PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 188: WE LOVE OUR KITCHENS, PT 2

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 187: We Love Our Kitchens – Part 2

Erin Harrison and I continue sharing the wonderful joys of preparing meals for our families and how to turn every meal into a love affair. You'll receive practical tips and a new vision for your kitchen. I know you'll be blessed and encouraged.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Today, Erin and I are here together again to talk about WE LOVE OUR KITCHENS! You want to say amen?

Erin: Amen!

Nancy: Yes! Last week we talked about breakfast-time. Today we’re going to talk about lunch and supper if we can get to that. But what about lunch? What do you do for lunch, Erin?

Erin: Well, we do eat leftovers!

Nancy: That’s what we do, too. I love leftovers! Do you ladies love leftovers? They somehow taste nicer the next day. It’s worth cooking a bit extra, so you’ve got leftovers for the next day, isn’t it?

Erin: Oh, it is. It really is. It’s been something that other cultures have done throughout the ages as well. There’s something in Europe called “Bubble and Squeak.” I made it for your special party. Everybody thought, “That was so savory and wonderful!”

You just take your leftovers and make balls with them. If you’ve got mashed potatoes, just kind of mash it all together in little patties, and then you fry them with a little oil. They’re just delightful, really.

Nancy: I love to have soup for lunch too. I love making soups. Beautiful, nutritious soups! Because, with a soup, you can fill it with so many goodies. I’ll usually use some meat, often just some ground venison, or ground beef that’s organic, of course. The venison is always organic.

I love it when our grandsons will shoot a deer. They shoot lots of deer, but they’ve got to feed their own families. Every now and then, they’ll give one to Nana and Granddad. So, I just love having some venison.

Then I will fill it with so many vegetables. I can hardly count the number of vegetables I put in our soups. Now, when you have a meal, you’ll have some meat and some vegetables, but never as many as you’d put in a soup! My, sometimes I’ll count up to ten vegetables! I always have onions, of course. Onions, and garlic, and peppers. But then, maybe sweet potato and zucchini, and all the things, at the moment, in my fridge. I’m enjoying each lunchtime.

I made a red soup. I made the base, usually I’ll make the base of lentils or split peas or beans. This is a base of adzuki beans which are little red beans. So, I thought, “Oh, I think I’ll make a red soup!” So, I added red onions and also red cabbage. I actually prefer red cabbage to green cabbage. It’s so wonderful. So, it had all these red things in it. And then I added red beets, which really made it red! It’s real red soup, but it’s so delectable. Of course, I added other veggies, too, and put spices in.

Erin: Do you ever use the red palm oil then for your oil to sauté some of your vegetables?

Nancy: Oh, yes!

Erin: I’ve done that, too. I’ve made red soup before.

Nancy: Yes! Oh, red palm oil. I’m out of it at the moment. That last two times we’ve gone into the city, I’ve meant to get red palm oil, but we just didn’t have time. I have to go to an African shop to get that. I love red palm oil. When I’m making okra, I make it with red palm oil.

Yes, a snack I enjoy too, is cutting raw beets into rectangles and having it with baba ghanoush. Have you ever made that? It’s like hummus. It’s an Israeli dish. But instead of making it with the garbanzos, what’s the other word for them?

Erin: Chickpeas.

Nancy: Chickpeas, yes. You make it with eggplant. I do love eggplant. You just roast the eggplant. When you put it in the bowl, you put it with tahini and lemon juice, and salt and pepper, and cumin. I think I’ve remembered everything. It’s rather lovely.

So, lunchtime! Oh, but while we’re talking about food, I just wanted to share with you ladies that the Bible is so practical. It’s not all about these great spiritual doctrines, which it is, but it has so much practicality in it, too.

THE BIBLE MENTIONS ALL OUR KITCHEN UTENSILS

Did you know that, in the Bible, it mentions all these things that we have in our kitchens? Bottles, bowls, cups, dishes, forks, frying pans, goblets, kettles, kneading troughs, knives, pans, pots, plates, pitchers, spoons, vessels, utensils. The word “utensils” is used 100 times in the Bible! The Bible talks about all these things.

