HGTV's Next Design Star

I've watched Design Star since the first episode of season 1 and have always enjoyed the challenges they do. This season has just been a little lackluster to me. The challenges are still interesting and there's drama in trying to complete them in the time allowed, but I think the contestants aren't as appealing this time. There are 3 contestants left, and while some of them are interesting designers, their personalities are lacking. One is really arrogant and pushy and totally hijacked the group project on last night's episode. One seems to have an okay personality, but none of her designs stand out to me and her personality is boring in terms of watching her on her own TV show. The third has had some good ideas and did a wonderful individual room. Each contestant started with an all-white room with a few simple pieces of furniture and had to come up with a concept and execute it only with what they could find in a grocery store. Dan created this room as a deconstruction of an apple orchard:


It was just so well done and looked really striking. Dan is probably who I'd pull for if he makes it to the final two, but I still don't know if I'd find his show entertaining enough.

I hope they do a better job of casting for the next season and don't just look for wacky personalities to fill most of the slots, like it seemed they did this time.

What I Learned This Weekend

I had the chance to attend a simulcast of a Beth Moore conference this weekend. Beth is a phenomenal speaker who has a heart to teach women about Biblical truths. She has a way of connecting with women that is so unique and heartfelt, and I learn so much from her in the Bible studies we've done at church. I went to a live event of hers in Redmond, WA a few years ago, and it was incredible, so I was excited that our church was one of the locations for the simulcast. A little over 90,000 women in 516 locations were a part - awesome!

Beth spoke on the desires of your heart. These were the parts of her message that stood out to me the most:

1. We're so fixated on what we want that we don't do what it takes to get it. Sometimes we ask God for something, and we just keep begging Him for it, when it's something that may be in our grasp. We may already be able to attain it, or we may need to change something about ourselves or our lives to get it, but if all we do is sit around and beg for it without being willing to take action, we can cripple ourselves and prevent ourselves from experiencing fuller joy and our heart's delight.
2. If you've sought something for an extended period of time and you still don't have it, something is up. It may that what we desire will impact our destiny or will stand in the way of God's glory.
3. Delighting in God turns our desires into inevitabilities. Any time you want what is in the will of God for you, you will have it. One thing Beth urged us to do was to pray this daily: "God, grant me a heart to delight in You." If you make yourself available to delight, you will receive it. I do long to delight more in the Lord and to be more open with how I worship Him and how I share Him with others. This is a prayer that I'm now praying, and I'm excited to see Him bring it about in my life. She also encouraged us to pray for a supernatural love for God and His word, another prayer that I look forward to God answering.
   
4. I'm forgiven by a God whose mercy is given with delight. Isn't that an incredible thought? God doesn't forgive grudgingly, as we can sometimes do with others when we aren't ready to forgive quite yet or still feel wounded by their actions. It truly delights Him to lavish His mercy on us and to grant us forgiveness.
5. Nothing external can steal our right to delight. There are 3 things that can deform our delight if we hold onto them and let them fester:

• Jealousy - desire tinged with resentment, whether it's of those who do wrong, or those who do well;
• Anger - anger is the polar opposite of delight, constricting us while delight will free us;
• Worry - our efforts to affect something as if by gnawing on it or biting into it. We need to make sure we're not allowing these 3 attitudes to reside within us, or they will steal our delight.

She also urged us to go out and do good. It doesn't matter if we're right if we don't do any good. It's just being right. Who can you help? What good can you do? We're to dwell in the land God has given us, and truly be a part of it, not just sit above it and feel morally upright.

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The other major revelation that I had this weekend had to do with Rachel. She has for some time had a very strong will and a volatile temper. Her attitude can turn on a dime if she doesn't get what she wants or has to stop doing something she's enjoying, or for any number of reasons. It's been inexplicable to us. It's true that I have a temper myself, but Rachel started displaying hers long before she saw examples of that from me. She is truly extreme, and it can be frustating and upsetting to deal with it on a regular basis. There have been plenty of times when I've asked God why on earth I was given a child who can be so difficult to parent.

It hit me this weekend that at least part of the reason why we have Rachel is because God still has a lot of work to do in me. Patience and self-control have been two fruits of the Spirit that I've lacked in great quantities. They're also things that I've wanted to have more of for a long time. I truly believe that God is using Rachel to put me through a Refiner's fire and burn away those parts of me that can be so ugly. I feel like I've already learned so much about controlling my own attitude and outward reactions, and clearly I'm practicing patience in experiencing the same issues with her repeatedly and going to the Lord about them in prayer. I think I'm also learning about not letting someone steal my delight. I can't control how Rachel chooses to react, but I can control how I choose to let it affect me. I can keep praying for her heart to be shaped by God, and I can model the behavior that I want to see from her.

Favorite Routine of SYTYCD Season 5

I'm not sure season 5 of So You Think You Can Dance grabbed me like the past seasons have. I don't know if it was the contestants, the routines or both. But I did find a number of routines that I particularly enjoyed or that were powerfully choreographed and performed. I think this one is my favorite. In some ways, it's a difficult routine to watch. It's about the hold that addiction has on a person who's trying to escape it, and the emotion is raw and powerful. The routine was choreographed by Mia Michaels and was performed by Kayla and Kupono.



