{"product_id":"women-in-gods-kitchen-cooking-eating-and-spiritual-writing","title":"Women in God's Kitchen: Cooking  Eating  and Spiritual Writing","description":"\u003cp\u003eJean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once noted that \"nunneries in the old days were veritable storehouses of the most delectable tidbits.\" Perhaps that is why the much-maligned Lucrezia Borgia is said to have truly felt at home only in the company of pious cloistered nuns. In his landmark study  Holy Anorexia  Rudolph Bell focused his attention on holy women who survived on nothing but the eucharistic wafer. Cristina Mazzoni  taking the opposite tack  savors the food writings and images of a broad spectrum of Catholic saints and holy women. A native of Italy and a splendid cook herself  Mazzoni accords due attention to her fellow countrywomen  as well she should given the importance of Italian cookery (Catherine of Genoa  Angela of Foligno  Gemma Galgani)  but includes numerous other holy women and their cuisines as well: Germany (Hildegard of Bingen  Elisabeth of Schnau  and Margaret Ebner)  France (Margaret Mary Alacoque  Thrse of Lisieux)  Spain (Teresa of Avila)  colonial South America (Sor Juana Ins de la Cruz)  England (Margery Kempe)  and even the United States (Elizabeth Ann Seton  who was the first person born in the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church). In her Introduction  Mazzoni invites the reader \"to seek out and savor with me...the food concocted  dished out  bitten into  tasted  and swallowed in the writings of holy women: food that may be mundane  unexceptional  and commonplace  but food that may also be delicious  nutritious  indulgent  or healthful. Whether in the form of stockfish and stew or chocolate and jam  whether cooked as lasagna with greens or curdled into a fine or bitter cheese  this food-through metaphors and similes  through anecdotes and memories-leads to mystical connections  underlines the presence of meaning even  or especially  in the midst of seeming meaninglessness  and leads us to share in the pleasure of cooking  eating  and learning at a divine table in Gods kitchen.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44986891370549,"sku":"ByrdShop_0826417604","price":29.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780826417602_e891902e-5daf-4dc1-8249-e565175e8e2c.jpg?v=1772690598","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/women-in-gods-kitchen-cooking-eating-and-spiritual-writing","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}