In fact, in 1 Chronicles 9:29-32, it talks about some of the jobs of the Levite priests. Some were in charge of the flour, and the wine, and the olive oil, and the incense, and the spices. Imagine that, ladies! You think, “Oh, the priests! They are just there worshipping God, being so spiritual.”

No! Many of the priests were doing practical things. They had to look after the food. Mattathias was in charge of baking the bread for the offerings. Some of the Kohathites were in charge of preparing the bread for the Sabbath. So, it talks about all these practical things.

The Bible talks even about the way we cook. It talks about baking, boiling, broiling, grinding, kneading, and roasting. It’s all there in the Bible. Isn’t that amazing?

ALL OUR KITCHEN UTENSILS ARE SACRED

Do you know, ladies, I believe that we should begin to see all the things in our kitchen, all our plates and bowls, and our pots and pans and frying pans, to see them all as sacred. Because when Christ dwells in us, everything becomes sacred. When we pick up a pot out of the cupboard to cook something, it’s a sacred task, because Christ dwells in us. Sacred things are not just for church. They’re for practical living. It just depends on who we are. If we have Christ dwelling in us, everything becomes sacred.

I love that Scripture in Zechariah 14:20-21. It says: “On that day the bells of the horses will bear the inscription, ‘Holy to the Lord.’ The cooking pots in the Lord’s temple will be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar. Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will become holy in the sight of the Lord, who rules overall.”

So, let’s look upon all our cooking utensils, and everything we have in our kitchen, as holy, as sacred. It makes such a difference to your attitude.

All right, lovely ladies, let’s get on, shall we, to suppertime. Because I think this is actually the main meal of the day. It is in our home, although I may have it all back to front, because most probably you’ve heard of the saying that . . .  

“We should eat breakfast like a king,

lunch like a queen,

and supper like a pauper.”

They say that is better for your health, because you shouldn’t eat such a big meal in the evening. Then you go to sleep on it. But, somehow, it doesn’t seem to work out in practicality in our daily lives, because after breakfast, we don’t have the same time that we do in the evening, where everybody’s rushing off, especially as your children grow.

When they’re little, you may be able to do this. But as they get older, the children are going out to their jobs, your husband is going out to his job. Often, we can’t spend so much time at that breakfast meal. Then, of course, the children are getting older. Not everybody is home for the lunch meal. That can be different when your children are all around you. You may be able to work that then.

But, then in the evening-time, Father comes home from work. Your young people who have got jobs, and they’re out working, they’re coming home from work. The whole family is coming back to together. So, they’re coming back to all be together. The greatest way to gather them together is to gather them for the meal.

So, I’ve always made it a precedent in my life, and in over, goodness, I forget how many years we’ve been married. Let’s work it out again. Yes, over 58 years, I’ve always made it of the most important thing in my day to have the family meal ready for when my husband comes home. I want him to come home and sit down to a good, wholesome, nourishing meal, that’s also filled with spices and aroma that draws everyone to the meal. What do you think about that, Erin?

Erin: Well, I think it’s really important to have your. . . In the afternoon, with your family, to make preparations for this, for the dinner meal. Don’t have your husband coming home after a long, hard day at work. Some of them work outside, like my husband does, all day, on a roof, and it’s cold, and it’s windy.

He comes home, and I don’t want him coming home to zero aroma of cooking food. Just a cold home that’s littered with toys everywhere and junk. Then I’m overwhelmed, and I’m sitting around complaining about the children being crabby all day, and I need help. It’s not the type of welcoming, the warm welcome that a husband wants to come to. It makes it terrible.

Instead, to contrast that, you like him to be gone all day, and he looks forward to coming home to his family. He walks in the door, there’s candles burning, maybe. He smells the aroma of beautiful, savory food, and he sees the warm, welcoming wife that’s running toward him, saying, “Welcome home! So happy to see you!” And she’s got a smile on her face. All the children come up, and they’re hugging their father after he’s been gone all day.

