Cooking by the Book

Cookfest 2007

I absolutely stink at cooking.

So we had a bunch of people over to our dorm so that we could cook for them. I actually found this out the day after my roommates had agreed to do it, and I found my name signed for me on the email invite. Dang. So I cooked my brains out.

I've had some bad cooking experiences before:

(1) I had a hankering for sardines one day, and so I went out and bought some cheap-o sardines (the 99-cent kind, not the King Arthur's kind). I thought, 'You know what? I like sardines, but I ALSO like swiss cheese!' So I took some swiss cheese, put it on my paper plate, then put the sardines on (I tried to dry them off pretty well), then put another layer of swiss cheese.

This must sound so nasty so far.

After I stuck it in the microwave, I took it out to find some lukewarm swiss cheese with grease bubbles all over it, and there was fish juice all over the bottom of the plate. The bottom swiss cheese was soggy from the fish juice, and the tastes did NOT go together.

Yeah, it also smelled really bad, so I took it out immediately and threw it away.

(2) I thought I could bake some cookies without a recipe once when I was much younger. I tried making them with just flour. I forgot the sugar. I took a bite out of one, and all this powder junk popped out into my mouth. Mmm!

(3) I put salt on Cinnamon-Raisin Bread since I picked up the Morton's instead of the Dixie Crystals. I also thought it was a great idea to cook it on the George Foreman grill, but that just made the bread taste like the chicken I cooked on it the day before!

It just gets worse from there in terms of mess-ups...

So I mixed up and baked some pumpkin cupcakes. They were actually pretty decent, and they would have been really amazing had I put frosting on them. Exhibit A:


We cooked up some chili, and I did most of the mixing, dumping, etc. Thanks to Adam's mom for the recipe. It gave my roommates massive digestive problems, but it tasted good to me, and I didn't have any trouble with it (which is odd since my stomach isn't that strong). Exhibits B and C:

So yeah. It turned out pretty decently. I think I'll invest some time in becoming a good cook. I think it would be romantic if I could fix a nice meal for a future wife if she's had a bad day and I have the time. I can't use 'I can't cook' as an excuse for not cooking! I've got some time to learn.

However, I wouldn't mind having a wife that can cook really really well! haha, corny yet true ending. G'nite & God bless you.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. - Psalm 73:26

Pulse Outreach - Day Three Clips & Performance

After-Show Tuesday, Preparing for The Fire on Wednesday

On Tuesday night late, we stayed with a family that cooked a little too well. I mean, really, it was better than Wildfire, so it qualifies as the best food I've ever had. Everything they cooked was absolutely and insanely delicious.

I told them about my expertise as a cook, aka that I'm the worst cook in existence ever. I've cooked sardines surrounded in swiss cheese this semester. It was really nasty. All the fish juice was on the plate, and the swiss cheese was soggy, and the taste didn't go together at all. What the heck was I thinking?!

Anyway, more on my cooking faux pas later. The family was really nice. I stayed overnight with the guys from Sonstruck, and we crashed fairly soon after getting there. I stayed up each night reading Scripture for a while, but I got some decent sleep after.

Wednesday

On Wednesday morning, we woke up to some more inappropriately-good food. Nick gave a devotion for the morning from a Charles Spurgeon book, and he asked if anyone wanted to prepare a devotional message for the evening before the show. I volunteered gladly. Nick then asked if anyone wanted to prepare a devotional message for Thursday at lunch. Nobody raised their hands, so I volunteered gladly again.

We drove to Bismarck, North Dakota, a city of 65,000 people. The trip was a good 90-minute drive. The city had a fairly big youth conference called The Fire, which usually had around 200 people. We were expecting about 800 to come out, but we found out later that there was a big high school football game going on, so we weren't sure what exactly would happen.

Evening Sterf-Devotional

My devotional for the evening was from Acts 3 and 4. In Acts 3, there was a beggar at the Temple Gate (the gate called 'Beautiful') asking for money. Peter and John went in, and Peter said in Acts 3:6, "Silver and gold have I none, but what I have give I thee -- in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." That's one of my favorite verses. Peter then grabbed the beggar by the hand, lifted him up, and the beggar could fully walk, dance, jump around, etc.

Even more, the priests did not want Peter and John to speak in the name of Jesus, even though a miraculous healing had just occurred! Peter and John said that they couldn't help but to speak about the things which they have seen and heard. They went back to pray about the situation, and praised God for His miraculous attributes in Acts 4.

In Acts 4, the Holy Spirit came as a result of their passionate prayer to Him, and there was an earthquake. The Holy Spirit empowered the Disciples to preach boldly, and there was a spirit of unity among them.

Three things I wanted to emphasize --
(1) Let's be united in one mind and spirit -- glorifying the Lord!
(2) Let's speak the Lord's words with boldness!
(3) Let's be expectant of the Holy Spirit to do amazing things, even miracles!

The Show - Wednesday Night

The show was amazing. The Holy Spirit was really present, and the results were very encouraging. We had at least 500 out, 10 or 11 of which accepted Christ for the first time, and somewhere around 80 who recommitted their lives to Christ.

Sonstruck opened with a worship set, and Hybrid Soul closed with their concert. The Fire usually lasts from 7-9 pm. This lasted until 10 pm, so many left after I played for that reason.

My brief message was on Grief, Life Circumstances, and Comfort. It was heavily rooted in 2 Corinthians 1, Job 1, Jonah 1 and 4, Psalm 37, etc. Where do you run when grief comes? Do you run away from God like Jonah, or do you run to our God of comfort like Job? See the video for more details on that.

The Lord is good. The entire week was a massive blessing to the people we spoke to as well as to ourselves. I really am kinda bummed that I'm back at school, because I really want to get out and tour more.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video! More updates later.