Tag: Humor

Let them eat cake

Well, all that dialogue in the last post has made me quite hungry. Everyone who knows me will tell you I have more than one sweet tooth. Bill has really inspired me to rethink me habits, and consider name-calling as an evangelistic “technique”. As a dry run, I’ll probably just start with snarky sarcasm, as it has served me quite well in the past, if only to avoid growing hopeless. No, I’m joking. I won’t really go down that road too far.

I’d like to thank all the people who posted, and others who may join in later, and of course all who visited just to read, chuckle, or wipe the tears away as they realized the state of Christianity, or remembered being treated badly by Christians. 

So, after all this you might be wondering, as I have been, what on earth, or what in hell, do children of the devil eat? I mean primarily (besides sulfur, of course). It’s really the burning question, isn’t it? Well, the answer has been right in front of most of us all along. Cake. Devil’s food cake. 

I found this recipe in Bill’s underwear drawer, but trust me, he’ll deny the whole thing to his grave.

I’ll rename the recipe here as-

Bill’s Children of the Devil’s Food Cake

This recipe is down right sinful. Holy Rollers, God-fearers, and agnostics alike will agree, if you like chocolate, and fudge, this will be your guilty pleasure.

devilcake

The following is a recipe for devil’s food cake with cocoa and fudge frosting, not the picture shown which came from here.

I’ll just finish off with one more thing. Let’s enjoy each other, enjoy this beautiful world, and enjoy God. Let’s act and be beautiful to each other. Life is too short to waste on things that take away from God’s gifts.

I welcome dissenting viewpoints and comments from any visitor. Keep the posts coming. (And please read the guidelines on “The Skinny” page) The page called The loop is the contact page. Blessings all.

-Lisa


Time for CAKE!

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups milk, scalded
  • 2 cups cake flour, sifted or stirred before measuring
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup shortening
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation:

Grease two 9-inch layer cake pans and line bottoms with wax paper. Grease wax paper. Sift the cocoa with 1/3 cup sugar; pour into the milk gradually; stir until well blended. Set aside to cool. Sift together flour, remaining 1 cup sugar, soda, and salt. Add shortening and half of the cooled cocoa and milk mixture. Beat at medium speed of an electric hand-held mixer. Add eggs, vanilla, and remaining cocoa and milk mixture. continue beating for about 2 minutes, scraping bowl with a spatula occasionally. Pour into prepared pans. Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes; turn out on racks and peel off paper. Cool and frost devil’s food cake as desired.

Fudge Frosting:

Chocolate fudge frosting recipe is cooked to a fudge consistency.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
  • 2/3 cup evaporated milk
  • 3 squares (3 ounces) unsweetened baking chocolate
  • 1/4 cup butter or margarine
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, corn syrup, milk, and chocolate; stir to blend well. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture forms a very soft ball when a small amount is dropped into cold water, or about 232° on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat; add butter without stirring. Set aside and let cool until bottom of pan is lukewarm, about 1 hour. Add vanilla and beat until frosting is creamy and just begins to hold its shape. Spread quickly on cake before frosting hardens. Makes about 2 cups.

 

 

 

(link to this and other recipes)

Humor as Spiritual

falljpg

For my very silly side, I have another blog. It mainly serves as a stress reliever to help me through the tension of taking 3 graduate classes at a time, and it includes the extra silly nonsense of Trevor the traveling gnome, and his adventures. (Just google him, if you care to see it).

It’s gotten me to wonder about God and humor, and what spirituality it all contains.

I have grown to understand nothing is UNspiritual. That is, all is spiritual. As C.S. Lewis said, “We don’t have a soul, We ARE a Soul. We have a body.” God is Spirit. He breathed the breath of Life into us–Spirit. So, I don’t image life could not be spiritual, unless we are simply trying to convince ourselves otherwise.

In studying what humor actually is, how we perceive it. (That is, the Science, and even the math, of humor.) It boils down to irony, which is essentially carried out in surprise. This has much to do with the ability to choose freely as humans as well. Also, on a side note, if we all knew what would happen it the future, nothing would be ironic. Controlling the punch-line means we can create an ironical effect.

If you take the simplest form of humor, slapstick, such as “the pratfall,” (like slipping on a banana peel) you’ll see what I mean. Simply put: A person falls down suddenly when you expect that they should remain standing. Many interpret this as humorous. It has to do with expectations, the set up and patterns built in, and then the sudden change. It has to do with ideals too. Yes, some don’t find humor in it. It’s perspective too. But, just about any humor involves irony of some kind, satire does too. Satire is a high form of humor which points out the truth to illicit change. It pokes fun, but in doing so, it pits what is happening to what should happen or ought to happen, so the difference stands out to us. What is most excellent or beneficial is the ideal that is not happening, so it is “on trial” in a sense, through humor. So, we understand it, and the process or “the human weakness on trial”, to be funny, especially if we agree with the comedian’s perspective.

Why might it all be spiritual? Humor, if you think about it has much to do with Ideals that point off the map–or what “ought to be”. Eternal truths reveal an Eternal Mind. In a positive light, when things don’t match up, they are ironic, and we find it amusing. So, we laugh. Imperfection of humanity is amusing. It lets us “off the hook” for not matching up to perfection. People without humor, are no fun, really, correct? They can’t laugh at their mistakes, and they take life and everything much too seriously. It’s hard for them to improve or grow, too.  Laughing makes being human easier to bear. It’s gracious living. It’s good medicine to laugh, so it’s spiritual to laugh. It brings health and relief to the human Soul.

It’s also spiritual because it is a way to share with the Divine in Joy, which is a sturdy happiness, that points off the map of the tangible things of this world to the Divine. Joy exists (and may be felt) in a permanent sort of way through pain, sorrow, gladness, and the rest of normal life.

Leave your thoughts about humor, if you’d like.