What a way to come home to that! He works all day. He sacrifices. And women do, too, of course, in their own way. But without our husbands working and toiling in the elements of the weather, or at their job places, we wouldn’t be able to have food on the table. They’re doing that sacrifice to provide the income in order to have, to bring the bacon home, so to speak.

So, we show our appreciation by these little things that make it more enjoyable for him to come home. He actually looks forward to coming home instead of dreading coming back to a mess, and a crabby family, and nothing to eat. Then you wonder why some marriages are failing, because it’s just so simple and beautiful to have those few little boxes checked off every day.

I always thought, I would get my children after we’re done with school and everything. We’d always say, “Oh, we’re going to make a meal for Daddy. He’s coming home.” One of them would be helping to peel the potatoes, and one would be helping chop the vegetables. We would make something.

We’d come up with creative ideas together. It was always so fun. Maybe one of the little girls would be like, “Oh, I want to make a cake for Daddy,” or make a little special treat. One of the boys chopping up a salad. We were making it so fun. We made an activity that we could engage in.

Then it was always like right before Daddy would come home, “Let’s make sure the house is swept clean.” We’d run around the house, just kind of pick up the last little bits of junk that were laying around. When you come home, it’s like, “Oh, this beautiful music. There are some candles. Smiling faces, and a beautiful meal to grace the table.” There’s no man in this world that wouldn’t be completely head-over-heels for his wife if she did that for him. And it’s not even that hard.

Nancy: Yes, I know! And there was a time when that was just normal protocol. Every wife knew that was what she was meant to do. We live in a society now where so many wives don’t have that understanding. No wonder their husbands get a bit sick of everything. In fact, I think there are a few important things that we should remember for our husband coming home. What do you think, Erin?

Erin: Oh, yeah. The first thing is, what did we talk about? Our one, two, three?

Nancy: Oh, yes! Welcome!

Erin: Oh, welcome! Yes! Welcome. Welcoming home, a warm welcome is number one, first and foremost, because even if you’re not a very attractive woman, which I’m sure all of you are, but it’s been proven by science that men are attracted to women that smile. Like even an ugly, ugly lady with a beautiful smile on her face, a man is generally attracted to somebody who’s warm and welcoming.

So, it doesn’t matter. You might have a lot of reasons why you think you’re not attractive. Some women have a low self-image. But just think of it this way. A beautiful smile goes a long way. Your husband comes home to a warm welcome like that, he’s going to be so happy to see you. You’re going to have such an amazing marriage.

Number two, a warm meal. Three warm things: warm welcome, warm meal, number two. So, he comes home to a warm meal on the table, ready to go, so he can wash his hands, take his cap off, and sit at the table. He can fill his belly.

Nancy: Yes. We’ll, talk about the warm meal for a little while before we get onto the next thing. I think that is so important. There is something about having the meal ready. In fact, ladies, you’ll find that if your husband comes home, and you’re busy doing other things, and there’s no beautiful meal, the aroma wafting through the home, what’s he going to do?

They’re just going to go and plonk themselves down in front of TV. Or he’s going to go off to the car shed and just tinkle around and do something. Then, when you eventually get something ready, how are you going to get him to the table again? If he’s plonked in front of that TV, he’s plonked.

Erin: Then you have to bring the meal to him.

Nancy: That is not right, no. So, you see, this secret is, ladies, that you get him, before he does anything else! When he comes in, you say, “Darling, the meal is ready. We’re just putting it on the table. Wash your hands, get ready.” And he comes, and he sits at the head of the table, because that’s where the husband is meant to sit, at the head of the table. Not just anywhere, but the head of the table.

You don’t have to say that to your children, saying, “Now, children, I want you to know that your father is the head of this home.” You don’t even have to tell them, because when he takes his place at the head of the table at each meal, they see it. Truth is imbibed far more by seeing, than by being told. They see Daddy there.

The other thing that happens, is that the father sits, oh, he’s so happy to sit down to a good, hearty meal. He's enjoying the meal. Of course, when we eat together, not isolated, but when we eat together, and there is conversation and sharing, oxytocin is released.

