Aprons, the Armor of God, and Underwater Mines

Last week I attended "Third Tuesday with Friends" at my church.  TTF is a fun evening for ladies of all ages from the church and friends of church attendees.  The group usually does some kind of a little game, a short devotional and lots of good desserts!  The lovely ladies who organize this event each month are very artistic, talented and make good desserts!


This month the theme was Once Upon an Apron.  The loose connection was to the armor of God which was the theme of the devotional.


Ephesians 6:11-17 (NASB)


11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 
13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
14 Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE     BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 
15 and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; 
16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 
17 And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.


Both the armor of God and the apron protect us; the first from the evil one (Satan) and his minions and the second from food spills as we prepare meals. Of course, that assumes we put them both on.  I was surprised at the number of ladies who still do wear aprons.  I'm not sure I had ever worn an apron before!  So, when we were informed we ALL had to wear aprons for the evening, I was at a loss as were several other ladies who did not bring or own an apron.  LOL, one lady came prepared with a whole bunch of aprons so we could each borrow one!


After an "Apron Parade" we were asked to share our "Apron Stories" with the group.  Several women had great stories associated with their aprons.  Some aprons were made by mothers or grandmothers.  Very touching stories.  I did not have an apron story but all the discussion somehow made me think of my father although I doubt he ever wore an apron.  So, I shared one of my stories about my father's cooking.


OK, I know, my thought processes are strange!  What can I say?  Remember the name of this blog!  But, I shared my father story.


My father was 20 years older than my mother.  He was born in 1894 and died in 1972 at the age of 78.  My father retired at age 65 in 1959 with 3 children under 18.  He was a late bloomer but he bloomed beautifully!  After his retirement, he had a part-time job maintaining the lawns and landscaping for Mesier Park in Wappingers Falls, NY but he also took on most of the "domestic" duties at home because my mother went to work full time - social security isn't/wasn't sufficient to cover the costs of a family of 5.  


One of the duties he took on was the cooking.  I think it's safe to say when a man starts cooking for the first time at age 65, the meals he prepares might be suspect.  Oh, boy, were they!  He cooked with love and dedication to feed our family, but those who had not cooked but were eating the results of his cooking were not impressed to say the least.  But, it was in our best interests to eat what he lovingly cooked.  His famous and oft-repeated comment was "If you don't eat it now, you will have it for sandwiches in a couple of months."  So, usually, we ate!  As far as I know, he never carried out his "sandwiches in a couple of months" threat.


So, you say, now we know why the title includes aprons and the armor of God, but where do the underwater mines come into the picture?      

                                                 


The answer:  My father served them to us for dinner!


OK, not exactly.  But, what he served looked remarkably like the above picture.  He decided to make hamburgers for dinner one night.  he decided he needed something to better hold the meat together.  Rather than using eggs and/or breadcrumbs, or such, he decided to use rice - uncooked rice.  He formed small patties with the meat-rice mixture and put them in the frying pan where he cooked them pretty much to death.  Since they started out small before cooking, they shrank dramatically and took the form of little burger balls - very brown with spikes of mostly uncooked rice poking out at all angles - much like the picture above.  Oh, YUM!  We ate them - remember? - sandwiches in a couple of months?  

I do want to end with you all knowing more about my father than that he was a pretty poor cook.  He was a kind and gentle man who cared very much for his family.  It's just that his cooking was very questionable.  But, look at us! We survived excellently so we just remember with warm affection all the interesting things we ate after he took over most of the cooking. 


Blessings,


Mary