Healing on Holidays: How a Fast-food Trip May Help

I'm not an expert on family healing, but I know it's not good pretending to be okay if you're not.

Pretending isn't the way to healing.

That's only one thought that's led me to think about how the end-of-year holidays can naturally be a challenge, and how, when there are extenuating circumstances, those normal challenges can be all-the-less healing.

So, this Thanksgiving, I decided not to fight feeling poorly in order to gather for a big meal. Instead, I thought about where life needed the most healing, and I decided to try to get myself together and work on beginning to heal by taking small steps.

I decided to ask just two or three people who have been of special concern, for a trip to a fast-food place that has Christian ownership. That wouldn't have been like going to church, but that might have been a good first step.

The good in going for a quick meal in a sun-filled place, where the food isn't very remarkable and the meal doesn't take long to eat, is that

• The short trip and sunlight can help to ease tensions.
• Food, television, and the whole family don't become distractions.
• Problems associated with being at home are more at a distance, mentally.
• The Christian environment doesn't make prayer awkward, and doesn't pressure anyone to feel like there's the imperative to be together in a possibly troubling church setting.
• No one feels obligated to sit together for long.
• Prayer can be offered freely and more individually.

These thoughts of heart didn't bear fruit for me this Thanksgiving. But, with prayer, maybe one day, some good can come of what I'm thinking.

An Ounce of Prevention, Only with Caution

Some articles on the internet help us understand there are herbs and foods that can help support our overall health, and can offer an ounce of prevention when it comes to warding off simple infections (as in healing an uninfected insect bite, or more quickly recovering from a mild bladder inflection).

But serious diseases, including cancer, and even staph infections, need diagnoses and treatment by qualified medical practitioners. So, articles like this are misleading and can even be dangerous:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/314366.php

It's true that frankincense was a cleansing agent in ancient times, and that it may have been used to wash Jesus as a baby. But, when it comes to serious matters of health, we need doctors and pharmacists.

If frankincense has anti-cancer properties, that's for scientists and pharmaceutical companies to work on in laboratories. That's not for us to dabble with in community.

Anyhow, I found that article about frankincense when I was trying to confirm something I suspect about a plant other than the frankincense tree. I was looking for something very specific about the plant we call "lemongrass."

Some articles, on the internet, suggest lemongrass heals staph infections; BUT THAT IS NOT THE TRUTH.

Although lemongrass is perfectly safe when cooked in Asian, Indian, and other sauces, I suspect that, if uncooked (in a tea, for example), lemongrass should be used seldom. I think there can be a danger in putting it on open wounds, and a danger in drinking it in tea, if you are immune-depressed or very sick.

So, for me, lemongrass is best used to discourage mosquitoes, outdoors!

... What I mean about there being potential danger in using lemongrass on wounds, oral sores, or internally, is that it kills white blood cells. At least one scientific study says it lowers white-blood-cell production: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25162916. Although this article doesn't explain that lemongrass actually kills white blood cells, other studies and articles do a better job explaining how lemongrass affects white blood cells.

It's really a shame, but I think someone got the idea that lemongrass heals staph because it reduces puss and inflammation. But, again, lemongrass does not cure staph; and only reducing the puss and inflammation of staph is NOT a good thing.

The puss and inflammation of a serious staph infection, comes from white blood cells doing their job. White blood cells try to fight infection.

When lemongrass reduces white-blood-cell activity, there may be fewer symptoms of an infection (for example, less puss), but the infection is still there.

Not only is the infection still there, but, without the white cell activity, the infection may more easily spread; the infection may even become resistant to antibiotics (making it possibly deadly, in some cases), which is why I was very cautious when I began taking personal notes about lemongrass.

I've long intended to find out more about its effects on white blood cells, and I've avoided the lemongrass in our yard for that reason.

My approach to lemongrass is to use it with caution — or with knowledge.

One thing I know about lemongrass is that it can be added to bathwater or applied to unbroken skin as a kind of disinfectant, without becoming a health threat to someone who is immune-depressed. And lemongrass can be used in that same way to shoo away mosquitoes when we're outside, by rubbing the ground lemongrass on our skin.

And, again, it also discourages mosquitoes from taking up residence in a yard, in the first place.

The bottom line is to be knowledgeable and not accept everything you see on the internet, no matter how often something appears on the internet. Some salesmen are pretty good about putting misinformation out there about what they believe should be the next big thing to sale. Apparently, some of those folk have flooded the internet with news about how red-blood-cell production increases when people drink lemongrass tea, not taking into account that the red blood cells partly may be more plentiful because white-blood-cell counts are being wiped out — dangerously!

That's not to say every herbal trend is dangerous or bogus. It's absolutely true that daily consumption of pure black teas and pure green teas can help guard some types of cells from the threat of cancer (as part of a proper diet and appropriate medical care).

And there are many fruits and vegetables that also discourage inflammation and cancers, when eaten regularly as part of a balance diet.

... We just have to be knowledgeable, as well as cautious — and blessed in having caring, knowledgeable help from health-care providers.

Thank Heaven for the Help We Have in Foods

I'm ashamed when I think about this.

Whenever I'm reminded that, as as child, I contradicted my stepmom, I'm ashamed.