A close runner-up was the contemporary dance done to "If It Kills Me," choreographed by Travis Wall and danced by Jeanine (season 5's winner) and Jason. It portrays a friendship that's on the verge of becoming a romantic relationship. This one was emotional, too, but in a beautiful, sweet way.



SYTYCD season 6 is kicking off on September 9, only 5 weeks after the normal summer season ends. It's the first time they're having a fall season. I actually wish they would have started the season in November or December, during what's a fairly dead time for many primetime shows. It's also nice to have a bit of a break between seasons for a show that's on two nights a week. But I love the dancing they feature and having a chance to see so much talent, and the judges are generally really knowledgeable and helpful in their critiques and their praise. It's one of my favorite talent-based competition shows, along with HGTV's Design Star and The Next Food Network Star.

A System Based on Trust

I was driving home from visiting my mom in Lakewood today and was on the road with a lot of trucks. Some of them were going past me on curves in the opposite direction that I was going, and it occurred to me how much we rely on other people for our safety when we're driving.

If someone behind the wheel of a semi was careless or inattentive, sleepy, angry or suicidal, it wouldn't take much for them to cross a barrier (or no barrier, just a line), and life would be over, or severely changed. That's a scary thought, but it's not one I'm going to dwell on. I think we always need to be alert when we're driving, but our system definitely depends on trusting one another to follow the rules. It's a good thing people generally do.

The Next Food Network Star

I don't remember if I've blogged about Food Network shows before, but if so, you'll just have to deal with me repeating myself. If you know me very well at all, that's not a new thing, anyway.

I like a number of shows on the Food Network. It can be dangerous for the waistline to be a big FN fan, so I'm glad that I've been developing more self-control lately. And now that I'm talking about this, I'm pretty sure that I have blogged about at least some of the Food Network shows I like, such as the Food Network Challenge. So I won't go on about the shows in general, but I will talk about one show in particular, The Next Food Network Star.

The season that just ended on Aug. 2 was season 5 of the show. I missed seasons 1-3 and am hoping that they will be available on Hulu or FoodNetwork.com one of these days, because I'd really like to see the challenges and how things unfolded. I know the winners of the seasons, but I still think I'd find the shows interesting. They put the chefs into such unique and sometimes high-pressure situations, and it's great to see how they deal with the stress, how they are in front of the cameras and live audiences, and what types of dishes they make.

Melissa D'Arabian, a stay-at-home mom to 4 girls who are age 4 and younger, was the season 5 winner. Melissa was the only non-professional chef to compete out of a group of 10, and while she made a few minor missteps here and there, she nearly always impressed the judges with her dishes and her presentation style, and she was always ready to embrace their constructive criticism and apply it. I was really pulling for her and was so happy that she won.

Melissa's show, "Ten Dollar Dinners with Melissa D'Arabian," premiered on Sunday, Aug. 9. I DVR'd it and know that it will be in my regular rotation. I already plan to make the first dishes she featured, which were a Potato-Bacon-Gruyere Torte in a buttery crust, a "cafe salad" with a homemade mustard vinaigrette, and an applesauce granita with a yogurt-maple sauce. The entire thing, not each dish, can be made for $10. In these budget-conscious times, that's a ridiculously low amount to spend for such a yummy-sounding, freshly-made meal.

One of Melissa's trademarks during the competition was providing tips as she went along, without making it seem like she was "teaching" the judges or the viewers. They were just handy tidbits she threw in while cooking, and that has transferred over to the show. Two of the things I learned on the first show:

1. If you freeze your bacon, it will last much longer. The high fat content will prevent it from freezing all the way through, so you can easily cut pieces off or remove strips. If you need a certain number of slices, you can cut along the ends and approximate a strip, then just slice through however many you need. Obviously, you'll need to separate the strips differently if you want to fry up whole strips, but I thought that was a great tip when you're needing to make bacon for crumbling into or on top of a dish.
2. The key to a good, flaky pie crust is to make sure your butter stays chilled. After cutting it into cubes, put it into the freezer for a few minutes. You can use the pulse setting on a food processor to make the dough because it combines it quickly enough so that your crust won't get tough. Once your dough is combined, pat it together quickly with your hands and place it into a bag, then put it into the refrigerator for a few minutes before you roll it out. These steps will help to keep your butter cold, which will give you the nice, flaky layers you want in a pie crust.

My one criticism of the show is that Melissa used a wooden cutting board to cut off pieces of raw bacon. She used a cloth to wipe off the board and then sliced a clove of fresh garlic to put into her vinaigrette. They didn't show her changing boards or using anything to disinfect the board, and it's pretty basic kitchen safety to know that you never use the same cutting board for other cutting after you've had raw meat on it, unless it's been well-cleaned.

It may be that the board was cleaned right after she sliced the bacon, but they didn't show that and it wasn't mentioned, so that seemed like a big oversight to me.

Other than that, Melissa was a natural on camera, and watching the show felt like being at a friend's house and having her talk me through her recipes while we chatted. Delicious-sounding and -looking recipes, and inexpensive to boot. I can't wait to see what else she makes!