Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 144 | Phil Robertson's Epic Jambalaya Recipe, Generosity, and How Food Can Help You Share Jesus

Episode Date: September 13, 2020

Phil is VERY particular about how jambalaya should be made. He shares his recipe in a way you won't see in any cookbook. Jase says there are three factors that guarantee success with this recipe, and the guys agree that the key to good cooking is a chef with thick skin. Al shares Jase and Willie's fast-food strategy. Phil reveals the secret to how he keeps up with the culture. And the Unashamed team talks about being generous to your neighbor and how good food and hospitality can be used to start conversations about Jesus. - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? You got a memory. I've been hanging out with the yuppies for about a week. So coming home. You've been eating at restaurants and all that. We did eat at a cool restaurant. It was a...

I told you, what was it called? The oasis. The oasis. It's on Lake Travis. Yeah. I mean, you're up, Phil. They built a building like, I don't know, 100 feet up, and you're overlooking this lake.

It's kind of, I mean, it was pretty good food. Yeah. But it's not home. And so it's been, it's been Yuppieville. And so when I came down here yesterday, Phil said, I got a jambalai. Of course, it's like its own thing. It's like more than a food. Yeah.

It's like a whole meal in a dish, I guess. But it's not like when he says, I got a jambalai. It's like I went to the store and bought a new gun. You know what I mean? You hate to even put it within. So I need to learn. It's a two-hour. You get up at 6.30, 7 o'clock in the morning.

I was wondering when you were going to say. I was too. So you look around what's today, and Ms. Kay informed me that today I had promised a jambalai. So just remember this, Jason. I need to learn how to do this. There's a sequence of events that must be adhered to the letter. Now, you can think who are the New Orleans chefs, the ones that came up here, the wish. Bess or?

Faults. Either one of them. Either one of them. So they're kind of the catalyst that these great dishes come from because they're very good at what they do. And I looked at both of them's recipes, and I said, hmm. So you take two pounds of bacon.

I like where this is starting. I didn't realize bacon was in there. That's where you start. Two full packs. Two pounds? Yeah. You take them out of the wrappers and you put them on a cutting board, Jace. And look, you're cutting them in pieces about like this, look.

So you've got the bacon, it's all together, you know, like they put them in a pack. You take the wrappings off of them. Oh, you just start cutting it in little pieces. So you cut those up. But you don't put them anywhere. You just leave them in a bowl. You just cut them up about this far. So you make about...

And it's not cooked. Not cooked. Okay. So you have the bacon cut up two packs and it's in a bowl. You set that over there. All right. You take a couple of packs. of Sabwa, Savoy, Savoy sausage.

Well, or whatever. You like Savoy. I like this local guy. It's Link sausage. I didn't go with the heat. McCain? I didn't go with the hot. I just went with a mile undoey.

I got two packs of that. So I would go hot. And you're cutting up the sausage about this thick. Oh, okay. I got that. You know, not less, a little less than a four inch. For those of you listening, that was about an inch.

No, not an inch. No, it's about. That's what you showed an inch. Yeah. Yeah, I was looking, I like a half inch or less. Oh, okay. So you cut that, that's in a bowl. You got three sausage and then three in another pack.

That's six sausage. You cut them up, put them in a bowl. So far we got bacon and sauce. So this is a pork, and sauce sauce. Pork heavy jambalah. Then you come out and you got one pack, a pound of just ground sausage. Owens makes a good, good sausage.

Really? Owen's sausage. Do you get the hot? I went with mild. If you want you jambats. Balao spiked up a little heat. You know, some of the women, ooh, this is hot.

But you can always add some heat if you want to, but I just took mild. So that's the third package of meat. All pork so forth. All pork. And you set that over there. It's just there. You're going to chop it up with your spatula once you get it in there.

But you put that over there. The fourth kind of meat is chicken thighs. Really? You need to take the skin off of them. By the way, they have them. You can get skinless if you want to, and boneless. But these had the skin and the bone on them, so I just worked the bone out and just pull the skin pretty well.

It's the best piece of a chicken. You just put them out about three legs with a knife, turn them, and just chunk of it. They're just chunk. You just kind of chicken chunkless. I'm way you so far. So you got that sitting over there. So now we got something besides pork.

So all your meat is sitting there. You got a big iron. But I noticed you had some shrimp in there. You're way away from that. That's not sequence of events. You say, get your meats cut up. Sorry, I thought we were going meat. So you got bacon, you got chicken thighs, you've got link sausage,

and you've got a pack of ground sausage. That's the whole pack of ground sausage? Whole pack. So you set that over there. Is that like a pound? You're going to have a. You're going to have an iron pot that. I might have an iron stomach.

I didn't realize all this was in there. Yeah, 10 quart minimum, 10 or 12 quart, you know, a big iron skillet. And it needs to be, you need to get it all season and everything else. It takes, you know, when you buy it. I got that. I got it. Put a little grease. Put it on a hot fire. You're telling them, this is me. Forget them.

I want to make this. So you got your pot. Well, now we turn to veggies. What kind of veggies we're going to put in this jambley? I'm going to guess. Onion? Four large onions. Garlic.

