What Peter's Mother-in-Law Knew

Oh, she understood, bless her heart. Peter's mother-in-law has a raging fever (Mark 1:29-39, Epiphany 5B). She's sick in bed, but before a verse goes by she's out of bed and serving the visitors in her house. She knew what Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays know...even being dead is no excuse for being a bad hostess.

Written from personal experience as residents in the Mississippi Delta, the authors promise to give you all the tools you need to host the perfect Southern funeral. Recipes for always-appropriate funeral food are included along with stories that might sound a little unbelievable if you didn't know they were true.

Metcalfe and Hays have put together a lively and unique guide to life, death and social obligation. It sounds like Peter's mother-in-law could have been their co-author.

"Being Dead is No Excuse" is published by Hachette Book Group. For more information, see:  http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/gayden-metcalfe/being-dead-is-no-excuse/9781401305741/

An Idea for Baptism

This Sunday (11 January 2015) is Baptism of the Lord B. This is a perfect Sunday to celebrate new baptisms and for all of us to remember our own baptism. If your congregation is celebrating baptisms on Sunday why not have cookies? For infants, perhaps cookies in the shape of infant baptismal clothing would be fun. A variety of cookie cutters are available - both dresses and rompers.

 

Cookie cutters available at coppergifts.com (Inclusion here does not constitute an endorsement of the product or company. Images are provided for information only.)

And if you are feeling especially brave, why not let the children of the church decorate the cookies? Perhaps some "professional" ones could be made for the family of the one being baptized. Or maybe the better remembrance for the family would be to present them with the cookies decorated by the children of the church.

  

Decorated cookies are from Sweet Cookie Boutique at etsy.com

Galette des Rois

Sweets. That's what we need right now: another dessert especially for Epiphany. By the time January 6 arrives all the pre-Christmas and Christmas goodies will be gone, the party food from New Year's Eve will be a memory, and you'll be looking for one last treat for the season.

In France the Epiphany tradition is to enjoy a Galette des Rois (Cake of the Kings). There are two types of Galettes des Rois. One is made with a yeast batter and decorated with sugared fruit. The other is more pastry than cake: almond cream is sandwiched between two layers of puff pastry. In recent years, the traditional almond filling has been tweaked and experimented with and sometimes abandoned altogether, so fillings may vary from home to home and bakery to bakery. When presented for eating, the cake traditionally wears a foil or paper crown.

Like its cousin, the American Mardi Gras King Cake, a Galette des Rois includes a token of some kind or a bean baked into the cake. Whoever finds the token is declared king or queen for the day.

Recipes abound on the internet, so a quick search for "galette des rois" will provide many options, but if you want to be inspired by the Epiphany creations of a Paris patisserie, here are two:

Dalloyau:  http://www.dalloyau.fr/galette-coeur-de-dentelle.html

Dominique Saibron: http://www.dominique-saibron.com/english/actualite.html 

This is their pistachio galette.

Filling the Hungry with Good Things

It's the season of big meals, baking traditions, candy and treats. Overeating, overconsumption of sugar, "over-" almost everything. At least for some of us. We are aware of the needs of community pantries and programs that provide meals for our brothers and sisters who are in need. Please continue to support those organizations in your community. Mary sings in the Magnificat that her child will fill the hungry with good things but send the rich away empty (Luke 1:53, Advent 4B).

But there are other brothers and sisters whose needs may go unnoticed, not only at this time of year but all year long. It isn't that these brothers and sisters are far away from food. In fact, this group is intimately involved in the food industry. They are the servers, dishwashers, cooks and others who often go unnoticed while the rest of us are dining out and enjoying our food. Did you know that the food service industry posts the highest rates of drug and alcohol abuse as well as very high rates of divorce and broken relationships? And food service workers often come from the most vulnerable segments of society: single parents, teens, immigrants, minorities, ex-felons.

Who is doing something? Big Table. Born in Spokane, Washington in 2009, Big Table is building a community of care for workers in the restaurant and hospitality industries. They have great ideas:

• the UNEXPECTED 20, 
• Dinners for 48 (where the food service workers are the guests!)
• the (current) Holiday Blitz. 

Click on the link above (the highlighted text, not the logo) to find out more. And as you enjoy table fellowship in restaurants and at catered parties during this season, remember all the workers who are making your fellowship possible.

Thanks, Big Table!

A Garden Springs Up

Well, gardens rarely just "spring up". But as Isaiah reminds us in the reading for Advent 3B, God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations just as the earth brings forth its shoots and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up.

One of the things that gets gardeners through long winters (and even moderate winters, depending on where you live) are seed catalogs. Seed catalogs provide a glimpse of what might be. They speak to hope and promise.

So it might not be surprising that the Shakers, a religious community, were among the innovators in seed sales. Known for their work ethic and integrity, the Shakers built a large business processing, packing and selling seeds. In fact, the Shakers are credited with developing the idea of seeds in packets as early as 1818.

Photo credit: http://www.willishenry.com/shaker2011/shakcat2011.htm

Nineteenth-century American farmers and gardeners came to know that planting Shaker seeds would produce good results. The prophet Isaiah knew, too. Knew that if the right seeds are planted, righteousness and praise will spring up. The psalmist also knew. Psalm 126 concludes with the reminder that those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.

The Lesson of the Fig

It's more than a little ironic that the gospel reading for Advent 1B talks about figs as the sign of summer. As we enter the final month of the year, it is the fruit of summer that provides the lesson in the waiting time that is Advent: 

     From the fig tree learn its lesson:

as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, 

you know that summer is near.

So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near... (Mark 13:28-29)

Pictures from City Farm Florist and Nurseries, Roslindale, MA: http://www.figtrees.net/

If it were full summer, then the suggestions for fig-eating would be simple:

• sample them straight from the tree, peeled but still warm from the sun
• wrap them in prosciutto
• cut a cross shape through the top, stuff them with brie or another soft cheese and quickly broil them
• quarter and roast them in a very hot oven, then toss with a balsamic glaze 

But as it is not high summer, perhaps it makes sense to use a prepared product like fig preserves. You might:

• slice a baguette, grill the slices with a little butter, spread them with a goat cheese (or mascarpone for a slightly sweeter result) and fig preserves or use two slices of baguette and make a grilled goat cheese sandwich with fig preserves
• use fig preserves as a filling for thumbprint cookies
• add mustard to fig preserves to create a sweet-and-sour style sauce served with dumplings, wontons or potstickers
• puree the preserves and use them as a filling between two pieces of puff pastry or two pie crusts; bake until golden brown for a fig-filled flaky-cakey cookie; if you add orange zest to the pureed preserves to enhance the flavor you might also make an orange glaze for the top of the cookie

Why not have a sampling of "fig food" this Sunday? Let folks experience the food they'll hear about in the gospel lesson for Advent 1B.