Monthly Archives: July 2017

Kale Chicken Soup

Family, Recipes, , ,

The house we’re staying in has a cast iron pot with lid, so I got to bake a chicken, and came up with a lot of juice:

  1. chop fronds and hard parts of kale.
  2. Separate tender parts of kale leaves, and line the pot with them in multiple layers
  3. Cut up onions, and lay them in the kale.
  4. Put in raw whole chicken
  5. Cover the chicken with bacon strips and more onions
  6. Add salt, pepper, and/or garlic to taste
  7. Cram leaves in the pot until the lid can almost close (it will lose volume in baking).
  8. Bake 2 hrs at 350 degrees.
  9. Pull out chicken parts carefully: keep bones from falling into the pot; debone somewhere else.
  10. Serve remaining juices, diluting with hot water to taste (not in cast iron, unless you want to re-season it).

Reformed Doormat

Linguistics, Personal, Thoughts, , , ,

Joel and I had the pleasure of staying in a house with this doormat greeting us as we first walked in the doorĖ
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My immediate thought was that it was a relief to be staying with people who were so OK with their frailty that they would greet people with such an openly selfish doormat. Just come out and say it: “I’m a rebel; I only really care about myself.” It seems like we spend so much time putting on a good face, it’s very refreshing to have someone admit selfishness (which we ultimately know is really in each of us) up front. Not only is this refreshing to the rest of us (who see another’s good face as intimidating, because we know what we’re really like inside), but it is prerequisite to receiving Good News. If we insist we are OK, then forgiveness of sins doesn’t really do much for us. But

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9 ESV)

And that is good news, that the rebellion I feel inside can be confessed and forgiven in Jesus’ name!

Unfortunately, moving the door and doormat a bit more makes the above homily into a lesson on linguistic context. Show a bit more context, and the message changes a lot:
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