I'm Leavening
Matthew 13: 33
"Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. "
This morning I went to make some bread from the whole wheat berry (everything from the wheat seed is ground up...even the whole wheat from the store takes out elements). White bread is a bizarre freakazoid "food." Processing takes most of the nutrients out, and the enrichment puts them back in (often lab versions thereof) . Wonder Bread? I wonder what is in it.
Me making bread? Yes, when I mentioned that I am now a House Husband making the bread while my wife is making it, I was not exaggerating as a literary device. I am really enjoying the House Husband role.
I had made some bread last week from the same organic whole wheat berry flour mix (I buy is from a guy here in Columbia...I am really starting to appreciate interacting with people who run their own businesses as I get to know them and their products/services a lot better than if I went to the local Wal-Mart). He is cool guy and we get talking. Yet, if I keep coming over to his place, he is really going to have to raise his ceilings and the like because I keep clocking my head on door frames above.
Yesterday eve, I paid him another visit...my "wheat dealer" and copped a pound of organic whole wheat berry flour. This came after my visit to the organic Prescott's Patch CSA up in Bainbridge. The farmer grows in fields that have been in his family for generations and have not been treated with herbicides and insecticides ever. His dad, an organic stalwart, resisted to pressure to expand and go chemical...reminded me of the book Jayber Crow. So, I was on an organic tour-de-force.
When, I went to make the bread this morning, I poured my yeast and sugar into the warm water to get the party started. After 5 minutes, I discerned that the yeast was no longer living as I saw not a shred of evidence that it was bubbling (a sign of fermentation). Hmmm...maybe that explains why the bread last week, although tasty, did not rise.
Bread is pretty simple in terms of ingredients...wheat, water, yeast. If something does not go right, it is wisest, like Occam's Razor, to think of the simplest possible solution as why something did not turn out properly. It wouldn't make sense to implicate barometric pressure as the culprit and as the cause of the bread not rising until the three suspects of flour, water, and yeast provided a plausible alibi. And since yeast is the only one of these three still living, it makes most sense to finger it.
So, with this combo of Sherolock Holmes and Betty Crocker food sleuthing process underway, I went to go look at the yeast packages expiration dates. It said best used before July 2008. Wow, sorry I missed your birthday! Another packet, said October 2007. It is like I am running a fridge food museum or a refrigerated time-capsule. Sometimes it can get scary in the recesses of the fridge...maybe I could roll the fridge down to "Field of Screams" down to road for some real life horroring and for some extra dough.
Thus. I had to make a run to the Musser's...the tummy-tucked, facelifted, and liposuctioned Redner's (and they also lasered off the tats) to get some yeast. Done!
Leaven in the Bible can either be good or bad. Yeast (what the leaven contains) is a parable about the principle of expansion for either good or ill. Jesus warned of the leaven of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Since Jesus identifies both, I have to think that the Sadducees were the symbol of dead yeast. They did not believe in the resurrection. No rising here. They were the secularists. The Pharisees were quite active so it follows that their yeast, although alive, has some destructive affect on the dough of the soul to stretch the analogy.
At some point, I want to make home-brewed Belgian Ales (liquid bread). Since making beer is quite a deal more complicated than bread-making, I have put this on my To-Do for next year after I get my Ph.D. I figure learning how to make Belgian is the best goal as it tastes the finest to me and it costs four times as much as other beers.
I have learned that a key element of making Belgian Ales is the yeast. The yeast works through the mash (having good ingredients is another key) in a manner which maximizes taste. It makes no sense for me to make beer that I can purchase retail for 20 dollars like a lager. All that work, for what? To tell someone that I just spent 6 hours, and just as much money, to have the pleasure of creating a brew that is no better than what I can buy at the Distributor down the road. That is pretty dumb in my book. (To complete the Pharisee example, they were making some skanky brew yo!)
Make the bread and brew of your life the best you can. Start with premium ingredients (the Word of God, for we cannot live by bread or beer alone). Think through the process (leavening) of how God can use you. And, get to work! Time for me to conclude....need to knead.
"Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. "
This morning I went to make some bread from the whole wheat berry (everything from the wheat seed is ground up...even the whole wheat from the store takes out elements). White bread is a bizarre freakazoid "food." Processing takes most of the nutrients out, and the enrichment puts them back in (often lab versions thereof) . Wonder Bread? I wonder what is in it.
Me making bread? Yes, when I mentioned that I am now a House Husband making the bread while my wife is making it, I was not exaggerating as a literary device. I am really enjoying the House Husband role.
I had made some bread last week from the same organic whole wheat berry flour mix (I buy is from a guy here in Columbia...I am really starting to appreciate interacting with people who run their own businesses as I get to know them and their products/services a lot better than if I went to the local Wal-Mart). He is cool guy and we get talking. Yet, if I keep coming over to his place, he is really going to have to raise his ceilings and the like because I keep clocking my head on door frames above.
Yesterday eve, I paid him another visit...my "wheat dealer" and copped a pound of organic whole wheat berry flour. This came after my visit to the organic Prescott's Patch CSA up in Bainbridge. The farmer grows in fields that have been in his family for generations and have not been treated with herbicides and insecticides ever. His dad, an organic stalwart, resisted to pressure to expand and go chemical...reminded me of the book Jayber Crow. So, I was on an organic tour-de-force.
When, I went to make the bread this morning, I poured my yeast and sugar into the warm water to get the party started. After 5 minutes, I discerned that the yeast was no longer living as I saw not a shred of evidence that it was bubbling (a sign of fermentation). Hmmm...maybe that explains why the bread last week, although tasty, did not rise.
Bread is pretty simple in terms of ingredients...wheat, water, yeast. If something does not go right, it is wisest, like Occam's Razor, to think of the simplest possible solution as why something did not turn out properly. It wouldn't make sense to implicate barometric pressure as the culprit and as the cause of the bread not rising until the three suspects of flour, water, and yeast provided a plausible alibi. And since yeast is the only one of these three still living, it makes most sense to finger it.
So, with this combo of Sherolock Holmes and Betty Crocker food sleuthing process underway, I went to go look at the yeast packages expiration dates. It said best used before July 2008. Wow, sorry I missed your birthday! Another packet, said October 2007. It is like I am running a fridge food museum or a refrigerated time-capsule. Sometimes it can get scary in the recesses of the fridge...maybe I could roll the fridge down to "Field of Screams" down to road for some real life horroring and for some extra dough.
Thus. I had to make a run to the Musser's...the tummy-tucked, facelifted, and liposuctioned Redner's (and they also lasered off the tats) to get some yeast. Done!
Leaven in the Bible can either be good or bad. Yeast (what the leaven contains) is a parable about the principle of expansion for either good or ill. Jesus warned of the leaven of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Since Jesus identifies both, I have to think that the Sadducees were the symbol of dead yeast. They did not believe in the resurrection. No rising here. They were the secularists. The Pharisees were quite active so it follows that their yeast, although alive, has some destructive affect on the dough of the soul to stretch the analogy.
At some point, I want to make home-brewed Belgian Ales (liquid bread). Since making beer is quite a deal more complicated than bread-making, I have put this on my To-Do for next year after I get my Ph.D. I figure learning how to make Belgian is the best goal as it tastes the finest to me and it costs four times as much as other beers.
I have learned that a key element of making Belgian Ales is the yeast. The yeast works through the mash (having good ingredients is another key) in a manner which maximizes taste. It makes no sense for me to make beer that I can purchase retail for 20 dollars like a lager. All that work, for what? To tell someone that I just spent 6 hours, and just as much money, to have the pleasure of creating a brew that is no better than what I can buy at the Distributor down the road. That is pretty dumb in my book. (To complete the Pharisee example, they were making some skanky brew yo!)
Make the bread and brew of your life the best you can. Start with premium ingredients (the Word of God, for we cannot live by bread or beer alone). Think through the process (leavening) of how God can use you. And, get to work! Time for me to conclude....need to knead.
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