Posted on by Lori Cartmell

What Can’t You Live Without?

You’ve heard it said that “man shall not live on bread alone.”

That’s absolutely correct. He also needs tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.

As in pizza.

I’m pretty sure that I could live on pizza alone, and I’m willing to give it a try. Is there someone out there who wouldn’t mind providing me with a daily supply of freshly baked pizza?

(I’m just kidding, of course. Sort of.)

Joking aside, we’re missing something crucial here, and that’s the rest of the verse I quoted above:

“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Jesus in Matthew 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3)

Jesus seems to be telling us that the revealed word of God is every bit as important as the food we nourish our bodies with.

But do we really treat the word of God as being as essential to us as the food we eat each day?

Do we give Scripture as much thought as what we plan to cook for dinner?

Is reading the Bible more important than our mealtimes, or is it something we cram into our schedules if we happen to have the time?

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

You Can’t Go Wrong With These Ingredients!

When you’re trying out a new recipe for the first time, do you ever get apprehensive that it won’t work out?

I certainly do. That’s why I usually stick with one of my mother’s tried-and-true dessert recipes.

I worry that if I bake a dessert I’ve never attempted before, I’m bound to mess it up. I fear that I’ll disappoint the people I serve it to, and tongues will wag.

As I walk by, people will whisper, “There’s that woman who serves fallen soufflés!”

Or, “Isn’t she the one who bakes cookies that are as hard as hockey pucks?”

In the worst-case scenario of my imagination, my baking debacle will be so embarrassing that I’d have to leave town.

With some recipes, however, you really can’t go wrong, even if you’ve never tried them before.

Brownies, for instance.

A while ago I tried a brownie recipe (see recipe below) that was different from my mother’s traditional one. I was a little nervous about how it would turn out, as I’d be serving it to friends and wanted to impress them.

I needn’t have worried.

How far wrong can you go when you throw together things like chocolate, butter and sugar? As long as you don’t burn it to a crisp, it’s going to be yummy.

You’ve got the right ingredients. Bake away!

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Which Body Part Are You?

Don’t you just love cookies shaped like little people, such as gingerbread men and women?

I always start munching on gingerbread people at the head. According to a survey conducted by the folks at Dunkin’ Donuts, I’m not alone. Almost two thirds of people surveyed start at the top when eating a gingerbread figure. A fifth of people begin with the legs, while the remainder go for the arms first. (To make some gingerbread people yourself, see below for a classic recipe.)

We seem to have a penchant for foods shaped like bodies, or at least named after various body parts.

There are chicken fingers, kidney beans, artichoke hearts, navel oranges, black-eyed peas, heads of lettuce, ladyfingers and elbow macaroni.

The Italians have given us pasta shapes like orecchiette (little ears), linguini (little tongues), and capellini (angel’s hair). In France, cotton candy is called, “Dad’s beard.”

Our bodies are precious to us and are wondrously made, so it’s no wonder we pay tribute to them by naming foods after our various body parts.

But did you know that if you’re a believer, you don’t just have your own body, you’re a part of another body, too?

Scripture tells us that those who follow Jesus are all parts of the body of Christ.

“Our bodies have many parts, but the many parts make up only one body when they are all put together. So it is with the ‘body’ of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12)
“All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:27)
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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Don’t Spoil Your Spiritual Appetite!

When you were young, did your parents ever admonish you not to eat sweets too close to dinner time because it would “spoil your appetite”?

Mine certainly did. However, delaying dessert until after dinner is difficult to do.

The look of a beautifully frosted cake or the smell of freshly baked cookies can be notoriously tempting. And of course, one cookie or piece of cake invariably leads to another…

Before you know it, you’ve stuffed yourself with sugary foods and are too full to eat dinner. You miss out on all the good protein and vegetables in the main meal.

I guess Mom and Dad knew best: we should fill ourselves with more nourishing things first, and leave the dessert until afterward as a treat, not the main course.

The same lesson holds for us spiritually, doesn’t it?

We should concentrate on things of substance in our lives first.

So often we fill our lives with things we think will make us happy: entertainment, money, accomplishments, or possessions. But these things are temporary, and will eventually disappoint us. They’re not really satisfying in a lasting way.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Christmas Fruitcake Hack

Do you like Christmas fruitcake? Or do you just pretend to?

Some people look forward to making or receiving fruitcakes at this time of year. Other people dread the prospect of eating fruitcake yet again.

If you’ve been faking enjoyment of Christmas fruitcake all these years and would really rather not eat any more of it, I think I have a solution for you:

Make Christmas fruitcake cookies instead.

I hit upon this idea years ago and have never looked back. I liked some of the ingredients in fruitcake, but was never fond of the dense, molasses-y cake surrounding them.

With fruitcake cookies, however, you keep the best parts of fruitcake and add more butter. You also omit the ingredients that are unpalatable to you. The recipe is thereby transformed into something completely new. What results is a scrumptious cookie that is a crowd-pleaser whenever I serve it.

