Cooking comfort

This is a post I actually wrote several weeks ago -- but was having Internet problems -- and never posted it. I kinda like it though -- so figured I'd post it now...


Tuesday: What I did for myself today.
I LOVE cookbooks. I crave cookbooks. I probably read just as many cookbooks as I do novels. I have a good sized bookshelf in my kitchen stuffed to overflowing with cookbooks…and I have more in storage.
It had gotten to the point that I couldn’t fit anymore cookbooks in, nor could I find what was there. It was making me crazy. One Tuesday morning a couple of weeks ago, I cleaned out the bookshelf. I gave away a large -- ok, huge—box of books. I got rid of the ones I hadn’t used in a while. Rid of the ones I liked, but didn’t LOVE. I got rid of duplications. As I’ve been going through all this extra stuff I’ve used this question as a guide: “Will it bless someone else’s life more than mine?”
I used it when I cleaned out my closet, resulting in 3, 30-gallon trash bags full of clothes and shoes. I gave it to a dear friend who does a tremendous amount of work for the community – but does little for herself. I suspected she might keep some of the clothes, but wondered if she might give the clothes away to a family in need – possibly a new collection of immigrants. To my delight she kept the clothes herself. Each day, she has worn a brand new outfit and has had a great grin upon her face. Her smile tells me the clothes bless her far more than they blessed me.
As for the cookbooks, I have a friend who spends most of her summer and a good part of the winter cooking at 4-H camp. Several of the books contained recipes for “mega cooking” or “cook once-eat-for-month”. They contained the ingredients calculated out for up to 25 servings in some cases. I knew these were books she would enjoy and could use. Further, she just took in three children for whom their mother, a relative, could no long provide. A collection of family friendly meals in a dozen or more cookbooks might come in handy, I thought. When I spoke with her Thursday evening, she said she’d taken quite a few, but left plenty for a young friend, newly married and setting up her own home.
I unearthed a couple of treasures – cookbooks I’d forgotten I had, recipe cards containing my mother’s and grandmother’s handwriting … and a cookbook from my mother’s church.
She went to this church off and on throughout the 30 years we lived in Boise. The congregation was always kind and one pastor had presided there throughout our membership. In 1983, my sophomore year of high school, the mother’s club at Red Rock Christian Church published a cookbook. My mom likely bought the comb-bound, photocopied collection of recipes to support the church. She too was a cookbook collector. I can see her sitting on the couch flipping through each page, thinking about what she might cook. I do not remember a recipe she particularly liked. It doesn’t look like she used the book much at all. I was 16 in 1983 and far too wrapped up in my own world to have noticed.
All I really remember is that she loved the people at Red Rock, appreciated the pastor and spoke fondly of her visits there – although they were infrequent.
When my mother moved into an assisted living facility, I cleaned out her cookbook collection keeping a few pieces, but mostly through the rest haphazardly into the “goodwill” pile. I grabbed this one and started to toss it, but on second thought tucked into the “keep” pile. I don’t even remember sticking into my own shelf.
Flipping through the pages, I was touched by care with which it was produced. Amused by the pre-computer production values. Warmed by the poems and helpful hints tucked in between the recipes.
I can always tell when I’m on the path God, or the Universe (insert your own deity) has designed for me because doors open, ideas flow and opportunities abound. On this very Tuesday I was deep in thought about two things; writing my own cookbook and discerning my own spirituality.
I love to cook. I love history, especially the history of the small town and large rural county in which I live. I have long wanted to write a heritage cookbook containing not only the recipes but the stories behind the recipes. I’ve started it often and gotten sidetracked. (A common occurrence in my life.) The local historical society has plans to open a new museum in 2011 or so and the timing seems good to actually start and finish the project. I am afraid of getting sidetracked, afraid of spending a lot of time and energy on the project only to have a bunch of books that don’t sell…terrified I’ll be in over my head all the way around. I know this is a good project. I just have to create a plan to get it done without overwhelming myself.
I have often wished in my adult life there was a Red Rock Christian – like church near me. There is, simply, not. I have never found a place where I felt as comfortable as I did there. The possible exception is the local Catholic Church. I converted to Catholicism about 12 years ago and enjoy it with little hesitation.
My oldest daughter recently started attending a Christian school about 25 miles south of our home. Several of the teachers are active evangelists and in our short stay at the school, my daughter as already been exposed to videos and other lessons about evangelizing to others. I’m not a huge fan of this practice and it’s made me uncomfortable. I don’t think it’s appropriate in an academic setting, first of all and I don’t find the judgment of others very Christian-like. I really love the song lyric that says, “they’ll know we are Christians by our love”. I think there is more than one way to God and that it’s not our place to judge the path other’s choose, but to love them for who and what they are. If another religion blesses someone’s heart and fills their needs, regardless of my opinion of that particular faith, then there is no reason to question or criticize how they found that peace. A far better method of evangelism, I think, is leading by example.
I knew when we enrolled her in the school, there would be challenges to my philosophy – and that I would be in the minority. But what this situation has truly highlighted is that I do not practice my own religious beliefs nearly enough. I rarely attend church. I no longer actively read the Bible or research my own questions about the Church or my own belief system. How can I honestly look at the teacher’s at my daughter’s school and question how they practice their faith, when I do not practice my own?
Finding this cookbook and allowing my thoughts to return to the Christian kindness I felt at Red Rock was like a bit of Divine intervention…a reminder that practicing what I preach is part of a recipe for Christian living.
If I am truly to live the example I expect others to live, I need to write because that is what I do. I need to write the heritage cookbook because it’s a project that would bless my home and the homes of others.
Becoming more active within my church, but more importantly, in my faith would bless my heart – and offer continuing faith enrichment to my children – in much the same way my mother taking me to church at Red Rock Christian has continued to bless me.

What am I listening to: Today NPR. I needed some intelligent conversation, even if I wasn’t an active participant.

What inspired me today: This passage, which I have seen before, but not thought of in years…found in the Red Rock Cookbook
TAKE TIME
Take time to think...it is the source of power
Take Time to play…it is the secret of perpetual youth
Take time to read… it is the fountain of wisdom
Take time to pray ... it is the greatest power on earth
Take time to love and be loved…it is a God – given privilege
Take time to be friendly … it is the road to happiness
Take time to laugh… it is the music of the soul
Take time to give … it is too short a day to be selfish
Take time to work… it is the price of success
Take time to do charity …it is the key to heaven