Food & Faith

Our lives rearranged. I've moved home to help restore my grown daughter's health. Bears come to mind. My cub went down. We, mother bear and I, will protect and defend our young to death, if necessary. I hold and guard the image of my child healed on every level, and I will not waiver.

With my ears tuned to her as if she were a newborn, I move throughout the house cooking, encouraging, and comforting. From scratch and organic foods are my mainstay. Family recipes with a history of "comfort and healing" are back in action. Rice pudding made with a cinnamon stick, golden raisins and cream is one. Raisin bread pudding served warm drizzled with cream is another. Organic chickens under the "Smart" label convert to chicken cacciatore, roasting, stews, chicken salad and stock. We eat multi-grain breads, use unbleached flour, and cook with butter and cream.

Peas for pain. Sounds like a commercial, but they are doctor recommended. Frozen and bagged they move around the injury independently cooling the hot spot.

Our Pistoulet dishes are bright and cheerful. Food first feeds the eye. Red stem chard cooked in a little butter with fresh ground nutmeg looks good and tastes great. Fennel bulbs cooked in butter with Parmesan cheese lend a mild licorice taste. The root of the celery stock is awesome. It takes effort to get the outside off and the inside chopped, but we'd rather have it cooked and mashed than potatoes. Fresh broccoli, cauliflower and asparagus go into creamy, cheese soups.

A small dish of cranberry relish accompanies every meal: a bag of fresh cranberries, one whole apple cored and one whole orange are chopped in the food processor. Add a small can of crushed pineapple and a little sugar, Somer-sweet, or splenda. I make a batch about every five days: lots of Vitamin C and enzymes for digestion.

Dessert finishes off her meal with tea. To chocolate brownies I add Brewer's Yeast, a smidge of cayenne, walnuts, pecans or macadamias and a scoop of ice cream. As we head into winter gingerbread tastes good served warm with cream. (We should have a cow on standby.) Years ago we spent a Christmas in Virginia at Minnie's. While there we bought a chunk of Hershey chocolate run off, and a lavender sheepskin. Back home I made cream puffs with fresh country cream and melted chocolate. They were wonderful. The food memory is fresh. The sheepskin is long gone.

I just answered my phone. Wrong number, but humorous. The lady asked if we are the family with the dairy? No, but we sure use a lot of it.

Today I made Mrs. Fields chocolate chip, oatmeal, raisin, walnut cookies with Brewer's Yeast added. Great! Kris likes crushed graham crackers, coconut, Eagle Brand condensed milk and chocolate chips made into bars. Can you tell I'm trying to put weight on her?

Kris's appetite is great as is her attitude. We are taking a positive approach claiming her healing: Thank you God for healing Kris. And so it is. It is done. Her health does improve daily.

In this trial, the blessings are huge. We are deeply grateful for the prayers, everything and everyone. It is critical we live an attitude of gratitude. God is good all the time. All the time God is good. The bad news was good news resolving her long standing health issue. And people showed up exactly as needed. We don't believe it was accidental. It was the working hand of God.

If I could give others one gift, it would be trust. Trust that God cares, knows your every need, wants the best for you, wants to help, and He keeps His word. See for yourself. Invite Him into every corner of your life. Put Him to work. Keep still and trust.

Take care and God Bless.

copyright 2006 Red Convertible Travel Series

Ste. Quentin, France - No money, no room

Driving into France from the east we stopped at Ste. Quentin to exchange dollars for francs and find a room. We don't speak French, and we didn't recognize a bank name. At the Post a man held the door for Minnie. She thanked him. He responded, "You're welcome," in English.

"Stop! Please. We can't find a bank." He paused, looked us over, and asked if we'd follow him. We nodded. At the third bank, Credit Agriculture, he negotiated a VISA draw of dollars for francs. Thank God.

"Where are you staying?" he asked. We didn't have a reservation. "Oh, I can help with that." Taking charge, he called an Auberge near an American cemetery and reserved us a room. Thank God. He smiled, successful a second time.

"What do you plan to see and do?" We were open to suggestions. "You're traveling without destination too?" Shocked, his expression said 'you need a keeper'. Our go-with-the-flow philosophy needed explaining. Each day we put God first and let him lead us. That did it. He realized God was working through him to help us, smiled, took our map, spread it on the hood of our car, and pointed out places of interest. Thank God. Thank you three times Mr. Cache.

We bought him coffee and sat a spell. Between chocolate pastry bites, he shared that he liked visiting San Francisco. We all agreed this wasn't an accidental meeting. By putting God first, everything we needed was provided.

copyright 2005 Red Convertible Travel Series