Heaven in a Bowl: Famous-Barr French Onion Soup

Below is the recipe for the authentic Famous-Barr French Onion Soup I enjoyed as a teenager in St. Louis:

During it's heyday, Famous-Barr, a major department store in St. Louis (sadly, now it's become Macy's) had a wonderful chef create an even more wonderful version of French Onion Soup. It was thick and rich, and came from the kitchen in a McCoy pottery brown drip soup bowl (like the one pictured here, itself a genuine McCoy) bubbling with melted Gruyere cheese atop two slices of French baguette. It was heaven in a bowl! The store used to sell the soup frozen, along with packages of grated Gruyere cheese and fresh baguettes so you could reproduce that onion-y goodness at home. But over the course of time, the gourmet food section in the store closed, followed closely by the bakery and candy departments.

Fortunately the St. Louis Post-Dispatch eventually published the recipe so onion soup fanciers could make this version at home. I've had a lot of onion soup in my day, even in Paris, and this recipe beats them all.

FAMOUS-BARR'S FRENCH ONION SOUP

5 lbs onions, unpeeled

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper, freshly ground

2 tablespoons paprika

1 bay leaf

7 (16 ounce) cans beef broth, divided (recommended Swanson's)

1 cup dry white wine

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

French baguettes

Gruyere cheese

Peel onions and slice 1/8 inch thick, preferably in a food processor. Melt butter in a 6-quart (or larger) stockpot. Add onions; cook, uncovered, over low heat for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. (The long cooking time makes the onions mellow and sweet.) Stir in pepper, paprika and bay leaf; saute over low heat 10 minutes more, stirring frequently. Pour in 6 cans broth and wine. Increase heat and bring to a boil. Dissolve flour in remaining 1 can broth. Stir into boiling soup. Reduce heat and simmer slowly for 2 hours. Adjust color to a rich brown with caramel coloring, season with salt. Refrigerate overnight. To serve, heat soup in microwave or on stove top. If desired, pour into ovenproof crocks or bowls. Top with a slice of bread and a sprinkling of grated cheese. Heat under the broiler until cheese melts and bubbles, about 5 minutes. Leftover soup can be frozen.

I refused to celebrate it, muchless call it "Black Friday"

Brad Boydston hit it with his Tuesday, Nov. 24 post:

WHEN DID "Black Friday" become a public holiday? I mean, the shopping day after Thanksgiving has been a big deal in the States for years and retailers called it "Black Friday" amongst themselves because supposedly that's the day that moved them out of red ink and into the black. But now they have "Black Friday" ads on television and they talk about it as though it were a holiday in and of itself. And they've even suckered the news media into the whole charade with special reports on the holiday preparations. Marketing hype. Absurd.

When we name things, we give them status and respect. We acknowledge not only their existence, but their meaning for us. It is even more telling when we create our own holidays. Instead of receiving the gift of a Holy Day, which presupposes a Giver, we take matters into our own hands--time and space--and hallow them to idols of our making.

"Black Friday."

The world, in its arrogance, can only ape what God has already brought into being, but in doing so, it twists His good gifts. Black Friday is the world 's answer to Good Friday:

Instead of sacrifice, there is greed.
Instead of isolation, there are crowds.
Instead of vinegar, there are lattes.
Instead of whispers, carols blare over loudspeakers.
Instead of receiving grace, people go deeper in debt.
Instead of darkness, there are wildly blinking neon lights
Instead of forgiveness, there are fights.
Instead of atonement, there is shoving; disagreement; defiance; loss.

Instead of a tomb ready to explode with new Life, there are empty wallets and empty hearts.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks To God

Thanks to God for my Redeemer,
Thanks for all Thou dost provide!
Thanks for times now but a memory,
Thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,
Thanks for dark and stormy fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten,
Thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,
Thanks for what Thou dost deny!
Thanks for storms that I have weathered,
Thanks for all Thou dost supply!
Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure,
Thanks for comfort in despair!
Thanks for grace that none can measure,
Thanks for love beyond compare!

