I've had this idea for a while now.
I did a bicycle trip the past two summers with an organization called Bike and Build. I'm not here to talk about the trip itself, though if you're between 18 and 28, and you like traveling, and you like consuming unheard of amounts of food at every waking moment of each and every day, and you like helping people who need affordable housing, and you think it's crazy to even consider biking across the USA but are somehow drawn to it anyhow, and you want to have pretty much the best summer of your life, well, it's worth checking out. www.bikeandbuild.org.
Like I said, though, I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here because the trip runs on God's food. That's right. Groups stay in churches, and sometimes in other religious institutions like synagogues, and essentially take over their floors for a night with sleeping bags and Thermarest pads. Most churches even cook you dinner--an important dinner, considering the insane amount of calories you burned during the day--and those dinners were an endless source of fascination.
This forum is going to chronicle the American food that is born by clergymembers and willing worshipers. It's going to try to look at religious issues through Sloppy Joes and egg bakes (if you happen to be from Wisconsin or Minnesota, I'm sure egg bakes are plenty familiar to you) and celebrate the dishes loyal churchgoers cook for volunteer groups and the homeless.
It's all an experiment. But hopefully it'll yield some darn good tidbits.
