The Soul Food Market

“I have liked every job I’ve ever had, so I didn’t leave my job because I wanted to make more money or because I hated my boss. I LOVED working there. I left to pursue my dreams of expanding God’s kingdom using my own style of guerilla warfare … hospitality … giving people virtual hugs through seeing, smelling, tasting and reading beauty, joy and God’s Word.” –Diane Oberkrom, The Soul Food Market website

Sometimes God’s will for us is revealed in dreams. And that’s exactly what happened to Diane Oberkrom, founder and head baker of The Soul Food Market in Canton, Ga.

Diane’s life-changing, nocturnal visions started when another chapter of her life ended abruptly.  On June 20, 2005, her husband Phil died.

“I was at work when it happened,” Diane said. “I was 45 minutes away from home when my husband died and I realized I didn’t want to do this to my kid. I am nearly 50, and I want to be the boss of my own applesauce.”

Though she loved her management job at an Atlanta corporation, her family, and especially her son, Augie, became more important than ever before. And that’s when the dreams started. Every morning, she woke up with a nagging sense of purpose. “I started getting these intense dreams…ideas about muffins and cookies and using scriptures like fortunes in fortune cookies,” Diane said. “Every single night these dreams were hounding me and I said, ‘I think I’m supposed to do something about this.”

Diane had always enjoyed cooking and entertaining, but she had never looked into it as a career or ministry. Still, when the dreams began, she took notice and wrote down all the recipes that came to her, and then she taste-tested them on family and friends, who often told her that they were the best cookies or muffins or candies they had ever tasted.

Feeling God-led, but still a bit unsure, she talked her plans over with her friend, Tammy Nielson, who also happens to be a pastor. “I said to her, ‘How am I supposed to come up with scriptures for every occasion?’ and she said, ‘I think I’m the answer to your prayer.”

Diane’s baking prowess and Tammy’s encyclopedia-like knowledge of the Bible combined with the design and wrapping talents of a third friend, Robin Burns, form the basis of The Soul Food Market, Inc., an Internet-based bakery that feeds both the body and the spirit with delightful gift boxes of cookies, muffins, breads and even dog treats. The orders come in by phone or through her website, www.thesoulfoodmarket.com, and Diane and her cadre of spiritually-minded moms pray and bake boxes for all occasions whether it is the exciting moment of buying a new home or the sad moment of a miscarriage. And they all come filled with appropriate scripture verses. The boxes are shipped everywhere from Alaska to New York and some have even found their way to soldiers serving in Iraq or Kuwait.

“I don’t want to be just the salt of the earth, but I want to be the butter, flour and sugar, too,” Diane said. “Recipes still come to me in dreams.”

Diane’s Praying and Cooking Tips

• If you set aside even 30 minutes and plan ahead, you can make a healthy meal for yourself and your family.
• Praying when you cook makes a big difference. It gives you such a sense of peace when you’re doing it. We pray for the sender, the receiver and even the UPS delivery guy.
• Sometimes when you are snappy at your husband or your kids, it’s because you’re feeling bad about yourself.
• Don’t save the china or the good silverware for just special occasions. Before my husband died, much earlier in our marriage, he had cancer, and he beat it against the odds so I always used the good silver and china on him.
• Use real orange rind and other real ingredients. Artificial flavorings taste artificial.

Slow Carb Applesauce Muffins

Batter

Juice and zest of 1 fresh orange

2/3 cup milk

½ cup honey

½ cup canola oil

1¼ cups whole wheat flour

1 cup dried cranberries

1 Granny Smith apple, cored and chopped (leave skin on)

½ cup unsweetened applesauce

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Filling

8 ounces cream cheese

2 tablespoons honey

Zest from ½ an orange

1 teaspoon almond extract

Topping

1 cup granola cereal

Non-stick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grate or microplane the zest of one orange into a mixing bowl, being careful to leave the white bitter part on the orange. Pour milk into 1 cup measuring cup (remember, you just need 2/3 cup). Now cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice from both halves of the orange into the milk, filling up the measuring cup. Don’t stir it. This will curdle the milk which is essential to the magic in this beautiful muffin. Pour this into the mixing bowl. Pour oil into the same measuring cup (do not wash it first). Then pour the honey into the oil filling up the cup. Pour them into the mixing bowl at the same time and the honey doesn’t stick to the cup. Add remaining ingredients into mixing bowl.  Put mixer on lowest speed until the dry ingredients are moistened (otherwise, you will have a cloud of flour).

Set aside to make filling. Mix all filling ingredients together until smooth. Spray a jumbo muffin pan heavily with non-stick cooking spray (until surface is completely coated).

Fill pans until they are about 2/3 full. Put heaping teaspoon of filling on top of each one. Sprinkle with a heaping tablespoon of granola. Bake for 20 minutes. Makes 10 jumbo muffins.

Dark Chocolate Cherry Walnut Bark

24 ounces dark chocolate chips

1 cup dried cherries

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon canola oil

non-stick cooking spray

Mix chocolate and oil together in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 3 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. Stir in cherries and walnuts. Spray an 8 X 8 pan with nonstick spray. Pour chocolate mixture into pan and let cool in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Cut into chunks. Serve with your favorite, hot green tea. Makes about 1 ½ pounds of candy.

Pistachio Nut Brittle

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon water

2 cups sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup water

2 cups salted, shelled pistachios

3 tablespoons butter

non-stick cooking spray

Mix soda, vanilla and water in coffee cup and set aside. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray or line it with quick-release foil. In a heavy, 3-quart saucepan over medium heat, heat and stir sugar, syrup and water until the sugar dissolves. Continue to cook until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage (caramel-like or you can roll it into little balls between your fingers) or your candy thermometer reads 234 degrees. Continue to heat and when the mixture reaches 250 degrees, add the pistachios. Cook and stir frequently until the mixture reaches 290 degrees or the hard crack stage (drop a little bit into a cup of ice water and it will become string-like and hard as a lollypop). Remove from heat. Quickly, stir in butter. Pour in soda mixture. The entire mixture will foam and bubble up. With a spoon, beat with a wooden spoon to a froth for a few seconds. Pour quickly onto prepared cookie sheet. Cool slightly and using forks, stretch the brittle until it thinly covers the pan. Let cool completely. Break into pieces. Makes about 1½  pounds of pistachio brittle.