Ingredients in Order

As a caterer I am always looking for new ways of using the same old ingredients.  Last summer I got tired of throwing away left over items from antipasto trays.  People ask for antipasto trays and there are inevitably items on the tray that they do not eat.  They are either too messy, just not desireable or they don't quite know how to tackle them.  After one of my customers asked for a skewer menu of small appetizers. They wanted something larger than an amuse-bouche and smaller than a tranditional appetizer.  Voila, the antipasto skewer was developed. It solved the problem of selection of ingredients, mess and choice making.  It provided a lovely couple of mouth fulls of something that both satisfied and got the appetite going.   The parsley in it solved the problem of stong ingredients impact on the stomach and one's breath.   It brought something that had a sense of disorder and caused some confusion into lovely, tasty order.  These little morsels are a favourite.   I have had people say they were the tastiest they had ever had, that they made them hungry just looking at them. They loved the solution to the mess, the plate, the choice making and the unwieldy ingredients.

It kind of reminds me of the creation of the world.   God created the stuff - formless and void. It was just a bunch of stuff, it was chaotic, messy, ingredients heaped up so to speak. Then he brought it into order first he set it spinning (day and night) then he gathered solids and liquids and made the substance of planets and so on.   Disorder was gathered together into order.  None of the ingredients was wrong or mis-placed.  All were good, they were just re-configured into something different, pleasing and by God's definition - good.