Christian Chefs Newsletter
June 15, 1999

OUTLINE:
           Introduction
           Christianity in the Kitchen - Slothfulness
           Learning Subject of the Month - Salad Bars
           Recipe Contest
           Featured Recipe - Garden Brown Sauce
           Recent Job Listings - 0 New
           Featured Website - Epicurious Food

Welcome! This past month we've been working to get our web pages off the free web servers and onto one that is more reliable and does not require the banners that sometimes contain advertisements for anti-Christian products and websites. We're making progress on this, and God permitting, we might have everything up and running on a reliable server (without the banners!) by next month. The other thing we've been spending a lot of time on this past month is in getting a new logo picture. We have a general design for it, and the Christian owner of a computer sales and web design company has offered us the free services of his graphic designer to complete this project. Please keep both of these projects in your prayers.

I believe that almost everybody (to some extent) is slothful* in their ways, whether it's in the physical sense of laziness or the spiritual sense of ignoring God. As Proverbs 13:4 states, "The sluggard* craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied."(NIV) This verse, along with many other verses in the Bible, praises diligence and the profit it brings, at the same time condemning slothfulness as a cause for hunger and poverty, both physical and spiritual. Prov. 12:27, 19:15, 21:25, Ecc. 10:18

The physical form of slothfulness is made evident in many ways; for instance, laziness*, acquiring the love for sleep (Prov. 26:14, Isa. 56:10), making excuses to avoid work (Prov. 22:13), and procrastination (Prov. 24:30). I think you can probably come up with numerous other examples on your own without too much more thought. With this form of slothfulness, as Proverbs 24:34 says, "Poverty will come on you like a bandit, and scarcity like an armed man."

The other form of slothfulness is spiritual. Spiritual slothfulness is much easier for a person to ignore than the physical because its effects are not often seen immediately. In the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30), Jesus talks about how being a Christian involves more than playing it safe and doing little or nothing. It demands the kind of service that produces results. This means that we should ALL be living by faith, not through our flesh. If God tells us to do something, we shouldn't question Him, for who are we to question God? Sometimes we question Him simply because what He told us to do is just not within our "comfort" zone! If it's truly His will, He can and will provide the way for us to do what He's told us to do if we have faith in Him to do so. What church or ministry has God been guiding you to start or become involved with? I truly doubt the answer to this is "nothing" (unless you already are), for God has a plan and purpose for each and every one of His children. The question that should most likely be asked of God is for Him to open our eyes so we can see where He's been guiding us all this time. I say this because many times we ask God to "show us the way," but do you really think God ever STOPS showing us the way? Or could it be that we, at times, ignore His guidance, because what we really want is for Him to show us the way WE want to go?

In the end, we all need to remember that we don't stop being slothful by just saying so and doing it in our own efforts, (Just Do It!) as the world may view it. What we need to do is to admit to both ourselves and God that we cannot stop being slothful through our own efforts. We then need to give the problem up to Him, at which point we will be able to work through it together, growing closer to Him in the process.

*In most translations of the Bible, the word "lazy" and "sluggard" are used in place of the word "slothful". The KJV Bible uses the word "slothful".

By Ira Krizo
CCF Director

If God is speaking to your heart about these things, and you need somebody to talk with, or if you have any specific prayer requests, please don't hesitate to e-mail us about your need and somebody from the fellowship will contact you as soon as possible.

I decided to write on this subject after going to one of the loveliest and most elegantly decorated dining places here in our beautiful resort community. Amidst all the elegance, they had the most awful-looking salad bar. Items were wilted, had brown ends, were poorly prepared etc. Choices in toppings were extremely limited. I sent one of my CCF business cards to the chef with my comments. He immediately sent out a team to redo it. This just showed me how easy it is to overlook this very important aspect of our overall service. As chefs, it is our job to take a moment and be sure our assistants are properly carrying out our orders. If we choose to do a salad bar, let's prepare it in a manner so that people will go away and tell their friends about it!

Over the years, salad bars have expanded the selection of items available and have become very popular in many different types of foodservice. For a salad bar to be successful, enough variety must be offered to enable patrons to enjoy creating their own salad. Basic rules for salad bars are as follows:

• The salad bar should be equipped with a sneeze guard, and standards of good sanitation should be maintained. A clean plate should be used each time a patron visits the salad bar. Serving utensils should facilitate sanitary service.
  
