Happy Valentines Day!

And a few more ...On this day I'm thankful to be the recipient of a great number of "little things" that add up to a lot!

Dining Delights

I want to finish my "kitchen talk" off with thoughts on what it is that makes me enjoy being in the kitchen. When you look at these pictures, you might get a glimpse of one of my recent rewards . . . a very excited little girl! We were able to spend a few days in Vegas last week and Natalie asked if we could bake tup-takes with sprinkles (big emphasis on the sprinkles)! Don't you just want to be a child again and enjoy simple things, such as sprinkles? (I have posted the recipe on mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com )

In general, I think that we all don't mind doing something when it feels appreciated. So here are seven very simple reasons I keep cooking (or baking):

1) I appreciate the quick break my H and I can have at lunch, when he comes home and we enjoy a bite together. I'm glad he wants to come home.

2) I love that feeling when a meal is well on its way. Family or friends are arriving and hanging out visiting, coming in and checking what's in the pots, nibbling on appetizers, laughing etc.

3) I also love to set tables, especially with fresh flowers or candles.

4) I actually look forward to a whole day set aside to do nothing but bake. It's quite relaxing. When I think of it, I like to listen to music, but I don't need to. I like going from one task to the next and pulling goodies out of the oven, feeling like something got accomplished.

5) I love having the grand kids at the kitchen counter, big smiles, waiting for the next sugar roll up pancake, counting how many they have eaten, giggling, making faces at each other etc.

6) I like the talking that happens when doing dishes with someone. Some of my best talks with my mom, while growing up, were while we were doing dishes.

7) I can't forget to mention the joy that comes from eating with loved ones. Maybe one reason cooking is so rewarding, is because eating is something we all have in common and it causes us to relax and enjoy being together.

. . . and he does . . .

End of Religion

Last Fall I read The End of Religion by Bruxy Cavey. It has impacted me in ways I would not have expected and a book I would highly recommend, whether you’ve been brought up in the church or not. As for me, it has done two things for me. In some ways I’ve been challenged, and in other ways I think I have become more settled in my faith.

The challenge is to let go of our dependency on works or good deeds and rest in the knowledge that God has done the work. It is a call to relationship, rather than religion. The theme centers around the fact that religion is man trying to get to God and relationship is God coming to man. So, in a relationship with God, I will love Him because He first loved me. If I’m trying to get God’s approval and thinking that it’s through my works that he will love me . . . that's religion. In relationship, I obey because I love Him, not to get approval.
Jesus was always stretching the religious leaders' concepts of what it means to love God. When you love God, you will love your neighbor and the laws that you try to follow will not get in the way of loving your neighbor. (the Good Samaritan is an example of that.) Bruxy states that “ He (Jesus) portrays their religious affiliation as a barrier rather than a motivator to becoming involved in the life of a hurting person.”
When I think of religion I think of laws being the glue. If I follow the laws, I will be okay, if I don’t I’m out. Bruxy Cavey says that “Law tends to cultivate a "what –can –I get away-with" mentality.”
When I think of relationship, I think of love being the glue. Love motivates obedience. In relationship there is no fear, because perfect love casts out fear. In a relationship that is based on love, there is no fine print that defines the borders because love is not self seeking.

“For God so loved the World that He gave his only Son, so that anyone who believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Kitchen Quirks

While on the topic of kitchens and reading some of my friends thoughts/habits, I thought I would let you in on some of my kitchen quirks. Hey, I know that by now my friends will remain my friends. My family knows all about my fussiness and really is very forgiving and complying.

1) I like a shiny sink and so to keep it that way I regularly let hot water run into it (a few inches) and pour in some bleach. While at it, I throw in my dishcloths for a minute too.

2) Terry towels are for hands and cotton (waffle or smooth) towels are for drying dishes.

3) I see the garbage is full, but I keep leaving it until it almost overflows. It bothers me, but that's one thing I procrastinate on.

4) I don't have a microwave. Never had one and don't need or want one. I have a defrost fan in my oven. Microwaved meals don't stay hot long. Don't try to convince me. =)

5) I don't' like things splashing of spattering. How can you not in the kitchen? I try to avoid it - don't fry much and use a Tupperware lid with a hole in it for beating whipped cream.

6) I don't like counter clutter. It's easier to work and clean up in a kitchen that has free counter space.

7) I don't wash my pots in the dishwasher because the dishwasher doesn't scrub them or polish them when they need it. And they take up too much room.