In the same way, isn’t that sort of what God does in our lives? When we become believers in Jesus, God keeps the best parts of us and adds the Holy Spirit. As we become more like Jesus, the unpalatable aspects of us are gradually left behind: our impatience, pride, lack of generosity, selfishness, etc.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Chocolate Doctrine

Photo by Jean Beaufort PublicDomainPictures.net

One of the wonderful things about chocolate (and there are many), is how well it pairs with other foods.

Chocolate seems to go well with just about everything. It marries happily with fruits like strawberries, raspberries, pears, cherries and bananas. It perfectly complements the flavours of nuts, such as peanuts, cashews, hazelnuts, almonds and macadamia nuts.

Chocolate cheerfully coexists with citrus, coconut, ginger, caramel, coffee, dairy or mint. It has even been known to blend with the flavours of chili and meat in some Mexican dishes.

Some adventurous people claim that chocolate goes well with broccoli (well, perhaps…if you held the broccoli).

You’ve got to hand it to a food that is uncompromising about its own flavour yet harmonizes with such a wide variety of other substances.

Did you know that the Bible implies that we should be a bit like chocolate? Not in so many words, of course, but the concept is still there.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Nip Sin in the Bud

Image by mouad gnnoni from Pixabay

Is it possible to limit yourself to just one piece of chocolate?

I’ve never been able to.

I find that having the first piece simply whets my appetite for a second. And I deserve a treat, don’t I?

Then I reason that dark chocolate contains antioxidants, so I’d better have several more pieces, if only for medicinal purposes. After all, you wouldn’t want me to oxidate, would you? I should hope not.

Finally, I rationalize continuing my chocolate binge by referring to the nutritional information on the package of my favourite dark chocolate for support.

It states that 4 squares of the chocolate contain 25% of my daily recommended amount of iron. So if I ate 16 squares, I’d be getting 100% of my daily iron needs met, right? Well, it’s important to prevent anemia, so I then decide I’d better finish off the package completely.

Do you see how my excuses and justifications led from having one piece of chocolate to consuming an entire heap of the stuff in short order? And how easily this all happened?

It’s the same way with sin, isn’t it?

It starts out tiny and unnoticeable, but can soon grow into a mess of mammoth proportions.

That’s why it’s so important to nip sin in the bud, because we have no idea where a “small” sin will lead.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Bring Out the Big Guns

Image of Tsar Cannon, Moscow, by Tatyana Kazakova from Pixabay

Have you ever had a day when you simply needed chocolate?

Maybe you faced some problems, and needed a pick-me-up. Or you were dealing with a heartbreak and needed a balm for your ragged emotions.

And you knew that milk chocolate just wouldn’t cut it, let alone white chocolate.

It required the stronger stuff. You needed to bring out the big guns to help you cope with your challenges:

Dark chocolate.

Only the intense flavour and strength of chocolate with over 80% cocoa solids would do the trick. Nothing else would suffice.

Sometimes we reach a similar point in our spiritual lives, too.

The Christian life isn’t all a bed of roses. Oftentimes we face desperate circumstances, and we may find ourselves crying in a heap on the floor.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Marinate in God’s Word

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Are you planning on firing up the grill to barbecue some meat this summer?

Many people believe the key to success is to marinate the meat beforehand.

When you marinate food before barbecuing it, more is going on than meets the eye (or the taste buds).

You’re doing more than simply soaking the food in a seasoned liquid to add extra flavour to it.

You’re actually changing its structure and making it yield.

Marinating tenderizes meat, breaking down tough connective tissues to make it more palatable. It also helps meat retain moisture, ensuring that the cooked meat will be juicy and not dry.

Marinades usually have a sharp, acidic ingredient, like wine, vinegar or lemon juice, or an enzymatic one, like yogurt of papaya. Herbs, spices and oils are added as well.

Whether you use a red-wine-based marinade for beef dishes, or a tangy yogurt-lemon one for chicken, your meat is guaranteed to turn out tender.

Likewise, when we meditate on God’s Word, or “marinate” in it, we’re doing more than simply adding Biblical quotations to our knowledge base.

As we absorb and internalize Scripture, it changes us and doesn’t leave us the same.

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Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Turning the Bitter Sweet

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

“Go suck a lemon!”

Have you ever heard anyone say that?

It means they’re annoyed with you and want you to experience something unpleasant. Lemon juice is so sour that it makes your mouth pucker.

But if lemon juice is so bitter, why are lemon desserts so yummy?

It’s thanks to the addition of a sweetener.

I like lemon-based desserts much better than orange-flavoured ones. It seems to me that the combination of sour and sweet is what makes lemon desserts so satisfying (see below for Lemon Poppyseed Cake recipe).

They say when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

No, when life hands you lemons, turn it over to God.

He can transform your unwelcome experiences into something good, and make the bitter waters of your life sweeter than any lemonade.

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