baking

The incarnation took all that properly belongs to our humanity and delivered it back to us, redeemed. All of our inclinations and appetites and capacities and yearnings are purified and gathered up and glorified by Christ. He did not come to thin out human life; He came to set it free. All the dancing and feasting and processing and singing and building and sculpting and baking and merrymaking that belong to us, and that were stolen away into the service of false gods, are returned to us in the gospel.

Only those who will love longer than they expected to can truly love pecan pie, which doesn't explain its status as death rows most requested last dessert, or why chopped pecans, corn syrup, directions from the Karo bottle's cherry-red side are what mercy taste like to some. But there you have it.

Through enjoyment we endure.

I got the groceries and lugged them all the way to Akinli__ dorm, running slightly behind because I couldn__ get into the building on my own. The university required ID cards to get into the dorms after six, and since I wasn__ an actual student, I had to wait for someone else to come along and scan his so I could piggyback in.__ou need some help?_ the boy asked, his eyes lingering on my mouth.I shook my head no.__ww, come on. That__ way too heavy for you.__e came closer, and again I cursed our natural appeal. I wasn__ in danger exactly, and I knew that, but it didn__ make these encounters any less uncomfortable. I shook my head again.__o, really, which floor are you on? I can____ey, Kahlen!_ I looked up to see Akinli walking down the hall. His button-up was open over the gray shirt beneath it, but I was thrilled to see that he__ at least put one on. __ was starting to worry. Hey, Sam.___ey._ The boy gave Akinli a look and headed toward the stairwell, his displeasure at Akinli__ arrival clear. In the meantime, I felt my mood lift significantly. I was now officially on my first date.

So on Christmas morning I was up at five o'clock, making the fire as bright as a furnace, baking minc'd pies and boiling plum puddings the size of Medici cannonballs, and setting three sides of roast beef to turn on the spits. Soon I breathed again that steam that tells the soul it is Christmas, and all the year' work done, and time for feasting; the smell of oranges, sugarplums and cloves, all mingled with roasting meats.

I always say a little prayer when I put cakes in the oven,_ remarked Eve, as she stopped to kiss Rose good-bye.__hat do you say?___ say, __lease, God, don__ let me forget I__e put that cake in the oven.

While Ginger didn't like the evil-recipe days, she certainly loved the treat-making days. She liked rolling dough and cutting it into perfect shapes. She liked grating chocolate into curlicues and pouring syrups into lollipop molds.

If you bake a cupcake, the world has one more cupcake. If you become a circus clown, the world has one more squirt of seltzer down someone's pants. But if you win an Olympic gold medal, the world will not have one more Olympic gold medalist. It will just have you instead of someone else.

Dad says that everyone invented baklava._ It occurs to me now to wonder what that means. Aunt Aya rolls her eyes.__our father? He is the worst of the worst. He thinks he cooks and eats Arabic food but these walnuts were not grown from Jordanian earth and this butter was not made from Jordanian lambs. He is eating the shadow of a memory. He cooks to remember but the more he eats, the more he forgets.

When you celebrate, there is sure to be cake."Florence Ditlow, in "The Bakery Girls.

Keep it simple, keep it tasty. Salt, pepper and garlic. Shallot another day, lemon grass for nextweek. Nutmeg and cinnamon every now and then.

Polly had a gift for baking pies, and she poured her heart and soul into every one she made.

My first encounter with a baguette, torn still warm from its paper sheathing, shattered and sighed on contact. The sound stopped me in my tracks, the way a crackling branch gives deer pause; that__ what good crust does. Once I began to chew, the flavor unfolded, deep with yeast and salt, the warm humidity of the tender crumb almost breathing against my lips.

Pecans are not cheap, my hons. In fact, in the South, the street value of shelled pecans just before holiday baking season is roughly that of crack cocaine. Do not confuse the two. It is almost impossible to make a decent crack cocaine tassie, I am told.