Sacramental Act of Sharing Your Table

Of late I've been reading about eating. Yes, eating. How eating is something we often don't spend much time thinking about, because, well...we do it everyday in this Western world. But, did you know that in Ancient Near East culture, it was gathering around the table & sharing a meal where covenants were created and hospitality was formed.

If I had you at my table and served you food, I was making a declaration, "This shared meal is an act of our binding that I will not betray. You are part of the family." Does this sound familiar in the New Testament?

How do you view your table?

Is your table cluttered, rarely used to eat at, while resembling a landing spot for odds & ends?
Is your table little, boasting of minute space to dine?
Is your table simply a fixture in your home, because that space says “dining room?”

Our life at the table no matter how mundane, is a sacramental act.--Simon Carey Holt

Simon Carey Holt’s words sing to me like the spring robin outside my window. This life is full of the valley’s shadows. The more we age, we certainly cannot run from this reality.

Our hearts longing for a home perfection & a table feasting with delight before a King--who ransomed life, so that we would find ourselves in good glory.

But...

What if our tables in this here & now--our physical tables stood for the good glory. The Spirit ushering about, breathing it at the tables. It’s not so we can skip past this life only looking heavenward. But to take in the graces of this life given, which speak of a Table never broken.

Share your table

My birthday wish was to cook a wonderful meal to share with my closest friends & feast in the summer warmth of the Pacific Northwest. The lights were strung with yellow lanterns in between. Two card tables pushed together with one purple/orange tablecloth making it one.

Our meal of grilled pork loin with local cherry compote, birthday salad, & grilled apricots with mascarpone cheese, all paired with fruit of the vine. The food was lovely; yet, the smiles & laughter of these women I love made the food taste divine.

That evening I opened this second hand picture frame to find one of the best presents from my friend Talia. A picture by Nikki McClure of a gathering around the table with three simple words, “Share the Table.”

This life online, where we find encouragement & community is good. I have found & met people who are kindreds, but it’s the life around the table where it’s really shared.

Jesus came to heal the sick & save the lost, most of which happened around the table.

It was the table where the tears ran down her face & bathed his feet alongside the alabaster perfume.

It was the table where he performed his first miracle of turning the water to wine.

It was the table where he chose to spend his last hours before being sent like a sheep to slaughter.

And it would be at the table where he would join them to eat his first meal after stomping down death’s door.

How Sharing our Tables Translates

1. Not Bon Appetit

Sharing your table isn’t a fancy affair, or gourmet meals--it’s sharing life. Jesus shared life at the table. I encourage you to spend more time thinking about how you can bless those around your table with you than the food. I’m certain you’ll be surprised when they want to come back.

2. Food Serves as a Bridge

It really isn’t about the food. It doesn’t have to be dinner. It can be cards & ice cream, or simple appetizers. Food is simply the vehicle to the destination of hospitality. I think it’s why Martha gets a bad wrap versus Mary. Mary knew that it’s the person over the food that matter. Now, if we can sprinkle a little of Martha’s practical with a lot of Mary’s devotion, we could share our tables more aptly.

I encourage you to step out this week and invite someone you know or want to know into your home; whether, it be for afternoon coffee/tea or dinner.

What deters you from sharing your table? How have you been encouraged through sharing your table?

***This is an updated post from a year ago seen at Sisters in Bloom.

How a Sourdough Cashew Bread & I Met

I've been salivating over The Urban Poser's sourdough cashew bread for a while, but I haven't had time to make it. That is until now. And all I can wonder is, "why haven't I done this long before?"

Yesterday I processed the raw, organic cashews with filtered water. Then, added the probiotic (mine was a 34 billion cell), which I thoroughly mixed in the cashews. I put it in my yogurt maker to incubate for 24 hours.

A word on the probiotic. There is a mistake in the original recipe calling for a 20-30 billion strain, because the number is not referring to strains; rather, it's referring to cells. In my probiotic capsules, each capsule contains 34 billion cells, while the probiotic itself has seven (7) strains of probiotics. What you'll want is to find a probiotic carrying 20-30 billion cells. I found mine at the co-op in town.

The one recipe calls for a 7 3/4 x 3 3/4 pan, which isn't very large. Most loaf pans are more like 9x5. If you want to make this recipe in your standard one, then you'll need to double the recipe. What you see in my picture is actually two mini loaf pans.

I love the fresh out of the oven taste of this bread. I have visions of baking it again in the small loaf pan, then slicing it thin and laying them flat on a sheet pan to toast up for French Onion Soup or crostini.

PS: I didn't do the lovely egg wash, which makes the end result nice and golden and lovely.

Harnessing the Power of Taste (Practices of Eating)

Years back I remember playing this ice breaker game with colleagues, in which I had to answer the question, "Which one of your five senses would you hate to live without?" Immediate gut reaction, "Taste."

Granted, taste and smell truly go hand in hand, it's my sense of taste which serves as a guidepost. The other week my friend Michelle texted me looking for flavors to boost her soup for her family's dinner. Making it more tricky was her son's many food allergies, but I think we solved the problem. I concluded to my math major friend, "This is the type of 'math' problem I enjoy."

One of my practices is harnessing the power of tasting by continuing tasting multiple spices, combinations and foods. Our taste buds are like a muscle needing food exercise. The only way to create "muscles" there are through many food experiences. It's why we get to try food seven times before we can truly form an opinion about it.

Here are ways I harness the sense of taste:

Try new restaurants, so I don't go by my old standby.
I specifically go to Ciao Thyme in town as I know their menu changes every week.
As I cook, I taste, taste, taste.
I have taught my tongue how to wield taste & smell of food combinations through the many tastes.
I rely on my Flavor Bible when in doubt.
I pick up cookbooks and food magazines to be inspired.
When I find something that works, I stick with it.
As we taste various cuisines and flavors, we come to realize how our palates work (ie more salt, more acid, sweetness, etc).
What do I mean by acid? lemon, vinegar, sometimes you only need a splash of vinegar or lemon to liven up a dish
Not all vinegars are created equal, white vinegar, apple cider, red wine, etc
Know when too much is too much. Like my elementary art teacher always said, "less is more." I think generally this applies.
Start with one spice, get to know her, take her on a couple dates.
Eat fruits and vegetables in season.
You don't have to like what everyone else does.
With above it's like writer's finding their own voice, find your taste and harness it.
Yet still, be willing to try new flavors, be adventurous and enjoy the process.
As we eat dinner, or lunch, drink wine, smell it, dissect it. Write down what it is that you are tasting. Ben always liked poppy seed muffins, later finding out I asked him if he liked lemon poppyseed muffins, he said no. It was the almond extract commonly found in poppyseed muffins he was drawn to.
Do taste tests. Buy different chocolates and do a blind test with your friends or even your kids, noting the mouth feel, sweetness, bitterness.