• A salad bar should look well-supplied throughout the serving period. This purpose can be accomplished by selecting appropriately-sized containers and by refilling them when they are one-half to two-thirds empty. Avoid arranging too few food items on plates that will look empty after only a few servings are taken.
  
• Spills, drips, and misplaced food items should be cleaned up regularly. Arranging food containers so spills are reduced is important, and items that could become unsightly should be placed where they will be easy to reach and use from without spilling onto other food. Correct serving utensils will help eliminate untidiness.
  
• The selections should be varied and creative enough to appeal to many different people. The variety of items offered should be changed periodically when serving repeat customers.

I took the liberty of polling all my friends on the Internet to see what they looked for on their favorite salad bar. The result of that poll, along with many years of my own experience, is a fun list of interesting toppings and other items to include on our bars:

I could go on and on about salad bars. I usually use a nice blend of greens, then have my toppings, a protein offering, and finally, a fruit selection. Many salad bars include ready-made salads, like seafood, Chinese salad, potato salad, coleslaw etc. Many of the folks I polled found their favorite salad bars included desserts like rice pudding, Jello, chocolate pudding, etc. One important item mentioned often was SALSA to be offered as a fat-free dressing.

I hope I have given you some new ideas to dress up your dazzling salad bar.

Diane Boone
CCF So. Calif. Representative

Being that we have members from all walks of the food-service industry we're now giving the option for anybody to e-mail CCF with any questions you may have about this article as well as other food or faith-related questions.

MR. FOOD'S MEGA-CHEESE RECIPE CONTEST
WEB SITE: http://www.ilovecheese.com/mrfood.html
PRIZES: Grand Prize: $3,000 and a trip for 2 to Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta; Runners-up: Four cash awards of $750 and a subscription to "Mr. Food's Easy Cooking" magazine
DEADLINE: July 1
INFO: Make a delicious, larger-than-life cheese sandwich that serves a minimum of two people. Recipes must contain at least three cheeses (domestic and made from cow's milk only). Recipes must also use between 5 and 7 ingredients (not counting butter, margarine, cooking oil and spices), and preparation time must be no more than 15 minutes.

My co-workers and myself found the following recipe recently in a "Cooking Light" magazine. This recipe is excellent for vegetarian dishes such as pastas or other vegetable dishes. I haven't personally seen in very many restaurants, a vegetarian sauce as good and full-bodied as this one is. Personally, I haven't seen very many vegetarian sauces in restaurants with as good and full-bodied as this. At the 4 diamond French restaurant I work in, we use this sauce on a daily basis on our vegetarian appetizer (a wild mushroom ravioli).

Ira Krizo

Yield: 4 Cups/473 ml

2T/30ml Olive Oil
1C/184g Chopped Onion
1C/151g Chopped Carrot
1C/113g Chopped Celery
1C/113g Sliced Mushrooms
4 ea. Garlic Cloves, Halved
1/4C/57g Tomato Paste
1/4C/28g All Purpose Flour
1C/237ml Dry Red Wine
6C/1.42L Water
2T/30ml Low Sodium Soy Sauce
2t/4g Black Peppercorns
1t/5g Dried Thyme
1/2t/3.2g Salt
3 ea. Bay Leaves

Procedure:
Heat oil in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and carrot; Saute 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Add celery, mushrooms, and garlic; Cook 10 minutes.

Add Tomato Paste; saute 10 minutes or until browned.

Add flour; cook 1 minute.

Stir in wine, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.

Add water and remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes.

Strain through sieve into a bowl reserving stock. Discard solids.

Store in airtight container up to 1 week in refrigerator, or freeze up to 3 months. (For small amounts, you may want to freeze it in ice cube trays to make it easier to pull out only what's needed.)

There have been no new jobs posted this month. The database of job listings on our website is updated frequently to ensure that all the jobs listed in it are current. If you're looking for a job you may go to the following link to view any previously posted jobs. If you're looking for employees, you may also go to this link to post your job. Both functions are FREE services provided by CCF. All new job postings will be listed in both this newsletter and on our website!

Go HERE to enter the Employment Opportunities area.

Epicurious provides daily menu ideas, feature articles, restaurant guides, cooking tips from gourmet chefs, cocktail recipes, wine guides and a searchable database of over 8,000 recipes from Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines.

http://food.epicurious.com

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God Bless,
Ira Krizo, Director

Christian Chefs Fellowship
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http://www.ChristianChefs.org
P.O. Box 608
Crestline, CA 92325-0608
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