Every Thing Nice

I know the holidays are over, but I just purchased something at a Christmas clearance sale that is like a breath of fresh air.  A cinnamon broom!  Everyone who comes in sniffs appreciatively, looks around and thinks I am baking something yummy.  I personally cannot smell anything, but marked down from $5 and  costing only a dollar, it was worth every penny for the comments I get.

Cinnamon has always been my favorite spice, and cinnamon toast one of my favorite things, sense of smell or not! I like to mix butter, sugar and cinnamon together, spread it on slices of bread and toast them under the broiler.  It all melts together and makes a satisfying crunch when I pour milk over it and eat it with a spoon.  Voila! Cinnamon Toast Crunch! (Only better.)

My husband just found out that cinnamon stabilizes blood sugar and helps in the treatment of diabetes!  He takes cinnamon pills daily. (He might need one after eating some of the peach cobbler I baked this afternoon...with cinnamon, of course.) I have also read that it improves memory and mental functions and energizes!  What a wonderful spice!

Nowadays we hear about super foods and brain food, but really, all foods God created are good for us.  It seems He makes the ones that are particularly good for us bright and appealing, like apples, blueberries, strawberries and other colorful fruits and vegetables. 

Cinnamon is mentioned in the Bible in Exodus 30 as an ingredient in the making of the holy anointing oil. The spiced oil was burned in censers to show honor and reverence to God.  Although the recipe for the holy oil is given in the Bible, it is one recipe that was strictly forbidden to be copied for ordinary use.

Like most of our abundance of food products in this country, we take for granted the ease of buying cinnamon and other spices today.  We forget that wars were waged over spices.  Much more valuable in the past than they are today,  they were used in place of  money, for food preservation, and perfumes, among other things. Columbus was on a search for spices when he discovered America.  You might say we wouldn't even be here if it weren't for cinnamon!