Guest Post: My Path to a Kosher Kitchen

I embraced Messianic Judaism eleven years ago this Pesach. Needless to say this was life-changing in many ways, but my eating habits were not one of them.

Both of my parents are of Jewish ancestry and both became Evangelical Christians when I was a child. They were discipled into a tradition that taught them that due to their conversion they were no longer Jews but gentiles, and the Torah was no longer a factor in their day-to-day lives. (Not that it ever was, but perhaps they used to feel guilty about it before.)  “Freedom in Christ” was the motto of our home, and my father’s favorite hymn to this day is still “Wonderful Grace of Jesus.”

As a child this was unacceptable to me. I insisted we were still Jews, told all my friends at school I was Jewish, and made my parents wrap my Christmas presents in Chanukah-themed wrapping paper. When I became a teenager and was socially obligated to rebel against my parents in some way, I was not tempted by sex, drugs, or alcohol. No, I knew what would really get under my parents’ skin – I decided to keep kosher, or at least kosher as I understood it. As you can imagine my method of keeping kosher was super-obnoxious. I would reject my mother’s homemade dinners and make rude comments to their friends who offered me ham – my parents were at their wits’ end.

My resolve to annoy my parents was only strengthened when I befriended a Seventh Day Adventist boy at school, who gave me Biblical proofs for why it is still important to keep kosher and admonished me to continue to do so, and I did. In fact, there was one time in my life when I decided to eat shrimp in a sort of “I give up” move. This turned out to be a bad idea. Not long after this experiment I found myself in the bathroom, throwing it all up.

When a friend of mine found out I was Jewish, she bought me a ticket to a Messianic Passover Seder. It was then I gave my life over to Yeshua and over to the true identity that G-d had desired for me to live out. It was an easy transition.

As I grew in my faith, I became challenged more and more by the reality of G-d’s direction in my life to make my kashrut practice more stringent. In January 2009 I moved into my own apartment, no roommates. Not only that, my apartment is situated one block away from the largest kosher grocery store west of the Mississippi. There were no excuses at this point. I knew G-d was asking me move forward, and I needed to make a huge leap.

I bought two sets of as many new dishes as I could afford, a bottle of kosher wine, and on New Year’s Eve 2008 I went to work kashering it all. I haven’t looked back since. My kitchen remains kosher today, and the blessings that abound from this spiritual discipline are too many and varied to describe. What brings me the greatest joy to me is entertaining for my friends, many of whom keep a very stringent form of kashrut, knowing that all the food in my home is “Jew-friendly” and okay to eat. My kitchen has not only blessed those who keep kosher. The relief that is expressed from my lactose-intolerant friends when I cook a meat meal or my vegetarian friends when I cook a dairy meal is priceless. 

Perhaps the best part about keeping a kosher kitchen is the constant acknowledgment of G-d in the mundane. I think about G-d when I am buying groceries, washing dishes, wiping down counters, and developing recipes. I’m thinking of G-d when I choose this sponge over that one to clean a plate or making sure some dishes and appliances remain parve, without the contact of meat or dairy.

An extra surprise benefit was the creativity that came out of my kitchen.  With more restrictions on what I can and cannot serve, I have had to come up with more creative substitutes, options, and techniques.  A huge misconception people have about kosher cuisine is that it all has to look like matzo-ball soup or falafel. While those things are well and good, your house does not need to look like a deli. Kosher food does not have to be boring, and my blog is dedicated to kosher food NOT being boring!