Water in Excelsis

Water above the firmament:
    winter rain descending; the roots of vitis vivifera clutching earth.
Spring warmth:
     water drawn through vinestock, stem, and leaf; tendril, flower, fruit.
Summer heat:
     sun fierce upon the hills; in the grape now, water, glucose, fructose, tannin, acid; all beneath the thin
     firmament on which the Spirit's brooding leaves behind a bloom of yeast; Saccharomyces ellipsoideus:
     the thumbprint of the Lord and Giver of life.
Then autumn:
     basket, press, vat; sugar and yeast wantoning; earth's old September love revived:2C6H5OH+2CO2;
     fermentation; the warm must, its jaunty cap set drunkenly, rejoices in the pleasure of good company.
Here sing and brawl now
     alcohol, carbonic acid gas, acetic acid, higher alcohols, succinic acid, glycerol, and, chief among them,
Water come of age
     in the vast pots of this old Cana, where the Word, in silence, orders up new wine.
Finally:
     racking off, barreling, clearing, bottling; the long wait - for esters: alcohol and acid reconciled, wine bodied
     forth to roundness and a nose; for oxidation: tannin and alcohol softened, corners smoothed by the Spirit's
     thumb, purple shaded brown
Until
     (in Heaven it is alwaies Autumne) earth's last best gift is brought to sere and velvet elegance,
To Wine Indeed
To Water in excelsis.

...

Let us pause and drink to that.

Capon, Robert Farrar. The Supper of the Lamb. Smithmark, New York, NY, 1996. Pages 83-85

Pancakes all around!!!

Pop quiz.  What familiar foreign phrase in our vocabulary is, when translated, "Fat Tuesday"?

The observance of the Lenten season, in many Christian traditions,  is a time of preparing the heart for the yearly focus on remembering the Passion of Christ.

What does that mean for my family?  This is a period of time that we do a Lenten version of the Jesse Tree.  Each night we read an age-appropriate reading with the children, read some scripture and hang a little picture on the tree, as we recall again why Christ had to come and die.  It is an opportunity (and I try and build as many opportunities into our day, week and year as I can) to teach my family the truths of the faith.  We choose to fast from some particular things in order to spur us to recall regularly our need for His Wonderful Grace.  My wife and I read a different book each year of thoughts on Lent by different authors.  This year, we are reading Bread and Wine-Readings for Lent and Easter, which is a compilation of the writings of several authors, including C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Madeleine L'Engle and many others.  And we will participate with a local Anglican congregation in some of their Liturgical services, which are, for us, wonderful celebrations of the awe-inspiring Gospel of Jesus that we thoroughly look forward to.

Do we "have" to do these things?
No.

Do they make us a little better in God's sight? Far from it.  Kind of the reverse.  They clear our vision a little bit, and help us to see Him in His majesty and mercy.  And we are grateful.

Fat Tuesday is the English translation for "Mardi Gras".  Today is "Fat Tuesday", "Shrove Tuesday", or, as we prefer, "Pancake Day"

Pancake Day?  Yep.  That's how it is referred to in many countries.  The idea behind the tradition is that in many Christian traditions, Lent was a time of fasting.  Depending on time in history and location, the fast was more, or less rigid, and so, because people knew they weren't going to be eating eggs, fat, milk, etc. for 40 days, and since those items would go bad, they would use them up.  And what better way to use up those particular ingredients than whipping up a big batch of pancakes?

How wonderful is that?

So, if you really want to be justified before God, then you had better eat pancakes today. ***

***Sorry, that was a little justification humor.  No man was ever justified by eating pancakes.  I promise.  Even if the pancakes were super-yummy filled ebelskivers!  And even if the Ebelskivers were eaten as dessert after homemade pizza!  Hmmm...I'm looking forward to supper tonight!

Have a Happy Pancake Day!

Blueberry Ebelskivers!

Alinea Restaurant

William A. Foster says

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives" (1)

Robert Farrar Capon (an Anglican) says

"For all its greatness, the created order cries out for further greatness still.  The most splendid dinner, the most exquisite food, the most gratifying company, arouse more appetites than they satisfy.  They do not slake man's thirst for being; they whet it beyond all bounds." (2)

Denise Frame Harlan says, in response to that paragraph from Capon's truly marvelous book, "The Supper of the Lamb"

"I'd never known what to do with all the love in my heart for this beautiful, mess of a world.  All this time, I'd been trying to temper and tame my passion for mountains and tea and road trips and cheesecake and people. I'd known God my whole life, had known Christ for a decade, and had focused on Jesus's suffering and sacrifice.  I'd been afraid to love anything too much for fear that I'd disappoint God and prove myself too worldly, too attached to the everyday stuff of creation that would hinder my race toward heaven and the life hereafter.  I'd been afraid, and I'd held my heart back.  Suddenly it occured to me that this fear, this withholding, might be sin.  Maybe I'd had everything all wrong." (3)

Maybe she had.  


I believe that the very good creation of God, when taken in its proper light, can be fingers pointing us, His incarnate creatures, back to the creator, who made us creative in His image.


Alinea is a restaurant that sets the bar high, when it comes to looking intensely at the creation and then continuing the creative act.


I want to go there one (1) time in my life, with my wife.  (A dream my pocket book and consciousness of the needs of the poor forced me to give up as soon as it formed.)


Does anyone want to donate $400? :)


Though the pictures you are about to look at are an exaggerated expression of what I am talking about (with corresponding price tag), I think that God, who gave us all things richly to enjoy wants us to join Him in creation, and enjoy Him in creativity.  

Caramel Popcorn

Apple

Blackberry

Peanut

Bean

PB&J

Chestnut

Tomato

Strawberry

Venison

Hot Potato-Cold Potato

Sweet Potato

Tomato

Note that price at the bottom 

(4)

Citation:
(1) Foster, William A. 
<http://thinkexist.com/quotation/quality_is_never_an_accident-it_is_always_the/226780.html>. Accessed 16 February 2011.
(2) Capon, Robert Farrar. The Supper of the Lamb. Smithmark, New York, NY. 1969.  
(3) Harlan, Denise Frame. "And She Took Flour".  From The Spirit of Food by Leslie Leyland Fields. Cascade Books, Eugene, Oregon. 
(4) <http://www.alinearestaurant.com/>. Accessed 11 February 2011

Low-Brow Beverage Selecting

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.