Lesson from the kitchen…

Is it possible to have a calzone deficiency? Not calcium, but calzone…a baked Italian turnover filled with vegetables, meat and cheese. If it is possible, I think Craig suffers from it. Every now and then, he starts craving them and can’t seem to get enough of them when I do fix them. For those of you who don’t know Craig, you may think this is typical nineteen year old behavior. But not for Craig. He doesn’t eat that much, so as a mother, it delights my heart to see him enjoy a meal so much.

Calzones are very time consuming. Many times when Craig wants them, he waits until almost supper time to ask for them. You see, calzones take several hours to prepare. Oh, I could cut my time drastically if I bought pre-made pizza dough at the store. But they wouldn’t be the same.

Yeast is an amazing thing to me. If you put yeast, water and sugar in seperate containers, side by side and watch them…well, that’s about as boring a time as you can have. But put them together and they get happy…in a hurry! It’s fun to watch the yeast bloom into a beautiful foam. Mix it with the salt, flour and oil and, since I have a Kitchen Aid mixer (I love you Jim!), kneading the dough only takes about ten minutes. I take it out, form it into a ball, put it in a bowl with a little oil and cover it up. And then, I wait.

To get a good rise out of the dough, you have to let it rest for about sixty minutes. Then I punch it down, and let it rest again. Thirty minutes later, I’m ready to put the calzones together. I divide the dough, spoon in the filling, crimp the edges and bake them. Mmmm….brush the tops with garlic butter when they are brown, and pour some marinara sauce over the top. Delicious!

I’ve tried in the past to take short cuts with the dough. I’ve tried to speed the process by warming the dough in the microwave. I’ve tried shortening the resting period. I mean, you still get calzones…but the difference is blaring. To get them to taste right, the dough has to rest. And when its ready, it will rise and produce a flaky, tasty morsel.

I can definitely see myself in this process. Often times, I want to hurry God up, make him work at my pace. Some days I feel like I’ve been kneaded and punched down more than I can take and I want to shorten that process too. But the resting part, the part that actually sounds the most appealing, is the part I always seem to rush the most. I get impatient and want to move ahead of God. Why can’t I wait on him? Why do I want to run ahead…to be in control?

I see in my mind a knight, kneeling before his king. The king lays a sword on the knight’s shoulder, gives him instruction and then orders him to rise and go forth and do his bidding. There is an order to the process…the knight does not go out without consulting with the king. He must get his instructions and then go.

As you can tell, if you’ve read many of my blogs, I love music. One of my new favorites is called I Will Rise, by Chris Tomlin. My favorite part is the refrain.

I will rise, when He calls my name, no more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise, on eagles’ wings, before my God, fall on my knees and rise.

Now that is a recipe for sucess. Fall before God…wait until He calls my name…and then rise.

But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength: They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
                                                                             -Isaiah 40:31