By Kayla DeKraker
Want your holiday dishes to be a success? Social media chef Brenda Gantt has a few tips and tricks that will improve your cooking and add an extra dose of cheer to your Thanksgiving or Christmas table.
“Hi, you all,” she began a discussion with Guideposts. “I’m so glad that Guideposts is with me today in my kitchen here in south Alabama. Listen, we’re learning how to cook all kinds of stuff, chicken and dumplings, fried pies, Mexican cornbread. You name it, I can cook it. And I want you to follow me on Cooking with Brenda Gantt on Facebook and Instagram. And I’m going to show you how to do all these things.”
Her first kitchen tip?
“Number one, get you a nice sharp knife — and you all know that stainless steel has to be professionally sharpened. So, I don’t use stainless steel,” she explained. “This is an old-timey knife, and that’s what I use. The duller your knife is, the chances are you’re going to cut yourself. So have your knife sharp.”
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She shared her second tip: “I want you to learn how to use dough and to make dough,” Gantt said. “Because if you learn that, you can make biscuits, fried pies, dumplings, pasta, chicken pot pie, ham pot pie, honey…cobblers. Learn how.”
She continued, “The third tip is this: Remember that food is more than cooking food. If you cook without love in your heart for the people you’re cooking for, you have missed the boat. Make sure your supper table, that you’ve got love there too.”
Especially around the holidays, we want our guests to feel our love for them that flows from our faith, just like Gantt.
“My faith has everything to do with my cooking, and here’s the reason,” she said. “Because there are people out there who need to know how to cook. And I think that I was brought up to be a helper. I think that we’re all given different blessings, different talents and different gifts. Mine happens to be hospitality. “
She concluded, “So therefore I cook for others, I do for others, and I do it all with love. And Jesus is the one that helps me to stay focused and figure out what I’m all about.”
John 13:34-35 says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Gantt shares this love through cooking and hospitality.
Recently, Gantt released a book about life in the south.
“Y’all this is my latest book. It is a beautiful Coffee Table book. It is full of new and exciting stories, big glossy pictures, advice, encouraging words, my artwork and so much more,” she posted on Instagram in February. “This book will be delivered to you this November before Thanksgiving. Make sure that you preorder enough for all the loves in your life.”
She added, “They will make great Christmas gifts. I plan to get all my grandchildren one and my children too. You will be proud to have these sitting on your coffee table for all visitors to enjoy.”
Like Gantt, let’s all find ways to show our Thanksgiving and Christmas guests the love of Christ.
Read Next: How Chef Aarti Sequeira Spreads Joy Through Cooking and Faith
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