I have a new post at the Christianity Today women’s blog on Beth Booram and J. Brent Bill’s new IVP book, Awaken Your Senses. The post starts out talking about empty tomb cakes, which I first learned about from my very creative friend Emily: This, year, as last, I’ll make an empty tomb cake for my Sunday school class of 4- to 6-year-olds. I’ll bake one small square cake for the base, and one small dome-shaped cake for the tomb.... Read more
CNN has an excellent series on perceptions of beauty in contemporary US culture. This week’s was on how the age for body anxiety to set in is getting younger and younger: “Fat is the new ugly on the school playground. Children as young as 3 worry about being fat. Four- and 5-year-olds know “skinny” is good and “fat” is bad. Children in elementary school are calling each other fat as a put-down.” The message that “thin” = good and “fat”... Read more
It’s been hard for me to get back into the rhythm of the Saturday-night nursing home dinners. I love Mrs. S. {who was always the heartier eater since I began the palliative feeding project} but I hate how Mr. S. isn’t ever there any more when I go to the nursing home. That’s what it feels like: he isn’t ever there any more. Yes, that’s very stupid, because Mrs. S. is still very much there, and she still appreciates a good... Read more
This week I loved Tom Philpott’s response in Mother Jones to Mark Bittman’s piece in the New York Times. Both guys are in favor of reducing America’s meat consumption for the sake of the health of people, animals, and the planet. But Mark Bittman is not opposed to “tofurkey” type industrial meat replacers and Tom Philpott is (as I think I am). HOWEVER, Philpott points out that there are traditional, yummy, real-food meat replacers–like tofu, seitan, tempeh, and falafel–that, prepared well, we... Read more
The thing about a disorder like anorexia is that it eventually makes you look something like what the dominant culture regards as most beautiful, and achieving that ‘look’ becomes more important than, say, staying alive. And it’s perfectly socially acceptable–for the most part–to tell skinny people how ‘good’ they look. When I was 17 and recovering from major thoracic and spinal surgery, I returned to school fragile and emaciated from the ordeal, only to hear “Oh my God, you lost so... Read more
The thing about chicken soup is that it it can make you think about being sick, which is not so appetizing. And since the curative powers of chicken soup have been written up in medical journals and such, it’s a dish that can have an unfortunate medicinal aura about it, as if you are slurping cough syrup or something. But this chicken soup is not like that. It cooks so long and slow and fragrantly that by the time it... Read more
This little guy is sick now. Because he certainly would never fall asleep on a kitchen chair without something being wrong with him: This virus seems to enjoy attacking people in the afternoon/evening so that it can keep them (and their parents) up ALL NIGHT VOMITING. I’ll be back tomorrow with a tutorial on making Rachel’s Delicious Cure-All–Chicken Soup–but for now we need a little extra rest and a few more cuddles. {Good thing we have plenty of blankies.}... Read more
The current (March 7) issue of The Christian Century has a round-up review of 5 ‘food movement’ books by Christians; since I’m revising my own such book for InterVarsity Press, I read it with great interest and a touch of dismay. Rev. Martin B. Copenhaver, the author, fears the moralism and judgmentalism in food talk, concluding that the “hyperfocus” on good food is a middle-class indulgence; that it’s possible that being “too mindful” of what we eat is itself the... Read more
The last thing I really wanted to think about this weekend was food–funny how stomach flu has a way of making everything seem unappetizing. I started to make a new recipe for flourless chocolate cake on Saturday only to get as far as buttering the springform pan: I didn’t want to eat it, and neither would I want to eat a cake made by someone recovering from stomach flu, so I just stopped right there. And made some blankets instead.... Read more
Usually, for your weekend reading pleasure, I try to post something interesting and edifying from around the Web, but this isn’t necessarily edifying; it’s just gross and tabloid-worthy, but I couldn’t help myself. BECAUSE IT INVOLVES A TUBE IN YOUR NOSE! The UK’s Daily Mail reports on a new, ‘no-food’ diet: “The KEN, or Ketogenic Enteral Nutrition diet, involves eating absolutely nothing at all. Instead, for ten days at a time, a patented liquid formula made up of protein and... Read more
Rachel Marie Stone
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In