she likes new people

I don’t write about cooking or recipes very often. The truth is I really do enjoy being in the kitchen and preparing meals from scratch – when I have margin. When I don’t have margin in my days, the joy in cooking is robbed. I’ve had a little more margin in my days with SnapShops wrapped up for the year. As a result, we’ve had the opportunity to have guests over for a meal a few times this week. While I was at Craft Weekend, Meg and Kimberlee introduced me to the ‘French Cafe’ station on Pandora. There is something extra fun to cooking with that playing in the background.

Many years ago I came across Martha Stewart’s Butternut Squash Soup recipe. It is now one of my favorites. I highly recommend it if you are a soup eater.

As odd as it sounds, one of my favorite parts of having guests over is putting away the dishes after they are gone. Chris usually washes the dishes (he’s pretty fantastic like that), but I usually put them back up. In the hustle of kids being loud and wild while company is over, I often don’t get to really sit back and soak it all in. When I put the dishes back up, it is a chance to reflect on time with our guests. I get to think about conversations and how the volume of my kids increases about 50% because they go into “let’s be super hyper and wild because it is exciting to have guests over” mode. If you ever want to enjoy a calm, quiet meal in a perfect home – well, you probably don’t want to stop by my house!

My oldest daughter is always right by my side when I am preparing for guests. She likes to light candles, cook meals, and do any little needed task. She usually lingers at the table with us while her brothers are off wrestling or being loud somewhere. She lights up when I mention someone is coming over. I asked her yesterday why she enjoys having company so much. She taught me a lot as she didn’t hesitate with her response…

“I like new people.”