Useful tips in the Kitchen

1) Saving Challah

On the very unlikely chance of having a whole left over challah, you can place the challah in a freezer safe bag and store it in the freezer until the following week.  When you are ready to use it remove it from the freezer and let it thaw.  Sprinkle or spray the Challah with water and place into your hot oven for a few minutes.  It will taste just like freshly baked challah.

2) Mashed potatoes

Sometimes it is so hard to get all the potatoes mashed let alone get a nice creamy texture to the mashed potatoes.

So next time you need to make mashed potatoes try boiling the potatoes and while they are still hot mash it with an electric egg beater.  We don’t do all the potatoes at once but a little by little. You will see how nice and smooth and creamy even the most stubborn potatoes become.  We also add butter to our mashed potatoes but recently we added garlic butter to the potatoes as we were mixing them in the mixer and the result was really good.

3) Shredding chicken or beef

We love to use shredded chicken or beef in our breaded pies.  When we first started out we used to used a fork to separate the chicken or beef.  Later we discovered that if we placed the cooked meat while till hot into an electric egg beater while it was still hot and beat the meat it shredded within minutes. Once again depending on the amount of meat it works best to do it in portions. So easy and fun to do!

4) Garlic Bread

Garlic bread is an absolute winner with just about any meal but especially a “braai”.  I always used to hate making it because it was so time consuming and difficult trying to get the butter in between all the slices of the bread.  One day Jacques suggested that we use a piping bag to make the process easier and it worked so great.

We like to first whip our butter so that it becomes nice and creamy and then we add salt and crushed garlic (sometimes even pesto or origanum as well).  Then we cut the baguette or hotdog rolls into slices but not all the way through, normally about 2cm apart and pipe the butter between the slices using a disposable piping bag.  The garlic can effect the taste of any future icing you might pipe if you use a reusable piping bag, this coming from experience.  Jacques holds the slices open and I pipe in the butter.  What a winner and yet so quick and easy.  

For those unfamiliar with this type of garlic bread, after the bread has been buttered it gets wrapped in foil and placed in the oven or grill until you can feel the crust starts to crip a bit.

5) Lasagne with spray and cook

A lot of the time when we bake lasagne it is a bit difficult to get the sides from our baking dish.  One time when we were in the process Jacques wondered what would be the result if we first sprayed the sides of the baking dish with spray and cook.  So simple but it worked brilliantly. We now never pack our lasagne without first oiling the sides of our baking dish.  We also add a bit of  Marinara Sauce to the bottom of the dish before laying our first layer of lasagna sheets.

6) Milk or Chicken broth?

Many times we have to boiled chicken for a dish that we are preparing and it is such a shame to just throw the spiced water down the drain.  There are other dishes that we make the needs to have chicken broth but no chicken so we decided to start keeping our “chicken broth” for dishes such as these.  When we do this we take an empty milk carton or two and wash it out nicely.  Once the broth is cooled we pour it into the milk carton but not all the way to the top. We make an X on the cap with a sharpie that way we know it’s chicken broth and not milk.  Into the freezer it goes for a later day that it can be used.  Milk cartons have an best before date on it so we also not more or less when we froze it and if it’s still good to use.  The great thing about this is that you can tear the carton open and out comes your frozen broth.

Cooking with my best friend!

For those of you who have visited us in Beit Chai knows that Jacques and myself work as a team in the kitchen.  For all the success that we have had in the kitchen this I think is mostly due to the fact that we can work as one unit together, a team put together by the Father Himself.  We celebrate the success of Beit Chai’s kitchen after every meal that has blessed our visitors and know that it is only by the Father’s grace that we can continue in this ministry.

The kitchen is our play ground and if we can play together in harmony and unity then the result is always a success.  Some days there is maybe a bit of conflict between us and then we know that we first have to sort out the tention before we can carry on otherwise there will be no blessing. 

My personal reward is that I get to cook together with my best friend.  I think that this pulls through to most things that we do in life, every minute of our lives should be a ministry unto the Father and we have to make sure that we can walk in peace and unity with each other so that He can rain down His blessing on the works of our hands.

Keep your eyes on this page for more useful tips as we share what we learn.

Our Kitchen

Almost everything in our kitchen has a story.  For those of you who have visited us in Israel and has seen the size of our kitchen can appreciate it when I say that truly it is very small therefore each dish that we are able to prepare and serve, especially to big groups is a wonderful miracle.

Jacques and myself love working alongside each other and we have found a wonderful rhythm of working together.  Each one of us knows what we need to do and we are able to work in peace and unity.  It is a wonderful privilege to be able to work as a team.  

