The Gift of a Recipe

Garlic and thyme bread served on the cutting board that my son made for me.

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

“Love doesn’t sit there like a stone; it has to be made like bread, remade all the time, made new.”

Ursula K. Le Guin

Break bread together.

A sign of peace. 

A slither of butter to give those taste buds sweet relief. 

Toast the bread, eat it warm, eat it cool with jam.

What does bread represent?

Bread represents every human.

Bread is broken together in friendship and in strife.

Bread sustains and nourishes.

The bread can keep you alive. 

Bread is made differently all over the world.

But there are common ingredients in each loaf.

Namely a grain that is ground to a powder. 

Add what you will.

Add sugar, salt, herbs or even fragrant flowers.

The bread is kneaded, the bread is baked over the flame. 

In the end there is a wonderful, tasty treat. 

What is in your recipe?

What do you knead into your life?

Bread is ancient, bread dates back almost to the beginning of time.

Those base ingredients make up your recipe. 

Make the kind, make them gracious, make them savory, make them sweet. 

But make sure dear readers that you have the right recipe.

Today we had chili at church, I made a crock pot to share with the members. As I looked around at folks enjoying varieties of chili I thought about this musing. It is like bread, it is like a recipe, it is like life. When you have the right (or almost right) recipe there is love shared. Sometimes the measurements are not exact but a touch, a dab, a sprinkle may make all the difference in the world. I hope as things in this world seem so divided that we can find a recipe that includes love. Genuine humanity. 

This afternoon I was making some garlic and thyme bread from scratch. As I began to knead the bread, an idea started to percolate. Making bread can sometimes be like life. You start with a base of flour, yeast, and water. After those ingredients, you can choose to make it sweet or savory. Those ingredients are kneaded into the dough and they give the bread its flavor. It takes a little time and patience to let the bread rise. After that, you place it in the oven to do its magic. Sweets are not something that I really care for on a regular basis. But bread, particularly fresh bread with butter, is the most wonderful thing to eat. Bread.. has there ever been a time when it was not consumed by humanity? It dates back to 8000 bc. Bread was one of the original heat prepared foods. Across different cultures you can see stories of people breaking bread. It is a commonality that we share as humans. Where did break bread originate? Some would say that it originated in the Bible. Jesus broke bread with his disciples. Other folks broke bread as a sign of unity. They sat down, they talked. They found out that their recipes of life are not too different to not get along. It has often been said that it is hard to remain enemies with those in which you have broken bread. Moses broke bread when he was given the ten commandments. Throughout history bread is a way to reach across the aisle and work together. As I mentioned above, what are your ingredients? What has been kneaded into your mind and heart? That makes or breaks the recipe. When I was a teenager there was a sweet lady that was from a very large family. She could make bread with her eyes closed. She was churn out loaf after loaf. They tasted heavenly. When I asked her for the recipe, she didn’t have one! She said that she just added a little bit of this and a little bit of that. At the time I had to know how to make the perfect loaf of bread by golly! I went to the store and purchased the yeast and flour and hoped for the best. The first few loaves did not rise, the next few were too dense. Each time I tried to make it I got frustrated. What was my neighbor’s secret? I threw away so much flour when I was learning. After much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth I figured it out. The temperature of the water was not right. It was way too hot to let the yeast rise. I tried again, once again, a little too hot. The next time, it was too tepid. Over and over. Finally I made the perfect loaf. The ingredients were right, the bread rose perfectly. The ingredients were kneaded in and the bread was delectable. The same can be said of life. It may take a few times, you may get it wrong. You may add too much salt, too much sugar. The water may be too hot but one day. You will get that recipe right. You will knead the bread just enough. You will have a wonderful loaf that comes out of the oven that is culinary perfection. The secret. Keep the recipe. Share the recipe. Always find a way to tweak it through trial and error… prayer, faith, hope. You will have a recipe that helps you and a recipe that can help others. 

My books are on Amazon!

The Quacktastic Adventures of Ellie and Lord Barks a Lot

The Case of the Missing Moo-Cow Bell

The Case of the Missing Bumbly Wumbly Bee

The Case of the Missing Wellies

The Case of the Missing Honk Honk

The Case of the Missing Ornaments

Clean it Up! Wash it Up!

Coming soon!

Appalachian Allegory: A Southern Novel

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