The Lutheran Ladies' Lounge from KFUO Radio

What on earth is a Boar’s Head Festival? And why are the Ladies so excited to talk about it?

In this “Adventures in Lutheranism” episode, Bri spearheads an enthusiastic discussion of the seasonal cultural phenomenon known as the Boar’s Head Festival—an annual choral and dramatic extravaganza that celebrates the roots of beloved Christmas songs and traditions through medieval pageantry and the timeless beauty of the Nativity story.

Joining the Ladies in studio are Rachel Hahn and Marty Heinbokel, who share their personal experiences directing the Boar’s Head Festival at Immanuel Lutheran Church and School in St. Charles, Missouri.

Click to learn more about Boar’s Head Festivals, and scroll down to browse programs past and present from Immanuel St. Charles’s Festival below.

• The Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival (Christ Church Cathedral)
• The Story of the Boar’s Head Festival (Peace Boar’s Head)
• Boar’s Head Feast (Wikipedia)
• Boar’s Head Festival: A Festive End to Christmastide (ResourceUMC)

Click here to view the 1987 Immanuel Boar's Head Program.

Click here to view the 2017 Immanuel Boar's Head Program.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge). Follow us on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge, and also follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), Erin (@erinaltered), and Bri (@grrrzevske).

Fruit + cake. What’s not to love?

In this edition of “Erin’s Recipe Card,” Erin introduces Sarah, Rachel, and Bri to her Grammy’s fruitcake as she recreates an epic, 100+-year-old recipe—one that calls for teamwork, patience, upper body strength, and pounds upon pounds of dried fruits and nuts.

Will Erin’s favorite holiday treat finally end the stigma against fruitcake? Will fruitcake skeptic Bri overcome her pop-culture-inspired prejudice and enjoy fruitcake for the first time? Will fruitcake aficionado Rachel confirm that this is, as the Erin’s family cookbook says, “The Very Best Fruitcake”? Listen and find out!

Very Best Fruitcake — A. Luedtke

Fruit and Nuts

1 pound pitted dates

2 pounds seedless raisins

1 pound currants

1 pound golden raisins

8 ounce jar maraschino cherries

8 ounce can pineapple tidbits

1/4 pound dried apricots, cut in half

1/4 pound dried, chopped figs (optional)

1 pound Brazil nuts

1 pound walnuts

1 pound hazelnuts

1 pound pecans

8 ounces shelled almonds

4 ounces cashews (optional)

One day in advance of baking, prepare the nuts and fruit. Shell nuts and leave them whole. Drain cherries and pineapple overnight on paper towels. Candied fruit may be substituted (but we never do). Dust all fruit with 1/4 cup flour; lay nuts on top; cover all with a towel overnight.

Batter

4 cups flour, combined with:

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice or mace

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound butter (no substitutes, please)

1 pound brown sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

12 egg yolks (save whites)

1 ounce melted baking chocolate

grated rind of 1 lemon and 1 orange

juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange

1/4 cup grape juice or wine

Be sure to use a bowl large enough to hold all ingredients. A plastic tub may serve this purpose.

Cream butter with brown sugar and vanilla. Add egg yolks, chocolate, and lemon and orange rind. Mix flour with dry ingredients and add it to butter mix alternatively with liquids. Whip egg whites until quite stiff. Combine batter with prepared fruit and nuts. Carefully fold in egg whites and mix gently until thoroughly combined.

Spoon into pans which have been oiled and lined with parchment paper. Will fill 3 standard-sized bread pans and 3 smaller loaf pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 2 - 2 1/2 hours. Watch and shift tins if one side is getting done too fast. Place 2 shallow cake pans with water at bottom of oven to make a moist cake.

Cool on racks.

Wrap in a layer of cheesecloth. Moisten the cloth well with wine, grape juice, bourbon or rum. Wrap in plastic wrap or foil and store in cool place. Once a week for the first month or two, check the cakes to see if the cheesecloth is dry. If it is, moisten them again and then re-wrap in plastic wrap or foil.

Bake a month or two before the holidays. They will keep for more than a year, well wrapped in the fridge.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge). Follow us on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge, and also follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), Erin (@erinaltered), and Bri (@grrrzevske).

Americans—including American Lutherans—are a mobile bunch, and the majority of people will move at least a couple of times within their lives. Some folks will move many times over. And whenever a move to a new community does takes place, that inevitably means … church shopping.

In this week’s “Adventure in Lutheranism,” Rachel (a regular nomad and veteran church shopper) leads the conversation, exploring with Sarah, Erin, and Bri whether “church shopping” is ultimately a good or bad thing and reflecting on what Lutherans should and do look for in a new church home.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge). Follow us on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge, and also follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), Erin (@erinaltered), and Bri (@grrrzevske).

“Why is the holiday season so complicated?!” That’s the “Big Question” at the heart of this week’s episode.

Although the winter holidays—Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, New Years, and Epiphany—are treasured as times of joy, celebration, and togetherness, they can also be marked by unmet expectations, unhealthy choices, financial strain, interpersonal conflict, isolation, and other triggers for anxiety and depression. How’s a Lutheran lady to cope?

