My lenten practices have varied throughout the years. For the majority of my formative years I was part of a nonliturgical church community. We rarely celebrated communion or lit advent candles, and there was not a hymn to be sung (unless, of course, it was an updated Chris Tomlin version). While fasting as part of a devotional prayer life was part of my spiritual lexicon, Lent was a virtual unknown.
I started to learn about Lent in college. Although my school was specific in its founding denomination, it welcomed and supported a variety of Christian traditions, and somehow I found myself beginning to practice lenten fasting. I don't recall now if it was truly from conviction or because I wanted to do what everyone else was doing-probably a little of both. But over the years making Lent part of my spiritual calendar has become very important to me.
Last year I felt called to a very strict fast, the most restrictive I have ever tried. I gave up a lot of foods-meat, eggs, dairy, sweets-functionally becoming a vegan. I even gave up coffee-something I had never done in my life. This is why my first date with Jer was at a tea shop-the typical coffee date wouldn't work for me!
It is funny now to look back and see that the deep sense of anticipation that I felt going into Lent was justified. I had to give things up to gain the promised blessing of my husband. The foods and indulgences were merely stand-ins for what I really needed to give up: my fear, my loneliness, my desire for control, my faithlessness, my discontent. The first half of Lent 2009 was a struggle of wills-giving up my will for Christ's. The second half was spent rejoicing and learning that His will is always better.
This year, I feel no conviction to give anything up. I'm eating chocolate, drinking my coffee, roasting chickens and making cheese bread. I feel convicted to spend more time in prayer, more time in fellowship, but not to deprive myself. This is my year of celebrations, of dancing in my kitchen and soaking up all the joy I can get.
I know there will be other years of fasting and times of reflection. But this year I am living the truth that our Lord exchanges beauty for ashes.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Why I Cook
"I still think that one of the pleasantest of all emotions is to know that I, I with my brain and my hands, have nourished my beloved few, that I have concocted a stew or a story, a rarity or a plain dish, to sustain them truly against the hunger of the world." --MFK Fisher
A wonderful summary of how good it feels to cook or bake something delicious and see your loved ones enjoy it, from one of the very first food writers. Check out The Gastronomical Me from the library, look up a recipe online for molten chocolate cakes, and make something special for a loved one this weekend.
Friday, February 05, 2010
The President's Budget
Folks have passed around the budget graphic from the New York Times showing how the 2011 budget is allocated. The graphic is interactive so you can compare to 2010. But the crucial button, I feel, is the "Hide Mandatory Spending" button. This shows what parts of the budget Obama actually had control over: military spending and the bottom right corner, made up of administration, veterans' benefits, transportation, and other (relatively) small pieces of the budget.
The rest of the budget is controlled by-you guessed it-Congress. Laws passed in the last five, ten, twenty years through both liberal and conservative legislatures. Now, I am not a huge Obama fan, but honestly, he has very little direct control over how the money is spent (except, it seems, in the area of military spending). His role as chief executive is to influence policy, not write laws. So how could he really make change?
Well, the first thing he could do would be to take a page from Dave's book: audit the legislature. There is this awesome movie starring Kevin Kline as an ordinary guy who is a doppelganger for the president. When the president goes into a coma, Dave is called on to impersonate the commander in chief while his aides figure out what to do. But Dave finds that he can use the opportunity to make some big changes. At one point he sits down with his friend who happens to be an accountant and they try to balance the budget. The accountant says, "if I ran my business like this, I'd be out of business!" How true.
Dave proceeds to identify several laws and spending bills that are nonsensical, wasteful, and just plan idiotic. In one of the pivotal scenes of the movie, he asks lawmakers to repeal them so that they can keep a homeless shelter. This is the kind of work a president focused on balancing the budget could do. Determine where the waste is and ask Congress to eliminate it. Don't just propose a freeze on spending, hold lawmakers accountable to where funds are currently going and evaluate the programs that are wasting taxpayer dollars. Threaten the lawmakers with exposure and transparency-force them to own up to their votes, showing the public what kind of job they are doing up there on Capitol Hill and at the Federal Reserve.
Wait, isn't that what Ron Paul is asking for?
The rest of the budget is controlled by-you guessed it-Congress. Laws passed in the last five, ten, twenty years through both liberal and conservative legislatures. Now, I am not a huge Obama fan, but honestly, he has very little direct control over how the money is spent (except, it seems, in the area of military spending). His role as chief executive is to influence policy, not write laws. So how could he really make change?
