The Radio can be a Tempting Thing

I pretty much took Saturday off.  I ended up working on both Thursday and Friday, my normal days off and by Saturday I was just exhausted, so other than a few minor things that I had to get done I spent Saturday doing much of nothing.  

Normally on Saturdays I listen to WNPR one of Connecticut's public radio stations.  I particularly love Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me.  But if you know me, it is amazing how often I say the phrase "I was listening to NPR the other day and...." Well after Wait, Wait, there is the Faith Middleton Show's Food Schmooze. No normally I don't listen to the Food Schmooze as at least 90% of the time they interview a cookbook author and talk about various foods that are not vegetarian friendly.  But on Saturday I was doing something else and didn't turn the radio off so I continued to listen as Faith interviewed a cake cookbook author.  And as they described various cakes I realized that I wanted cake!  

So to my cookbooks I went.

But here is the problem - most cakes make.... well a cake.  Much more than the typical person living alone needs or wants to eat.  So I decided to make a cake for coffee hour the next day.  Unfortunately that meant my cake craving had to wait, it also ruled out chocolate as it is Lent and I'm sure even in my congregation were very few people give up things for Lent, someone had probably given up chocolate and I didn't want to tempt them.  (Sorry if they gave up sweets entirely, but I wanted cake).

I ended up making a variation of a chiffon cake that I'm calling a Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin Cake.  It is a muffin cake because the texture is more like a muffin than a cake - slightly dry and airy but not as airy as a typical chiffon cake. Also it is only slightly sweet, like a muffin - though the frosting makes a nice sweet finish that compliments the cake nicely.

For cake:

7 egg whites brought to room temperature

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 egg yolks

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

1/2 cup poppy seeds

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar.

For Frosting: 

6 tablespoons butter soften

4 cups powder sugar

3-5 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon extract.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking power and salt.  In a separate bowl, mix together egg yolks, water, oil, and extract.  Mix egg yolk mixture into the flour.  Add poppy seeds.  Beat until well blended.  In another clean bowl beat egg whites and cream of tarter together until stiff peaks form.  Fold into egg mixture.  Spoon into a 10inch un-greased tube pan (angel food pan).  

Bake on lowest rake for 60 minutes or until top springs back, if it still look a little wet near center tube, bake an additional 5 minutes.  Remove from oven, invent to cool (I use a bottle wrapped in aluminum foil to help hold the pan up).  Cool completely and use a knife to separate the cake from the pan. 

For the icing, beat butter and powder sugar in a mixing bowl.  Add 3 tablespoons of milk, lemon juice & extract.  Add more milk for a thinner consistency and beat till smooth.  Frost cake by spreading over top, allowing icing to run down sides and center of cake. 

Community Bread

I currently have 6 loves of beer rye bread rising in my kitchen, waiting to go into the oven.  And as I was kneading and shaping the dough into loaves, loaves that will go to congregation members who won the Book of Faith puzzler and will be put on the coffee hour table tomorrow, I was thinking about how inter-connected baking and pastoring are for me.

My dad is who I learned to bake bread from.  Just about every weekend growing up, my dad would make loaves of challah, or rye, or (my favorite) burlap bread.  Often he would give us kids some of the dough to knead, and even more frequently the bread would come out of the oven just as we were getting ready to go out for dinner and my family would devour a loaf of bread before we left the house - leftovers were almost certain on those days.  During the months before Christmas and Easter, the kitchen became a stolen making factory with my dad producing some years over a 100 loaves for family, friends, and fellow church members. I grew up with the smell of fresh bread in the house and it is something that I never wanted to go without.

The first bread I baked alone was banana bread, with leftover bananas from my college's fruit and finals kits.  The recipe came from my congregations cookbook.

The first time I made communion bread was my year after college as I "made Jesus" for a Teens Encounter Christ weekend.

My first two years of seminary, I was frustrated with the lack of an oven in my tiny studio and for some reason I never baked communion bread for the seminary chapel.

And then internship came.  Bob got a job at a bakery up the road and my lack of baking continued.

Until I made caramel rolls.

Hot gooey caramel rolls - dozens of them.  For an internship cluster meeting, for Easter breakfast, just because.

Soon I became aware that if the confirmation kids had something to eat in the morning, they were more alert and participated more in the lesson.  So it was brownies, and cakes, and bread.  At some point Bob left his job at the bakery and I became the sole bread provider in the house.  And my consumption of flour grew as I experimented with different recipes for breads and desserts.

In my year off after seminary, before my call at Bethlehem, I baked out of a desire to create something.  And my baking was almost always shared, with friends, with co-workers, with the congregation we were attending.

Baking is something to be created and to be shared.

Jesus broke bread together with the disciples, with tax collectors and prostitutes, with 5000 men, plus women and children.  He shared the bread.

And so I bake to share.  Whether it is loaves given away or a dessert (or 20) at a dessert party.  I don't want to eat it alone.  I want to give this creation away, as a symbol that I care for the other.  But also as a reminder of Jesus who shares his life, his body, his bread with us in communion.


Beer Rye Bread Recipe
This is my dad's recipe as published in Baking with the St. Paul Bread Club, with some minor changes to adjust for my taste.  


Makes 4 small loaves or 3 regular loaves.