Thanks for roses by the wayside,
Thanks for thorns their stems contain!
Thanks for home and thanks for fireside,
Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow,
Thanks for heavenly peace with Thee!
Thanks for hope in the tomorrow,
Thanks through all eternity!

This is a heritage hymn of the Swedish Covenanters, and today is an especially fine time to sing it.

I also appreciate Norman Johnson's translation of the first verse:

"Thanks, O God, for boundless mercy

From Thy gracious throne above;

Thanks for ev'ry need provided

From the fullness of Thy love!

Thanks for daily toil and labour

And for rest when shadows fall;

Thanks for love of friend and neighbour

And Thy goodness unto all!

Dan Whitmarsh: Anything to make a sale

Dan Whitmarsh has some wise words about the dark side of youth ministry, such as that practiced by Young Life.

Anything to Make a Sale

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . .

Evangelistic-minded youth ministries hit upon a genius idea. Create events that are cool, hip, attractive, amazing, get kids in the door, and then hit them with the gospel. Young Life is the master of this strategy, but it has impacted the entire world of youth ministry. In small ways, it looks like 'throw a pizza party, invite your friends, then we'll tell 'em about Jesus." In larger ways, it looks like "Hire a band, have some fireworks, break some bricks with your head, then tell 'em about Jesus." Either way, entertain 'em, entice 'em with coolness, then tell 'em about Jesus.

One problem: no matter what the Church does, the World does a better job of offering Cool options. While the Church was offering pizza and goofy games, the World invented Wiis and Hip-Hop. So the Church is always playing catch-up, trying to find ever hipper and cooler ways of enticing 'worldly youth' into our doors, so we can tell 'em about Jesus. Or, maybe just to keep our kids in the doors, trying to make it just cool enough that they won't run out there where the World offers all that other stuff.

So, to recap, the strategy is: do something fun/cool/outrageous to get people in the door, then tell 'em about Jesus.

Let's be clear about one thing: the motivation is great. Telling people about Jesus is our highest calling. Creating opportunities to tell people about Jesus is a wonderful task.

But there was a dark side that very few people really wanted to talk about: this 'wow 'em and tell 'em about Jesus' strategy doesn't do much in the way of creating disciples. Instead, it creates instant flash with no long-term impact. The fact that even 70-80% of Christian kids leave the church after high school ought to tell us we're doing something wrong. That we're not growing Followers, that we're not raising Disciples. Instead, we're creating Consumers who will always chase after the next big fix, wherever that comes from. We're not raising young people who understand such basic tenets of Christianity as sacrifice, service, humility, forgiveness, love, grace and mercy. We are, in fact, temporarily distracting young people with smoke and mirrors, sneaking the gospel in there, assuming that, since they 'said the prayer' following the pizza and root-beer gorge, they're 'in.'

And here's today's problem: those raised in this world are leaving their youth ministry days behind and moving into senior leadership in churches across America. . .and they're using the exact same strategies in the larger church.

Like the Church over in the Seattle area that decided to perform live tattooing during their worship service.

Again, the motivation is probably good: create some buzz (no pun intended. . .maybe), get some people in the door, tell 'em about Jesus. Young people are into tattoos. So, bring tattoos into the Church, get people interested, tell 'em about Jesus.

But is this anything more than the same strategy that has failed so miserably in our youth ministries over the last 60 years?

One might also spend a few minutes talking about the nature of worship itself - a holy people gathered to lift up the name of God in adoration and praise, to listen to (and apply) his Word in their lives.

It has always struck me as odd that we have to do all this in the first place. After all, the Church has the most amazing package ever to be offered - eternal life, hope, love, peace, joy, a relationship with the God who created the Universe, redemption, acceptance, friendship. . .For some reason, so many have decided that's not enough, so instead they re-package all that into pizza parties, goofy games, church coffee shops, the never-ending pursuit of 'relevance,' tattoo services.