I was a child and had no business thinking my stepmom was doing something silly. I thought regularly drinking cranberry juice to help prevent certain ailments was only a wives-tale; and that's what I told my stepmom. But it was a doctor who had told my stepmom to drink real cranberry juice regularly.

And, today, I'm thankful to know better than I did then.

Today, I know that real cranberry juice can help prevent serious, serious problems, not just the  problem most folk are probably familiar with now.

For example, when body yeast becomes so much a problem that it thins the intestine, that yeast can cause "leaky gut," releasing bacteria into the bloodstream. But elements of cranberries help coat the intestine — not just the bladder — helping block irritation that leads to infection.

Of course, working with a doctor, taking the right prescriptions, eliminating wrong activities and foods in life, also are important to healing any health problem. But God also has given us some things in nature to help ease and even prevent health ailments.

The key, though, is including healthy ways in our everyday lives, not just every once in a while.

What got me thinking about all this is a healthy cookbook I just read. It's called Gout Cookbook, by HR Research Alliance.

I don't agree with how the cookbook's authors use the popular expression that some people have times of gout flare-ups. The gout crystals that form around joints don't flare up; the crystals just form, so that there is new gout (new crystals) causing problems for the patient, or something is going on with that patient to aggravate areas surrounding old crystals.

But once I got past kind of cringing at calling new and worsening gout a "flare," and once I got past the book's implication that food remedies are almost like a cure, I really liked this book, a lot (never mind the misspelled word!).

This book is encouraging. It's a really helpful, useful, and possibly life-changing book that I hope I can order as a gift one day, for someone.

And, because of it, I felt inspired, today, to put together a list of a few things I've learned about helpful supplements for meals. Not everything on the list appears in that cookbook, but the list does rely on a lot of what I learned from the book.

With hope someone can use this, day to day.

But remember: Always talk with your doctor to be sure you're not eating or drinking too much of anything that may adversely affect your health or contradict your medications!

Our hope is in Jesus, instead of in food.
But thank Heaven His love made food to be a help.

God is Always Good

I was all ready, today, to encourage you, and to encourage myself, through this post.

But, as Jesus might say, the good in me for this post seems like it's been snatched away by a foul-hearted enemy who daily, and even hourly, seeks how to defile anything we're thankful for, and how to swoop in and devour whatever it is he sees or wants.

What I wanted to share, today, from a heart that's long been pure is thoughts about how not to grow too weary.

One of the ways of the Holy Spirit, that I've discovered over the past week or so, has been helpful to me in ways only Heaven may understand.

Do you remember how Jesus delayed going to see his friend Lazarus, who was dying? I don't know what Jesus was attending to at that time, but I know He once told someone to let the dead bury the dead.

For the life of me, I do not understand how anyone works in professions that daily require handling of the dead.

The spiritual passage of a saint from the earth realm to Heaven is precious as precious can be, in the eyes of Heaven. But physical death itself is so grievous. And, when an enemy wants home to become synonymous with physical death, and the handling of such, that enemy is hellbent on destroying heart and home.

So, I've found out the way to deal with that kind of scheme of the the enemy is to ignore the hell, ignore the horror that hell is forcing into your home, inasmuch as possible.

Pace yourself. Be patient in each task before you. Keep purpose in heart. Ignore the enemy.

Know that you live clean, that God has made the way, and that you've attended to clean living faithfully. (Satan is forever the liar.)

Know that witchcraft and hell has no place in your heart. Work on cleaning up whatever hell has done, in order of priority. Do not neglect yourself.

Rest your mind on God's word. Remain in prayer.

Then, when you've gathered your strength in Christ again, when you've gotten yourself and the better part of your living quarters together, for both your sanity and for the good of family, then tend to the hell or death that hell means to consume your heart and mind.

Keep your eye on the prize.

Know that the battle is not against flesh and blood, but is against a real wickedness that's on the rise.

And know that, no matter how much in authority any hell may become, God is still good; and so is home.

What a Blessing: Thankful for BBQ Sauce

I thank Heaven we live in a blessed nation, where we each can do things a little differently. And I'm thankful we always have blessed one another with all kinds of useful ideas.

In south Louisiana, people from many backgrounds (French, Spanish, Caribbean, African, Asian, Native American) historically shared ideas and arrived at eclectic of ways of cooking.

That history isn't in all ways good. But faithfulness has always overcome any evil of history — there, like anywhere else. And, whenever southern parts of the state have flooded, I've felt a little helpless.

There are so many good people there. ...

Years ago, someone from south Texas came to visit my elders, at least a couple of times in my witness. This visitor brought homemade jam each of the two times, and we learned about the loquat tree, which grows in abundance in south Texas.

I think the loquat may be an ingredient in a powder drink-mix that was popular when I was a child. That drink was the closest I was to being allowed, on a daily basis, to have something sweet, beyond dessert at school.

As an adult, I really appreciate sweets that are not super-sweet, especially if I know there's something healthy about a sweet.

So, I was thankful to find a way to make a healthy BBQ sauce this week, just using the few little things that may be in a pantry and fridge.

One of the things I made use of was Ms. Cynthia's* homemade jam from 2015. The jam does not include loquats. It has figs and strawberries. But any homemade jam or preserves, would have been good (rhubarb and strawberries comes to mind).

