Just for the Dill of it

Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' . . . for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Matthew 6:31-21

For New Year’s Eve, my daughter planned to bring over Swedish Meatballs and Mashed Potatoes.  She requested three things from me:  Roasted Cauliflower, Yams with marshmallows on top, and Swedish Cucumber Salad with Dill.  (I got very confused about the cauliflower and didn’t actually make it.  Bummer.)

I found a simple online recipe for Swedish Cucumber Salad with Dill.  I procrastinated my shopping until Monday the 30th.  I made my way around Fred Meyer, beginning with the canned aisles, hitting the bread aisle (for maple syrup) and the flour aisle (for marshmallows) the meat section and finally the produce section, which is always last on my trip.  I picked-up yams, potatoes, and brussels sprouts and checked out the fresh herbs.  NO DILL!!  A space for it, but NONE.  Rats!  All those Swedes and Slavs came before me and cleared out the dill!

I approached the produce man and asked, “ . . maybe in the back?  Is there more?”  He checked his inventory and orders on his phone and found a possibility.  He went to check.  Do you ever wonder if they check, even when it’s hopeless, just to get away from a possibly irate customer, who has time to calm down and consider alternatives? If the produce guy returns empty-handed, they’re also prepared for whatever the customer wants to dish out.  Maybe.

While waiting, I duly looked around.  What’s that??  It looked like a dill frond.  A prepackaged container of summer squash and onions with a dill frond on top!  Hurray!  A possible alternative!  There were several packages, so I didn’t feel compelled to snatch up the package before some fair-haired Covenanter could get her hands on it.

The produce man returned smiling sweetly but empty-handed.  I thought he needed a dose of good news so I dragged him over to the packaged veggies and pointed out the beautiful green dill frond resting on top of the squash and onions.  “I can use this!”

“Oh nice,” he said.  “And you can add the squash to your salad.”  He was being very nice, so I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at his suggestion.

They say, that when God closes a door, He opens a window.  And God did just that.  That dill frond yielded about one tablespoon for the cucumber salad.  If I did pump up the dill by mixing dried dill into the dressing, no one was the wiser.  God, as always, is good.

Sow dill and scatter cumin. Isaiah 28:25