Addressing the tension head on, Bri leads Sarah, Erin, and Rachel in an honest conversation about holiday stress, acknowledging the often dark reality beneath the holly-jolly veneer and offering a range of helpful tips for surviving “inevitably complicated holiday times.”

To read more about holiday depression and stress, click here.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge). Follow us on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge, and also follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), Erin (@erinaltered), and Bri (@grrrzevske).

Elisabeth Cruciger (c. 1500–1535) was the first female poet and hymnwriter of the Lutheran Reformation—and in this Reformation-themed episode, Sarah tells her story.

From her early vows as nun in a Premonstratensian cloister to her introduction to Luther’s teaching through Johannes Bugenhagen, from her marriage to Wittenberg theologian Caspar Cruciger to her close, personal friendship with Martin and Katharina Luther, Elisabeth Cruciger’s life and faith were anchored in the Christ-centered theology of the Lutheran Reformation. Nowhere is this more evident than in the single surviving hymn attributed to her, “The Only Son from Heaven” (LSB 402), in which her faith, theological acumen, and poetic creativity are all fully on display.

Click to learn more about Elisabeth Cruciger, her Lutheran legacy, and to read Arthur T. Russell’s English translation of her hymn.

Hymn stanza from “The Only Son from Heaven” (LSB 402) setting © 2006 Concordia Publishing House. Used with permission.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge). Follow us on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge, and also follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), Erin (@erinaltered), and Bri (@grrrzevske).

Who doesn’t love a good fall festival? And sausages? And pretzels and mustard?

In this latest “How to Lutheran,” Bri (a first-generation Lutheran without a discernible drop of German blood in her) celebrates the German Lutheran cultural juggernaut that is Oktoberfest.

Starting with Oktoberfest’s German (Catholic) origins in Bavaria, Bri frolics through the past and present of this beloved cultural festival, which is observed annually in many American Lutheran churches. She, Sarah, Erin, and Rachel also relive favorite Oktoberfest memories and discuss what Oktoberfest might look like in less homogenous, more culturally diverse congregational contexts.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge). Follow us on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge, and also follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), Erin (@erinaltered), and Bri (@grrrzevske).

The Ladies choose their next book club pick from a list of lesser known classics by beloved lady novelists:

• Persuasion by Jane Austen
• An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
• The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery

Which book will the Lutheran Ladies read next? Listen to the end and find out!

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge). Follow us on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge, and also follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), Erin (@erinaltered), and Bri (@grrrzevske).

In this episode, Rachel leads Sarah, Erin, and Bri in a recap discussion of the latest Lutheran Ladies’ Book Club selection: Gene Edward Veith Jr.’s The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals.

Why would a Christian author at the height of his career choose a pagan setting (replete with false idols and human sacrifice) for his most mature novel? Why would a man known for both his historical erudition and his devotion to traditional gender roles retell Greek mythology’s greatest love story from the perspective of a single woman who is also a reigning queen? What’s with all the veils and mirrors (actual and metaphorical) in this book? And what does “till we have faces” mean, anyway?

What is so refreshingly distinctive about the way Lutherans understand the concept of vocation? How does the Lutheran doctrine of Two Kingdoms offer us a different way of thinking about what it means to be "in the world but not of the world"? How does a Lutheran view of Christology help us counteract the misguided “prosperity gospel” and reframe the way we understand and experience our own earthly suffering?

At the end of the episode, the Ladies choose their next book club pick from a list of lesser known classics by beloved lady novelists:

• Persuasion by Jane Austen
• An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
• The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery

Which book will the Lutheran Ladies read next? Listen to the end of the episode and find out!

Click to learn more about Gene Edward Veith Jr.’s The Spirituality of the Cross, to see a complete list of Lutheran Ladies’ Book Club picks and runners up, or to revisit past online book club events in the Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook group.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge). Follow us on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge, and also follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), Erin (@erinaltered), and Bri (@grrrzevske).

In part two of the podcast’s “Hymn Sing with Sarah” Communion hymn odyssey (listen to part one here), Sarah takes Erin, Bri, and Rachel back in time to celebrate hymns composed prior to 1715.

Eucharistic hymns covered in this episode include “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” “Draw Near and Take the Body of the Lord,” “Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness,” “O Lord, We Praise Thee,” “O Living Bread from Heaven,” “O Jesus Blessed Lord to Thee,” “Jesus Christ Our Blessed Savior,” “Now My Tongue the Mystery Telling,” “Thee We Adore O Hidden Savior,” and “The Death of Jesus Christ Our Lord.”

Special attention is paid to fan favorites “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing” and “I Come O Savior to Thy Table.”

To learn more about these and other hymns in Lutheran Service Book, check out CPH’s two-volume set Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Hymns.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge). Follow us on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge, and also follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), Erin (@erinaltered), and Bri (@grrrzevske).

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, and in this installment of “Erin’s One-Question Interview,” the Ladies welcome Elizabeth Entenmann as she shares the heartrending story of her personal experience with pregnancy loss.

Beginning with two first-trimester miscarriages and culminating in the tragic loss of her near-term son Rocky, Liz’s honest and open account provides a touching reminder to the Church that pregnancy loss may be closer than we might think—but that God’s love and mercy are always closer still.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge). Follow us on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge, and also follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), Erin (@erinaltered), and Bri (@grrrzevske).