Nostalgic Nile Meal
Baked salmon with a side of salad and melon balls
Including cucumbers, leeks and onions with garlic butter sauce
From Numbers 11
Baked salmon with cucumber salad and melon balls - From Numbers 11
It's been more than a year of traveling for the Israelites.
Oh, the sulking!!!! It's like a parasite that feeds on us, thrives through us day after day. If only I can look like that person, if only I can earn like that person, if only I can be that person...If only ..if only...if only... Wait a minute here! I feel like I started sulking just by thinking about sulking....lol!
I was looking for synonyms for sulking; it ranges from mope to pout to grumpy.
Have you ever seen kids with pouting faces, crossing their arms around their chest to show us they are grumpy? Cute, isn't it? Only, when the adults do the same, it doesn't look very cute anymore. Why is that? Why is it cute when a child is pouting, but when an adult is doing the very same thing, not so much?!
We see such an act in Numbers 11. The Israelites are in the middle of Exodus from Egypt and they were protected and provided for, day in and day out by God himself. They just got out of the land of slavery and are going to their promised land. They witnessed countless miracles and wonders. One in particular is parting the Red Sea. I mean, can anything get more miraculous than that?
In Numbers 11 we see that some trouble makers among the crowd started craving for the food they had in Egypt.
Numbers 11: 4,5
The rabble with them began to crave other food and again the Israelites started wailing and said. 'If only we have meat to eat!. We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost - also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna.'
But what is this manna?
Numbers 11 :7, 8
The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.
What else do we know about manna?
Exodus 16:31 says,
The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.
Let's decode this for a minute here. It was like a coriander seed but looked like resin and white in color. It tasted like honey wafer - I imagine that it should have tasted heavenly!
I am sure the Israelites would not have tasted anything like that before, so the name 'Manna' - means 'What is it?' They quite literally do not have a clue of what it is.
Still after one year of eating that heavenly food, they got sick of it, they lost their appetite just by thinking about it. Not just that! Now they started craving food from Egypt. The very place where they were slaves and treated miserably. The very place they wanted to be rescued from. The very place God delivered them from.
They craved a part of their past! Leeks, onions, garlic, cucumbers, melons, fish... in their memory, anything and everything tasted better than manna.
This is the layer I wanted to talk to you about today. Nostalgia!!!
Nostalgia: A wistful or excessively yearning for return to or of some past period
If you think 'sulking' is dangerous, just wait for 'over romanticizing our past.’ We give a fairy tail spin for some parts of our past. Why do we do that? Was it really that blissful? Oftentimes, while over romanticizing our past, we fail to see the blessings of our present. That will very much lead to losing the hope for our future as we tend to lose all those precious lessons God taught us over that period.
Let me say that again,
Over Romanticizing our past = Failure in seeing the present blessings = Losing hope for the future
And how exactly we do it tends to be personalized. I call it 'personalized arrow'. The enemy uses personalized arrows based on every single person. Nostalgia is a perfect avenue for that.
Genesis 19:17,
As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!"
Genesis 19:26,
But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
When God brings us out of something, do not turn back. Let us not be like Lot's wife - keep going ahead. Sometimes the enemy will form a personalized arrow for you saying, 'Were you really miserable? Didn't you have fun? Didn't you have a better life then? Are you sure this is where God wants you to be? Remember your old place, old ways? It was much better than how you are doing now, isn't it?'
No, don't turn back! Remember how far God has brought you. Remember how you felt when you actually realized that you were not tied anymore, but free. If you have journaled those memories by any chance, dig it out, read it, remember it. If not, talk to someone who was with you in that very phase of life. Bring back the actual memories, not the romanticized ones.
Isaiah 43: 16-19
This is what the Lord says,
(Past) - He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
(Present) - Forget the former things:do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up: do you not perceive it?
(Future) - I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Forgetting your past and romanticizing it can lead to missing out on the blessings of the present and in turn losing your hope for the future. Let us not be that. The Lord who rescued us from the pits is making a new thing in our lives. Do not dwell on the past. He is making a way for us in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland of our life. Let us walk forward and receive the hope and blessings God wants us to have.
Finally,
In Luke 17:32,33 Jesus says,
'Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.'
Let's preserve our lives with Jesus as our Savior!
Nostalgic Nile Meal recipe:
Baked salmon with herbs
Side salad of cucumbers, leeks, onions and garlic
Melon balls- scooped melon balls on the side
Side Salad Recipe:
Salad with cucumber, leeks, onion, cilantro, tomatoes with garlic olive oil dressing.
Ingredients:
1 large cucumbers
1 large white part of leeks
1 Tbsp. sliced onions
1 Tbsp. chopped red tomatoes
1 Tbsp. chopped cilantro
For the dressing;
4 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 Tsp. crushed garlic
1/2 Tsp. crushed red pepper
1/8 Tsp. salt
1 Tsp. grated Parmesan Romano cheese
Method:
Make the dressing first and you can refrigerate it until ready to use. Combine all the thinly sliced veggies and drizzle with the dressing before serving.
Baked Salmon with Herbs Recipe:
Baked salmon with garlic butter
Ingredients:
1.5 lbs. Salmon with skin
2 Tbsp. salted butter
2 crushed cloves of garlic
1/4 Tsp onion powder or if using onion paste then use 1/2 Tsp.
1 Tbsp. chopped cilantro
1/2 Tsp. paprika
6 lemon slices
Salt and Pepper as needed
Method:
1. Wash and pat the salmon dry. Sprinkle with desired salt and pepper.
(I used 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper)
2. Place the the garlic, onion, cilantro, paprika in a food processor. Melt the butter in the microwave and while it’s still warm, add it to the processor and blend it into a paste.
3. Rub it all over the fish on both sides. Cover it with aluminum foil. Bake it in 375 for 17 minutes or shallow fry it in the skillet with a bit of olive oil until done. I threw in some of the Leak leaves along with the fish while baking. It tasted amazing.
4. Uncover the foil and broil for 5 minutes.
5. Sprinkle it with finely chopped cilantro and drizzle it with lemon juice before serving.
Melon Balls:
I used a ripe Cantaloupe for this recipe. Cut the fruit in half and using a small ice cream scooper, scoop out the sweet part of the melons in balls. You can use any kind of melons for this.
--
Bindhu Jachin
