Anyone who knows me knows (or should know!) that I love baking. It could be considered a passion, or perhaps sometimes even border on a crutch. When I’m happy, when I’m stressed, when I’m nesting, when I’m ministering… I bake. Thankfully, I am also finding that my children love baking too, so it is something we get to do together. In addition, it seems that just about everyone I meet is easily blessed by baked things! Breads, scones, cookies, pastries, desserts… you name it, I have not yet found that an offering of baked things turned down or unappreciated.
I love to bake, and I love to bless people. Combining these things is even more fun! God is kind to make that combination possible, and to make it so full of joy.
Lately, with temperatures dropping, I have been taking advantage of using the oven to warm up the center of our home. Our freezer is full. I’ve been taking goods to people in need (and to people not in particular need). I also got to bake desserts for a recent baptism feast and host a company dessert & wine party. I’ve shared slices of spiced cake or crumbly scones alongside piping hot cups of tea to ladies who stop by for a visit. Asher has even discovered the glories of things made with leaven and expresses his delight in the flapping of arms and loud vocal exclamations. Gabriel has learned that everything from mixing ingredients to smelling goodness oozing from the oven to admiring the visual appeal to devouring the finished product with our tongues & teeth & tastebuds can be positively exhilarating.
And for tonight’s dinner menu? I will be trying my hand at an American comfort food: chicken and waffles. It may sound odd, but trust me ~ it is exquisite when done right! Fried chicken that will be moist but not over-oily and waffles made with yeast & buttermilk… topped either with maple syrup or a spicy gravy (or a combination!)… Oh boy. Y’all should join our table tonight. Better yet: try it out for yourselves and see how much blessing you can heap upon those around your table.
Aaaaahhhh, the glories and warmth and blessing and sweetness of baked things!
It reminds me that it’s just one more way I can be a tiny image-bearer, imitating some of the good things our Father does and will do! It reminds me of His glorious feast yet to come, and makes my mouth water for the glory of things yet to come!
Isaiah 25:6
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
You’re making my mouth water 🙂 I’d love to join your table sometime and enjoy your cooking/baking. I have several of the recipes you have shared over the years and love each one of them. God has really given you a talent in the kitchen, dear friend! And isn’t it wonderful to be able to bless others with His gifts?
Having gotten all of the canning out of the way – we were blessed with a bounty of fruit this year that we haven’t had in more than a decade – I’m getting back into baking. I made challah for dinner yesterday, which is one of my faves to make and eat, and realized that having done far less baking this summer was probably a huge help in the 20 pounds I lost, and I’d better watch out as I give in to the baking itch. 🙂
Oooh, I love it Hannah! And one of my favorite reasons to bake is because I love to have *other people* eat it. 🙂 Not that I won’t eat my fair share… because I will!… but giving it away or having people over to eat the lion’s share of it are perks to baking. People will love you even more. 🙂 Enjoy your baking! (I actually just pulled a cheesecake and a bundt out of the oven, in preparation for a psalm sing we’re hosting tomorrow!)
I bow down humbly in the presence of such granseets.
Thank you, Natasha. Yes, that caution to be modest is part of my baggage too. It’s why I’ve really had to work on accepting a compliment instead of explaining it away. I guess the last person I needed to learn to accept them from was myself.