April showers, soup anyone?

Amuse-bouche: Today as I was making a soup I realize that life can be a soup. I know it may not make sense but as you read along I hope you can understand what I mean.

Entrée: When life hands you random ingredients, which I tend to see quite often. I have learned to make the best I can and come out with a positive outcome. Now don’t get me wrong. I am still trying to get the hang of it.

I remember when I was at this little restaurant in the south shore. One of the things I did after interviewing a cook, I would pull out what I call a mystery box and would ask them to make me a soup. I mean any experienced cook can cook you an amazing dish one time to impress someone or to get hired, but I believe it’s the small details that really count. Referring to, one big thing in a kitchen is that we have to utilize everything. Nothing goes to waste. From scraps to leftovers, it takes a creative and skillful mind to make something good out of leftovers or what some may see as unwanted materials. That’s where I find it fun. Anyways, as I was making soup today at work, I had all my ingredients lined up ready to cook them. So as I was preparing the soup I threw my chopped garlic and onions, sautéed it until translucent, (for the unknown cook, when cooking onions you want to make sure they are tender and translucent, that’s the best way one can extract the best flavor out of them) well, as I was stirring them I realized that in life there may be times that many ingredients are put in front of us. As a young person I sometimes tend to get impatient and want to be able to have the best soup without taking my time in sweating (sautéing) my onions good enough. I want to be able to start and end without really going through the process in between, to get from point A to C without going through B. That’s how I see God’s work. Going through the process is a place where the heat is cranked up or even worse stays at the same level and we feel we aren’t making any progress. But one thing is for sure. God has control of everything. And he knows when to throw all the ingredients at the right time. Just remember no matter how bad the heat may feel like or how long it’s been there. God has His hand on the thermostat. He knows how long it will take to extract the best of us.

Dessert:So my advice from personal experience is just to hang on. If not, the same process will repeat itself until the best soup is made. Now imagine if those onions would jump out of the pot and complain to me; “turn down the heat!”, “I don’t want to be bothered!” Sometimes in life we are like that with God. We say, “Why” this, “why” that. He knows what we can produce, if we don’t lay ourselves to his service then others won’t enjoy the tasteful soup God is stirring up.