I discovered the blog http://www.mennonitegirlscancook.ca/ and really enjoy the idea of Mennonite recipes being shared in a blog and now in a cookbook.
The contributors describe their blog in the following way:
We are a group of ten women who share recipes and and our faith, with a purpose, inspiring hospitality while using our resources to help needy people around the world. A simple recipe blog that started to document our family favorite recipes began in 2008 has resulted in two cookbooks.
Mennonite Girls Can Cook .. . is more than just recipes. We encourage you to think about HOSPITALITY versus entertaining. Our hope is that you find the joy in BLESSING versus impressing. Our recipes are about taking God's bounty, and co-creating the goodness from God's creation into something that we can use to bless family, friends and those who need a caring meal. We take everyday ingredients to make recipes which will nourish, provide energy and delight our taste buds.
http://www.mennonitegirlscancook.ca/p/about-us.html
I contacted the women with a list of ideas about food, faith, being Mennonite, and eating disorders, and Anneliese found one of my questions intriguing and has written a guest blog.
I appreciate her thoughtful response and hope that it encourages continued dialogue about eating disorders, food, and faith.
Food and Faith
Question: How did growing up in a Russian Mennonite
family affect your relationship to food? Did your family come from a history
of shortage? If so, how does that affect how you view food
consumption/restriction now?
From Anneliese of mennonitegirlscancook.ca
Growing up in a Mennonite home I knew that
my mom would always have something prepared for meals. Even when she worked
full-time, I never heard an excuse coming from her, saying she did not have
time to cook. There was not a lazy bone
in her, the biblical meaning of which was lived out in both of my parents’
lives. She made things from scratch as much as possible, ever conscious of the
cost of prepared foods. She prepared ahead by having keeping basic ingredients
in the house, making soups, baking breads and preparing home-made food to pack
for lunches. We did not grow up with snacking foods, when the meal was served
we were hungry and the food was nourishing. Mealtimes were family times. We
waited for each other and talked about our day. It was a time to connect.
My father and my grandmother went through
food shortage and hunger in Russia during
the war and later, in Germany, after the war. My father had to look for
food in trash cans and my grandmother shared with me how her health suffered
from lack of sugar and butter. I often take her words into consideration now,
with the talk of how both are not good for you. The fact that hunger was
something very real to my father played a big part in how he raised us. We were
not allowed to complain about food and we were not allowed to throw food from
our plate into the garbage. We were taught to give thanks for our food and to
be grateful for full tummies.
This brings me to something I consider to
be important in my view of food, be it consumption or restriction. I believe
that the giving of thanks for what God has given plays a vital role in how food
affects us. When we realize food is a gift from the One who provides for our
needs, we will be careful about how we handle it. We will not try to find fault
with it unnecessarily, be it the ever fluctuating views about foods or just
plain pickiness, which shows ungratefulness. I believe that the giving of
thanks can bless food to cleanse it in instances where we have no choice. There
are times I question some of today’s dietary restrictions and where they are
coming from. Obviously there are situations where it is very important to
follow a certain diet, but sometimes our self induced diets can lead to a life
of problems, stemming from some form of worry or ungratefulness, which is
exactly where the enemy of our souls would have us be. So let us give thanks to
Him who made the world along with the food we eat and blessed it, proclaiming
it to be good.
Exodus 23: 25
“Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on
your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you.”
1 Timothy 4:4
“For everything
God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with
thanksgiving.”
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