This is what I did to make a BBQ sauce:

• I cooked maybe three short stalks of celery in some vegetable oil with about two tablespoons of ginger root and four cloves of garlic, all chopped. What a blessing that both fresh ginger root and garlic are anti-inflammatory and immune boosting, something that probably was important to my elders' well-being in cooking with garlic almost daily. Celery is good for us, too.
• I decided to make the sauce in a kind of south-Asian way, using a few little spices still in our kitchen in lean times. Each spice is anti-oxidant in nature, a boost in battles against cancer. I stirred in less than a teaspoon each of ground mustard, cumin, and turmeric, while the vegetables were still simmering.
• I added maybe two or three teaspoons of red pepper flakes that I roughly chopped in a coffee-bean grinder. And I added in regular black pepper and a little onion powder.
• Then, I stirred in a 6-ounce can of tomato paste and probably six or so tablespoons of the old fruit jam, and let the pan keep warm over low heat.

I didn't do quite as well with the meat itself.

I'm not in practice of cooking pork, or any meat that doesn't have the immune-building micro-nutrients that are in baked or broiled chicken. There were long years when I even took a hiatus from pork for faith reasons, in consideration of neighbors and people I prayed for overseas.

But, this week, I had a change in heart, in favor of my freedom in Jesus. And I decided to use the pork ribs that we'd had for a little while. I directly seasoned the meat with salt, black pepper, and paprika.

I decided not to look at cooking instructions but to try to cook through guesswork. So I settled on 350-degrees Fahrenheit as a cooking temperature, knowing a low temperature would be needed to keep protein strands from getting dry and permanently tough.

But something I learned when I looked at actual instructions today, is some folk cook pork for hours, using even lower temperatures. Yikes!

For 350-degrees, it so happens I was in the right range of time with the ribs, but I needed to bake them covered for longer. And I needed to add the sauce at the very end, and put them back in the oven on broil for a short time.

The end result was okay, and I really wanted to send some to an elder's house. But the sauce was so good that neighbors swiped most of it off of the ribs, and left a watery something that tasted mostly like ginger!

While I hope neighbor's have gotten a little health boost from the sauce, I pray they will not do that again.

... Jesus is good, you all.


***

* Name changed for privacy

Odds and Ends

Verse after verse, the Bible isn't always easy to understand. One woman in a Sunday school class said we need to read whole books of the Bible sometimes, in order to put verses in the right context.

In fact, sometimes, we need to be in a Bible study group whose leader knows how one book of the Bible goes together with another. And, of course, we need to be prayerful, expecting Heaven to answer our heartfelt questions.

When some Bible verses haven't made sense to me right away, I've written question marks in the margins. And I've always gotten answers.

Sometimes, puzzling verses have begun to make sense sooner than later. At other times, it's a long while before answers happen.

For example, in Proverbs 30:29-33, it's puzzling that Agur talks about a strutting rooster and a goat, saying three or four things are "stately in their walk."

But Agur is only being sarcastic, saying people may consider a king stately in his walk but that, sometimes, his way is like a rooster or a goat.

Agur was a little like Solomon or whatever person wrote down instructions from Lemuel's mother, in Proverbs 31. The Proverbs 31 writer says a king should give beer to people and let them drink away misery (Proverbs 31:6-7); but the writer was being sarcastic, like Agur was.

The Proverbs 31 writer was talking about how kings used to treat people who are embittered. But the writer goes on to contrast the sarcasm about giving people beer, by describing how a king truly should treat people. The writer says, "Speak up for those who have no voice ... ." (31:8)

Sarcasm sometimes comes from bitterness.

Being embittered, Job complained that the unrighteous heap up riches for nothing (Job 27:16-17). And Job said terrors overtake such people. Job bitterly said people always behave unjustly: The unrighteous heaps it up, "but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide up his silver." (27:17) Job was asking why he should suffer, when other people were so unjust.

It's unsettling, knowing that, even when justice happens, there always seems to be some injustice still in the balance.

When Jesus was crucified, the unrighteous took His clothing, and the unrighteous Judas took the purse of money that people had given the disciples. Judas also took a bribe to betray Jesus.

... One life application, for me, is the observation that, sometimes, when Christians or Jews have been betrayed, Satan also has tried to reverse some promises that appear in scriptures.

It seems Satan thinks he can undo whatsoever is just.

Job, in 26:6, says hell is naked in God's eyes. So, Satan has tried to do a reversal of that justice, through making some Christians and Jews naked, though we shouldn't be (Matthew 25:36).

There are plenty of ungodly reversals of justice in these "last days" we're living through.

But thank Heaven that, in Jesus, "strength and honor" (Proverbs 31) can continue to clothe us, no matter our hardships.

In Jesus, there can be moments of childlike laughter, without fear of the future, a knowing chuckle even when we're not sure of tomorrow. Although we do care and can even be anxious for the fact that some souls may be lost, we try not to despair and completely lose heart.

That's one reason I'm thankful in being able to do the simplest of things. Clothed in my right mind, I'm able to forgive, and to offer my heart.

Faith, not bitterness, is a healer:

Freely ye have received, freely give.

Matthew 10:8

Sometimes, only Heaven knows how much of our hearts we've given.

Home Is ...

 

Home is where a parent has lifted you up: like the day my mom bundled me in a coat, held me close, and spun the two of us around on a brisk winter morning, in a way that felt like flying up to Heaven, far above the snowy ground.

