All of this started because of the pandemic.
No wait…
All of this started because I was rereading a book by historian and chef Michael Twitty.
No wait…
All of this started because I missed home. I missed the South.
I missed tasting black eyed peas and pintos.
I missed grits.
I missed collard greens flavored with salted pork with a heavy dose of Texas Pete hot sauce.
I missed cornbread.
I missed biscuits and I missed them with gravy.
All of these things led me into the kitchen one morning. It was there that I began to address the nostalgia pains of certain foods, where I found contemplation about myself and neighbors, and where my prayers began to form along with the shaping of biscuits.
Over the past several months, I’ve risen early EVERY morning. Cooking, baking, failing, learning. I’ve shared photos and short videos on social media, but I haven’t really gone “next level” with any of it. This is a hobby, but it's also becoming a passion. Viewing the kitchen as a sanctuary is given me life, it’s offering me consolation. And, I think it’s becoming one of the roots of my vocational “call.”
I’m on a journey right now. Making my way through all sorts of cookbooks from Southern chefs and those who love the cuisine of the Low Country, Appalachia, the Delta, etc...I’m introducing my New England neighbors and parishioners to the foods that fed me and the tastes I love...and I’m letting them do the same for me (hint, there’s a lot of maple syrup on their end).
In the coming weeks this section of blacksheepbaptist.com is going to be “living” and evolving into something that doesn’t have a “finished” design in mind just yet.
The format might change. The look might change. And I’m okay with that and I’m asking you all to be too. My hope is to post twice a week of the things that are coming out of my oven and being developed on my stove top. Some will be recreations from old recipes. Others will be “frankenstein-ish experiments” since I’m starting to learn and develop certain know-hows, just enough mind you, to be both dangerous and courageous in attempting my own culinary creations.
Mixed in with the butter and bacon drippings is a sacramental emphasis. Breaking bread with and for others has meaning to me on a spiritual level. My intention is to share what I make; always. In doing so, I’m really wanting to see how far I can make the “Communion Table” go. There’s a famous Southern restaurant chain called Waffle House. There open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They never close, but are always “open.” I want to see if Communion can function in the same way.
“I want a Waffle House Theology;
always baking, always sharing, and always open.”
This is the introduction. I’ll be getting things in order for the remainder of January. Look for recipe write ups, recommendations, amateur food pics, and probably a video or two (with full blown early morning right out the bed hair complete with a union suit) in the first week of February.
I’m looking forward to breaking bread with you, baking with you, and praying with you.
Here we go.
Cheers,
~tBSB