Well, the first thing he could do would be to take a page from Dave's book: audit the legislature. There is this awesome movie starring Kevin Kline as an ordinary guy who is a doppelganger for the president. When the president goes into a coma, Dave is called on to impersonate the commander in chief while his aides figure out what to do. But Dave finds that he can use the opportunity to make some big changes. At one point he sits down with his friend who happens to be an accountant and they try to balance the budget. The accountant says, "if I ran my business like this, I'd be out of business!" How true.
Dave proceeds to identify several laws and spending bills that are nonsensical, wasteful, and just plan idiotic. In one of the pivotal scenes of the movie, he asks lawmakers to repeal them so that they can keep a homeless shelter. This is the kind of work a president focused on balancing the budget could do. Determine where the waste is and ask Congress to eliminate it. Don't just propose a freeze on spending, hold lawmakers accountable to where funds are currently going and evaluate the programs that are wasting taxpayer dollars. Threaten the lawmakers with exposure and transparency-force them to own up to their votes, showing the public what kind of job they are doing up there on Capitol Hill and at the Federal Reserve.
Wait, isn't that what Ron Paul is asking for?
Monday, February 01, 2010
The Struggle
One of the things I have found challenging as I try to be more intentional and frugal about our food choices is the battle between price and quality. I scour the ads and plan my menu and grocery list every week, looking for things I can buy on sale to cut costs. But I also want high quality ingredients, including organic produce, free-range meat and dairy that is not full of antibiotics and hormones, and food that has not had all the nutrients processed out of it.
Take chicken for example. I can get a 3lb value pack of BSCB (boneless skinless chicken breast) for say, $2 a pound on sale. That's a great price, and that total of $6 can be stretched over several meals. But that pack of meat likely comes from chickens that have been packed into a pen so tight they can't move around, their beaks clipped to prevent injury to themselves or other birds (because they go a little crazy in their claustrophobic environment), and shot up with hormones and antibiotics because they are standing in their own excrement. The meat from these chickens is then pumped full of water to make them appear moist and juicy and give you less actual meat per pound. So while I got it at a cheap price, I got less meat and lower quality. Add on to that the moral implications of the treatment of the animals in light of our Biblical call to be stewards of creation, and I can't justify that purchase, no matter the apparent cost savings.
On the other hand, I could buy a pound of BSCB for about $6 that is organic, free-range, antibiotic- and hormone-free. The chickens eat grass and bugs and run around in a pen in the open air. Their meat is tastier because they eat what God designed them to eat instead of processed corn byproducts and their meat is not pumped full of chemicals and water. Here's a great video I saw recently that gives you an idea of what a free-range chicken life is like. It really shows you the difference. As Jer says, he wants to eat a happy chicken.
So it is better, not just for us, but also for the environment. And this applies not only to meat but also dairy, eggs, and produce. With all the strains of bacteria that are becoming resistant to antibiotics, the last thing we want to do is eat food that has been pumped full of the stuff. And I think we all know enough to say that eating produce covered in pesticides is probably not so great.
But it is only because we have a good income that I can make the choice to purchase higher quality, more expensive food. We spend $100 a month just on organic produce through a CSA program, not to mention the weekly purchases of meat and dairy. And we don't even eat that much meat-we probably have chicken once or twice a week, seafood maybe once a week, and hardly ever eat red meat at home. Still, for two people, we spend a lot of money on food in order to get good ingredients.
I don't know how I would do it on a limited income. What if we had minimum wage jobs? And kids? What if we were on unemployment or welfare? How would we purchase healthy food for our kids with food stamps and government assistance?
Just do a search on "obesity rates in low income households" and you will see the disparity that exists based on income. The cheapest foods are the most calorie rich, nutrient lacking foods out there-the highly processed grains that make up a lot of the middle section of the grocery store. These are the types of foods that leave you feeling hungry but end up as fat in your midsection, leading to heart disease and diabetes. Experts say that the healthy way to eat is to spend the majority of your food budget on the outer edges of the store-the produce section, dairy section, meat, bulk bins of nuts, etc. But those are some of the most expensive items. When you have to feed a family of four on less than $50 a week, spending $6 for a pound of BSCB that might get you through one dinner just isn't going to work.
Another thing to consider is the time involved in healthy cooking. Although I work a full time job, since I have no kids I have the time to sit down and plan a menu, make elaborate meals, and bake my own bread. A working mom has no such luxury. If it were me, getting home from a long day at work, with a couple of cranky kids just picked up from daycare, I wouldn't want to think through roasting a free-range chicken or preparing a vegetarian stir-fry. I certainly wouldn't want to chop veggies if I had to help the kids with their homework, do the laundry, and try to get to sleep early enough so I wouldn't nod off during the important work presentation I had the next day. So out comes the blue box mac and cheese or the frozen fishsticks, full of chemicals and not a lot of vitamins.
