Tag: cookingupfaith
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Cooking Up Faith Series: Pre-Packaged Is OK Too
Much to my annoyance, at the announcement that instant mac n cheese was for dinner, my kids cheered. I’m sorry…but I am a above average cook. I have bombed sometimes, but generally what I cook is good, above average good. Regardless of this, many nights I have at least two of my four kids seated…
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Cooking Up Faith Series: Rest Is Needed for Whole Pasta and Whole People
Last year my husband and I got really into Stanley Tucci’s Finding Italy so much so that we decided we were going to start making pasta on a regular basis as a family. We purchased all the tools, the 00 flour, and got ready for the magical process to begin. On our first go round,…
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Cooking Up Faith Series: Family Recipes, Family Prayers
I have already mentioned one of several family recipes passed down through my family—some odder than others. Among our favorites are my dad’s grandmom, Nanny Rayer’s, meatballs and sauce and my mom’s grandmom Avery’s blueberry muffins. The recipes are considered sacred in a way. Are these Nanny’s meatballs? Are there great grandmom’s muffins? If the…
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Cooking Up Faith Series: Seasoning with Saints
I had the absolute pleasure of being a guest on a friend’s podcast, Tripping Over the Saints (episode coming soon). Her podcast is an opportunity to discuss your favorite saint, which was so hard for me. There are so many saints I love and who have influenced and spiced up my faith life. Seemed like…
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Cooking Up Faith Series: Bread and Rising
I went through a baking bread phase after a reading a book where the main character baked bread when she was stressed out or needed to think through something. I thought it sounded like a romantic way to deal with stress. Of course, as a completely inexperienced baker of bread, the process seemed to add…
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Cooking Up Faith Series: Unexpected Ingredients
My Grandmom Rayer used to make a macaroni salad for every BBQ we had as a family. When she passed away, my mom was trying to mimic the salad, and I said, “It doesn’t have green olives in it.” My mom surprised said something like That’s right. She did put green olives in it. Internally,…
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Cooking Up Faith Series: Soak in It To Soak It In
Recently, we had friends over for dinner, and made this amazing flank steak recipe which we hadn’t had in a while. Thankfully, I had pulled out the recipe to check the ingredients needed in advance, because when I read through the recipe it said must marinate for at least 24 hours. When I was assembling…
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Under Pressure
The Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend had my internal barometer reeling. I am an introvert. The need to recharge after a great amount of social interaction is real. May was very full, from First Communion parties to 5th grade promotion activities to weddings to end of school activities. It was like a pressure cooker, letting…
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Cooking Up Faith: The Model from the Mold
When Joe and I were engaged, we were gifted a cooking class at a pretty fancy cooking school. We attended the class with about six other couples. Upon arrival we were shown a finished product of what we would be preparing that evening. The one thing that stood out the most was a potato with…
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Cooking Up Faith Series: Food from the Source
One of the best things about living in Tennessee is access to farm fresh food, but we really hit the jackpot in our new house which is just a mile and a half from a farm which sells its beef and pork right there on property every Wednesday afternoon. Yesterday I went there and they…
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Cooking Up Faith Series: Let That Simmer
If you’ve ever made soup, sauce or chili from scratch, often a recipe will say, bring to a boil and immediately reduce to a simmer. This is to get the dish heated up to boiling to ensure the remainder of the cooking happens just below boiling—a simmer. If you aren’t familiar with simmering, it’s usually…
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Cooking Up Faith: Balance the Bitterness of Onions or Life
Onions are an ingredient I cook with often. Whether sloppy joe’s, soups, sauces, fajitas, kabobs, salads or dressings, they are kept in supply in our house: sweet, red, yellow, shallots, scallions. I use them all. A little known fact about onions is that their smell, bitter taste and propensity to make you cry comes from…