Home is

... playful

... cooperative (or, well, errr ... living at peace, in agreement, I mean)

... creative

... surrounded by community

... safe

... where friends can gather.

... Home is in the heart.

An Article in Progress

This is just a loose thought for now, but I want to think a little further about how Christian service gets mixed up with the idea of being very busy, very industrious.

I think people who work in service industries easily fall into that frame of mind, in thinking doing lots and lots of routine things each day is the only kind of service Heaven needs.

I also think some service-industry folk may not be very understanding of how working at home can be different from washing loads and loads of dishes (and being up to the strictest industry codes on that), putting item after item into an oven each hour, or attending to an ever-increasing mountain of laundry (in the commercial setting).

At home, working with Jesus in heart is purposeful and not about doings loads and loads of things. But it does mean things need to be completed, and it does mean doing one thing and another thing and not just one thing.

There's a lot of self-teaching in working at home.

And, like teachers, who have mandatory breaks for lesson planning, work at home needs daily time for planning (and prayer!). Without planning, prayer, and enough breathing room for creativity, some things won't work out.

In what other ways are serving at home and in industry different? And in what ways are these different kinds of service alike?

Heavenly Sowing and Reaping Isn't Like Putting Into a Gumball Machine!

When we read Galatians 6:6-9 carefully, keeping everything in context, we avoid the pitfall of believing the expression "You reap what you sow" is about putting in money or goods and receiving the same or more back.

I never did think that's what Heaven was saying.

In Jesus, sowing and reaping isn't like putting into a gumball machine and getting some great prize in return. It's not like that at all.

Instead, the New Testament Bible is saying to avoid situations where people are looking for something worldly, or where people are prone to harm you, and just keep close to Jesus, to talk with Heaven in prayer but to also keep in contact with other believers, talking about faith and everything else that's good — and sharing from the good you've been given, out of good relationship.

And the scripture is actually saying NOT to give in order to receive some THING. But give good teaching because you've been given good teaching, Heaven's word is saying.

And, sometimes, teaching can mean giving even a little something, from the heart.

You see, in Jesus, it's about doing or sowing to the Spirit, not about pleasing anyone in a fleshly or worldly way.

It's about working together in the Spirit, and even crying out and pleading for help from the Holy Spirit.

It's true: Sowing to the Spirit can mean crying out to the church or to Heaven about even the most horrid problems, expressing your dependence on Jesus.

Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto [his teacher] all good things.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows [from a spiritual heart or unspiritual], that shall he also reap.

For he that sows [only to please] his [corrupt] flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to [please] the Spirit [in purity] shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Galatians 6:6-9, with editor's notes

Skillet Cinnamon Rolls Recipe Link

This is a blessing,

especially if you skip making the syrup and frosting.

A Quick Study in Mother Hens

In just a few minutes, I've learned a lot about momma hens:

• When a hen's biology says it's time to incubate, hatch, and care for chicks, farmers say the hen is "broody."
• Some inner-city chicken keepers aren't allowed to have roosters around but have found that some hens get broody, anyway, refusing to leave the unfertilized eggs that they've hatched.
• Some broody birds may even sit on other hens' eggs.
• Broody hens can be deliberately encouraged to adopt chicks from another hen's brood, by placing newborn chicks beneath the hen without her knowledge, and then monitoring her to be sure she doesn't see them too soon and peck at them, perceiving them to be intruders.
• Hens are very protective of their chicks, sheltering them under wing when rain is threatening and when it's cold outside, even after the chicks are well past newborn.
• Hens try to defend their chicks when other hens peck at them.

A writer at Wide Open Pets, a dot-com, assures us: "Mama hens are fiercely protective of their babies." That website quotes 16th-century writer Ulisse Aldrovandi, whose work is translated in a modern writing called The Chicken Book.

Aldrovandi wrote: "They follow their chicks with such great love that, if they see or spy at a distance any harmful animal, such as a kite or a weasel or someone even larger stalking their little ones, the hens first gather them under the shadow of their wings, and with this covering they put up such a very fierce defense — striking fear into their opponent in the midst of a frightful clamor, using both wings and beak — they would rather die for their chicks than seek safety in flight."

Maybe the attention ancient people gave to brooding hens is what prompted Yesu Himself to compare Himself to an expectant momma.

"How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing," said the Holy Spirit in Jesus. (Matthew 23:37)

But there also is more than one momma-hen prophesy, easily misunderstood, from the psalms or songs of David. David trusted what the prophets said about Jesus, the coming Messiah, God with us. David's psalms speak of our heavenly Savior as if His motherly sacrifice of Himself would be a refuge for generations to come.

"He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart." (Psalm 91:4)

"Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed." (Psalm 57:1)

It's a wonder, that our Savior's cross became His "wings," a shadow in which each of us,

as Christians, takes refuge.

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

Background Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:15, KJV

One way of thinking about dividing is to sift, like sifting flour through a baking sieve. When we sift flour for baking, we divide individual particles of flour and hold back some of the clumps that have stuck together because of dampness or impurity. And that makes for a softer batch of flour for baking.

