FAITH THROUGH FOOD
Gosh, references for Food are all over the Bible...
the most important of course being the Eucharist!!
​
God provided an endless buffet in Eden-but Adam & Eve chose the one fruit off-menu...!
Years later-God provided quail & Manna-literally bread from Heaven, & still some complained...
...Jesus' First Public Miracle was Turning Water into Wine.
Jesus Feeds 5000 with 5 Loaves & 2 Fish & people left baskets of leftovers strewn all over the lawn.
There are SO many more food references in the Bible..., but this list makes me remember to
Thank God for all he gives us to provide - cook - offer...
'cause you can't please 'em all, life is messy...and God is what we should hunger for most.
It's been like that since the beginning of time :) !​
So here's to cooking what we like to cook - fussing over those we love...anyway...
and going to Mass as often as we possibly can!
​
​
​​​
Using Food within Our Own Story is...well it just is. Important. Necessary.
Nourishing to Body, Mind, and Soul. Let's explore that here !
THIS MONTH'S INGREDIENT: POTATOES​​
​Less than 4 weeks
of Advent to prepare
for Christmas, and
the cold weather has
my family calling for Comfort Food.
Next to Christmas Cookies - Potatoes
are this season's "fill their bellies so I can
go wrap gifts" food.
​
​
​​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Potluck at their House? How about Bringing
Potato Soup?
(Recipe Below)
Party at your house?
How about a
"Potato Bar"?
​
Fill several containers that you'll serve in - each with some type of potato. Choose to top each with a different topping, or leave the spuds plain, and fill bowls with toppings for your guests to make "deconstructed stuffed potatoes"
Ideas:
Mashed potatoes
(swirled with chopped bacon?)
Sweet potatoes
(baked with a drizzle of molasses, brown sugar, butter, chopped garlic)
Roasted white potato cubes/wedges
(topped with seasoned ground meat & melty cheddar)
Russet Potato Skins
(filled with shredded chicken/sauteed onions topped with baked on Gruyere cheese
​
​
​
God in the Kitchen:
While you're peeling potatoes, set the kids up
to Play Potato:
"Lay humble in the soil
with your eyes to Heaven".
"You're a simple veg - but with the power to take away hunger!"
Then someone strong Hoe's the potatoes. (Rolls 'em then picks them up, maybe dusts off the dirt... :)) Or Throw a blanket over them and mash 'em up Play-swat here and there with your hands or gently with a potato masher or whisk - while the "potatoes" giggle :)...
​
When the laughter fades and they're in a good mood...​
Share St. Faustina's
roses story!
St. Faustina, in her diary, recounted a miracle. There she was in the kitchen, draining potatoes --When she looked into the sink, she saw that the potatoes had turned into a beautiful bouquet of red roses. She saw that as a sign that God sees beauty even in our work.​​
​​
​​
​
Remember how the Monks in the 16th century joined Missionaries throughout Europe to assist in cultivation & "spreading the word" about potatoes.
Potatoes saved many hungry Europeans, monks, and poor.
God Provides.
Happy Advent!
​​​7 virtues
Kitchen-Battle the
7 deadly sins!
Teaching our children (and ourselves)
to grow virtues over vices is basically a daily pruning of decisions.
After years of tending,
we're a healthy tree -
but of course those shoots of
"But I wanna!"
keep popping out.
List the virtues and vices on your fridge, and complement your kids when they make good choices.
If you say things like "awesome chastity decision", when your kid throws out the last of the uneaten Halloween candy, or "Your diligence shows!" when sampling your daughters' successful attempt at finally making un-burnt cookies,
you foster the language of that list on your fridge. I mean who goes around using the word wrath in a sentence?!
But doing so, will
keep faith language
alive and fresh.
You'll be glad you did when
years later the conversation is
about kissing instead of candy.
----
Chastity cures Lust (I can live without chocolate-I can!)
Temperance cures Gluttony (I'll just take one cookie)
Charity cures Greed ('Eleven for you,
one for me)
Diligence cures Sloth (I'll keep pushing myself to make time to make healthy food from scratch)
Patience cures Envy (I'll wait for my
toast even though everyone at the table has theirs already!)
Kindness cures Wrath (You broke my favorite cup, but without fussing, I will thank you for the juice in this new cup)
Humility cures Pride (I will not chat about my huge dinner while I'm serving
at the Soup Kitchen)
Catholic in the Kitchen
​
Whether Potato Soup, Mashed Potatoes, or Cookie Batter - I love to teach the young ones to stir
3 times in one direction
- 3 times the other way
...Repeat out loud with the stirs, "Father, Son, Holy Spirit"...again...
EVERYTHING IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO THANK GOD - AND STAND NEXT TO HIM IN every TASK
Joyce's Potato Soup
and Pot-Pie Soup Recipes
​​
POTATO LEEK SOUP:
In one big soup pot...
Throw in 1/2 Stick of Butter (adding a spoon of bacon fat or a strip of uncooked bacon adds flavor here too.)
​
Add about 4 stalks of Celery, cut into thin rounds.
​
Add a whole Leek stalk - leaves all the way to the white bulb - sliced into thin strips the size you'd want to lift on a spoon in soup.
​
Add 2 or more Medium/Big Organic Onions sliced (a few different kinds if possible) (or substitute with big handfuls of anything
onion-y...Leeks/Shallots/Walking Onions...pick only one, or a few different types...)
​
add chopped Organic Garlic - I always go heavy on garlic and depending on the size, I might use a whole bulb...garlic's healthy :).
