compel me to show up, even when I don’t feel like it. That require a little discipline to persevere and not grow tired when it seems there’s not an answer after a few days. {Or months or years.}

And I’m saying new prayers, too.

I take God’s words already written in scripture and pray them back to him just to reassure my heart that he is working all things for my good, all the time, even when I can’t see exactly what he’s doing.

When God moves like only he can do, he stirs up our lives and changes everything. 

But more than anything, he changes me.

He steadies my insecurities and anchors me.

He holds my disappointments and satisfies me.

He handles my fears and calms me.

He sees my frustrations and encourages me.

He captures my heart and loves me.

{Maybe you would like an infusion of prayer for what’s gotten a little stale in your marriage, your job, your friendships and your relationship with God?}

Start with praying his words -- any words in scripture that talk about his nature, his promises, his love -- back to him. And see if it becomes your secret ingredient.

So the final verdict on my raspberry-lemon-mascarpone scones was that the flavors were quite delicious but the dough was far too dense. 

I packed them up and took them to my coworkers {who will dunk just about anything in their coffee}. 

Next time I’ll try a different dough recipe. 

If I can only find one in my recipe book. 


But I’m on the cusp of a three-day weekend and I’m feeling the spark to organize my dessert recipes. 

Besides, my niece Devon has been asking me if she can bring over her American Girl doll Grace {the doll who travels to Paris and runs a baking business} so we can make a French dessert {for Grace, I presume} in my baking kitchen.

I wonder if I have a recipe for lemon-raspberry-mascarpone macarons? 

I'm linking up with my friends at Holley Gerth's place at Coffee for your Heart.