We love sharing meals. There is just something about it that makes you feel like family. Sometimes, it’s BYOL (bring your own lunch), other times it’s a potluck, and sometimes you just have to bring your own bowl!
Honestly, this wasn’t really the norm for us before. Usually, in a city, everyone lives too far away to just drop by or bring your own leftovers. As we’ve been learning in our Culture and Language class, most other cultures are event and people oriented, which is a lot different than our predominately time and task oriented culture here in the US. So, you see, we have a great reason for practicing our skills of flexibility, hospitality, and just spending time with people. Much of our language learning will be done through interacting in the daily lives of those who live in our future community. I am loving this more and more as the days go by. These pictures don’t include the two back-to-back ice cream social/birthday parties we just went to this weekend, a Ladies brunch at church this morning, meals we’ve had in our home with friends, waffle breakfasts with our neighbors, “Soup’s On” every other Monday, and many campfires.
I’ve fallen in love with trying new foods again. Here are a few recipe links to whet your appetite.
Red Beans and Rice that I adapted for the pressure cooker one of Payton’s latest favorites, with Quinoa Mac-n-Cheese Bites possibly beating them out just this week! One of our newest staples since we’ve been trying to eat less meat is a Red Lentil Dahl. I also ventured to try a West African Peanut Sauce recipe from a friend that was oh-so-tasty…once I figured out how to get the spices just right! We dump everything on top of rice for the most part, which is practice for most of the countries that we are considering right now. I’ve also learned a couple of curry/stirfry combinations from our friends who lived in Indonesia for a while. I feel spoiled getting to taste all of these things in the span of one week. I hope you caught just a little whiff of inspiration and tried a new dish or hosted a hot dog roast for your friends!
Perfect timing. We hosted the youth for a backyard event last weekend, hot dogs, pizza, & s’mores. The simpler, the better. They create their own fun & memories. My kids love these and always ask when we can do it again.
Some of my fondest memories involve campfires or food and family, well, and probably playing games too! Glad to see you’re spreading the love around and making memories!
Just saw this. Didn’t get a notification. Sorry. 🙁 We had a great time!