ScribeLife » It Was Good (Food) http://www.shammah.org/blog Musings on life shared with God. Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:48:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 The Joy of Cooking http://www.shammah.org/blog/index.php/2009/10/26/the-joy-of-cooking/ http://www.shammah.org/blog/index.php/2009/10/26/the-joy-of-cooking/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:48:00 +0000 Tonia http://www.shammah.org/blog/index.php/2009/10/26/the-joy-of-cooking/
Okay, this blog is supposed to be about SPIRITUAL things. But what my heart is bursting to share is my new love affair with one of God’s greater creations, the humble, divine, onion-meets-garlic SHALLOT.
One of the benefits of working from a home office is that you can break from cerebral tasks to play with food. One can make a delightful egg sandwich or grab some raw veggies with dip and a slice of cheese; and on occasion, create a special lunch. Today was such a day. And just to make sure I properly connect the dots here with my spiritual blog ambitions, allow me to say, with all seriousness, that I consider creative pursuits to be the highest of spiritual activities, as we are made in the image of the great creator, who not only exercised his great creativity at every turn, but DELIGHTED in it. 
Today was that kind of lunch for me. But it was, I must admit, premeditated. Here’s why. I’ve been thinking about shallots for a very long time. I use lots of onions and garlic in my cooking. I’d long heard of shallots, described as a mild onion that really leans towards more of a garlic flavor. I was in love at first description. However, they are, compared to onions or garlic, a little pricey, so I kept leaving them at the market, until recently. My 59th birthday staring me in the face, I thought, “Live what you love, woman, or  miss your opportunity. I already loved shallots in my mind, and I wanted to know if I loved them on my tongue. So I bought four lovely shallots for an exhorbitant price at our local exotic market, took them home and proceeded to research recipes for how to use them best.
One of my favorite cookbooks is the perennially useful “Joy of Cooking.” It yielded a shallot recipe I chose to be my first, a beef condiment called Bercy Butter. This consists of finely chopped shallots simmered in dry white wine, reduced down and added to butter into which one has stirred some finely chopped parsley and a tad of salt. Bercy Butter, it says, is a perfect accompaniment to grilled steaks.
One of my husband’s delights is to discover a great steak, chop or chicken breast in the discount pile at the market, something divine at a deeply discounted price, because the date is expiring but the food hasn’t yet…. His latest find was a couple of fat sirloin steaks. He announced on Sunday he would cook them on the GRILL for Monday’s lunch, and all my casino slots lined up bing, bing, bing with shallots, parsley, white wine and butter, which I had carefully purchased and had waiting in my pantry for the moment of opportunity. Whatever else I was doing on Monday (writing, counseling, web page updates, correspondence), I would pause at noon and CREATE with SHALLOTS.
I must digress here and say that my muse for waxing on about all of this has been a delightful birthday gift I received from my daughter Gabriele, who has a knack for just the right gift, who sent me a copy of “The Supper of the Lamb” by Robert Farrar Capon, a really unorthodox cookbook by an unorthodox Episcopalian priest turned writer and chef. His introduction to the lowly onion is a spiritual experience if there ever was one. So his spirit is definitely messing with mine while I’m dreaming of shallots and parsley butter, all of which have never ever met in my kitchen.
It is a good thing I like being my own sous chef. I do love a very sharp knife, I love chopping things just the right size, I love my big fat cutting board left behind by a mother who loved cooking and did everything with gusto, and I just love playing with food. 
But the question is: would I really like the Bercy Butter? Would my husband Ron, who has endured many a culinary experiment in our 28 years (“Please Honey, please don’t try a new recipe when company is coming!”) Well, it’s Monday, it’s just the two of us, and my shallots are waiting to fulfill their destiny (I’m working in all the spiritual connections I can, folks!). There have been some disasters, some things that made one laugh till one cried, and others that just made one cry. Even so, most failures seldom outstrip the joy factor of trying a new thing with food and flavor.
Here’s the verdict: Bercy Butter turns an ordinary steak into something extraordinary, and hubby loved it! Ah, my first culinary turn with shallots, and it is love at first bite. And it was a great fun lunch, a very satisfying moment in the middle of my day, and left me delighting anew in a God who did not settle for making garlic and onions. 

]]> http://www.shammah.org/blog/index.php/2009/10/26/the-joy-of-cooking/feed/ 1 Parable of the Topsy Turvy Tomato http://www.shammah.org/blog/index.php/2009/09/15/parable-of-the-topsy-turvy-tomato/ http://www.shammah.org/blog/index.php/2009/09/15/parable-of-the-topsy-turvy-tomato/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:33:00 +0000 Tonia http://www.shammah.org/blog/index.php/2009/09/15/parable-of-the-topsy-turvy-tomato/

Advertising works. Thus we tried the Topsy Turvy Tomato planter this year, that novel invention where your planter hangs up high to avoid all weed pulling and thwart the cutworms and promising a great crop thereby. We bought the planter, carefully chose a “Better Bush” tomato plant, and assembling all, hung it by our front porch with care. Here is our harvest:


This beauty is it. One solitary, lovely tomato. Indeed, pulled no weeds, warred with no cutworms…ONE beautiful tomato. We made a ceremony out of harvesting it; no careless swift plucking of this baby! And now it is in the house, awaiting its purpose, still commanding reverence. Even while it seems silly to me, inescapably, I don’t want to make this decision lightly, because we only got ONE. What to do with it? Shall I drizzle olive oil on it, top it with basil? Shall I have the Grillmeister (Ron) put it on the grill with some other summer veggies? Shall I use it for a crown on our dinner salads? Shall I just cut it open and eat it out of hand? How to consume the life of my one home-grown, topsy turvy tomato?


And being the Bible teacher that I am, designed by God to search for and reveal His lesson in EVERYTHING, I’m pondering not just the tomato’s fate, but my own reaction to it. If there had been 10 tomatoes, or five, or even two, I don’t believe this dilemma would be upon me, and this tomato would seem ordinary, lost in the crowd, probably down my gullet by now. But no, its solitary uniqueness has caused it to become sort of holy in my sight; I feel a responsibility to use to its very best potential. And, get ready for it….. Does God the creator face this same wonderment of possibility and purpose regarding each one of his uniquely created individuals?

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