One time, Jesus used the word "sift" in a negative way. He told one of His disciples that ill-hearted people wanted to "sift" the disciple: like when some ancient people tried to have part of a person through wrong means. (He became Christ with us, Emanuel, "the Holy Spirit made flesh"; but like the shepherd guarding a flock, Jesus took swift action against the lurking lion, not holding back from identifying true wickedness and warning disciples to avoid pitfalls that were imminent.)

So, the biblical word of Heaven also tells of a good kind of division: of removing sins as far as the east is from the west; of parting with parts of the "body" of the church that are corrupting the whole; of studying / searching / sorting through the Bible with a kind of understanding that helps us "hold fast to that which is good."

In reading the Bible, Heaven needs us to have right or spiritual insight or understanding.

So, when I've been puzzled by something I've read, I've placed a question mark where I've read; and I've prayerfully trusted in Heaven for answers.

One thing I understood right away, that many people seem not to understand, is why Jesus said beware the leaven of the Pharisees. Apparently, even the disciples didn't understand right away at that time.

Jesus asked them, "'Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the 5,000 and how many baskets you collected, or the seven loaves for the 4,000 and how many large baskets you collected? How do you not understand that I was not telling you about bread? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.'

"Then they understood that He was not telling them to beware of the yeast used in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees." (Matthew 16:9-12)

Sometimes, a little bit of untruth, or a little bit of teaching that isn't true to Heaven, can cause a whole church to puff up with wrongdoing, just like a little bit of baking powder, yeast, or other leaven puffs up bread in a good way.

Truly, I think Jesus did three things when He rebuked the leaven of the Pharisees:

I think Jesus taught the disciples not to accept even a little wrong teaching.

I think He helped them to understand that we're not to worry about bread, that Heaven provides.

And I think He helped them think about the fact that traditions like having physically unleavened bread aren't what matters to Heaven. Instead, the way we live or teach does matter.

Samaritan's Purse Annual Gift Catalog

The Greatest Journey and Operation Christmas Child

As If I Never Sinned?

Jesus said not to think of any adult who is born in the flesh as "good." That's what He meant in saying, "No man born of a woman is good."

He leads us to know that children are born innocent of sin; that this world's role in leading them wrong is inevitable (Matthew 18:6-7), but that there's redemption or reconciliation in Him.

That means anyone can repent of sins and see one another in a spiritual way instead of in a worldly way. There came a time, in the lives of Jesus' disciples, when men had to adjust to seeing one another as if everyone had overcome sins and could live heavenly, as if no one ever sinned (1 Corinthians 5:15-21).

"All things are become new" when we think about Jesus, the Apostle Paul said, feeling uplifted in knowing that, even though men couldn't see Jesus in person anymore, the church could celebrate knowing Him in a different way, entirely "in the Spirit," as if He had been spiritually born again in the heart of everyone who believes on Him.

In Jesus, instead of seeing one another as sinners, we see one another as overcomers, as souls who have have been spiritually "born again" into Christ's righteousness.

In Jesus, we become as Jesus, grieved by sin, and spiritually born again (becoming good in Him) by grace.

Grace is good, and all the time Grace is good.

When I was a child, the church didn't have a problem having us understand what happened at Pentecost (even if we didn't know what it was called back then).

How to explain Pentecost as if to a five-year-old? ...

When I was a child, a lot of people in church said receiving the Holy Spirit was "getting happy." To be filled with the Holy Spirit was happy and sad all at the same time. 

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted," Jesus said.

Pentecost was when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit after He went to Heaven.

When I was a child, sometimes, almost a whole church congregation would get happy, with many people crying, because of the Holy Spirit. And, sometimes, when the old church remembers Pentecost, some say the church used to be "on fire" for Christ.

Then, after worship services, the church would take those happy/sad feelings to dinner, and get full with thanks to Heaven.

That's like when the multitude had fish and bread after Jesus preached to them on the mountainside. Jesus' disciples hadn't planned to give any food to the people. But Jesus took pity on those people, because the people had so much faith that they had walked a long way just to hear what He had to say to them.

Jesus filled the people by preaching His word, and then, not wanting them to go away empty of nourishment for the walk home, He asked them to sit down and eat with Him and the disciples, for the glory of God.

Everyone sat down and ate together (sitting in groups divided into fifties, like different church congregations sit down in their own groups). Jesus even provided a meal of fish on the seashore before going on to Heaven, meaning He wants us to go on and live for Him even today.

So, even when we're preparing food, our hearts are supposed to be thinking of Heaven, not worried about pooping and other earthly and twisted thoughts.

Jesus ate with the church before He gave His life for us.

And then what happened?

When Jesus went to Heaven and sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the people of the church became able to feed themselves: both spiritually and physically!

"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice, and be glad; for great is your reward in Heaven ... ."

Matthew 5:11-12

The Not-So-Simple Science of Baking Cookies That Stay Soft and Chewy ~ without unnatural chemical ingredients

This has taken lots of trial and error, but I've finally learned to make a soft and chewy cookie — and a soft and chewy peanut-butter cookie (which is more difficult to do). Now, understanding the science:

The soft part is simple: ... Milk fats soften baked goods.

Butter is probably the most popular milk fat for keeping a baked good from being too dry or too hard. Butter also has a good amount of water, but that water — meaning the total amount of butter — needs to be limited.