​
After all the veg are all soft - slightly carmelized if time-possible...
Pour in 1 - 3 boxes of Organic Chicken Broth. If you don't have chicken broth, just add water to fill the pot to 1 1/2" below the rim, and add extra seasonings/spices... I don't like the taste of bone-broth from a box-I find it bitter...if I use bone-broth, it's home-made replacing the plain chicken broth here...
​
add lots of peeled white potatoes cut into cubes.
​
After the potatoes are soft, add salt and pepper, the other half stick of butter, and herbs to your liking. I raid my herb gardens, and never the same types or amounts...so an arrangement of different types of thyme, chives, parsely, perhaps a little rosemary and lavender...
I also add adaptogens like Dandelion powder, Ashwagandha, Rhodiola-Rosea... ​--Use less dark brown spices (like mushroom powders), more green spices (so your potato soup doesn't look like brown gravy at serving), ​
​
Use a hand masher to crush up the potatoes at the end--I tried a stick blender once and the whole pot became watery whipped potatoes :) !! Yummy, but very weird as a soup.
​
Before serving, top with nitrate-free bacon chopped up--I've even used pork, heavily salted and cut into strips. Taste all through the cooking - but especially at the end. This is potato soup and potatoes typically call for more salt and pepper than other dishes...​​
​
​
Irish-ish Pot Pie Soup:
In one big soup pot
​
Throw in 1/2 Stick of Butter (adding a spoon of bacon fat adds flavor here too.
​
Add 2 or more Medium/Big Organic Onions sliced (a few different kinds if possible) (or substitute with big handfuls of anything
onion-y...Leeks/Shallots/Walking Onions...)
Add about 4 stalks of Celery, cut into thin rounds.
​
add chopped Organic Garlic - I always go heavy on garlic and depending on the size, I might use a whole one...garlic's healthy :).
a bag of Frozen Organic Peas and Carrots​
​
When all the veg are soft and slightly carmelized
Pour in 1 - 3 boxes, of Organic Chicken Broth. If you don't have chicken broth, just add water to fill the pot to 1 1/2" below the rim, and add extra seasonings/spices...
​
add lots of peeled White and/or Yellow Potatoes cut into cubes.
​
Then add Adaptogens: (a teaspoon to a tablespoon of each - I vary them up) Chaga Mushroom powder, Cordyceps Mushroom powder, Lions Mane Mushroom powder, Dandelion Greens powder, Ashwagandha powder, Acerola powder, Rhodiola Rosea powder, Moringa powder... (I get them at Nuts.com).
​
Add Salt and Pepper:
Kosher Salt, or several types of salt--each have different minerals therefore a different taste... Different types of pepper adds different nuances as well--try white pepper, pepper blends, course vs. fine...
​​
Add Some arrangement of "Green Spices" from the garden and/or dried - Pick the ones You like - enjoy the process - share smelling each type and choosing with your children:
Rosemary, Thyme (several types), Marjorem, Parsley... Whenever kids see me picking herbs from our window boxes, they suddenly "love" the food - even something they wouldn't previously admit they like :) ! Remember - fresh herbs are more potent than dried - use them sparingly until you're used to cooking with them...
​
Saute chopped bacon and chopped lamb (beef/pork/veal chopped meat works too)... Add close to when serving...along with several splashes of flavored Balsamic Vinegar. Fig Balsamic is my go-to.
​
Picky Eaters No More
With Patience and Joy,
Start with getting them involved in their food:
​
--If they help you choose it
at the supermarket/ farmers market -
they're likely to take interest in the kitchen...
​
--If they fish/hunt/garden for it
with parents/grandparents...
they're very likely to take interest in the kitchen
and try something new.
​
--If they help you prepare it
in the kitchen...
they're more likely to try it or at least not hate it :).
The prep for them not being picky,
begins with their relationship with God.
​
(Check out the book list in the above tab)
​
Begin with steady teaching that:
-- The very first book in the Bible is about food
(Adam and Eve)
-- References to food are all over the Bible
(Loaves and Fishes etc.)
-- For 40 years in the desert with Moses, we learned to trust God to literally feed us with daily bread from the heavens (pair that lesson with reading
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett)
--Jesus' first miracle - Water turned into grape juice for grown-ups called wine...
--Jesus himself told us at the Last Supper that he is our food...
God's still feeding us from heaven. Jesus waits for us at Church to nourish our souls, and God gives us food to nourish our bodies... This connects the kids to a bigger team - a bigger family - all taking care of each other to grow healthy body's and souls.
​
--Teach them to be thankful/grateful.
--Teach them to say thank you when given something.
--Teach them to say Thank you to God for their food
with mealtime prayers.
--Example to them that you say thank you too.
--Show them pictures of homeless and/or hungry people and children. Perhaps volunteer at a soup kitchen.
--Let the children watch you exercise, or choose salad over cake - and discuss how taking care of our soul's wrapping paper (our bodies), is one way of being grateful to God.
​
--But if you're starting all this after their behaviors against healthy food are entrenched - then tough love is a remedy. Eat the food you were given or.... Then parents, stick to your or !
​
Mmmm, SOUP.
No doubt about it, soup changes everything. Our demeanor changes, our insides get a warm bath, and even when the soup isn't fabulous--most tend to shut their eyes with the first spoonful.
​
On this tab are two of my recipes for soup. Make 'em straight, or Mix em up with your go-to recipes, but join me in making more soup for the blessings around us--kids - friends--community... Spread the joy that soup brings.
​
Keep warm! Happy Advent!