Kitchen Catastrophies

The fact is that I feel comfortable in the kitchen and friends generally think that nothing goes wrong in my kitchen. The fact is, also,that sometimes friends are wrong and bad things happen to all cooks! When I got married at 18 years old, by biggest worry about marriage was, "What will I cook for the rest of my life?" I was overwhelmed with the thought of making one meal, let alone . . . I don't even want to do the math! Nothing like taking on the world all at once. Well, the meals only needed to be cooked one at a time and I would say that a big reason I started liking it is because my H always gave me positive comments.


The other day, I started thinking about some of disasters I've had in my kitchen and I thought it might be fun to laugh at them now and see what else comes out of the woodwork (or other people's kitchens...) Now, this is not about the milk that boiled over or the carton of milk that got dropped, and you know where that all goes . . . who would have thought you have to wash your whole kitchen? Here are seven things that come to mind:

1) Cooking for a group of about 25 people in a tiny kitchen in Lithuania - I decided to add the left-over porridge from breakfast to the bun dough . . . which I was mixing up and planning to have ready for lunch. Sounds good? Well, for some reason the dough became so sticky that I could not handle it. It was impossible to form buns because it stuck like glue to my hands . . . and I didn't have time to play! Finally, with lots of flour on my hands and washing them continuously and using more flour, I got some forms onto the pans. They got baked and devoured, in fact they were some of the best buns ever!!

2) My first batch of cinnamon buns turned out to be hard little nibbles that no one wanted to eat. The first batch of bread dough I made got chucked onto the counter - and luckily not at my mom who was in the kitchen and probably finished the work. Yeast doughs have become my favorite only because of persistence.

3) Once when I was canning peaches, the bottom of a jar fell out as I lifted it. Now, years later, I still feel like the contents are going to fall out and I have to hold something under the jar, just in case.

4) While visiting our kids in Indonesia, I was cooking some custard for waffles. As I was stirring the pudding, little black dots started appearing and multiplying. I was curious and lifted one onto a spoon and had a good close look . . . it was moving!! Somehow the heat was causing the eggs to hatch or whatever they do and the pudding was . . . well you might say 'full of extra protein'. We tried to determine if it came from the eggs that, when they purchase them, are not even refrigerated. Then we inspected the flour and noticed that it was full of life! The scary thing is that we never would have noticed if we'd used it for baking.

5) Whenever I see a recipe that tells you to first cook the vegetables and then blend them to make a cream soup, I don't follow those recipe instructions because, once when I did that, the blender lid popped off and I had tomato soup all over the place. Nothing I hate more!
I'll find ways to get around those instructions, like blending some of the vegetables before cooking them and chopping the rest.

6) One day I was in the kitchen just minding my own business (not even near the sink) when suddenly the water line under the sink burst and water came gushing out. I couldn't even get to the turn off under the sink because the water was hot. I made a panicky phone call and found out that I needed to turn off the shut off on the hot water tank. In the short time that this took, the water was already pouring down the wall downstairs! I can't even imagine if I hadn't been home.

7) We left on holidays part way through our kitchen reno, leaving a key with the painters. Our son came home and checked up on them and one day the stench in the house could not be covered with paint smell any longer. He had to find out ... started checking and found that the fridge had been left unplugged. Someone had needed to get behind it and left it unplugged for days. . . maybe a week. It stank so bad he couldn't even clean it out himself and if he did, no containers would have been salvaged. My dear mom came and cleaned it all up before we came home.

Love is . . .

Recently I came across a stash of little "Love is . . ." cartoons in one of my boxes. When I was a teenager (in the 70's) I loved reading the comic section of the paper and regularly cut out the little "Love is..." feature because I thought they were cute! In checking it out a bit now, I found out that these cartoons were created by Kim Casali in the late 1960's when she drew little love notes for her husband-to-be. Some of them are kind of cheesy, but I noticed that others have more value than I even realized at the time.

Since February is a month that we think about valentines and love gets emphasized in a number of ways, I will be posting some of the ones that have applied to me and my sweetheart over the years. I think that he has been better at doing what these little notes say than I have been . . . makes one wonder, did he read them too? Maybe he's just a natural.

There is a chapter in the Bible that also talks about what Love is . . . and what love is not. It says Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy, it does not boast. Love is not proud. Love is not self seeking. Love is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. . .

It ends off with, "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." I Corinthians 13