When do you know to give up?

I think for most people, a few days, a few times, but definitely when you feel like you've been left behind... but what happens when God tells you not to give up but trust in Him?

The ingredients of a cake alone, are all but gross. But put them together and you have a wonderful tasting dessert that makes the mouth water... that is if you put the ingredients in properly and cook it for enough time at the right heat.

So how do you know what the right amount of time is? Usually a cake cooks at about 325-350 degrees, depending if you are in the mountains or so far above sea level... but how do you determine time? Using a tooth pick seems to be the given way to determine if you've cooked it long enough... if the tooth pick comes out clean it's done... but it doesn't work that way with brownies.... you have to go by what it looks like on the edges instead... and what about bread? or a souffle?

Mom's bangers and mash was all about how it smelled, and the same goes for most baked dishes. But with meat, you have to be careful. Too high a heat and it gets too cooked on the edges and can be raw in the middle...

That's what my marriage was like. Cooked on the edges and raw in the middle. I must have had the heat turned up too high and not let it simmer in it's own juices... One of the best recipes for meat loaf, pun intended, is to cook it low and long... Hmmm.... interesting how we can take a look at our food, how we make it and apply it to marriage.

How many of you cook with wine? Brandy? The flame, it's all about the flame. But it only cooks off the alcohol and then what do you have left? The taste I suppose, but why do you need to put it on fire? What type of challenge makes us want to do that? Is it the colors of it, the danger of it, or just because it's cool? And if we didn't set it on fire, what would happen to the alcohol? Would it burn out eventually and would the taste be the same? Or is the burnt crust that we are looking for?

Me, my Mom burnt everything... I wonder why when she had 3 hooliguns to keep up with all the while trying to make us dinner.... we never showed up on time and was late most of the time... so is it her fault that we took longer to get there and there fore her dinner was over cooked? We were so hungry that we didn't even seem to notice. We just ate it thinking it was supposed to be this way. Oh if we had only known how much effort went into following the recipe just so... we ruined many a dinner for our Mom and never realized that we added to her lack of self esteem. How could she have one when she was always burning dinner? Proper planning works great when you have people ready to eat, but if you have to round them up after it's done, well it's just poor performance on our part now isn't it....

Then there are the delicate desserts... very pretty, very appealing and what did we do? We'd sneak by and put our fingers in it.... no wonder tupperware came out with lids for the jellow molds. It wasn't because of the film on the top that would settle on it in the fridge, it was the poking of our finger tips to see how bouncy it was... sorta like poking someone when they aren't quite awake... yes pun intended here as well... I mean how can you get any positive result when you aren't even ready yet?

Then there's the layered dishes... pefectly timed so that the custard in the middle wouldn't sink to the bottom of the jello portion and then the whipped topping, so fluffy and full that if you put it on too soon, it would melt or so it appeared that way as the air all fell out of it. And what about those souffles? How on earth could you possibly have it not sink when there was so much stomping and slamming going on in the house? How could anything stay up in an environment like that?


So now that the baking is over, the cook has retired and the masses are still hungry for food, I wait until the strike is over in hopes that I'll get some brownies out of it eventually. I can't afford to give up so maybe it's time I learn how to cook for myself?