About two months ago, she asked for volunteers to read advance copies of her book and then blog about and post reviews of the book, Bread & Wine. I could hardly believe what I was reading. Get an advanced copy of a book?!? Are you kidding me? I've never been happier that I have my little blog.
About two weeks ago, the book arrived on my doorstep. To be precise, it arrived at 4:05 pm. I basically ignored my four children for the next day. "You want fruit snacks and candy for breakfast? Whatever. Just let me read. What kids? You want to get the weapons bin down and beat each other up? As long as it doesn't interrupt my reading by requiring a trip to the ER." At 8 pm the following night, I had finished the book. I devoured it. It far exceeded my expectations as I wasn't sure how she could pull of a book of recipes along with her normal story-telling. It worked and it worked really well. I will be writing a little bit more about it in a few weeks when the book officially releases.
The first thing I did was start trying some of the recipes out, specifically the one for "Annette's Enchiladas." You see, I have long had a special place in my heart for enchiladas. It started in college. I went to Wheaton college and on Sunday nights, the cafeteria was closed so you had to fend for yourself. My roommate Hannah and I quickly discovered a little Mexican restaurant in downtown Wheaton called Front Street Cocina. We were poor college students, so we couldn't afford to spend $20 on dinner, so we would split the chicken enchiladas with green chile sauce. They were so good that we would walk the 20-30 minutes from our dorm room to the restaurant (freshman weren't allowed to have cars on campus) just for those enchiladas, even during Chicago winter.
Since then, I usually ordered the enchiladas at Mexican restaurants because they were something I didn't know how to make at home. When I met my husband, I wormed myself into his group of friends which included Stacey. Stacey taught me how to make enchiladas. I'm not sure why I was so intimidated by them. During our dating months (we were on the fast track to marriage, so it was months, not years), we did several double dates. On a double date with Stacey and Kevin, she showed me how to make enchiladas by dipping each tortilla in sauce, stuffing it, rolling it and topping it with sauce and cheese. I don't know if she even realized this, but she had just made enchiladas obtainable to me without having to go to Chevy's, so I am forever in her debt.
Soon after we got married, I decided I'd make Jon and I a big pan of enchiladas and I'd make them slightly spicy. Slightly being the key word. I opened a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I put at least two peppers and sauce inside EACH of Jon's enchiladas. I put one or half of a pepper inside of mine. That night during dinner, I was immensely surprised at how hot my enchilada was. After I drank several glasses of water and could finally talk, I asked Jon what he thought. When I did, I looked at him and noticed that he was sweating profusely. The poor newly-married guy didn't want to criticize my cooking, but in the meantime, he was going into a pepper-sweat. I had put WAY too many peppers in his food. We still laugh about that to this day. Epic dinner fail.
About two years ago, my sister-in-law Rachel and my friend Stacey were talking about the Pioneer woman left and right. I tried her chicken enchilada recipe and it was delicious, but a bit time-consuming and a bit calorie-laden (gallon of half and half anyone?) not that any enchiladas are really low-calorie.
As soon as I saw that Shauna's book included a recipe for enchiladas that were in lasagna/casserole form, I knew I was destined to try it and sure to love it. I was right. They are easy but absolutely delicious. I have a pan made up in the fridge right now so that we can eat them after our long run tomorrow. One of the joys for training for a marathon is some guilt-less eating including enchiladas.
I first made his recipe last weekend before we went to church on Saturday night. Our good friends Mark & Laura accepted a last minute dinner invitation to our house after church. We were delighted to have dinner with them (you know they are good friends because we didn't even mind that there wouldn't be leftovers) and catch up since it had been a while since we'd been together in person.
In addition to having recipes, Shauna's book is all about how community occurs at the table and over sharing food. One premise of her book is to throw open your doors and let your friends into the mess. I'm pretty sure that she is talking about the "mess" of our lives like our struggles and pain. I have plenty of this kind of mess to share with others. However, she is also referring to the material "mess" of our homes. The toys on the floor, the papers on the island, the clutter piles--all the things that are found in my home on a regular basis. Last minute dinner invites mean that I didn't prepare my home, so I hadn't hidden my clutter piles in my bedroom and front closet. It was about as real as you can get. I'm sure they noticed the clutter, but they are gracious friends. Instead of commenting on it, they walked in and immediately participated in our home in a natural way. They noticed that our kids had new mailboxes and wrote notes to each of them to read the next morning when they woke up. I love this kind of friendship.
Mark and Laura may look at our house and see mess, but they also see us. They are one of the friends who got us through a very difficult season in our lives four winters ago when we had 3 children under the age of 3 & in diapers, Jon on crutches after tearing his achilles tendon, and recovering from an unexpected pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage. They met us at church each week and helped me check children into the childcare since Jon couldn't easily go down stairs. They sat with us in the atrium since Jon was on crutches and wanted to put his leg up. Many of those weeks, they also showed up with full meals that they had bought and prepared for us. I cannot remember exactly what the meals were, but I remember how cared for we felt.
We spent over three hours at the table last Saturday night. We swapped stories about things going on in our lives right now. We talked about hopes for the future. We also reminisced about some funny times in the past. We ate enchiladas, drank wine and we laughed hard.
It was a great night and a perfect example of what Shauna's book is about. Food is a mundane and necessary part of life, but it is also a significant part of life. Meals around the table are a conduit for relationship, community and spirituality.
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