When I enter the kitchen I see and remember each story of every appliance as well as many of the cupboards that Jacques custom made to my desire.  So the kitchen is not just a room where we cook but it is a place where I can relive the efforts of my husband as well as the goodness and provision of the Father.

So just as the recipes are a part of our story so too is the kitchen and I could not share the recipes and not the stories behind the appliances that work so hard with us.

Our stove 

When I first arrived at Beit Chai we had a very small white four plate gas stove and electric oven.  This poor oven worked overtime to prepare the meals that needed to be prepared.  Thinking back I really do not know how we managed to serve all the guests with such a small oven, but it happened and I can just think that it was the Fathers grace.

Just before Pesach about 10 years ago we realized that the oven was not functioning properly and I said to Jacques that I was trusting for a larger stove and oven.  Gerrit, Jacques father, got wind of our desire for a larger stove and immediately took us to hunt for something that would meet our needs.  We looked at a few models and went to different stores to find the best price and found the perfect stove / oven almost double the size of what we had.  We put our faith out to order it and by the time that it was delivered someone had given the ministry a first fruit blessing which coved exactly the amount needed to pay for it.  The only thing was that the space that we had available for it to fit in was too small so Jacques had to break off a part of one of the walls to allow the new addition to our kitchen to find its home.  He did such a great job in expanding the space and then at the same time made a tile boarder across the back of one of the counters which would be the place for the new stove.

What a great addition to our kitchen!  We have prepared so many meals in this oven and on the stove and every day we take care to clean it and keep it in a good condition because we know that it is a gift from our Father.

Our Mixer

In the early days of the Beit Chai’s kitchen we only had a small hand mixer which was given to us as a gift from one of our guests.  This poor mixer worked over time to try and meet our demands.  In the end however we knew that its time was almost done.  We had also started making our own challah but the small hand mixer was not strong enough to knead the dough so we had to do it by hand.  When we realised that the mixer was at its end I asked Jacques if we could get a mixer that could help us with kneading the Challah dough as well. 

My husband has a very unique gift of finding the best product for our needs at the best price and so he started his research on which appliance would best serve us.  He found a very special appliance that had many different functions and also where we could purchase it at the best price. 

During this time we had two very special ladies who had come to help us in the house for a few weeks while we were short of help and when they left they left an envelope for us explaining that they felt the Father had instructed them to give us a financial blessing.  I was very surprised by this gift as they had already sacrificed their time and energy to come and serve at Beit Chai and then also gave us a financial blessing.  We knew that this was the start of the Father’s provision for the new mixer so we  removed our tithes and safely put the envelope aside.  Shortly after this we had other friends who regularly came to visit us and help us for a few months.  While they were here they also gave us an envelope and said that someone who heard that they were coming gave them the envelope and said that they would know who to give it to.  When we opened the envelope after removing the tithes there was exactly the amount outstanding that we needed together with the first envelope to purchase the new mixer.

Very excited we went to the store to purchase our new addition to the kitchen.  Since then we have made good use of this appliance.  It not only kneads our dough but also helps us to grind our meat for the meat pies, lasagne, homemade South African (boerewors)  sausage and so much more.

Like us it works very hard in the kitchen and we are thankful to the Father for His provision and also to those who were obedient in giving when they were instructed too.  

Our Fridges 

When Jacques’s family first started renting Beit Chai the kitchen already had two standard sized white fridges standing side by side.  For many years they served us well but then we noticed that they were also nearing their end.  It was also apparent to us that we needed larger fridges so we thought that while we had to replace them we might as well search for bigger fridges that would better serve our needs.

We searched every shop and every model.  We spent weeks trying to find just the right fit for our kitchen.  Eventually we found the two perfect size fridges and placed the order.  We knew that they would not fit into the kitchen and Jacques had to shorten one of our counters to be able to enlarge the space that the new fridges could fit into.  

We waited very excitingly for the fridges to arrive, but when they did arrive we realised that because of the way the doors opened we had made a calculation error on the space that we needed.  We couldn’t send them back so we had to make a different plan.  We decided that the best option was to take away a piece of the outside wall of the kitchen.  

Thankfully there is very little things that Jacques cannot do so together we started breaking away the dry wall until there was space enough for both the fridges.  

Many years later and they are still a wonderful addition to our kitchen and have definitely earned their keep.  

I love how everything in the kitchen has a great story behind it.  At the time it might have felt like a hassle or a bad experience but looking back it has created a wonderful testimony of God’s provision and also wisdom on how to deal with the different challenges that we had to face.

There are still many stories, even down to our serving plates, pots and pans there is a story of the Father’s provision.  When we work in the kitchen we are ministering to the Father.  We are using our gifts to honour him and serve His people.  It is not just about making food but also giving back to Him and bringing honour to His name.