We know that oxytocin is the calming hormone, the bliss hormone. It’s a glorious hormone that takes away stress. Your husband can come home, stressed out. But just eating that meal together calms him down. It’s a beautiful thing to do that.

Now, we could, perhaps, talk for a little moment about what we do eat for an evening meal. What do you do? What are some ideas?

Erin: Well, my husband likes meat and potatoes. He likes the old-fashioned meal that’s proven for centuries. I don’t do a lot of gourmet cooking at my home. It’s very simple ideas. I have some sort of meat, and I sometimes make a casserole, or I make a boiled dinner. Or a roast with potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions, and celery, and carrots, and some things like that.

Or a meatloaf and baked potatoes. I do, sometimes I do pastas. Chicken dinners, and gravies, and mashed potatoes. I don’t cook . . . Some people have dietary restrictions and things, and I understand that. You have to watch calories and all this sort of stuff for health concerns. But we want the tried-and-true way of old. Just kind of make the food our grandparents made, and it’s been working well for us, for very sick people, and in good health. We eat a really well-rounded diet.

Nancy: Yes, sometimes I’ll make a big pot of soup, and that will be available for lunches for a few days. But usually, I’ll make a meal with meat, as you said. And then vegetables. I love to have lots of vegetables.

Erin: Oh, and salads. We do a lot of salads with our meals. Or some kind of vegetable. I love steamed broccoli and cauliflower, that sort of thing. Yeah, different food groups. We have our meats, and our starches. Not as heavy on the starches, but lots of vegetables.

Nancy: Lots of vegetables. Oh, God has created the most glorious vegetables for us. And I love to cook them nutritiously, not boil them up in a pot and lose all their goodness. But to just short-cook them or do it in different ways. A lot of people only know, OK, potatoes, peas, and carrots, or something like that.

In fact, when I go to the supermarket, and I’m buying different kinds of vegetables, it’s so amazing, so many of the young people at the check-out counter will say, “Well, what’s this?” And you have to tell them what it is. They’ve got to look it up, and find out, because they’re not familiar with it. Often, I’ll say to them, “Have you ever eaten this?” No, they’ve never eaten it in their life!

I love to introduce the people at my meal table to some of the different vegetables. Of course, we love potatoes, sweet potatoes, we love peas, and carrots, and cabbage. We love all those. But I also love to cook rutabaga. In New Zealand, we call those “Swedes,” because they did originally come from Sweden.

I love rutabaga! Oh, it’s so beautiful! Many of the young girls who live in our home, our Above Rubies helpers, many of them have never ever tried it. But what I do is, I grate it, and then I short-cook it in a little bit of butter or coconut oil. It’s so delicious, and full of vitamin C.

I love eggplant, and I love to do that in all different kinds of ways. Was it last night, I did eggplant pizzas?  I just cut the eggplant in slices, the round slices. Then I put some salsa on them, and some grated cheese, and baked them in the oven. They are so delicious!

I love parsnips. Oh, do you love parsnips? Oh, I love them. I love to roast them, but I also use them raw. I’ll grate them into the salad. I think many times, nobody knows that they’ve got parsnips grated into the salad! But they are so beautiful.

I love to use red cabbage instead of green. Sometimes I’ll use the red onions instead of the brown onions. I love to try the different things. But I also love a meal to look beautiful, don’t you, Erin?

Erin: Oh, I sure do! And I was going to say that it sounded probably like I’m more into starchy foods, but really, I do love to use the vegetables, too. And a lot of salads. But I will say that there is something to man-food, like there’s man-food, and then there’s woman-food. Women tend to love to make exotic, weird creations, and things like that.

I used to do that sort of thing. But then my husband brought me full circle back. We might have differing views out there, but he likes a good, hearty, man-meal. So, to please my husband, I’ve learned to cook what men like.

