Cooking Club.

Cooking club. Let me tell you: I'm a fan.

A night to try something new, to put on "real" clothes, to leave bedtime to the dads.

Mistakes, miscalculations, mishaps. Forgotten shallots (what is a shallot, by the way?!). Way too many peppercorns in the pan.

Minor victories. Great successes. Risatta, the food of heaven. Wait, or is it risotto?

A salad much too fancy for everyday life, we decided, but oh so delicious. What would life look like if we treated ourselves to food like this everyday, even on ordinary days?

Teamwork. A group effort. Reading directions. Ignoring suggestions. Community.

These girls. Gifts given and received recently, in my thirties. My council. My people.

Pretty sparkly glasses. Filled and refilled. Misplaced. Discovered again.

The details. A setting begging for a late night dinner party for five.

Finally. We sit, we exhale. We work out the problems of the week. We leave some for next time.

Food for the body. Food for the soul.

A beautiful, messy life, best lived around the table, glasses raised, forks in hand. For a few hours, the world seems to stand still.

"That's what this is about. This isn't about recipes. This is about a family, a tribe, a little band of people who walk through it all together, up close and in the mess, real time and unvarnished." 

--Shauna Niequist, "What The Table Is For", Bread & Wine

Cooking Club Menu, Part I:
Mini Mac & Cheese
Green Well Salad
Basic Risotto
Goat Cheese Biscuits
Steak au Poivre with Cognac Pan Sauce
Nigella's Flourless Chocolate Brownies
Blueberry Crisp

Come to the table.

"This is what I want you do to: I want you to tell someone you love them, and dinner's at six. I want you to throw open your front door and welcome the people you love into the inevitable mess with hugs and laughter. I want you to light a burner on the stove, to chop and stir and season with love and abandon. Begin with an onion and a drizzle of olive oil, and go from there, any one of a million different places, any one of a million different meals."  --Shauna Niequist, Bread & Wine 

I've never considered myself to be at home in the kitchen. I'm a rule-follower, I'm afraid of failure, I don't like messes, I have a million other things to do, a million other places I'd rather be. It's never made my heart sing.

Lately, I'm finding myself surprised by my time in the kitchen. I'm embracing the mess and taking my time and breathing deep and slowing down. I'm realizing the Other Things can wait. I'm finding that it's a great place to connect with my kids, that they love to help. I'm discovering that I am capable of creating things to nourish not just bodies, but hearts as well.

I'm learning that when I fill others up, it fills me up too. I'm seeing that the kitchen can be a good place to start, a good place to love, a good place to be.

Lately, I'm beginning to see the sacred value of the table. I'm starting to view it as a sacred place, to understand that the simple act of inviting others in to share a meal creates a safe, sacred space in an uncertain, harried world.

I took Shauna's advice today and invited some friends over. I didn't spend days planning or hours shopping or minutes fretting. I called, I invited, I used what I already had on hand, and we shared a simple meal on a regular old week day night around an ordinary table.

Pizza casserole, green salad {+goat cheese, pecans, Craisins}, homemade bread maker bread, fresh fruit, fresh squeezed lemonade.

From someone who is just beginning to embrace the kitchen, I can tell you none of these things were hard. Simple ingredients turned extraordinary because of the nine people, big and little, gathered around the table.

I love how Shauna writes, near the beginning of her book, that when she first started entertaining she served frozen California Pizza Kitchen pizzas to nearly all her dinner guests. Her advice: start where you are.

Let's not get hung up on the fancy or the perfect or the just so. Let's do as Shauna suggest and simply come to the table.

Here's an easy peasey sort of a meal. A staple in the early years of our marriage which is now making a comeback because the kids love it. It's also one of my favorites to bring to a new mom (throw in a salad and some garlic bread) or to stick in the freezer for busier times ahead.

Pizza Casserole

12 oz. spaghetti
2 eggs
1/4 C Parmesan cheese + extra for top
1 1/2 pounds ground beef (or other ground meat)
1/2 chopped onion
2 jars pizza sauce
1 C mozzarella cheese
pepperoni + other favorite pizza toppings

Boil noodles; brown beef with onion, salt & pepper. Mix cooked noodles with egg and Parmesan. Layer in a 9x13 pan (or two 8x8's): noodles, meat, sauce, mozzarella cheese, noodles, meat, sauce, pepperoni + pizza toppings, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan.

Put foil on top to keep cheese from getting brown. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes. Take foil off for last few minutes.
 

"I want you to stop running from thing to thing to thing, and to sit down at the table, to offer the people you love something humble and nourishing, like soup and bread, like a story, like a hand holding another hand while you pray. We live in a world that values us for how fast we can go, for how much we accomplish, for how much life we can pack into one day. But I'm coming to believe it's in the in-between spaces that our lives change, and that the real beauty lies there."       --Shauna Niequist, Bread & Wine

Book Club // Daring Greatly

Here we go {again}.

After two inspiring rounds of book club -- Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts last fall and Jen Hatmaker's 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess earlier this winter -- we're gearing up the troops for yet another page turner.

Our pick this time around is Brene Brown's Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. We had a hard time picking a title this time through {so many great titles out there! and how to pick one that will make everyone happy?!}

When we finally settled on one {the bugger just kept popping up!}, ironically enough, we struggled to put the suggestion out there, to throw the topic into the ring.

One deep breath later, the all call was posted on Facebook, and I love, love, love the group of women God is assembling {and yes, I believe book club can be a holy adventure + I am fully confident He will be showing up.}

I believe this is an important, relevant, timely conversation we need to be having within an authentic community.

Purpose. Meaning. Connection.

Uncertainty. Risk. Fear.

Vulnerability.

Courage.

One more deep breath. Here we go.

Book Club // One Thousand Gifts

Because we subscribe to the theory that most everything is best experienced within community (and reading books is no exception), Theresa and I are co-hosting a book club on Ann Voskamp's, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are.

We put the invite out to our friends, and eleven women (including us) hopped on board. We'll take six weeks to read the book - roughly two chapters a week - and carry on an ongoing discussion via a group on Facebook. At the end of the six weeks those of us who are local will gather together for one final discussion (and wine and treats, of course).

My friend Dana just posted the September Joy Dare from Ann's website, the idea being to count one thousand gifts over the course of a year (3 gifts a day). Starting a 1,000 gifts list is on my Year 33 list - I think gratitude and thanksgiving are amazing acts to practice daily - and I'll be sharing my list here.

Any other 1,000 gift-ers out there? Feel free to share your experience and/or a link to your list in the comment section.

“Joy is the realest reality, the fullest life, and joy is always given, never grasped. God gives gifts and I give thanks and I unwrap the gift given: joy.” 

― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts

Katie's Book Club

I just finished reading Karin Evan's The Lost Daughters of China and I highly recommend it. The book is about the little girls in China who are given up/abandoned and is "part memoir, part travelogue, part East-West cultural commentary, and part adoption how-to." I have a special interest in Chinese adoptions for a couple of reasons: #1, my paternal grandparents were born in Shanghai (making me 50% Chinese); #2, my brother and sister-in-law are currently in the process of adopting a baby girl from China; and #3, Matt and I have always thought about adopting a child down the road, and China is near the top of the list (see points #1 & #2).

Go ahead and read it, let me know when you're done, and we'll discuss.