My hope, as I've stated before, is that people will be drawn to Lakebay Community Church not because we're cool or hip or relevant or edgy, but because they've heard it's a place of hope, a place of joy, a place of acceptance, a place where Christ's light shines into the darkness of our lives. It makes you wonder what would happen if the Church across America would decide to give up this striving for relevance, and get back to the real work of the Church, which, as I pointed out in my sermon yesterday, comes down to two things:
1) being a community of grace and mercy and love
2) going out into all the world making disciples.

Something tells me we just might actually be healthier. We'd certainly be stronger. Promotional gimmicks might fill the pews, but they don't teach people to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God. Only the hard work of disciple-making does that.

Advent Calendars: virtual and otherwise

My father was Catholic, and my mother was Southern Baptist. We kids were raised Baptist, so we never knew about the Church Year, but I do recall a couple of times when we had Advent Calendars. Momma taped them in the window of the back door to the porch, which faced east. Each morning before school we kids would take turns opening the tiny glittered calendar window, and the image within would glow with the morning sunshine.

Of course, we had no idea what Advent was, but we DID know and love Christmas, so the calendars functioned as countdowns for Santa. Now looking back, its sad that we didn't understand their true meaning, but it did give me the subliminal message that the Light was coming.

NOw, there are all kind of virtual calendars online. Check them out at the Yahoo Directory , and Anglicans Online.

Beliefnet has one that is more spiritually-focused.

Here are some other good ones:
The Ivory Jesse Tree Calendar, c. 1200

The BBC Bach Advent Calendar plays a musical extract for each day

The St. Margaret Mary, Naperville IL calendar allows no peeking!

The 2007 Episcopal Diocese of Washington calendar offers daily meditations and pictures from the creche display at the National Cathedral.

OT Messianic Prophesies are arrayed in this Jesse Tree Advent Calendar

Finally, there are the Lego City and Littlest Pet Shop toy advent calendars available at your favorite store, but I shudder to think what they have in mind for the 24th.

Steve insists he didn't write it...!

This was in this morning's Register Guard:

DEAR ABBY:

After 30 years of marriage I still don’t know how to tell my wife she can’t cook. I came home tonight to find an expensive piece of meat I had been looking forward to eating reduced to shoe leather.

In our golden years, we will be able to afford to splurge on expensive cuts of meat, etc., only rarely.

How can I nicely ask her not to go to the trouble of preparing these disastrous dishes? — Wants to Be Tactful

DEAR WANTS:

Because you can’t bring yourself to tell your wife her cooking skills need improvement, allow me to offer an alternative. Sign the two of you up for nighttime cooking classes so she can brush up on her culinary skills and, if necessary, you can take over the role of family chef after you retire. Bon appetit!

Dulles on ecumenism

extract from
Saving Ecumenism from Itself
by
Avery Cardinal Dulles

"For some years now, I have felt that the method of convergence, which seeks to harmonize the doctrines of each ecclesial tradition on the basis of shared sources and methods, has nearly exhausted its potential. It has served well in the past and may still be useful, especially among groups that have hitherto been isolated from the conversation. But to surmount the remaining barriers we need a different method, one that invites a deeper conversion on the part of the churches themselves. I have therefore been urging an ecumenism of mutual enrichment by means of testimony. This proposal corresponds closely, I believe, with John Paul II's idea of seeking the fullness of truth by means of an “exchange of gifts....”

"...Unlike some recent models of dialogue, ecumenism of this style leaves the participants free to draw on their own normative sources and does not constrain them to bracket or minimize what is specific to themselves. Far from being embarrassed by their own distinctive doctrines and practices, each partner should feel privileged to be able to contribute something positive that the ­others still lack.

This does not mean, of course, that the churches should be uncritical of themselves or others. Where they express, or hear others expressing, singular beliefs, they should carefully examine the grounds for such views. But that is different from abdicating or suppressing their special convictions as a matter of ­principle.