You canter, can. cannot. Oh, you don't use the garlic. I didn't put garlic in there, but you could have. Don't let me interrupt you then. Onion, bell pepper, I know. One bell pepper. Salery? Three to four sticks. So what's the fourth one? Onion bell pepper, sir? I would have thought garlic. And garlic, but I left garlic out. Someone put garlic in. Oh, it's optional. I put a little garlic, a little garlic powder at some point, and I put a little garlic powder in there. It's amazing that I named those four. But if you want to go with, you want to go with garlic, fine.

On that one yesterday, I didn't put garlic. But I did ask salis, bell, pepper, and onions. You chop them up, chop them up. Not just small, small, but just medium. But that's preferred. So you got the onions by themselves in that bowl, four onions. Four onions, one bell pepper. Not mixed with the other veggies.

You got the four onions. Then you got the bell, pepper, and celery. That's mixed together. You got that sitting there. Is there any? This is prep. I know, but why is the onion separate? Yeah, it's very specific on your...

Right now, just say, just get it in your head. Keep the onions separate. Put the onions in one bowl, and you have the other... There's no reason. They just have... But I want to know why. I'm fixed to tell you why. So you get that over there.

So you got that. Then you got various seasoning. You'll have a quart. We can our own. We can our own tomatoes, fresh tomatoes. So I have a quarter of that sitting there. I had no idea there were tomatoes in there. Well, that's why I'm telling.

Why not? I'm unwrapping a great world into a jambleau. That's good. So you got your meat? Well, let me hold up. So if somebody didn't have your own candomayas, which are amazing. Well, right. Would they just use like a can of amazes?

A lot better if you can your own. Well, obviously. I'll just say it. Now, so how much are we talking about on the candomitas? A quart? It's a quart. Which would probably be two can't. You're going to use, you're going to pour that in there, and I'll leave about that much for some reason.

I don't quite use the whole quart. I just stop about right here. But you don't know why. Yeah. So you got all that ready. It just looks right. Everybody that is a cook, when they fry bacon from time to time, they have, take the bacon out of it, and you have some bacon grease. Yeah, okay.

So you put that in a little canister on the stove. We keep bacon grease. Love it. So you got everything ready now. And then you have, in this case, eight cups of rice. Yeah. And I used about five cans. And I could have done it with the bones out of the chicken made my own broth.

But I said, I'll just go with chicken broth in a can. You got two cups in a can of chicken broth, two cups. So you have five cans, two, four, six, eight, ten cups of fluid. it's broth. It's not water. It's broth. Chicken broth. Flavor.

Flavor. Yeah. So you have that there. So you're saying when you make, oh, so you cook the rice in the chicken broth. Way before that, you're getting ahead of yourself. You've got all your ingredients. You have your meats. You have your meats.

You've got your veggies cut up. You've got the chicken broth ready and the tomatoes and they're on a table right beside your stove. Turn the fire on the stove under the big pot wide open. Okay. You reach over and you, you're, your bacon... Bacon grease. And I took out about a little spatula.

I'm saying probably... Teaspoon? No, I'd say four tablespoons spoons. Oh. Pretty good bit. You covered the bottom of your pot. Yeah. Pretty good.

Well, you dump your bacon in. First meat goes in. The bacon goes in. You got your fire pretty high. So it's frying. It's frying. Yeah, it's frying. Three quarter high.

You got a heavy spatula, not one that will bend. Well, right. I know that. that. Some people use boat paddles. Boat paddle, whatever. Like a mini boat paddle. That's right. So you got a thick spatula. Well, there's your bacon and it's frying.

You just stir it around. And when that starts to brown, when your bacon is ready, you just take your sausage, any of them. You can take the link sockets first, throw them over in there. You can take the chicken. Chicken thighs if you want to. Salt black pepper, your chicken thighs a little bit, not a whole lot. But you put one meat at a time in that pot. Got it.

You got bacon. Then here comes the sauce. Pound the sausage. That's in there. Okay. You got to just chop it up. It's browning. When it gets golden brown,

throw your chicken in, throw your link sausage in. We got it. We got it. You're going to cook on that meat part. If you added it up, I'm saying, oh, 15 or 20 minutes. Well, to do that brown. Everything gets brown. We got it.

When you get it all brown, onions go first. Onions only. Dump the, Four onions that you've cut up. Jump them over in the meat. They've been set aside. They're separate apart. The onions hit the meat. You stir them around a little bit because you may get to try to stick a little on the bottom.

Do you like brown the onions? Is that what you're doing? Nope. You're letting your onions cook in with all the meats. Oh, so you've got them in with the meat. Yeah. So you sit there. I'm saying on the onions, you let them stay in the meat until they soften.

You got to get soft. They clear up. Okay. The crunch is gone. I'm going to say probably. 10 or 12 minutes, 10 or 12 minutes, your onions will begin to... I'll figure that, I got that. So you got that.

The next thing, bell pepper and your celery. Put that in there. And maybe garlic if you want some. Turn your fire down just a half, about medium, a little more. And you're letting your veggies cook. You've already got the onions in 12 minutes or so. They've cleared up. Put your bell pepper and celery in.