3 cups beer (I used Magic Hat's Single Chair Ale)
1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 1/2 tablespoon salt
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
5 cups rye flour
5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour

Heat beer in a saucepan over medium heat until barely bubbling.  Remove from heat.  Add shortening, brown sugar, molasses and salt.  Cool to lukewarm (about 110 degrees).  Pour into a large mixing bowl.

Meanwhile dissolve yeast in warm water.  Wait until foamy, about 5 minutes.  Add to beer mixture.  Beat in rye flour.  Add enough white flour to make a soft dough.  Turn out onto a well floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic - about 10 minutes.  Dough will be slightly sticky.  Place in greased bowl and cover with a towel or plastic wrap.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 2 hours.

Punch down dough, and divide into 3 or 4 pieces.  Form each into a round or oval shape.  Place either in a greased bread pan or on a cookie sheet with cornmeal dusted on bottom.  Score tops of loaves and let rise until double, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, preferably directly on a pizza stone.  Let cool on wire rack.

Elijah, Communion and Homemade Bread

Saturday my God moment was at Worship Together.  It is amazing how the boys are running around and crazy but as soon as we sit down to tell a story they are a captive audience.  We have been practicing for the dramatic reading on Palm Sunday and hearing one of the youngest ones say "He must be calling for Elijah" just makes your heart melt.

On Sunday I felt God during communion.  Now one would think that as a pastor I must then be completely reverent during communion and solemnly say "Body of Christ given for you" over and over again.  Well I do say that but I include names, but I also share comments with parishioners quiet often.  As one guy was talking to the person behind him while waiting to go up to the altar and then didn't realize it was he turn, he practically ran up to the altar and I said "there is no rush to the Lord's table."  Another person always teases me by cupping his hands to receive the bread but also opening his mouth so I would place it on his tongue the old-school way (which to me is just gross, granted I do place the bread in is 10 month old sons mouth).  As one family went up to the railing I realize that the son was not there, though he was in worship, so I asked where the son was, got a shrug of the shoulders and gave the dad two pieces of bread, one for him and one for his son.  Just to partake in this holy meal but still realize that we are human is a God moment for me.

Yesterday as I was preparing a snack, I realized that everything on my plate I had made from scratch.

(sorry for the cell phone quality picture) Homemade bread that I made on Saturday, apple butter that I made this past fall and strawberry jam that I made last spring. There is just something about eating a meal that you made from scratch that fills you will pride and accomplishment.

God Moments of the Weekend

This weekend was crazy and therefore not able to blog about my God moments.  So here they are all at once.

Thursday I felt God when I had a some time to kill in the afternoon and spent it wandering around Barnes and Nobles and trying on clothes that I had no intention of buying at Target.  It was a great time of just resting and enjoying the day, taking some time for myself and while there was never one moment throughout the day when I was really touched by God, I knew I was loved by being able to just enjoy some time out by myself.

Friday, Bob and I took it easy during the day but we ended up working out together for a bit something we NEVER do mainly because we ended up in a minor fight about the correct form of a sit up. But God was with us as ended the workout laughing together.  At one point I noticed the wedding sampler that my dad made us that says "Live, Love Laugh Together" and that is exactly what we did.

Saturday I spent the majority of the day at a "Doing What Matter's" conference in Bridgeport, then came back prepared for Sunday and made bread.  I had to laugh when I tried to get the bread out of the pan because the bottom stuck and it looked like this:

It tastes wonderful just doesn't look like much.  Kinda works for God's presence, it doesn't always look like much but it is still wonderful to experience.

And last night God reminded me that sometimes we have to wait just a little longer for things to be accomplished.  I have been working on a needlepoint project for just shy of a year now (started March 11, 2010) and eagerly sat down to finish it up last night.  However I came up short.  I ran out of one color with about 20 stitches left to go.  Had this happened any other day of the week I probably would have been tempted to jump into my car, drive the 15 miles to the closest Michael's to buy some more floss and finish it up.  But at last it was Sunday and stores close early.  So instead I must have a bit more patience. But it looks pretty good otherwise:

Where have you seen God this weekend?

Crumbly Bread

The barley bread came out just as I wanted it to - crumbly, dense and hard to eat.

While I was writing my last non-sermon post, I had the barley bread rising. Well it didn't really rise. I have had this problem before with bread not rising, but normally in the winter when the air temperature in the kitchen is too cold for the yeast to really activate, not in the middle of a muggy summer day. Since the recipe only calls for a baking time of 15-20 minutes I thought I would let the bread continue to rise while Bob and I went to a friends house for the evening.

When we got back a few hours later, the bread still hadn't risen much so I went ahead and baked the sucker. And this is how it turned out looking

And a close up of the top so you can see how it didn't rise..

During the sermon I used it to show what a loaf of barley bread looks like and then knocked on it so we would hear how dense it sounds (like a board) and then broke it so show the crumbliness. After worship we had it out at coffee hour so people could try some (most went to the birds). Some comments included: "I wouldn't want to go swimming after eating that" "That would be great to soak up some water with...I think I have some water in the basement that I could use that with."

So overall while it was a pain in the butt to make, it was a great sermon illustration. But I think next time I make barley bread I will mix the barley flour with white or wheat flour in order for it to be a little more edible.