Do you read Balancing Everything? Jessica (AKA kerflop, AKA verymom) and her family have dealt with a number of health issues in the past year or two, a couple of them involving surgery. The most recent one involved Jessica learning of and having surgery to repair a hole in her heart that was—atypically—causing her to experience frequent blackouts.

I’ve been reading Jessica’s hilarious and heartfelt take on homeschooling, gardening, ineffective-but-well-meaning housekeeping, and life with kids for years now. Even though I’ve never met her in person, I feel like we’re good friends once removed, because of our mutual friendship with Heather. I’ve been following along with the health dramas and ensuing financial stresses, praying for her and her family, wishing I could do more.

Then a couple of her good friends decided to give Jessica a rash and a ray of sunshine in one fell swoop. They took over her blog and set up a donation button, compiled a list of businesses who are donating a portion of their profits to help Jessica’s family cover their medical expenses, and asked for donations to a charity auction.

And that’s where I come in. I donated a custom-painted piece of pottery to the Operation Pay For the Hole auction to help Jessica and her family pay for recent medical expenses. The auction closes on the 10th, which means as long as the winner contacts me promptly, I would have time to paint and ship the piece in time for it to be a Christmas gift! There are some other neat items up for grabs, including a handmade bag and some beaded yarn and crocheted earrings I’ve got my eye on. Why not check it out? ‘Tis the season for helping our fellow bloggers, right?

I have a new favorite snack. I didn’t have a picture to show you when I sat down to write this, because I scarfed it all up and didn’t think of taking a picture. But I’m so dedicated to telling you all about tasty new snacks that I went right back into the kitchen and made a second batch. Because I love you all. (It seems this snack also may increase one’s love for one’s fellow man. I’m just saying it’s possible.)

I got the bones of this recipe from Catherine Newman. I seem to get a lot of my favorite recipes from her. In her introduction to this recipe, she describes how she and her kids consider this “an edible lace valentine that a friendly goat has sealed with a kiss.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I only made one serving for these photos, because that was all the goat cheese I had. But if you wanted to make more, you certainly could slice up a larger log of goat cheese (as Catherine demonstrates in her post) and increase the other ingredients accordingly.

Start by mincing or crushing a clove of garlic, and smearing it on top of the round(s) of goat cheese. (Don’t worry if some falls off onto the plate. It will flavor the oil.)

Sprinkle with fresh herbs. I use thyme and rosemary because I like them, but pretty much any hardy herb would be good. (If you use juicy leaves like basil and mint, they will darken unappetizingly over time, so it’s best to wait and add those right before serving. If you don’t have any fresh herbs, dried will work in a pinch.) Season with freshly-ground pepper and salt to taste.

Drizzle with a little of your favorite honey.

Pour good olive oil over the top. Don’t feel like you have to be stingy with the oil. I was using a tablespoon in this photo because I couldn’t pour the bottle with my left hand and operate the camera with my right at the same time.

Ideally, you will cover this and let the flavors mingle for an hour or two at room temperature, or in the fridge for longer. It’ll taste better if you do. If you don’t have the patience for that, though, I understand completely.

Spread the herbed cheese on good bread (not forgetting to soak up some of the olive oil) or on these strangely addictive raisin-rosemary toasts from Trader Joe’s. I need to find a recipe to make those at home.

Or mash it up and mix it all together.

Either way, it’s all good.

Me and my brother both wearing Doctor Who t-shirts. The geekiness is strong in my family.

I came across this post in my archives and was surprised and amused to see that I was calling the show “Dr. Who,” when any good Whovian* knows it is only and always “Doctor Who.” I’ve obnoxiously corrected more than one person on that point since I wrote this post. Ha!

*Also, I’ve clearly learned what the “Doctor Who” equivalent of a Chuckster or Cortexifan or Scaper is.

Anyway, my point is…uh…that I am embarrassingly unable to ignore errors, even my own? And also that I’m still a great big geek. (Like the fact that I went to a Harry Potter fan convention this past summer didn’t clue you all in. Or the fact that I’m already planning to go next year with Bonnie and Jen and Becca, and maybe Bex.)

Now that I’m talking about Bex, I might as well tell you to go read this awesome post she wrote recently, Nobody is Perfect. Here’s my favorite part:

…it is okay to be blissfully happy—and SHOW it. This should be a “duh” but I find so many people being Debbie Downers in response to other people’s happiness lately. As a sweet friend of mine said recently, you may as well be waving an enormous flag that says, “I’m miserable!” when you put down someone else simply for being happy. If someone is incandescently happy, don’t you think you should be happy for them too? Don’t you think that they might have walked through the fires of hell to get to their happiness?

Seriously. Go read the whole post. You won’t regret it.