You stir them around, wait until they get done. Got it. When they get done, what were the other... Well, the other, oh, chicken. Tomatoes. No, your tomatoes. Take your tomatoes, your quarter tomatoes, dump. But not quite.

Just shy of a quart. Everything kind of cools down, but you bring it back, and it begins to just cook. Yeah, the whole thing. Look. Now, where's the rice after this time? You've got your meats and your veggies, and they've been seasoned a little bit, and you say you can add like blackened, crop-e, seasoned a little bit of that.

You know, I put in some of my season, you know, Bear, Taria Bay. It's got a little barbecue flavor, a little that. A little Saskatchewan, you know, Jay puts on the steaks. I put a little of that. I'm not overdoing it with the season. Yeah, it's not highly seasoned.

No, I'm just putting just a little for flavor there. Okay. So, you have all your meats there now. Where's the rice? You have all your veggies. I'm getting there. All your veggies. And you've got your tomatoes.

It's sitting there. cooking. You could cook that for 35, 40 minutes on a low heat, and you could put that on one of these shoes and it would be good. What I'm saying is, you could put that particular dish over

spaghetti and eat it then. You could put it, put it on rice and eat it. But this is a jambola. But since Zach, what I noticed is when Zach was the guest, you know, he started telling us, because he moved to North Carolina, and I know why he left,

He started saying the two things we shouldn't be eating, butter and rice. And so Phil's response was to go make a jambalai. I noticed as soon as he left. You took his advice. Remember this sentence. Ignorance is a dangerous thing. Look, I'm 74 years old. I'm 6'4 feet 3, 175 pounds.

I weigh what I'm supposed to weigh. If you can't get in the door, get off the rice and the butter. But if you're coming through the door, all right, you're still jumping around and your vehicle going on four-wheelers. You said, that old dudes is still rolling pretty good. Well, you know, you said, well, what's the butter? I'm like, yeah, I'm like, yeah, I'm saying. You just got to keep moving.

So, hang on. Let's take a break before he tells us about the rice. So you got everything in this thing, and that pot's cooking, and you're letting that cook all your veggies with your tomatoes. I'd go about 12, 15 minutes, just let it sit there and simmer. Make sure it's not sticking. You always got that big spatula. Starry case.

You roll it. You're rolling. You make sure nothing's sticking. We got it. Well, you got that. So the only two things left, except the shrimp and all, already have ready about two pounds of shrimp that you've peeled. Peeled.

Yeah. You got the shrimp there. And in the shrimp, I took two racks of green onions. Cut the ends of them off. Green onions? And look. And you got two racks of green onion with shrimp in a bowl. That's the last thing that goes in.

So you got that last. Now, have you cooked these? I've already, no, no, no. No, no. All I've done is peel them. So I've got that ready as the last thing you put in the jambalai. Because it doesn't take long. And you don't want to overcook it.

You do a dump and you don't go back. When you put the shrimp in, it's over. The cooking is over. Then you just let it rest for 30 minutes. But anyway, you got it all in the pot. Well, how did the shrimp cook? They cook in there. They cook in the jambalai.

It's hot. You said let it rest. So you got everything in there where I stopped while I go is it's time for the rice. I've got it already measured out, eight cups in this particular case. I poured that rice over in there. There's fluid that's cooked out of the veggies. Yeah. And you started with the bacon.

There's a certain amount of fluid. The tomatoes, you got a couple of cups. You probably got two to three cups of fluid in there. I'm going to back that up when the eight cups of rice going there with two, four, six, eight, ten. Ten cups of chicken broths. I got a lot of rice here. So I put that all in there, and it simmers down, but I want to bring that back to about a half throttle on your,

a little more and half, maybe just a half on your gas. Electric stove, don't even try it. Go ahead of gas. You better get out of that. You just eliminated. Boy, you eliminated a lot of people. 80%. Electric stove, you're out.

You're in the Yuppieville. You're not going to have good cooking. So you get all that. Well, once that water starts to bubble and all that, You make sure it's not sticking, and you bring that to a ball. Half throttle are a little less. Once that begins to boil, you say, okay, lid time. You got everything in that jamble out, but two things.

The green onions and the shrimp. Oh, the rice is cooking in with all that? That is correct. Oh, I didn't realize that. So the rice, until it's putting it on rice, you're putting the rice in it. By the way, this dish came from Africa. And when they come over, you know, a lot of the slave trade and all that. came out of that, they knew had to really spike up a pot of rice, they'd kill some varmint,

cut him up, brown him a little bit, you know, they didn't have like bacon and, uh, they... I had it in Liberia. It's called Jolie, I think Jolie rice. It's an African-based dish. It's jumble. It's our jumble. Thank the Lord, the Africans knew how to cook that. But anyway, you got all that as simmering. Now we're down to the every three-minute stayed. Now, I choose to do this. Some of the chefs would lie, but that's all right. I make a good jam allow. I'm using basically their recipes, but the way I do it, you got to watch rice because you'll scorch it on the bottom. So when you get all that, everything together, except the shrimp and the onions, I put a lid on that. I got the fire on about low to low medium, not like a simmer,

but, you know, about like this much gas. So I've got that, and I'm watching the clock. I'm sitting at my table, drinking a glass of tea, and I'm watching the clock. Every three minutes, every three minutes, for eight to ten times, every three minutes. You take that spatula, and when you, all right, it started out at, you know, 9.20 in the morning.

