Kitchen Fellowship

It is 10:05 pm and I am very much awake. Ordinarily I would have been in bed five minutes ago but tonight I am a little too wound up for that. I'm wound up from having a fun evening in the kitchen with three very good friends who I consider to be God's very gracious gift to me in ministry. I love spending time with these women.

In celebration of Debbie's birthday we got together and made dinner using recipes from the church cookbook. While we were doing that, we also made sticky buns to serve our families in the morning. The sticky bun recipe is one where you prepare the dough in stages, shaping the buns at the end of the evening and letting them rise overnight. So, in between making appetizers, salad and the main course we made sticky buns. Are you hungry yet?

For appetizers we made Tia's "Simple Ratatouille" and served it with crusty bread. We also made Christina's "Stuffed Mushrooms". Both were very, very good. Then we put together Becky's "Strawberry Spinach Salad". That recipe is definitely a keeper. Lisa taught us how to make pesto using fresh basil, which of course we stirred into pasta and had pork roast on the side. For dessert we sang Happy Birthday to Debbie with Sheila's recipe for "Carrot Cake".

I wished we'd been able to take pictures of our time cutting, measuring, mixing, and cleaning, with us chattering all the while about this and that. We were making more than a meal, we were making connections, and we were making a memory.

I learned things tonight. I learned from each one of these gals something that will help me in my cooking, in my thinking, and in my life in general. To me this is mysterious. Something routine (cooking a meal when done on my own), became an "event" that was fun and fruitful just by sharing the experience with three others.

So I'm thinking maybe we miss out on the best part of fellowship when we do all the work before the company comes. I'm going to think about that some more. I'd be interested to know what you think. Have you experienced anything like this? Do you cook with friends, family, your husband, daughters, or your mother? What have you gleaned from "Kitchen Fellowship"?