With this mentality, Catholics would want to hear from the churches of the Reformation the reasons they have for speaking as they do of Christ alone, Scripture alone, grace alone, and faith alone, while Catholics tend to speak of Christ and the Church, Scripture and tradition, grace and cooperation, faith and works. We would want to learn from them how to make better use of the laity as sharers in the priesthood of the whole People of God. We would want to hear from evangelicals about their experience of conversion and from Pentecostals about perceiving the free action of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The Orthodox would have much to tell about liturgical piety, holy tradition, sacred images, and synodical styles of polity. We would not want any of these distinctive endowments of other ecclesial families to be muted or shunted aside for the sake of having shared premises or an agreed method.

Conversely, Catholics would not hesitate to go into the dialogue with the full panoply of beliefs, sustained by our own methods of certifying the truth of revelation. We are not ashamed of our reliance on tradition, the liturgy, the sense of the faithful, and our confidence in the judgment of the Magisterium....

...The process of growth through mutual attestation will probably never reach its final consummation within historical time, but it can bring palpable results. It can lead the churches to emerge progressively from their present isolation into something more like a harmonious chorus. Enriched by the gifts of others, they can hope to raise their voices together in a single hymn to the glory of the triune God. The result to be sought is unity in diversity.

True progress in ecumenism requires obedience to the Holy Spirit. Vatican II rightly identified spiritual ecumenism as the soul of the ecumenical movement. It defined spiritual ecumenism as a change of heart and holiness of life, together with public and private prayer for the unity of Christians. We must pray to God to overcome our deafness and open our ears to what the Spirit is saying to the churches, including our own. No mutual rapprochement can be of any value unless it is also a closer approach to Christ the Lord of the Church. We must ask for the grace to say only what the Spirit bids us say and to hear all that he is telling us through the other.

Then we may hope that, by accommodating what other communities are trying to tell us, we may be enriched with new and precious gifts. By accepting the full riches of Christ we lose nothing except our errors and defects. What we gain is the greatest gift of all: a deeper share in the truth of Christ, who said of himself, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”



...

Ahead of the Game?

We just got the latest issue of Newsweek, and I had to laugh as I read this. Joanna's been at it now for a year and a half, thanks to our friend David Yu.

According to its CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs is doing "God's work." This quote, care of the LondonTimes(though delivered in irony, according to Goldman Sachs) was met with bewilderment at a Chinese business conference in Lisbon last week, where foreign CEOs and government officials were dumbstruck by the hubris. Many of the attendees blame Wall Street bankers like Goldman for the global financial meltdown and think the U.S. is doing a bad job of cleaning up the mess. "Do you think those quotes were made up?" asked one incredulous Latin American participant.

But America's diminished position in the world was even better illustrated by how quickly the Blankfein banter faded and talk turned to China's growing clout. Goldman Sachs itself is now predicting that Chinese GDP will overtake that of America by 2027. This year, China has surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest generator of investment capital, around $2 trillion compared to America's $1.4 trillion, according to economist John Ross. Much Chinese cash is pouring in to Africa and Latin America. Amadou Hott, CEO of Nigeria's UBA Capital, said his country's future was "now more tied to the East than the West." China's growth is the reason that Latin America and Africa, for the first time in modern history, haven't been the worst hit by a global downturn. During one session in Lisbon, a Chinese entrepreneur was asked to offer advice to Barack Obama on the eve of his visit to Beijing. The answer: Get your daughters a Mandarin tutor.

New gods Need New Temples

We don't build gothic cathedrals anymore. Today we build temples to finance and computing.

Look above and here to see one of the latest marvels. Be sure to read the comments. Here are a couple I enjoyed:


Steve Jobs and the Temple of Boom

And this from Evan_is_MrE:

Yeah, I can see a spinoff cult."Then Steve Jobs was given the Golden Flashdrive which had the history of Machintosh written on it. And as he read from the .doc files written on them, they dissappeared into thin air."

The Selco Credit Union by Gateway Mall in Springfield, OR is another temple close to home. In the same way the cathedrals aspired to heaven, so the Selco building boasts high airy ceilings and open space. The glass isn't stained, but there's still lots of it. There's even a narthex!