At 9.23, you're like, you get that lid off, and I go down with the spatula, of fluid still there it's bubbling i rake the bottom and i'll see them sometime a little brown on the bottom no problem but if you wait eight minutes it'll be black on the bottom too much so every three minutes i roll that put the lid back on it and i sit down drinking my tea three minutes passes i get up and i noticed and i'm looking and all that fluid from the cans of chicken broth it's beginning to disappear It's beginning to turn just to rice. So you roll it again.

You sit down again. Eight or ten times later, you take a little... The water is evaporating. The water is... The rice is pulling the water inside itself. The rice is sucking the water, the fluid up. So that's why you got such flavor. Think about all that.

All that flavor from the veggies and the meats is going into the rice. Right. Rice is a bland grain. Right. This is the way to kick up a pot of rice. So, after about eight or ten times, times I roll it, I have a tablespoon, and I check that rice to make sure the rice is not

crunchy in the middle. You want it fluffy. When your rice gets fluffy, I'm guessing 30 minutes of rolling every three minutes, that's about 10 rolls. No problem. From start to finish, two hours. Whatever carbs you're going to attain from the rice, you spend 30 minutes. You're working hard.

Yeah. I mean, you get it down, and when your rice is fluffy, on about that eighth or ninth or tenth time when you're rolling it. When your rice is fluffy, you say, no granny. It's good. I don't like a dry jambole. A lot of people, the rice separates. I want it a little moist.

A little moist, a little moist, like yesterday. So you go in and the last turn, you look at it, you check the rice. You say, rice is done. So you dump two pounds of shrimp and the green onions. Roll that in your jambollah a couple of times, three times. time, make sure you're not sticking, put a lid on it. And I've sit there and you go three more minutes. After that last three minutes, turn the fire out, leave your lid on, never look at that,

never say, I wonder what we got? No, somebody walks in and says, what are you got in the pot? I'll get right in that pot. Because if they let that lid off, there goes your heat. Yeah. So you want your heat, you want your jambalai to just sit there. Shrimp to cook. It's just three minutes.

You turn the fire out and you let it sit there, the jamble out, for 30 minutes. Just let it sit there. Make whatever sides you want for the meal coming up because this is a good one. And after 30 minutes, walk in. No, we just, yesterday we just. Your rice is fluffy. And everybody that eats it says that has got to be. Gee whiz.

I thought you were going to tell me in like less than a minute. So look, yeah, yeah, really. Look. This is actually a podcast. Two hour. deal. Prepping, add the turning,

the rolling, the ball in the ad, you say two hours later, you're ready to go. So it does. It does take two hours out of your life. But what better way to spend two hours than have a fine, big general life?

So how many would that feed? What you just laid out? 20 people. Or if it's just you and mom, like in our case, now it's down to nothing. It's gone. It lasted two days.

Yeah. The second day, it's better than it was the first day because the flavors have come together. So when you get up, what we do is we eat as much as we can on Monday, if I did it on Monday, and the next day, Tuesday, after we ate it, we bag it, put it in the fridge, we bag it, plastic bag, we get out, and then a lot of them just put it in the microwave, warming up, or they put it back in a pot.

So what did the singer, what did Jep's buddy, the Rat Walker? Oh, South Carolina. He looked at us and said, that has got to be. The best thing I've ever tasted in my life. How in the world is you make that concoction? I said, a couple hours every time. So the good news is. Thank God we have the Cajun people south of us that we learn most of this from.

But you're right. This C is half-cageant, so you don't want a full-blooded one, not half. And you got one, you know, white boots full of blood. Yeah. And we've got a lot of white boots that watch the show. A lot of white boots. I love him white boots. They know how to fish and they know how to hunt.

That's exactly right. But you can't understand the word exactly. No. No. My theory is because it's bad English and bad French together, which just makes for basically. Y'all's mother is from her, all of her kinfolks, Olives. They're all from Bro Bridge, Louisiana. So we got just enough bloodline, y'all do, to make you great.

You got enough Cajun, redneck and Cajun together. Think about it. That's the best. is a human being. It's the best of both worlds. What I've always said about the Cajun world is it's like Si. They're the only people on the planet that if you close your eyes and listen to them, you'll think they're drunk, whether they've been drinking or not.

And a lot of them have been, but like, sigh, people all done, I'm like, what's wrong? Because if you just don't look at him. Close your eyes, you're like, he's high. Our South Louisiana brothers is they are the salt of the earth. They're fantastic. Oh, I love them to death. They can cook. I don't get what anybody says.

Well, that much coming from New Orleans all over across the Lake Charles. Say what you will. They can cook. Well, look, anybody around the world that has come to South Louisiana, that's the first thing they say is how great the food is. They put me to shame. And the invention of food. Just think about, I mean, who's the first guy?

I guarantee a Cajun, looked at an oyster and said, ooh, we eat that. Well, who was the first guy that looked into a crawfish hole and said, Now that looks like that'd be good to eat. Custation. Yeah. All right, let's take another break. So you're right, though, about gumbo is an African dish.

