People: David Salazar

I'm a senior, my last quarter in college. There are a lot of people who have made a major impact in my life over the past four years and I want to make sure that I tell them how much I Love them. This space is for that, to tell people what I really think, how much I really Love them, while holding nothing back. I'm going to try and do two a day this quarter, making sure to get at least 100 people in. This post goes to one of my favorite Salvadorians-David Salazar. David, you were one of my best friends freshmen year and I am very thankful that we have remained close ever since. I first met you at a pancake outreach in Anacapa and at the time I assumed you were going to be like so many other of my friends. A few days later we were facebook chatting and you said, "Cody, I want to know what God is doing in your life." At the time, that was exactly what I needed to hear. I was an insecure freshmen who did not like Christians and you gave me permission to get to know you and get into your life. That was unprecedented in my life and it sparked a beautiful friendship. We walked together, we prayed together, and you Loved me; as an equal, as a peer, you Loved me, and that was so rare for me in my life at the time. Ever since then we have continued to grow together, often challenging each other but always walking with each other. We have often been sassy with each other, and have lived somewhat different lives, but God has given me a lot of grace in being able to share with each other deep, challenging parts of our lives with each other. Our relationship with each other has been a beautiful example of what a healthy Christian relationship looks like: it is something that has given me so much joy and brought me a lot of comfort, occasionally our sins have gotten in the way, but we are quick to bring it up and settle it together. I think that the work that you do in and for Destino has been a bigger blessing to this campus and to IV than most people have realized. God has taken you through the ringer these past four years but you have continued to pursue Him and allowed Him to work through you in the important, transformative ways. David, I Love you very much and you have been a blessing to me and I cherish our relationship and the way you point me to Christ very much. You have taught me how to be more open with myself towards people and the importance of opening up to guys, and appropriately to girls. I pray that God continues to strip you of the indecent parts of you and push you towards Him. I also pray that God grants you the grace of beautiful friendships and a desire for community. Something that I have never told you (or perhaps haven't): I used to have bitterness toward you at the start of our sophomore year because I assumed that our friendship would have been what it was our freshmen year, and it simply was not. God helped me to realize that that was not at all because of me, but because of things in both of our lives, and now I Love you so much and I am so thankful that God gave me the grace of forgiving you. I Love you buddy, and look forward to our continuing beautiful friendship.

People: Jordan Marshall

I'm a senior, my last quarter in college. There are a lot of people who have made a major impact in my life over the past four years and I want to make sure that I tell them how much I Love them. This space is for that, to tell people what I really think, how much I really Love them, while holding nothing back. I'm going to try and do two a day this quarter, making sure to get at least 100 people in. This post is about a Loving man, Jordan Marshall. Jordan, you were the first person ever in my life outside of my family to show me a glimpse of what unconditional Love looks like. This entire post will be an explication of that. I met you freshmen year, a goofy, blond-haired kid with a lip ring as you came to my door to follow up on a survey card that I did without thinking twice. Never would I have imagined on that day that I would be meeting one of my best friends. For four years you have tirelessly poured your life into me, never ceasing to pursue me no matter what, and leaving room for me to blatantly open and honest with you. Jordan, I mean it from the bottom of my heart when I say that nobody has ever or perhaps will ever pursue me in the way that you have for as long as you have. No matter how much I messed up, how far I fell, how guilty I felt, how insecure, how afraid, there was never any doubt in my mind that you would still Love me and accept me and, in a true picture of what unconditional Love practically and positionally actually is, think no differently of me because of it. For years, the best hour of my week every week was spending discipleship with you, where you always made room for me to be open. I can say with honesty and full certainty that I Love God, my God, my Jesus, so much more because I have known you. You were the first person to ever just tell me plainly and neatly what the Gospel is. If I did not do my homework, if I was tired, you still Loved me and pushed me, and challenged me. It was one of my greatest honors to be in your wedding this past year and it is so sweet to see how God has blessed you with one amazing woman. Jordan, there has never been anything that I for any reason have been afraid to tell you, and you might be the only person that I can say that for. You have given me the most quality advice over the past four years and I value your opinion over that of anybody else's, truly. To me at least, you have represented more of what Jesus is, with your steady, never-flinching pursuit of me, the subtle way that you have always pointed me back to Him, the grace that you have always showed me, the ways that you have allowed me to grow and have known exactly what I have needed in any and every situation, than anybody else has or possibly could. I pray that God never takes His hand from you, Jordan, from your marriage and your aspirations, as I know that they are from Him. And I pray that God always grants me the grace of having you in my life. Something that I have never told you: I have learned a lot from your leadership style, and we had a super hard conversation freshmen year in which you called me out on a lot of things and although I did not like it at the time, I am so thankful that you told me the things that needed to be said. There is so much more I could say, Jordan, but I want to make this a reasonable length. I Love you forever.

