Cross post from the food blog

"There's a hunger beyond food that's expressed in food, and that's why feeding is always a kind of miracle. It speaks of a bigger desire."- Sara Miles, Take This Bread

My Nanay (grandmother) cooked constantly while I was growing up. Huge pots, mounds of meat, her orange strainer in a stainless steel bowl, and the rhythm when she would alternately chop pork into tiny perfect cubes and run her knife over the bottom of an upturned mug to sharpen. She would cook enough for small armies, and we ate for days.

I didn't begin to cook until I was 18.

All my efforts up to that point were few, far between and horrible. Scrambled eggs were small, gritty and dry, and cakes came out of a box. But that summer I spent three weeks in the Philippines, where I ate 5 or 6 meals a day, surrounded by more people than I could count, and when I returned something happened. ^whisper: It was magic.

I woke up one day and thought, "Hmm. I think I want muffins." I bought a mini muffin tin, called my photo teacher for her blueberry muffin recipe, and swapped the blueberries for blackberries. And it was over.

The rest of that summer with a few good friends and online recipes, I was broiling chicken, making my own pesto, and baking like it was my job. Looking back on all the important things that happened that summer, like when I decided to switch schools, when I invited a random salesman in my house, the dreaded ex-boyfriend phone call, catching up with old friends or meeting new ones, it all happened in my kitchen cuz I never left.




It's at a table a person learns what it means to serve and be served and to talk to one another and share our lives.

Jesus, who is God incarnate, came eating and drinking, fed the hungry and gave water to the thirsty, and at his death his body was broken and his blood poured out to take away the sins of the world.

The word 'thankful' in Greek is translated as 'eucharisimi', 'be eucharist'. Eucharist is the word used to describe the Lord's Supper, where bread and wine are eaten to remember Christ's sacrifice. So, the way I show thankfulness is to break myself open and pour myself out for someone else. I give of myself. I've taken in this literally by baking bread to be broken and shared.

The very first church started this way, people would gather together to pray for one another and talk about God, all over a shared meal.

Anyway, I'm on vacation at home this week, and I've cooked two noteworthy things, Lighter than Air Chocolate Cake and Spinach and Tomato Omelette.

Lighter than Air Cake from SmittenKitchen.com






Spinach and Tomato Omelette with help from Pineapple girl