Holy Bread
This past week was a holy week. A weird, distant holy week, but holy nevertheless. For Christmas, another holy time and what feels like another lifetime, my Mother gifted me a bread stamp from Greece. In the beginning of December my Mother went to Athens, Greece with women from Kansas and Nebraska Baptist Mission Board to work with women refugees. By day she served on team working to make refugees lives better. But by night the team worked to help the local economy by shopping and eating and eating and shopping.
From my Mother about this find, With Christmas list in hand, I was looking for something special for my favorite bread baker…after hours of walking…on a side street far away from our hotel…we stumbled into a wonderful shop filled with unique wood crafted kitchen items. Oh to find just the right thing for my daughter.
When researching this bread stamp I learned it's used mainly for Eastern Orthodox traditions when making prosphora. Prosphoron is the Greek word for offering of leavened bread. The term originally meant any offering made to a temple, but in Orthodox Christianity it has come to mean specifically the bread offered at the Divine Liturgy. Mainly used in Greek Catholic or Orthodox Christian and depending on the perspective of the research, the dough is formed into two balls, that are stacked on top of each other and then pressed with the stamp. The two halves are meant to embody two natures of Jesus Christ- the human and divine. If you're interested in more of the historical side of this bread check out Tavola Mediterranea historical deep dive into prosphora. I enjoyed one recipe's instruction when it came to stamping, "Firmly press the seal in the center of the dough. Keep the pressure on the seal for as long as it takes to pray the Lord's Prayer, then remove the seal very carefully."
The special seal, or stamp, called sphragis, usually bearing the image of a cross with the Greek letters IC XC NIKA (“Jesus Christ conquers”). The seal my Mother got me in Greece is a little different. As my Mother remembers it "the design dates back to the Christian Crusades and is symbol of the Greek Orthodox Church today (the cross on the lower right corner)."
And I'm sure you all are curious about how it tastes, well the bread tastes like bread. Wild, I know. It's a close texture half wheat and half AP bread. If you're interested you can look up a recipe but I would say this isn't something I'm likely to make again except for a church service or something similar. I might try to find other ways to use the seal in baking.
Like most right now, I'm working on cleaning out my fridge and freezer. This week that looked like a quiche made with frozen (and kinda old) pie crust filled with bits and pieces of veg in the fridge (bell peps, asparagus, spinach and tomatoes - honestly I could have added more). I'm also trying to empty out odds and ends of my bar cart. A past roommate left a bottle of coffee liqueur, so I sipped on a few Revolvers this weekend.
How are you trying to use up what you have on hand? Any kitchen sink salads or mash-up meatballs going down?
What I'm thankful for this week
The bright sunshine, even though my allergies are a struggle right now. Hopefully the rain today will help with that.
Bible Time on Wednesdays and Fridays for giving me a sense of community and knowing what day of the week it is.
A chance to rescue office plants, only feeling slightly foolish for not taking them home in the first place.
This dumb lil video of the many epiphanies of Jessica Fletcher on Murder She Wrote
What I'm reading - IRL and on the internet
People making teeny tiny sourdough starters to save on flour
Coronavirus, social distancing and hoarding in the world of 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights or Parks and Rec? Read from the showrunners share how it would play out.
I've got a few books going right now - The Guest List, One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter and I finished No Happy Endings.