Although water is essential to baking, it helps to know just what it does. For one thing, water immediately dissolves baking soda or baking powder, and that causes air bubbles during baking. When water (hydrogen dioxide) reacts with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and heat, it releases carbon dioxide. And that leaves little (or large!) pockets of air in cakes and cookies. Those pockets of air give different baked goods various textures, depending on how much water and other ingredients there are.

But there has to be only a small amount of water to make a soft cookie that hardens a little on the crust. Depending on other ingredients, too much water can either bubble out of the cookie and cause the milk fats and sugars to dry out inside, or too much water can sit there and make a soggy cookie that remains like dough. So, just the right amount of moisture is needed — and not too much.

Finding the right balance gets complicated when you consider other ingredients. Ingredients that have tiny amounts of water in them may have what's called an acidic pH. (My definition of pH: A scale indicating the potential amount of hydrogen activity in water.)

When ingredients with an acidic pH get together in the heat of an oven, they, altogether, cause huge hydrogen explosions — as does the tiny amount of water in a kernel of popcorn. Ingredients with an acidic pH, explode in heat, creating pockets that get filled with hot, dry air from the oven. And that can either dry out a cookie, or give it a just-right dry crust with some moisture left inside.

To better control the little explosions of hydrogen during baking, it helps to limit both water and ingredients that have an acidic pH.

And many baking ingredients do have an acidic pH!

Some examples include

• Pasteurized (meaning factory-heated or processed) honey
• Molasses
• Brown sugar
• Sugar-cane juice
  
• Coffee
• Chocolate
• Cocoa powder (other than Dutch-processed cocoa, which isn't acidic)
• Yeast
• Rye flour
  
• Wheat flour
• Vanilla
• Ice cream
• Milk
  
• Buttermilk
• Cottage cheese
• Yogurt
  
• Lemon juice / Citric acid
• Applesauce
• Cream of Tarter (a slightly acidic salt that's in baking powder)
• Baking powder (Only slightly acidic, baking powder is different from baking soda.)
  
• The water in peanuts, walnuts, pecans, and cottonseeds

This means many common baking ingredients have a pH that may make bake goods rise and lose moisture too quickly. For example, when baking powder reacts with other cookie ingredients that have an acidic pH, there's an extra-forceful hydrogen release, pushing moisture out and allowing heated air in — drying the cookie out. Again, there has to be the right amount of each ingredient, with only small amounts of ingredients that have an acidic pH.

 

And that's what can make peanut-butter cookies a challenge to keep soft. Peanuts have lots of healthy acids; and those fatty acids, by themselves, don't have any effect on the peanut's pH level. Instead, an acidic pH means that any water in the peanut is acidic.

 

The water in peanuts is only slightly acidic. But because peanuts are a main ingredient in a peanut-butter cookie, there is more of the acidic pH than in just a few peanuts.

To have a soft and chewy peanut-butter cookie, we need to find a way to make the pH less acidic. So, instead of using peanut butter, which is packed with slightly acidic peanuts, it's best to use peanuts that aren't packed into peanut butter. For example, we can put dry-roasted peanuts, or even cocktail peanuts, into a food processor — or into a blender with the amount of egg that will go into the cookie's dough [considering the water in an egg has an alkaline pH (instead of an acidic pH), and that water from the egg will help puree the peanuts in a blender, without causing a more acidic pH.]

Other ways to reduce hydrogen reactions in baking is to figure out exactly how much flour will work together with a recipe's egg and sugar to produce the soft and chewy cookie we would like.

It's also important to dissolve at least some of the sugar that goes into a cookie, if the cookie is going to be chewy. In other words, sugar, in form of a syrup, can help with chewiness. Molasses is a syrup that can make cookies chewy, but, because molasses has an acidic pH, we have to figure out the just right amount of molasses, the same way we figure out the just right amount of flour. And, figuring it all out just means experimenting.

Soft

A soft cookie has the right amounts of milk fat and not too much water.

 

Although Grade AA U.S.-produced butter is a flavorful source of milk fat for baking, all grades of U.S.-produced butter have at least 80-percent milk fat. European butters are more fatty and may produce baked goods that are softer but more oily, depending on the baker's know how.

 

Finding a butter that works for you at home, however, may be more a matter of patience and experimentation. Even with a AA Grade on a package of butter, there's no guarantee a butter will be the consistency that yields softer baking. (By the way, the kinds of feed that cattle receive does affect the softness of butter, a fact chronicled as long ago as 1896, in an annual report by the Canadian agricultural department. And recent trends in agriculture have yielded harder butters, due to palm oil in cattle feed.) So, try different brands of U.S.-produced butter until you find one that not only is a softer butter, but that is flavorful for your cookies.

 

Besides being made with an appropriate butter, a soft cookie also has limited amounts of hydrogen (only a little hydrogen from the very small amounts of water in other ingredients). A soft cookie also has egg (just the right amount), and it has appropriate ratios of flour and sugar.

 

Chewy

A chewy cookie may need a sugar that is a syrup. When a sugar is a caramelized syrup, it stiffens when it goes into an oven, like the caramel in a candy bar. Molasses is okay for this, but, because it's a cookie we're trying to make (not a candy bar), we don't need to use very much molasses.