So what do we do? As a society we have decided that cheap processing is the way to go, and have left the small local farmer in the dust. While there is a definite movement towards local, organic, and healthy groceries, it seems that is currently the privelege of those who can afford it. When you have fast food dollar menus, why spend what little cash you have on sweet potatoes and leafy greens? When your kids are begging you for the sweet treats that are promoted on TV, how do you convince them that the apple from the local grower is the better option? How do we create a culture that values homecooked meals and healthy living rather than what is fast and convenient?
I don't have answers, I'm just becoming more aware of the questions. Time to read more Wendell Berry.
Take chicken for example. I can get a 3lb value pack of BSCB (boneless skinless chicken breast) for say, $2 a pound on sale. That's a great price, and that total of $6 can be stretched over several meals. But that pack of meat likely comes from chickens that have been packed into a pen so tight they can't move around, their beaks clipped to prevent injury to themselves or other birds (because they go a little crazy in their claustrophobic environment), and shot up with hormones and antibiotics because they are standing in their own excrement. The meat from these chickens is then pumped full of water to make them appear moist and juicy and give you less actual meat per pound. So while I got it at a cheap price, I got less meat and lower quality. Add on to that the moral implications of the treatment of the animals in light of our Biblical call to be stewards of creation, and I can't justify that purchase, no matter the apparent cost savings.
On the other hand, I could buy a pound of BSCB for about $6 that is organic, free-range, antibiotic- and hormone-free. The chickens eat grass and bugs and run around in a pen in the open air. Their meat is tastier because they eat what God designed them to eat instead of processed corn byproducts and their meat is not pumped full of chemicals and water. Here's a great video I saw recently that gives you an idea of what a free-range chicken life is like. It really shows you the difference. As Jer says, he wants to eat a happy chicken.
So it is better, not just for us, but also for the environment. And this applies not only to meat but also dairy, eggs, and produce. With all the strains of bacteria that are becoming resistant to antibiotics, the last thing we want to do is eat food that has been pumped full of the stuff. And I think we all know enough to say that eating produce covered in pesticides is probably not so great.
But it is only because we have a good income that I can make the choice to purchase higher quality, more expensive food. We spend $100 a month just on organic produce through a CSA program, not to mention the weekly purchases of meat and dairy. And we don't even eat that much meat-we probably have chicken once or twice a week, seafood maybe once a week, and hardly ever eat red meat at home. Still, for two people, we spend a lot of money on food in order to get good ingredients.
I don't know how I would do it on a limited income. What if we had minimum wage jobs? And kids? What if we were on unemployment or welfare? How would we purchase healthy food for our kids with food stamps and government assistance?
Just do a search on "obesity rates in low income households" and you will see the disparity that exists based on income. The cheapest foods are the most calorie rich, nutrient lacking foods out there-the highly processed grains that make up a lot of the middle section of the grocery store. These are the types of foods that leave you feeling hungry but end up as fat in your midsection, leading to heart disease and diabetes. Experts say that the healthy way to eat is to spend the majority of your food budget on the outer edges of the store-the produce section, dairy section, meat, bulk bins of nuts, etc. But those are some of the most expensive items. When you have to feed a family of four on less than $50 a week, spending $6 for a pound of BSCB that might get you through one dinner just isn't going to work.
Another thing to consider is the time involved in healthy cooking. Although I work a full time job, since I have no kids I have the time to sit down and plan a menu, make elaborate meals, and bake my own bread. A working mom has no such luxury. If it were me, getting home from a long day at work, with a couple of cranky kids just picked up from daycare, I wouldn't want to think through roasting a free-range chicken or preparing a vegetarian stir-fry. I certainly wouldn't want to chop veggies if I had to help the kids with their homework, do the laundry, and try to get to sleep early enough so I wouldn't nod off during the important work presentation I had the next day. So out comes the blue box mac and cheese or the frozen fishsticks, full of chemicals and not a lot of vitamins.
So what do we do? As a society we have decided that cheap processing is the way to go, and have left the small local farmer in the dust. While there is a definite movement towards local, organic, and healthy groceries, it seems that is currently the privelege of those who can afford it. When you have fast food dollar menus, why spend what little cash you have on sweet potatoes and leafy greens? When your kids are begging you for the sweet treats that are promoted on TV, how do you convince them that the apple from the local grower is the better option? How do we create a culture that values homecooked meals and healthy living rather than what is fast and convenient?
I don't have answers, I'm just becoming more aware of the questions. Time to read more Wendell Berry.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
