It’s almost Easter and most members of my church are doing some form of the Daniel Fast in the 21 days before Easter. Mark and I, after much discussion, decided to jump on the bandwagon. Loving God, we made a promise to each other and God to give it our all.

We started out with a modified version, giving up sugar and meat. After a day or two we added wine and yeast and now once we run out of our yogurt and other dairy products those too will be eliminated. Mark has been studying his bible diligently and I am rereading Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life. In loving God, we are giving some of our favorite things to eat, which is amazing and humbling all at the same time. I’m glad we made the decision to do this, and I have pulled out my favorite old vegetarian cookbook, The Moosewood Cookbook.

I lost my original copy that I bought when I was in high school, but luckily one of my dearest friends bought me a new copy a couple of years ago.  She knew I had loved that cookbook and took the time to find me a new copy…of course, that’s what dear friends are for (thank you Helen!).  The cookbook reminds me of the 70’s, when being vegetarian was really cool.  Anyway, I pulled out the cookbook and fell in, remembering all the great recipes I had made.  Here was the original Hummus and Tabouli recipes I modified to my liking.  The favorite stir fry sauces and vegetable stews.  And the orange poppyseed cake Helen and I had tasted many years ago at a party we were invited to at our friend Joe’s house.  A girl there brought it for dessert and we were excited to find out she used the Moosewood Cookbook’s recipe. Of course, I had to give it a try myself, and made that cake lots of times for different occasions, but it never tasted quite as good as at that party so many years ago.

So, in giving up something for God I have gained something from Him- the gift of fond memories, tied up in that favorite cookbook.  And for that I am truly grateful.  Amen!