 

We can experiment and figure out the right amount of molasses — not too much — beginning with recipes we've found. We also can figure out how long to leave a syrup ingredient in the oven, by understanding the longer the bake time, the more water is released from sugar, the more chewy or caramel-like the sugar. But, because we don't want a cookie to harden like a rock, being in the oven too long, we need to keep it from overheating.

 

One way to keep the cookie from overheating, is to make sure there is lots of air in the cookie dough. Air does not have anywhere near the amount of hydrogen that water has, so to fill a cookie dough with air (instead of with much water), can be a good thing.

 

"Air is a poor conductor of heat," explains a writer at Serious Eats, a dot-com. Because air does not draw heat the way a metal baking sheet and water do, the air "helps insulate the dough ..., slowing the rate at which the butter and sugar melt."

 

When the butter and sugar have been whipped together to form a soft, air-filled mixture that keeps the cookie from overheating, a longer bake time allows that mixture to melt more slowly and the cookie becomes more chewy.

 

But, in order for the cookie to keep the air we beat into the butter-sugar mixture, we need to start with cold butter (not traditional room-temperature butter), Serious Eats explains.

 

Also, in my own experience, butter that's already whipped, can work just fine — never mind that some store-bought pre-whipped butters are whipped with nitrogen instead of simple air, and never mind that you would need to buy two 8-ounce containers of pre-whipped butter to substitute for one box (four sticks) of solid butter (because, the pre-whipped butter is filled with air and takes up more space in a container).

 

Pre-whipped Butter Can Help

It's not difficult to use store-bought butter that's already whipped. And doing so, does more than save time preparing the cookie dough. The pre-whipped butter can help ensure cookies are the same each time you make them, and I think the air from that butter helps make the cookie softer.

Some people may complain that it's hard to know how to calculate how much whipped butter to use, because there's less butter in a measuring cup of air-whipped butter than in a cup of solid stick butter. If you expect to measure a cup of whipped butter with a measuring cup (cup for cup compared to solid butter), you won't have enough butter in your cookie, because air in the whipped butter takes up space in a measuring cup.

But thank goodness store-bought whipped butter is put into containers based on weight, not volume or cups. That said, it helps to know a four-stick box of solid butter weighs one pound, and an 8-ounce container of store-bought whipped butter weighs one-half pound. And, although air does have weight, the air in a container of butter doesn't amount to enough to measure for baking.

That means there is about half as much butter in an 8-ounce store-bought container of butter, than in a one-pound box of solid butter. So, in place of solid stick butter, just substitute twice as much store-bought whipped butter in measuring spoons or measuring cups — while the whipped butter is still cold, not melted!

 

Another easy way to know how much pre-whipped butter to use, is to think an 8-ounce container of it is equal to about two sticks (one cup) of solid butter. If you are only using a small amount of butter — if you would use only one stick (one-half cup) of solid butter — you would only need to use about half an 8-ounce container of store-bought whipped butter.

 

Easy reminders:

 

• Buy two, 8-ounce containers of store-bought whipped butter, to substitute for a whole four-stick box of solid butter.
• Buy one, 8-ounce container of whipped butter, to substitute for two sticks of solid butter.
• Use only half of an 8-ounce container of whipped butter, to substitute for one stick of solid butter.
• Because one stick of solid butter is one-half cup, use a measuring cup to scoop twice as much whipped butter. Scoop one cup of whipped butter, in place one-half cup solid butter.
• Scoop one-half cup of whipped butter, in place of one-fourth cup solid butter.
• Scoop two tablespoons of whipped butter, in place of one tablespoon of solid butter, and so on.
• Use twice the amount of whipped butter in place of the amount of solid butter in a recipe.
  

One advantage to using the pre-whipped butter is that it's not going to waterlog the dough. It may be a fair assumption that store-bought whipped butters have less water, based on how they are factory whipped.

 

If using store-bought whipped butter, instead of whipping stick butter at home, don't overmix the store-bought whipped butter into your sugar — don't beat your store-bought whipped butter together with your sugar for very long at all. And, remember to keep the butter cold so that it can hold its cold air and stay in the oven a little longer.

In the end, the sugar molasses and butter that stay in the oven a little longer, are going to do two things: they will harden the crust of the cookie, helping keep the inside from completely drying out; and, through caramelizing, they will add chewiness to the butter's softness.

 

The Small Print

Molasses does better than dry brown sugar, because dry brown sugar chemically binds with most of the water in the cookie so that the cookie becomes too damp or waterlogged to form a crust. The amount of time a waterlogged cookie dough will need to be in the oven in order to dry out, can only make a dry cookie. Again, the water prevents a crust, and without a crust, the cookie loses so much moisture, it may harden "like brick."

But the molasses isn't going to bind to very much water in the cookie. Instead, loose water in the cookie will bind with the flour; and the molasses mostly will be free to harden on the outside of the cookie and to become chewy inside the cookie.

Although molasses, by definition, is sugar that is already caramelized, it becomes more caramelized (to the point of being chewy), when more of its water steams away with heat. To further caramelize molasses while baking a cookie, the temperature needs to be at least 350-degrees Fahrenheit — but 375-degrees F is probably best.

It's also important to put the cookie tray midway between the top and bottom of the oven — not too close to the hot top, and not too close to the hot bottom, so the cookies don't dry out.

As already mentioned, another element to baking a cookie that's soft and chewy, and a little crusty, is to use just the right amount of egg — not too much.