You know, because gumbo means in one African language. It means ochre. Just a melting pot there of a lot of good individuals, meals came together, and they've just made an art form. Well, you remember, I mean, New Orleans. Old Bols and the best and all. I'm thinking. It's a port city.

Think about all the people. Emory. Who was an old guy? Emery. Emerald. Emerald. He's a bam. Yeah.

Bam. Bam. Yeah. That's what made him famous. He's good. Foltz is good too. That's why you can't be overdue the bam on the Jambalah because you can make it where it's too much season. So I-

Yours is not. I would personally like it. I like heat. You could kick it up a much. I like it a little hotter. I'd probably use the hot sausage and just leave it at that. You could do that. Because you don't do too much.

Well, it's like when you eat my wife, when she makes beans, rice and we make the jalapeno cornbread. Well, people eat it. You know, they start sweating. Your mother, your mother has, see if I follow her instructions it out, but she has said, why don't you just maybe, instead of kicking it up, just bring it down a notch. Bring it down a lot. On the jambalai?

On the jambalah. Well, she can't eat spicy foods, though. She's got over-stombed and all that stuff. Yeah, that's right. So the good news is for the people that have in the woods, which you can get by going to blazedtv.com slash unashamed. We've used Jace or Filt. You actually did this on that show.

So you can watch what you just described on In the Woods of Phil. But at the same time, I enjoyed just the description of it. The specificity of the bowl and the set of the side. I don't know whether the computer guy here, Jace. I don't know whether Jace, the computer man, and looking at him for treasure out there. I don't know whether he can actually. go in the kitchen and do this for two hours. Oh, you'd be surprised.

I take that as a challenge, Jay. I can cook. Get on the jambolae, Jase. Well, I just, I love it so much. I think, well, I thought it took longer. Two hours. What's that? That's nothing.

Yeah, the biggest work is the prep, really. The prep is the main. That takes the time. I may put my signature on it. I mean, it's like what we did with the cornbread. We took y'all's a little crunchy. You've got a lot of leeway. You've got a lot of options.

You can say, okay. Y'all got Charles cornbread. Instead of chicken, what about rabbit? Instead of rabbit, what about squirrel? Instead of squirrel, what about deer? I've seen boss to budding. I'm just saying I did it with chicken, but you can have any kind of meat you want. Have you tried it with deer?

I'm trying to, but I think it would be great. Or a little, little. But if you got some of those, that deer sausage that, you know, that's what's good about it. But I will say this. Get creative. When you added the shrimp, of course, you started on. with bacon.

I'm in. It's rice. Love it. And then you add shrimp. To me, those three factors is guaranteeing success. Everything else is just a supporting cast. It's good thinking.

Yeah, Stone, he made one with Dad's recipe, and it was really good. Yeah, he said, I went through the hole, he watched me. Oh, yeah. And he said, boy,

do I have to go this same pattern? I said, it's a sequence of events. Yeah. But if you get out of line on, that you look the first two or three i made you know just remember i couldn't eat i couldn't eat it oh you to the dogs the dogs the dogs didn't want any of it i just don't like if you don't eat it and the dogs don't eat it start all over i know you've told me that every day for the last 20 years i just i do think you got to have thick skin when you're going to cook you do that's the

prerequisite don't start cooking a lot of people may be listening they just eat out And you say, I've been wanting to get into cooking. Must be critiqued. You've got to have thick skin. That's the only way to get back. Well, and with Robertsons, it's also, you know, we're not compassionate people by nature. I mean, we love people, but like to each other, the other day Zach called me, he was like, you know, when you had gotten tested for coronavirus, and he was like, man,

that's something about Phil getting tested. I was like, yeah, I know. I said, we get, I mean, dad's the engine of everything we're doing. in here. We got to keep keep him propped up, keep him healthy. I just went into our business relationship. And Zach said, oh, yeah, and it's also your dad, and we don't want him to get sick. And I was, oh, yeah, that too.

As many people as I'm baptized in every week, which, you know, you're in a pool of water. Maybe if you took someone who has it, and if you push them under the water, they say wash your hands, well, you got an individual and we're washing the whole thing. I would just think. I think you're thinking, wait a few months. What I was going to say... God raised a dead man, I said... I wonder what Dr. Fauci was...

I think he'll cut us some slack on this coronavirus. I wonder what Dr. Fauci would say about that scientific thing. Baptism cures the coronavirus. What I was going to say from a spiritual perspective... To text what you're seeing and guarantees you be raised from the dead. When you think about food, you have two options. Because you have to eat. That's not an option, or you won't be here long.

You have to eat. So you can eat. You can eat or you can eat well. And so what we're into is eating well. From a spiritual standpoint, I remember you using hospitality and putting food out as the backdrop for introducing Jesus. Many times. Thousands of times.

