What comes to mind when you hear the word rest? Is it a hammock swaying between two trees? Is it a slow afternoon in the kitchen, or laughter around a table with friends? Perhaps rest feels like something elusive, something you want but can’t find time to claim? Or maybe it just seems lazy when there is so much that must be done. In this episode of Kitchen Meditations, we’re going to spend some time reflecting on what these complicated feelings might be. Bake and Pray, Any Day: On Demand

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Kale Salad:

1 teaspoon diced red onion
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese3 small bowls of kale
Two pinches of salt1/2 of your favorite croutons (my favorite? Homemade using the leftovers of my latest Bake & Pray loaf!)

Have you ever carried a 50 pound bag of flour? There’s a special trick to it: you have to pick it up from underneath and flip it over your shoulder, otherwise it’s too unwieldy to handle. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman mixed into three measures of flour until all of it was leavened. Three measures of flour is just a bit more flour than one of those 50 pound bags, which means this woman was leavening a whole lot of dough. In today’s episode of Kitchen Meditations, On Leaven, we’re going to reflect on what it means for the Kingdom of Heaven to be like yeast.

Learn more about Aminah’s work: http://robdunnlab.com/people/aminah-al-attas-bradford/
Learn more about the sourdough microbiome: https://asm.org/Articles/2020/June/The-Sourdough-Microbiome
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/sourdough-starter-recipe
https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-homemade-sauerkraut-in-a-mason-jar-193124

Our life with Christ begins in water. That terrifying, beautiful element that makes up 60% of the human body and covers 71% of the earth's surface. Baptism is a sacrament as mysterious as Communion, God present with us and transforming us in ways we cannot completely understand. In both we are called into a community that holds onto this mystery of faith together with us—or for us when we don't have the strength to hold onto it on our own. In this episode, we're talking about water—magnificent and dangerous at the same time. As wild as it may seem, I think the waters of baptism and the mixing of bread can each teach us something beautiful about the other.

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Six years ago, the Catholic Church made headlines when it re-affirmed a long held stance on Communion: the bread used for the Sacrament must contain wheat. The stance can be traced back to the writing of Thomas Aquinas and is shaped by cultural relationships to flour. Today on Kitchen Meditations, we're examining why wheat has been so integral in the history of the church—and why I believe that the structure of wheat itself encourages us to search for God's work in other grains as well.Order By Bread Alone

This week’s episode is a reading from the preface of Kendall Vanderslice’s book By Bread Alone: a baker’s reflections on hunger, longing, and the goodness of God. We hope you enjoy this small taste of what’s to come.

How do you feel about King Cake? That bright cake, smothered in sprinkles with a plastic baby stuffed inside. Maybe you’re more a fan of the Galette de Rois—the puff pastry and frangipane version that hails from France. Shrove Tuesday traditions abound all around the world. In this episode of Kitchen Meditations, we’re going to learn how some of the most popular traditions came to be!

King Cake history

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I love Lent. Perhaps you’re someone who grinds your teeth and muscles through the weeks of fasting. Maybe you stay silent because you just don’t feel like fasting is all that important, but everyone around you is…super invested. Or perhaps you believe Lent is an unnecessary season, an attempt to earn favor with God when we already have God’s grace. Although “Lent” is not a season outlined in Scripture, it’s been a way for Christians to mark time since at least the early 4th century. To kick off season two of Kitchen Meditations, we’ll share with you why Lent might be just the season you need this year.

Have you ever attended a dinner where you were left awkwardly picking at just a slice of bread, slathered in butter, while everyone else around you enjoyed a large feast...unable to partake because of food allergies that weren't accounted for in the meal?

It's a terrible feeling to be unable to eat the same food as everyone around, or worse yet, to be unable to eat with them at all. And yet it's the reality for a rapidly increasing number of Americans these days. How do those of us who love hospitality respond? How do we extend hospitality at a time when finding food that everyone can eat is so complicated?

And how does a theological vision that approaches food as a delightful gift from God account for the reality that, for many people, the act of eating is more of a burden than a joy?

In this episode of Kitchen Meditations, we're talking about food allergies—why they seem so prevalent these days and the opportunity they give us for a new approach to hospitality.

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Have you ever read the Bible as…a dietary manual? For some of you that might sound strange, for others…well, you might know exactly what I’m talking about. Christian dieting books abound that promise spiritual freedom, if only you eat according to strict guidelines laid out in various parts of scripture. In our fourth episode on Diet Culture, we’re going to look at the underlying assumptions behind most Biblical diet books…then consider a different theological approach.

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