Posts Tagged cooking
Fresh Salsa
Posted by annaldavis in Everything Else on July 20, 2009
We made salsa today with our own homegrown tomatoes and jalapenos. The kids helped me peel the tomatoes, made easier by blanching them first (the tomatoes, not the kids). Tonight we’ll enjoy our salsa on beef fajitas — which I’ve already begun to cook, and as I write this I can hear the sizzling from my cast iron skillet.
If you’ve kept up with my blog you may have noticed that I’ve been dwelling on some serious subjects, like whether our nation has been warned. To be honest, I began to feel a bit down. I found myself in the company of David, who cried “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?” I began to have a small understanding of how Daniel must have felt after a terrifying vision. “Then I, Daniel, was exhausted and sick for days…” (Daniel 8:27A).
I know now that God wanted me to think and write about those things, but He does not want me to dwell on them. In culinary terms, it’s time to peel back those dark thoughts and make some fresh salsa.
“…then I got up again and carried on the king’s business; but I was astounded at the vision.” Daniel 8:27B
French Bread and HDTV
Posted by annaldavis in Everything Else on June 12, 2009
We’ve owned a flat-screen HDTV for a while, but I didn’t really care about it until recently when I saw a nature program in high definition. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen! Every water droplet in perfect detail, the leaf edges crisp and clear, flowers so vibrant I could have sworn we were actually there. My husband thought it was funny that I finally realized the value of HD, after all this time of owning one.
But as beautiful a picture as it was, I still couldn’t smell the flowers or feel the dew on the ground. Viewing the forest from my comfortable air-conditioned home told me nothing about the quality of air there, whether humid or pleasantly dry, whether cool or oppressively hot. All of the physical beauty, but none of the real experience.
Cooking programs in HDTV also amaze me. Camera angles are designed to reveal the beauty of the food, and the ease with which the chefs prepare it. But what about the nitty-gritty of cooking — the feel of it, the smells, and the dishes! Yesterday it rained all day and with my two children home for the summer we decided to make French bread together.
We used flour, salt, sugar, oil, warm water and yeast. We mixed and kneaded, waited for it to rise, and kneaded some more. Then we rolled it into two loaves, and waited for it to rise again. Finally we baked it, and enjoyed our beautiful bread with a simple Caesar salad for dinner. And what an experience! We had flour all over the kitchen, and all over ourselves. The funniest part was when my son, who loves to “test” all kinds of yummy batter as I cook, sneakily pinched off some of the raw dough and stuck it in his mouth, only to spit it out in horror less than a minute later.
We all had a good time, even while cleaning up the mess (but don’t look too closely)! It doesn’t even remotely compare to FoodTV.
So in all of this it occurred to me that high definition TV is just one example of the many ways we’ve become a society of “viewers” — an audience, watching from our comfortable places of leisure while someone else experiences the real thing. We leave adventure and action films with adrenaline pumping through our veins and the taste of popcorn in our mouths, and hop into our SUVs to head home. And I fear it goes deeper than physicality. Movies about spiritual warfare and great adventures in other-worldly places inspire our imagination for a time, but then what? We hear sermons and read books about God, but then what?
Let’s stop waiting for the next show, the next entertainment. There’s something Real for us, right now.
Going Green?
Posted by annaldavis in Everything Else on June 6, 2009
Summer has me feeling like a hippie in some ways. I guess the modern phrase involves words like “green movement” and “sustainable living.” But there’s something about these beautiful sunny days spent digging in the dirt and reading in the shade, watching my children play happily in a sandbox (rather than with an XBox) that causes me to remember why we love this planet. I could let my hair grow long, and stop wearing makeup. We could go off the grid and trade local produce with neighbors. I could make our own soap, and illegally raise chickens in our backyard for eggs and meat. We could stay up late in tents with hundreds of strangers, listening to a dulcimer concert and subsequent squaredancing calls as we drift off to sleep (there might be a story behind this, but please don’t ask).
Seriously, though — do you find it disturbing how dependent on technology we have become? Electricity has been in common use for only 200 years, and in that short timespan we as a society have practically thown away centuries of basic skills like canning, hunting, and collecting rain water. Why waste time on those ancient, old-fashioned chores! We need all the extra minutes we can get, to keep up with our friends on Facebook and play a rousing Wii game of family golf.
It’s ironic to me that we go to the Internet to find out information about how to live green — and that this makes us progressive and forward-thinking — when many of these concepts had actually been practiced for centuries before our electrical modern conveniences.
Don’t get me wrong — I enjoy the perks of living in the 21st century, perks like the iPhone I’ll be getting in July, and this blog I’m writing. But maybe this summer I’ll spend less time online or otherwise plugged in, and more time participating in actual life. I may even teach myself and the kids about home canning. You never know when we might need these skills again.