People: Michael McSpadden

I'm a senior, my last quarter in college. There are a lot of people who have made a major impact in my life over the past four years and I want to make sure that I tell them how much I Love them. This space is for that, to tell people what I really think, how much I really Love them, while holding nothing back. I'm going to try and do two a day this quarter, making sure to get at least 100 people in. This begins where it need begin, with Michael McSpadden. Michael, You were really my first friend at UCSB. You taught me that it was ok who I am, that I needn't change to be loved. We got along so well, and even now I have a special type of warm feeling when I think of you and think of all of the times that we have had together. Everything from our theft of 'wet floor' signs, our getting in trouble for playing chess in class, our prompt 'dinner at 5', and of course the Brusutti plagiarism scandal, I loved it all. Here was this strange guy from a city named Paradise, and our friendship took off. You defended me and I defended you. I still regret not just abandoning it all and moving into your sister's old place with you after freshmen year. I still wish that we would have lived together every other year because despite whomever else might ever be my roommate, I will always introduce you as my roommate. You set the standard for what a roommate should be in my mind, and it is only fitting that we had the hangout room for much of freshmen year, as people got a glimpse into what the relationship between you and I was like. You accepted me for all of my failures and idiosyncrasies, and I, you. No matter hoe much or how little we talk, and no matter what paths our lives take, I will always think of you as one of my closest friends. The simple fact of the matter is that I can tolerate being around you so much more than most and that I can forgive you much more easily than I can anybody else. Every time I think of you or see you I just get a huge smile on my face because you bring me so much joy. You are going to be famous one day for sure as you are so ambitious and auspicious and I know that you are destined for greatness. I truly hope that someday soon we will be able to live in the same room again, waking up to the sight of each other. You are silly, and busy, and hard to get a hold of at times, and I Love you so much for who you are, faults and all. You have made such an impact in my life, and I will not forget it. I pray that God continues to bless your endeavors, based if on nothing else, then on how much you have blessed me, and that you give Him a chance. Something I've never told you: I was very insecure coming into college, and pretty down on myself. Having a roommate that so readily accepted me was huge in helping me come out of my shell and have a healthy social life. Well, Michael there is so much more that I could say about you, but just know that I Love you, that I always will, and that you mean so much more to me than almost all other people.

7 Days of Baking: Day 4-Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

I've been inconsistent. I apologize. '7 days of baking' has turned into a quarter's worth. Thus, thank you for your patience, reader. This entry is on cinnamon roll cupcakes. I've has the pleasure of making these a couple of times now. Cinnamon rolls are fairly tedious to make, what with the rolling, the rising, rinsing, and repeating. However, they are delicious. Because of this, I have taken to making cinnamon roll-flavored items, like cake, cupcakes, etc. These are those cupcakes, and they are as good as they sound. The recipe can be found over at bakingdom. This recipe is in several parts: the cinnamon swirl, the batter, the coffee icing, and the cream cheese frosting. Because of this, I have always left out the coffee icing. I'm not a huge fan of coffee flavored things, although the taste has been growing on me, so I have always left it out. The rest of the recipe is absolutely amazing though and topped with cream cheese frosting, which is divine, these are wonderful. The nice thing about these cupcakes is they do not have to turn out perfectly to be delicious; my batter was super thick and I nearly ran out low on the cinnamon swirl because I doubled the recipe. These turn out great no matter what though and people love the taste of cinnamon rolls. The cinnamon swirl is delicious and I could literally eat it out of the bowl until I get fat forever. Again, I've never tried this recipe with the coffee icing, so I cannot comment on that, but I really do not have any qualms with this recipe otherwise. I give it literally 5 out of 5 cupcakes.

