My favorite author, Shauna Niequist recently tweeted that she needed recipe testers for her new book coming out this spring - a collection of essays and recipes called Bread & Wine: Finding Community and Life Around the Table. I happened to be on Twitter at that exact moment and instantly emailed in response to participate. I didn't think I would be picked, as just a limited number of people were needed, but was thrilled to get an email from her assistant later that week with the enchilada recipe. I would be testing and giving feedback on the recipe before it was finalized for the book, and then my name would go in the book as an official recipe tester. Squeal!
To be any small part of Shauna's project is so exciting for me. Her words have quite literally changed the way I look at life. My sister-in-law recommended her first book, Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life by handing it casually to me before leaving for the night when I was babysitting my niece. After my niece went to bed, I started reading and proceeded to gobble up the entire collection of essays about life and faith before my brother and sister-in-law even got home. I inhaled it, with large tears streaming down my cheeks at certain points. No words had ever resonated so exactly with me. I wanted to cover every single chapter in neon highlighter shouting, "yes, yes, yes!" at the end of each sentence.
I pulled Cold Tangerines out again about a year later and read it more carefully, sitting in the sun of my Wisconsin backyard for the last summer I would spend there. It was a big season of change as we were thinking about moving to Arizona for an adventure, and Shauna's thoughts about celebrating life spoke to me in a whole new way. This time I wanted to carefully savor each word just like the colors in my garden and the feel of the cool grass on my feet, soaking up their beauty and truth. They emboldened me, and encouraged me to live a life I'd want to write about and then to do just that. So, I started this blog to document the adventure and to live life more consciously.
was the first book I have ever pre-ordered. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, and although the themes were different, her writing was raw and honest and achingly beautiful. I relate more and more to that book all the time, weaving the calm and the storm together and appreciating both.
I buy most books for my Kindle these days, but I always want a hard copy of hers. I don't have either of those first two on my shelf right now, because I keep buying them and then giving them away. When guests need something to read on the plane ride home, or I need a gift for somebody, they get one of Shauna's books. I don't recommend them in the same casual way I do others I like. When good books come up in conversation, I force my copy on them, and insist that they just keep it and read it immediately.
So I pre-ordered Bread & Wine, knowing I will want to crack it open as soon as possible, breathing in its new book smell, devouring the stories, and smudging the recipe pages with ingredients from my own kitchen. Shauna writes a lot about cooking, entertaining, and sharing life with others, so to test the recipe, it was only appropriate to invite over some friends that we'd been meaning to get together with for a while. We shared lovely conversation and the pumpkin empanadas they had brought for dessert, and they agreed the enchiladas were delicious. They were total comfort food, and the kind of thing that is even better out of the pan cold the next day, just as Shauna described. So if this recipe is any indication, I can't wait to try out the rest and spend more time living life around the table.
To be any small part of Shauna's project is so exciting for me. Her words have quite literally changed the way I look at life. My sister-in-law recommended her first book, Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life by handing it casually to me before leaving for the night when I was babysitting my niece. After my niece went to bed, I started reading and proceeded to gobble up the entire collection of essays about life and faith before my brother and sister-in-law even got home. I inhaled it, with large tears streaming down my cheeks at certain points. No words had ever resonated so exactly with me. I wanted to cover every single chapter in neon highlighter shouting, "yes, yes, yes!" at the end of each sentence.
I pulled Cold Tangerines out again about a year later and read it more carefully, sitting in the sun of my Wisconsin backyard for the last summer I would spend there. It was a big season of change as we were thinking about moving to Arizona for an adventure, and Shauna's thoughts about celebrating life spoke to me in a whole new way. This time I wanted to carefully savor each word just like the colors in my garden and the feel of the cool grass on my feet, soaking up their beauty and truth. They emboldened me, and encouraged me to live a life I'd want to write about and then to do just that. So, I started this blog to document the adventure and to live life more consciously.
was the first book I have ever pre-ordered. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, and although the themes were different, her writing was raw and honest and achingly beautiful. I relate more and more to that book all the time, weaving the calm and the storm together and appreciating both.
I buy most books for my Kindle these days, but I always want a hard copy of hers. I don't have either of those first two on my shelf right now, because I keep buying them and then giving them away. When guests need something to read on the plane ride home, or I need a gift for somebody, they get one of Shauna's books. I don't recommend them in the same casual way I do others I like. When good books come up in conversation, I force my copy on them, and insist that they just keep it and read it immediately.
So I pre-ordered Bread & Wine, knowing I will want to crack it open as soon as possible, breathing in its new book smell, devouring the stories, and smudging the recipe pages with ingredients from my own kitchen. Shauna writes a lot about cooking, entertaining, and sharing life with others, so to test the recipe, it was only appropriate to invite over some friends that we'd been meaning to get together with for a while. We shared lovely conversation and the pumpkin empanadas they had brought for dessert, and they agreed the enchiladas were delicious. They were total comfort food, and the kind of thing that is even better out of the pan cold the next day, just as Shauna described. So if this recipe is any indication, I can't wait to try out the rest and spend more time living life around the table.
| Click here to pre-order your own copy from Amazon. |