Egg is needed to hold fats and liquids together in the finished dough. But we limit the amount of egg, because too much causes baked goods to become spongy, like cake; and we want to make cookies, not cake or muffins. The science behind why eggs help make cake when combined with enough flour, is that the protein in the eggs binds with the protein in wheat; those protein strands stretch and create pockets of air that are less dense than the air pockets in a cookie. So, if we want to make cookies, we need less egg to flour than the ratio of egg to flour in a cake. For a cookie, we need just enough egg to hold the dough together.

Other Ways to Limit Water

If there's a need to reduce water so that your recipe will have a crust and won't be spongy or too dry, try to

 

• Refrigerate the dough for a short while, so that some of the water evaporates, and some of the water is absorbed by starches in the flour. (But avoid refrigerating too long, because the dough will get too dry and tough. And avoid refrigerating the dough altogether, if you want molasses to caramelize.);
• Use salted butter. (Salt in butter helps to more gently knock down or reduce the number of protein (gluten) strands than table salt does; so water is released more evenly than through using table salt. When air pockets form more evenly between protein strands, you're more likely to lose air in a cookie gradually instead of quickly. Quick releases of both air and water during baking, can make for a dry cookie.);
• Use a just-right amount of butter. (Both the butter and sugar encourage crust formation so that, after water is finished steaming up, there's a crust to keep the cookie's inside moist. Butter also repels some of the water that would bind to the flour, so more of the water steams away before the crust forms.)

A few sources:

craftybaking.com

bakerpedia.com

berries.com/blog/science-of-baking

https://foodcrumbles.com/why-not-all-butters-are-the-same/

Other interesting links:

https://coolconversion.com/cooking-weight-volume/# 

learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/ACS/webseminar5.aspx

montessorifarmhouse.com/single-post/2017/04/04/Fossil-Cookies

littlebinsforlittlehands.com/gingerbread-man-chemistry-experiment-science/

For the older young scientist:

Did you know multiple studies say artificial sweeteners may be raising type 2 diabetes risks? Scientists suspect that's because those sweeteners may be upsetting some people's gut health — not to mention the surprise finding that many folk are holding to habits of eating foods that can be hard on their health, while also using the sweeteners: https://www.unisa.edu.au/Media-Centre/Releases/2019/heres-a-bitter-pill-to-swallow-artificial-sweeteners-may-be-doing-more-harm-than-good

Did you know molasses (a sugar) was sometimes a home remedy in our early history in America? Molasses has a troubled history, but, somewhere along the line, people recognized molasses as a flavorful way to ease certain symptoms, from menstrual complaints, to constipation, mainly because of the magnesium in molasses. 

Most molasses is made when sugar-cane juice is boiled until sugar crystals form, to begin making the granulated sugar many of us know the best. Molasses is the caramelized syrup that's left over when sugar crystals begin to form during that process. And it's a syrup that's far from outdated.

Globally, molasses remains a standard ingredient in livestock feed today, because it's palatable to animals, it's an easy source of energy, it's fattening, and "at times appears to exert a tonic effect."

Indeed, one recent study, of humans, found a little molasses helps control blood-sugar at meals that are made up of large amounts of carbohydrates. The study says that, while molasses does not have any effect on lowering blood sugar as part of an ordinary diet, it does lower spikes in blood sugar when heavy carbs are the main food at a meal.

But, being sugar, how can that be?

The answer, in short, is that the juice from sugar cane is more than only sugar; the raw juice is loaded with sugar, but the juice also has minerals and organic compounds that can be beneficial to our health. Even after the juice is boiled down so that it becomes molasses, it has some of the sugar-cane plant's antioxidants and other organic compounds. 

According to the study mentioned above, when a person eats a small amount of that beneficial mix of antioxidants and other compounds from molasses, that prevents some carbohydrates and simple sugars from ever entering the bloodstream. As a result, the pancreas doesn't need to produce large amounts of insulin in response to the high-carb meal, and the insulin the pancreas does produce is able to work more efficiently in clearing the blood of excess glucose: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282248574_Postprandial_insulin_and_glucose_levels_are_reduced_in_healthy_subjects_when_a_standardised_breakfast_meal_is_supplemented_with_a_filtered_sugarcane_molasses_concentrate

This study may be helping bring molasses into the 21st century!

At one point in the 20th century, some homemakers may have thought of molasses a little like cod liver oil, which was used to prevent rickets. Some may have been told the iron in molasses could help prevent anemia. But folk remedies as such, are not like findings from the above research. After all, there really isn't enough iron in molasses to justify it as a home remedy. Writes Registered Dietician Kayla McDonell for the dot-com Medical News Today: "Nutritionists do not recommend that people start eating molasses for nutrients, because its sugar content is so high. The best way to get these nutrients is by eating whole foods."

Yet there's good use for molasses. Today's research conceivably could lead to pharmaceutical advances and give simple molasses yet one more use — beyond livestock feed, ethanol production, and homemaking. And where homemaking is concerned, never mind the home remedies. Molasses still makes a pretty mean cookie.

To that end, writes McDonell, "If you are going to eat sugar anyway, molasses is likely a more healthful alternative."

 

"Go and enjoy good food and sweet drink, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. ... Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

Nehemiah 8:10