A Taste of Grace

Please forgive me, but I am taking a momentary break from 7 days of baking, or at least from writing about it. There are more eternal things to write about. Which brings me to grace. Grace has become a non-word in our society. Overused and under appreciated, it has come to stand for little more than a name and a prayer said before meals. But it is so much more than that. Over the past four years, I have come to know grace well. Grace is getting anything from God that we do not deserve, which is anything above and beyond wrath, which is exactly what we deserve. Grace is so much more than that though. Grace is free, but grace is freedom. It is freedom from longing and striving. Grace is freedom from shame and guilt, freedom from pain, deep, entrenched pain, freedom from having to earn favor, freedom from being chained to the opinions of sinful people, freedom from an out of control life. The gospel is the single greatest comfort the world could or has ever known, and so much of that comes from grace. The T-ruth is that the King of Kings took on flesh, became a man, lived a sinless life, and died a criminal's death that you deserve to give you righteousness and grace, and then rose again to put death in its place. The reality is that even if you do not believe that, which is nothing short of sheer, utter foolishness, you still experience, quite lavishly I might add, God's grace in your life every day. Food tastes good, sometimes very good, and God did not have to do this. The air feels fresh, the sky is not raining fire, but produces multiple beautiful sights everyday. Chances are that if you are reading this then you can poop in a toilet whenever you want, then when you wake up in the morning you do not have to wonder where your clean water is going to come from. That is something that millions upon millions of people on this planet do not have the privilege of boasting. You have free time (at least enough so to read this). All of this you did not deserve; I do not really care if you agree or not, you did not deserve this, it was lavishly given to you via God's grace. I read an article on grace today, that really highlighted what free grace means, what it does for our lives, how it frees us. 'Free grace'; just let those words permeate through your head for a little bit, meditate on the fullness of what it means for you and how free it has made you. Even when God does not answer our prayers the way we would like Him to, that is grace because He is still acting in our best interests. All of the good and perfect things in life, all of the things we enjoy and all of our ability to enjoy it, these are all examples of God's grace in our lives. I feel as though God has given me a taste of grace lately, a little drop of insight into how unbelievably, unimaginably blessed beyond the furthest reaches of my wildest dreams I am. And it is insane. Just a slight taste, and I realize that all of these crazy examples of grace in my life barely skim the surface of the reality of how much grace God has for me, and all of the freedom that comes from that. I think ultimately what I am trying to get at, not everyone will understand or really realize the depths of at all. Heck, even now as I type these words, I admit that I am not in the highest of spirits and that my body is physically not right, but I also recognize the enormity of grace in my life, that there is so much, so much to be thankful for. I have experienced so much freedom, more than I would have ever imagined. To think of my reality, my situation. My joy is not uncircumstantial; on the contrary, it is completely dependent on my own circumstances, I just happen to have the greatest circumstance imaginable: free grace. The words ring through my head, vibrating, resonating, reassuring me. The freedom that I need to understand right now: I do not need people's approval; I have the approval of the King. That will ALWAYS be True. Absolutely nuts, in the greatest way.

Free Grace. Free Grace. Free Grace.

7 Days of Baking: Day 3-D.I.Y. Poptarts

Regardless of what toaster streudel would like to think, poptarts are a lot of kids favorite breakfasts.

So, when I saw this recipe for homemade poptarts I knew that I wanted to try to make them. Now, the first thing that you should know is that although these are called D.I.Y. poptarts, they are not poptarts in the traditional sense; they have fewer preservatives and are less processed. In my opinion they are much better than poptarts, but although they definitely take a mold of poptarts, they are more similar to just pastries with filling and possibly icing (I know, I just described poptarts). These also have a much flakier crust

than do regular poptarts, which I think puts them over the edge. The pastry dough is exceptional and the egg mixed in gives it a delicious aroma and taste that is quite nostalgic. This is the second time that I have made this recipe this year, and I have tried them once with icing and once naked. Quite frankly, I think that they are delectable either way, but if you do choose to use icing (I recommend using royal icing) the key is being cautious with how much you put on. These are nice and flaky and the filling is delicious, so you do not want to overdue it with the icing. Another reason that I am in love with this recipe is because it is so easily shareable. Everyone knows what a poptart is, and although these sound super fancy, they aren't actually that difficult to make. I do need to get better at cutting my pastry dough straight though. The only real downside to this recipe is that it is slightly time consuming because you have to let them freeze a couple of times. Other than that though there is nothing negative that I can say against this recipe. I honestly give it 5 out of 5 poptarts, and I highly recommend trying it out for yourself. It is so easy to impress people with.

7 Days of Baking: Day 2-Strawberries & Cream Muffins

First off, I apologize for my lack of posting lately; it's not that I have not had time to bake, it's that I have not really had time to write, what with school picking up and me having to do some other things. I assure you though, I have been baking, and as the title of this post implies, strawberry and cream muffins.

This was the second time that I have made these muffins, but the first time in two years. The first thing that I have to say about these is that the cream concoction-a mixture of cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla, is one of the more delicious creams that I have tried or created. There is just something about how all of those ingredients come together that makes it amazing.

Combine that with actual strawberry pieces, a basic muffin mix, and a streusel topping to bring it all together. Now, this recipe is a little bit labor intensive, as four different elements have to be made and then poured alternatively into the muffin tins. If you do bake these I would advise having a helper. As you can see from the pictures, these things look amazing.

On this iteration of these muffins, the stresuel topping did not turn out quite as I would have liked, but I do tend to overstuff my muffins and cupcakes and that likely played a role in that. I love the fresh bites of strawberry in these guys, but for me the cream mixture is what puts it over the top. The batter itself was quite a bit thicker than I was expecting, and I probably should have added a bit more milk, and consequently a double recipe only left me with twelve muffins. On the whole, I cannot say much on the downside of these muffins; they are good as a breakfast, a dessert, or anytime. I give the recipe, found over at the Squirrel Bakes Foodblog, 4 out of 5 muffins.