We do the same thing. What was weird was when my teenage boys, I think I've shared this before, but when they were in high school, we came up with idea because I want to see who they're hanging with, meet their friends. So I said, look, every Wednesday night, we're going to cook for your friends. You know, in the first week,

I think there was two, just their best buddies. But then I told Missy, I was like, we will spare no expense. We're going to cook the best stuff we have we can come up with. I'm talking about steak, fresh fish, deer, whatever. And we're going to have a, you know, five-course meal. because I figured we're talking to teenagers they love to eat I was like

if we make it so good they'll come and guess what look that exploded that exploded we were getting sometimes 40 and 50 teenagers over there of course I'd give them a one minute Jesus sermon and invite because a Wednesday night

we'd go meet with the brothers after that they have a Wednesday night service there but that's how I got to know all of them and look some of those teenagers You know, my kids got, oh, went, you know, went to college and working, but I'm still friends with some of those guys, you know, and from a hunting perspective, you know, I hunt with them. And, I mean, so it was, it all started with a good meal. And I want to see where my kids. Hospitalities mentioned regularly in the Bible, practice hospitality, without grumbling.

Even the story we're in in John 12, you know, they, they were getting together. it said they were having a dinner in Jesus's honor. Of course, it was after Lazarus, you know, after he raised Lazarus from the dad. I mean, if you want to, that'll get you a good dinner. And it tends to draw a crowd. Yeah, you start raising dead bodies. They're like, what are we going to eat?

But you think about it, well, let's take a break. You think about it, how many times Jesus does, how many times he is at a meal in the gospels? A lot of stuff happens around that table, including when we get there in John 13 when he has the last supper, which is that last Passover meal he does. What's interesting is that. We have a meal at the university where we meet. We have a meal. You can come out off the street.

We don't care where you come from. And they come in there. And look, there's donuts. There's sometimes jambleries, sometimes gimbler cooks, you know, big pork roast and all that. But we have a spray of there. free of charge, people can come in and eat. If they want to leave, let them leave. But food draws people.

And you've made that part of the- Especially free food. Yeah. Some people, look, I know some people, some of my, I was going to say friends. Yeah, they're friends, but man, this burns me up. They'll go, you know, down at some buffet somewhere because it's half off. You know what I mean? I'm like, they're going there because of the price.

But remember, Jay's. Not because of the food. Practice. I don't do that. Practice hospitality without grumbling. So if you start saying, I'm, boy, I've never seen food leave. You just got to remember it. You're doing it as a good deed.

Let them eat it and throw it out the door, whatever they want to do with it, but just provide it and let it go. A lot of our listeners are new believers. I know that from all the emails we get. And one of the things that I remember you did, Dad, when you were, a brand new Christian. So you thought, well, you know what? I got to learn the Bible. I got to get some, somebody's got to disciple me.

Yep. Because I don't know, you know, I don't know anything about this. So what you would do is Smith and Carl Allison and Jim, you all those guys that knew the Bible, you invited them out and fed them. Because one thing you could do was fish and y'all hunt. So you invited those guys out. You would make the food. Preachers, pastors, they're going to eat.

Yeah. That's one thing that goes with it. You know, you don't see a lot of skinny pastors, including me. And so you would feed them, and then they would teach you the Bible, all of us, because you remember, Jay. You remember that? Many, many times. I mean, we'd just sit and listen, and you would ask questions.

You would just pepper the question. And a lot of things, Phil trained me to do is, you know, we skim money everywhere you could skim it, except food. Even down here, of course, you learn when you live off the land, you learn how to cook wild game. It's better anyway. I mean, you can't, what we're eating, you can't buy in a store. Right.

I mean, it's priceless. There is no price what I'm fixed to eat. You're just, you're going to take some, catch some crappie and clean them and, however you cook them, they're going to be ten times better than any fish you're going to order to restaurant because I just caught this thing. There is zero. Lacking the crappies, hard to beat. Oh, my goodness. And even an op, we talk about opalusus catfish, which people advise us about, it's so good because they only eat live fish. You say catfish somebody.

Oh, that's catfish. You're terrible. I said, no, you're not eating the right one. But you use it as a ministry. I mean, a lot of people say, well, I just don't know how to get in the conversation about Jesus. I know how you do it. Invite them over for supper. You put out the best you got.

And if you can't cook, you order some lobster or some rib-eyes and get somebody else to cook it if you can't cook. And guess what? They're coming. And then it sets the stage. you know, for Jesus. And that's the point. But if you get out some cans of soup and that's it,

well, they ain't coming back here and ain't coming to Jesus either because you're a cheap scape. You didn't learn how to be hospitable. But I mean, you know, it's ridiculous. People, how they view money and food. Probably one of the reasons people may be shy away from serving your neighbors free of charge. One, if you just look at it, a couple hours on a jambola,

but if you get a spray, for 20, 25, 30, 40 people, it's work. Yeah. And a lot of people might just, maybe that's why they say, man, I don't know. But it's expensive because you know, you're not saying, you know, all right, we got this meal here. Everybody leave $5. You're free of charge.

How money, if you have to factor that in and how you give to the Lord, do it. Right. You know, that's what I'm saying. We've talked about that on this podcast a lot, that giving is much. more than just putting money in a plate that comes by. It's such a bigger picture than that. And besides, there's another... Generosity pays.

There's another ancient principle here. You remember we've talked about this with Kane and Abel, the very first murder that ever occurred. It occurred because one was jealous of the other because he was willing to first fruit give to God. And you think about that, that goes back to some of the first people that lived on the planet.