Sometimes it wouldn’t be as gourmet, it’s still healthy, all beautiful ingredients that the Lord created. But it’s not, maybe, a specialty thing. It’s going to be more like your bare-bones type meal. I learned that, to keep a man happy, you’ve got to feed him the kind of food he likes. Not unhealthy, but man-food. I don’t know, what’s your take on it?

Nancy: I think, well, Colin always said he doesn’t really mind what I cook for him, although he loves to have his meat every night. Men love their meat, don’t they? As long as it tastes nice. If it tastes nice. . .

We, in our home, we do not like bland food. It is very boring. So, I love to really spice our food up, and make it tasty, because if food tastes nice, well, it makes such a difference. You’re not just eating, “OK, here’s some food.” But you’re eating for the taste. God gave us taste, didn’t he?

Erin: And men, they should feel like they’re eating like a king!

Nancy: Yes. I guess some of you young mums, you’re still learning. Do you know that everything, everything we do in our homes, is an art? Breastfeeding is an art. You don’t, when you first have a little baby, we’ve got these young mums at the moment. They’re learning, and it takes a while to learn.

With your first baby, you’re still learning all these things. By the time you get to two or three, you’ve learned the art. You’re such a pro. Even birthing is an art. Goodness, you don’t know what techniques to use with your first baby. But you learn.

And cooking is an art. You learn. Of course, you learn by trial and error. Keep honing your art. You may not feel as though you’re a very good cook at this moment, but you will be. Because you hone your art. You never stay where you are.

You can come into your marriage, and you’re not very well-domesticated, which is sad. Girls should be taught how to run a home, and how to cook. It is a very sad thing, that mothers will allow their daughters to get married, and they are not already good cooks, and good home managers.

Erin: Well, that’s a really interesting point, because when I was growing up, I didn’t take a lot of interest in the fine arts of cooking and baking. I took interest in fine arts. I was painting pictures all the time. My mother is one of the best cooks there is. She made the most beautiful meals. Every day we always came home to a meal after school, because I was public schooled. But she said I never took much of an interest.

So, after I got married, I only knew how to make macaroni and cheese out of a box. Breakfast cereal, frozen pizzas, and spaghetti-o’s out of a can. Or ravioli. Terrible! [laughter] And I didn’t know what to do, but I wanted to be a good wife, so I aspired. If there’s a will, there’s a way.

If you want to make your calling and election sure, you want it to be your calling. Your calling, by the will of God, God called you, as a woman, to be a keeper of the home. You want to be that. You can seek people out.

I used to go door-to-door to try to find a grandmother who would take me under her wing when my grandmother passed away. But I was going, when I had a little bitty baby, I was going to my grandmother’s house, to learn how to knead bread, how to make roast dinners, and different things. She taught me everything she knew.

I was like, I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to learn how to sew. I wanted to learn how to make all these other meals and things. So, I introduced myself to the Amish eventually. I was up there, learning all their tricks and tips and techniques, and how to make all of our clothes. If you want to learn, you can learn. I had zero skills. I believe that anybody who wants to do something, they will make a way to do it.

Nancy: We’ve got to close off now. Could you believe, Erin actually, she actually became part of the Amish? Your husband drove the buggy, and you were all dressed in your Amish clothes, with your little children.

Erin: Oh, yeah. And I learned how to cut chicken’s heads off! Some of the stories you will not even be able to believe them. But they’re true stories. It’s in my memoir. You’ll have to check it out.

Nancy: Yes. But she went into it because she wanted to really learn the best way to homestead and do everything, didn’t you? But she’s not there now, of course.

Let’s close, and we didn’t quite finish, so would you like us to share one more session? I think we will. OK, let’s pray.

“Lord God, thank You so much, that You are so interested in every part of our lives. Lord, You love food. You love cooking. You love being part of our family tables. Oh, we thank You, Father, and I pray for each precious mother listening, that You will draw them more and more into this beautiful realm, Lord God, and that they will see how important it is. I ask it in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

You may have read and been blessed by 100 DAYS OF BLESSING, Volumes 1 and 2. At last, Volumes 3 and 4 are now printed. You will love them for yourself and as gifts for other mothers.