Cooking, preaching and farting

Back at SCTI  (Sarasota County Technical Institute) for my second (of two) cooking classes today.  Once again I worked with Joyce, a snowbird from Montreal, Canada.

We made Ratatouille Latkes (latkes using eggplant instead of potato), and Baba Ganoush.

It was “cooking made simple” because all the ingredients had already been diced, chopped, cut or quartered by the full time culinary students at SCTI.

Joyce and I agreed that the classes could have been more challenging.  Either of us could easily have made this week’s dishes and last week’s (Toasted Israeli Couscous, and Chicken/Chorizo Basquaise) from a recipe at home.  Neither of us learned new skills.

But the camaraderie was good and I doubt that I would have ever made the Couscous or the Latkes without the inspiration of the classes.

So if I think of the classes as “trying new recipes” (rather than learning new skills) then I will concede that it was a worthwhile endeavour.

It was also fun to observe the other participants.

 

One of them “gushed” at every turn, and described the classes as outstanding.

Another class-member interrupted our chef at every turn, airing an existing expertise gleaned from a Cooking Channel.

These two people reminded me of parts of  my life as a Rector.

I had parishioners who “gushed” at every word from my mouth (and sometimes even admired my farts).

Other parishioners could not wait to impress me with their wisdom and learning.

Fortunately most of my parishioners were good-hearted and prayerful souls with whom it was a pleasure to minister  ---  or to cook up the gospel!