It's a critical point, Al. It really is. Well, even in this story that we're at in John 12, I mean, which is a funny thing I thought of. You know, they're having a dinner in Jesus' honor because he raised Lazarus from the dead. And Lazarus hasn't eaten in four days. I mean, I don't know if that transitioned.

But it says he was reclining at the table. I was like, yeah, I know why. Yeah, that sucker hadn't eaten him four days. He's like, past the butter, extra butter. And rice. But then what I was going to say is then something extravagant from a money standpoint, then here Mary is that, you know, poured out this perfume worth a year's wages. So I'm assuming they ate good.

You know, this happened because, I mean, you're like, he's resurrecting people. I guarantee you they didn't go make sloppy Joe's. Yeah. It just didn't happen. And then he taught him a lesson about who I am is greater than, of course, Judas. And then you described about it. Well, because he wanted, he's thinking about that money. He was, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Malachi brought this up as far as our way we ought to treat our neighbors. Will a man rob God, yet you rob me. But you ask, well, how do you rob me? You know, how do you rob God in ties and offerings? You're under curse, the whole nation of you, because you're robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house, not as if he needed food. It's a principle.

Test me in this, says the Lord. Now, we're talking about generosity. And he says, the only place in the Bible, I know where it says, you can test me in this. And it comes down to whether they're generous to their neighbor or not. Test me in this, says Lord Almighty. And see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not.

have room enough for it. I'll prevent pests from devouring your crops and the vines and your fields will not cast a fruit, says the Lord Almighty. Then all the nations are called you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land. So if you look at that, you say, boy, God should test me. You be generous. I'll fill your burns up, stack them up. Well, Al, you can look at it any way you want to look at it. That's what happened to us. It is. Let's take one last break. And you know, and I think I said this on the podcast before, one of the principles I noticed that where you put that into practice. And I don't even think you thought about it at the time. You just did it was when we would catch fish, we didn't have a lot else going on anyway.

But when you would catch fish, you would send those fish in because that's how we made money. That's how we paid the bills. But you always carved out, you know, I'm keeping this op here for the family. Yep. And so we ate the best in the tub. And there was a bunch of fish. in there that weren't that good, but you can still sell them. So when I would take the fish into the fish market, and we'd dump them out and, you know,

they'd pay us the money. I noticed sometimes I'd be in there when they were eating fish because they were like us, they were in a fish business. They were eating the scraps. Yeah. They would clean them, but I just noticed. They were eating the collar bones off of a buffalo. Buffalo, goo.

Not the ribs. They're eating the collarbones, Jay. So I watched that process and I thought to myself, you know, you're, you're, you're, getting the last fruits this family, but we were still getting the first fruits. And we were the, you know, we were kind of down the chain in terms of that. But it's really interesting that that was a first fruit principle. What you were saying is my family comes first. We're going to eat the best.

That's what God says I won't. And we were selling, by the way, Ms. Kay told me one time, from 225 to 250 a week, it's the money we were making from selling the fish. And somebody said, and you actually thought you were going somewhere? I said, one day at a time. And then the duck call came and then you say... It was a very humbling process is what happened. And the reason I've said...

But how did you ever hear anybody say, boy, we are down and out and poor snakes? No, I ate good. I mean, I loved our life. I mean, you know, we didn't... I remember when we started making a little more money and I started seeing what fast food was about, which, you know, when you're a teenager or whatever, you'll eat anything, you know. I mean, I remember me and Willie, we would be digging around for coins to see him. I rode with a one.

Look, we stopped at the Burger King, and these two, you know, they were like, how much money we got here? They're scrapping around. We got $12. So then they'd start ordering, and then they'd say, how much is that to the person? And they would say, oh, you're up to, you know, $7. Okay, give us two more cheeseburgers. And look, they would take it all the way up.

What I'll just describe, sums up, five years of me and Willie, right? Because we only had one vehicle, and we had to share it. I didn't even realize that. I didn't know you bought for scrowns and around. No, when we got a little money. But, you know, before the only place I'd ever eaten, really, was that place, what was it called the dinner bill or something? It was over on the same side of the track.

So is it humbling now that you... Well, hold on. Let me tell you this story. It was on the same side of the track says the fish market. I remember the first time I went in there, I was only white person in there. It's a very poor project. And he said, well, why are you going in there? because the food was awesome.

Yeah. I mean, there was three big old African-American women back here on a stove. Yeah. And it's, you know, turnip greens and, you know. Oh, yeah. Hot water, cornbread and pork chock. And they just, you know, they gave enough for two people. Oh, yeah.

And I've ever taken Missy there one time. And she's like, do you sure about this? I said, am I sure about it? I ate here for like three years. I said, it would be the best food you've eaten. Yeah. I mean, it was awesome. new one over there called Big Mamas.

And it's the same deal. It's an old fast food place that she's using. But you walk in there and it's got that sole food smell. It's amazing. Oh, I know. See, I'd rather go somewhere like that and where it's good food. And you're sitting there watching them cook. I used to pick out of them.

