Elsa Anders Cook

  • Ingredients for Worship in Holy Week

    Though I’ve continued to write liturgy throughout the season of Lent for my lovely church here in Texas, I have completely failed to pepper my blog with any of those prayers. I managed to share semi-regular posts during Epiphany but… Continue reading

    Ingredients for Worship in Holy Week
  • A Service to Break Down Walls on Ash Wednesday

    Sometimes cooking begins just by opening the pantry and realizing that that something delicious with peanut butter (because you mysteriously have a surplus of peanut butter) sounds really good. That’s kinda how this service came together. It all started with… Continue reading

    A Service to Break Down Walls on Ash Wednesday
  • 70,000 Words

    Earlier this month, I took a Memoirs 101 online class with the Writer’s League of Texas. The instructor emphasized structure and form, both of which feel like high ideals for the random assortment of memories that are currently cobbled together… Continue reading

    70,000 Words
  • Prayers for Epiphany 5C and 6C

    I am blessed and honored to continue to cook up liturgical elements for worship at the United Christian Church in Austin. Admittedly, it feels like I haven’t been in the kitchen in a very long time. I’m editing more. I’m… Continue reading

    Prayers for Epiphany 5C and 6C
  • Grief in the Midst of Joy

    In just four days, it’ll be thirty-two years since she died. It will be thirty-two years since my mother died. I have to pull out a calculator every year to subtract from the current year. Surely, it hasn’t been that… Continue reading

    Grief in the Midst of Joy
  • Fear, Love and Another Supreme Court Decision

    Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided by a 5-4 vote to uphold the ban on transgender service members fulfilling their call to service in the United States military. It was said by one woman just four years short of retirement in… Continue reading

    Fear, Love and Another Supreme Court Decision
  • Prayers for Baptism of Christ Sunday and Epiphany 2C

    I attend a church with a super talented and dynamic staff, but as it happens when a lead pastor leaves for a new call, they’re carrying more than they usually do. There’s more work for each and every one of… Continue reading

    Prayers for Baptism of Christ Sunday and Epiphany 2C
  • New Traditions for Our Family

    My husband is an atheist. That’s right. I am an ordained minister in the Christian Church and I married a man who could care less about anything remotely related to God. He will be quick to amend that. He will… Continue reading

    New Traditions for Our Family
  • News From My Kitchen

    Most people see Cooking with Elsa and assume it’s a cooking blog. I love to cook but on this blog you’ll find Ingredients for Worship and Recipes for Ministry and not so many actual recipes that you could cook up in your kitchen. It is, after… Continue reading

    News From My Kitchen
  • Denial Is My Spiritual Practice

    It’s around this time of year that Christmas carols start playing in my house. It may be too early for some, but bah humbug to them. There is enough crap to bemoan in the world right now. There is more… Continue reading

    Denial Is My Spiritual Practice