I was like, y'all need to go up because it's cheap. Yeah. Because they're thinking, well, everybody's poor around here eating. But I'm like, oh, they would, I would pay more. And back then, I didn't have it. I found it. Because it's like eating at you, you know, eating at your kitchen or whatever. So, but then we, you know, everybody has this quick and easy.

And the fast food just kind of watered down good food. What's the commercial? The woman gets a little grub. They ship it to you and you say, we don't have to cook anymore. And it's like being released from a scour. They were jumping around and dancing. We don't have to cook anymore. I'm thinking.

Phil's one of the few people. Here's what happens to me, Phil. When a commercial comes on TV, I tune out. But you watch them. Oh, yeah. I don't. I just don't. I mean, there's a few.

In between the pundits, I'm at least keeping up with what's going on in our culture. I mean, by the way, is capitalism is what makes it work. It's like the guy that sent me a note from a listener of podcast. He said, can y'all just put all the ads at the front so I can fast forward and just go to podcast. I was like, well, no, they're the ones that make sure we have a pie. You know, it's capitalism. They would go for that. I think our sponsors would not be happy about that at all.

No, but food's been a big part, obviously, of our family for the whole time, which was interesting. We started out with a jumbole-eye, but it was a big part of what you see biblically, too. I mean, for a lot of different reasons. No doubt. And so I think Jay's right. I think if you think of it in terms of an outreach to help somebody, if you think of it in terms of being able to share Jesus with them, or like I said, in your case, even be disciples. If you'll arrange that around a meal, plus it's just hospitality.

Yep. You know, having people in your home, making a difference. I mean, it's just, it's something. The world needs more of it. Our culture's gotten away from it, for sure. I mean, there was a point in time where nobody ate out. Oh, that's right. And then it kind of, then everybody ate out. It's funny. Then the coronavirus hit, and you couldn't eat out. Sure. Yeah. And it kind of forced everybody back in. But I've read so many stories about families just saying you know what this was pretty neat to learn how to cook because we had to

couldn't go out and eat and so i think it may be something that kind of opens the door back you know and kind of brings people back which is really cool which would be great yeah i'll wrap us up days we got well i was going to bring up in john twill where was it that he said that those were looking for the praise of men instead of the praise of god because i was going to make a point of Where was that in? It was in John 12. I thought it was in John 12. Am I wrong?

You might be. I know. I didn't, y'all did. No, that's in John 12, verse 43. That's it. That's it. So the point I was going to make is, you know, Jesus does this. They have their supper.

He commends Mary for, because she got the big picture. this is the son of God. And so the response, you're like everything, it couldn't be going any better. And these Pharisees look around and say, we need to kill him and Lazarus. Yeah. Which is...

Basically could kill them all. Kill them all. We don't like how this... What did? Poor Lazarus, all he did was come back. You know, he just came back from the dead. He didn't even do anything. He's not even teaching these people. So Jesus gets into the last section of 12,

and he says, you know, who is, he quotes this Isaiah where it says he's blinded their eyes and dead in their hearts so that they cannot see. And you did a whole lesson about that. And I think we ought to do a whole podcast about this. Because it's a very difficult thing for people to understand. It's like, well, wait a minute. What's this saying that God somehow is keeping them? But there's a process that happens. And at some point, he's like, okay. And so, but, but, But then he makes this statement because a lot of people, when you get back to the food and not wanting to pay the money and make sacrifices or not, they don't want to introduce Jesus because out of fear or it's uncomfortable.

And watch what he says in 42. He says, yet at the same time, many among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees, they would not confess their faith for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue. Yep. For they loved praise from men more than praise from God. You know, and in my weird mind, that's why I'm bringing this up with the food. A lot of people don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, and we've well documented this.

They'll eat crappy food their whole life because some people, they're so after praise, and then the fear of conflict, won't allow that. And here I think of all this, you know, Jesus is proven, proven, not claiming, proven that he is the son of God. And they would rather have their own people give them praise than to surrender to this guy. Even though they really believe in him. One of those girls, she said, I've been a left-wing liberal like you've never seen. She said, Ms. Robson, I am renouncing the whole thing that gave him my life to Jesus. She's been. basically came in and said, I'm turning away.

And it's for these kind of people. They would not confess their faith for fear they'd be put out. That whole group has an iron fist on them. You can't, it's our narrative are to hell with you. You see what I'm saying? Yep. So she was one that says, I am renouncing what I've been doing. And I'm, thanks.

It's powerful. I've used this line many times in a many-on-one situation when people say, I just can't make him happy or I can't make her happy or I'm not happy and I'm always, I was like, when are you going to worry about making God happy? It's just not something we think about,

but that's why I really like this. It made me feel good to look around the other morning and when I saw the two, the mother and the daughter and both of them renouncing a false ideology and put their faith in Jesus. And I said, where are you all from?

And they said, York City. I said New York City, it's pretty amazing that they would come that far to do that. Yeah. They went from, they went, came from New York to right in in North Louisiana. There's been others from, some from New Jersey, others that are coming, you know, as well. So, which is really great. So go make you a jumble eye and invite your neighbors. There you go. That's his that I can write. Learn how. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else,

subscribe to blazed TV at blazTV.com slash unashamed.